Alfred Zector, Book Collector
K Grade 3—A young boy's obsession with collecting leaves the rest of his town without books, as Alfred Zector creates his own lonely, book-filled prison. After spending years and years reading everything he owns, he realizes that something is missing in his life and he begins giving his treasures away. The story ends with the greeting-card phrase, "the best kinds of books are the books that are shared." Straining to make this point interesting, DiPucchio writes in predictable rhyme, which is illustrated with flat, cartoonish artwork. A better choice about what happens when a community's books disappear is Patricia Polacco'sAunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair(Philomel, 1996).—Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Warren & Waldoboro, ME(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.