by Linda Bailey
“Thank you, Aunt Min,” he said, when at last he remembered the word.
He didn’t know what would come next. What he might do. Where he could go. What he would read, or write. But as Aunt Min had reminded him, he did know a word that would help him on his journey. He had known it all along. Funny, he thought, what a difference a word could make.
The first thing he was going to do when the family celebration was over was find some tools. A yellow sticky. A juicy berry. He would start by writing a message to himself. He would stick it up beside his sleeping place in the crack-in-the-wall, just like a poster in a library. He would read it every day.
His message would be simple.
One word.
try
EDDIE & MIN’S BUGLIOGRAPHY
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett
Cowboy Small, written and illustrated by Lois Lenski
The Day the Crayons Quit, written by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney
Fancy Nancy series, written by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling
Horton Hears a Who!, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Little Fur Family, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams
The Nutshell Library, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak:
Chicken Soup with Rice
One Was Johnny
Pierre
Alligators All Around
Peter and Wendy (also known as Peter Pan), written by J. M. Barrie
The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
Scaredy Squirrel, written and illustrated by Mélanie Watt
Stuart Little, written by E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter
This Is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen
Thomas the Tank Engine, written by Reverend Wilbert Awdry
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, written and illustrated by Eric Carle
Where the Wild Things Are, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book about bugs and school libraries, I am grateful to have had expert advice in both areas. Huge thanks to Tess Grainger and Don Griffiths for answering my many questions about bugs. On school library matters, I am deeply appreciative of Janet Mumford and Nancy Hundal, not only for their inspirational work as teacher-librarians, but also for their generous suggestions and advice. Thanks too to Tim Smith for his helpful thoughts on school systems and administration. Any errors, omissions and taking-wild-liberties-for-the-purposes-of-fantasy are entirely my own.
Many thanks also to the following. My fabulous writer pals for feedback, encouragement and/or idyllic island retreats—Deborah Hodge, Norma Charles, Beryl Young, Susin Nielsen, Margriet Ruurs, Ainslie Manson, Ellen McGinn, and everyone, past and present, in the PB group. My excellent agent, Hilary McMahon, for finding such fine publishing homes for Tiny Hero. My ever-so-wise editors for their insights and valuable ideas—Virginia Duncan at Greenwillow Books and Tara Walker at Tundra Books. And of course, Lia, Tess, and Maurice, who always laugh when they’re supposed to.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
LINDA BAILEY is a bestselling and award-winning author of more than thirty books for children, including If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur and the bestselling picture books about Stanley the dog. Her books have won multiple awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, the Georgia Children’s Book Award, the Ontario Library Association’s Blue Spruce and Silver Birch Awards, the Oregon SMART Book Award, and the Arthur Ellis Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She worked as a college instructer, an editor, and a travel agent and now writes full-time from her home in Vancouver, Canada.
www.lindabaileybooks.com
VICTORIA JAMIESON is the author and illustrator of the Newbery Honor book Roller Girl. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
www.victoriajamieson.com
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
CREDITS
Cover art © 2017 by Victoria Jamieson
Cover design by Paul Zakris
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE TINY HERO OF FERNY CREEK LIBRARY. Text copyright © 2017 by Linda Bailey. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Victoria Jamieson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-244093-8 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © May 2017 ISBN 9780062440952
17 18 19 20 21 CG/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Greenwillow Books
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
re