Everyone is allowed an off-day and I have enjoyed other Salley Vickers novels but this wasn't my favourite. Sylvia gets a job as the children's librarian in a small Wiltshire town. She arrives keen to enthuse the children with reading and has lots of plans to involve others. She meets some friendly neighbours and others with who try and obstruct her and hold prejudices. There were parts of the story that didn't quite stand up to much scrutiny and there were more characters than I have encountered in other Salley Vickers' novels and some of them were only two dimensional. I liked the ending chapters that met some of the characters later in life and sewed up the stories. ( )

To quote another reviewer I was reading somewhere else, this was 'empty'. Made it 45 minutes into the audiobook but beyond some nice descriptions, it made no impact on me. ( )

I'll give this 3.5 stars because of the last 30 odd pages! A simple story of English village life. A young librarian arrives and revitalizes the staid, outdated children's section of the small library. The children quickly come to love her but some adults are not as smitten. I really enjoyed the change in narrative at the end. The children of the story are now in their 70s with children and grandchildren of their own. We get to hear what happened to them in later life and some of the unanswered questions are made clear. ( )

Really enjoyed first half of abridged version....second half were things were grimmer and the love affair was dealt with was less satisfactory and didn't seem as real...but enjoyed and as a homage to libraries and their power for the young it earns four stars ( )

Don't (like me) be beguiled by the charming cover and imagine you're getting a wonderful read. Made it to p80, but life's too short. Reads like a children's book with flat, stereotype characters. Too weak for words. ( )