Everything in Its Place: A Story of Books and Belonging

by Pauline David-Sax (Author) Charnelle Pinkney Barlow (Illustrator)

Everything in Its Place: A Story of Books and Belonging
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

An inspiring and poetic story about reading, libraries, and overcoming shyness to find community.

I gather the books in my arms, and give them a hug. Welcome back, I whisper.

Nicky is a shy girl who feels most at home in the safe space of her school library, but the library closes for a week and Nicky is forced to face her social anxiety. When she meets a group of unique, diverse, inspiring women at her mother's diner--members of a women's motorcycle club--Nicky realizes that being different doesn't have to mean being alone, and that there's a place for everyone. Book lovers of all ages will find inspiration in this beautiful love letter to reading--and how words help us find empathy and connections with the world around us.

Select format:
Hardcover
$17.99

Kirkus

Starred Review
For all those who are never found without a book at recess.

ALA/Booklist

It can be tough for kids to find their people; David-Sax and Barlow offer one possible pathway to forging a satisfying friendship.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Instead of heading out to recess, where "everyone's found their group," young Nicky, who reads as Black, prefers shelving books at the school library, where "everything has its place." When she learns that the library will be closed for a week and she'll have to join recess during that time, "my stomach starts to hurt." But at her mother's restaurant, where "it's all right to be alone," she encounters Maggie, a poetry-loving biker who subsequently arrives with her "motorcycle sisters," members of "all different colors,/ shapes,/ sizes" who seem comfortable in their own skin. Watching them, Nicky realizes that individuality isn't synonymous with isolation, and that belonging doesn't demand conformity--people can be "all so different but together, too." This epiphany follows her to the playground, where, with the help of a Mary Oliver volume from Maggie, the recess she's been dreading instead becomes an opportunity to make a new, book-loving friend. Using emotionally astute prose and collage art that resembles a personal scrapbook with crayon-textured sketches, debut author David-Sax and Pinkney Barlow (The Real Santa) honor their protagonist's rich interiority, never minimizing Nicky's pain or yearning, nor her preference for books and (some) solitude. Ages 3-7. Illustrator's agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words. (July)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

A Book Riot Must-Read July Children's Book Release — A super sweet and lyrical picture book perfect for shy, bookworm kids.

Pauline David-Sax

Award-winning author and a longtime educator, Pauline David-Sax, likes to think of writing as a time machine that allows her to revisit the past, examine the present and explore the future. She is the author of the picture book Everything In Its Place as well as several plays. Pauline lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Melquea Smith is an illustrator who has experience wanting to unsay the Thing, even now as an adult! When not illustrating, you can find her hoarding artbooks like a dragon, concocting tea blends like a witch, and cuddling her sweet tabby cats. Melquea is the illustrator of Two Homes in Omar's Heart (2021) published by Room to Read and is illustrating another picture book with Includas Publishing (2023). She is a SCBWI member and an admin of #BlackCreatorsHeadquarters, an organization that supports and amplifies Black stories in the Publishing industry.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780593378823
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Doubleday Books for Young Readers
Publication date
July 19, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039050 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Emotions & Feelings
JUV047000 - Juvenile Fiction | Books & Libraries
JUV014000 - Juvenile Fiction | Girls & Women
Library of Congress categories
Books and reading
Bashfulness

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