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The Mariah Delany Lending Library Disaster
By the time Mariah Delany reaches the sixth grade, she's started to come up with all kinds of moneymaking schemes. To her book-loving parents' dismay, she is much more interested in business than books. In a desperate effort to show Mariah the joys of reading, her mother brings her to the library. Mariah gets hooked on books, but not quite in the way her mother had intended. For, upon discovering the library closed because of cutbacks in funding, Mariah is inspired with her most ambitious venture to date: the Mariah Delany Lending Library. Lending out her parents' valuable books and charging overdue fines seems like the perfect plan. But Mariah soon realizes it is much easier to loan than to retrieve...
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First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 13, 2008
Mariah Delany always has an idea for making some extra money. She's not especially fond of books even though her parents are bibliophiles. When her mother laments about the local library being closed, Mariah sees her next great venture: turning her parents' collection into a lending library for her school chums. Things, understandably, go down hill from there.
The Mariah Delany Lending Library Disaster is a 1970s vision of BookCrossing gone horribly wrong. In their enthusiasm to finally see their daughter interested in books, Mariah's parents are blind to what she's really doing. I find it baffling that Mariah would end up such an opposite of her parents but perhaps that the personal conceit of being a parent of two budding bibliophiles.
Mariah's parents also haven't ever bothered to tell her about the gems in their collection. So to Mariah, these books are just a resource that is going to waste. The story is built around a family that never communicates.
As this book is aimed at the upper grades of elementary school, Mariah's crash course in the value of books both in monetary terms as sources of information and entertainment is a lesson for children reading the book. Of course, if they're already reading books, they probably don't need this lesson reiterated.
The Mariah Delany Lending Library Disaster is a 1970s vision of BookCrossing gone horribly wrong. In their enthusiasm to finally see their daughter interested in books, Mariah's parents are blind to what she's really doing. I find it baffling that Mariah would end up such an opposite of her parents but perhaps that the personal conceit of being a parent of two budding bibliophiles.
Mariah's parents also haven't ever bothered to tell her about the gems in their collection. So to Mariah, these books are just a resource that is going to waste. The story is built around a family that never communicates.
As this book is aimed at the upper grades of elementary school, Mariah's crash course in the value of books both in monetary terms as sources of information and entertainment is a lesson for children reading the book. Of course, if they're already reading books, they probably don't need this lesson reiterated.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2010
This is something I read when I was a wee thing, in the fourth grade or so? Still remember the climactic moment when the main character's father realizes that she's been lending out his book collection was what led me to track this one down again. Not as interesting to re-read, as it seems like it proselytizes for reading a bit. (Not that I have anything against that, just ... it's not necessarily entertaining when you notice it in a story, you know?)
April 30, 2017
I loved this story of a young girl who tries to create a lending library using her father's books (without his permission!). All kinds of disasters follow as she realizes she hasn't completely thought through how the library will work. It's too bad this one is out of print.
May 14, 2020
The reason I rated this book 3 stars is because it went strait into the book and it didnt take as much time as I wanted it to get into her idea,and she got out of her problem a little too easily.
May 4, 2023
I found this book in a box of discards in my library and read it to a 3rd grade class. We all enjoyed it very much.
January 9, 2024
I wish I had read more Sheila Greenwald when I was younger, but I'm still enjoying them now.
September 5, 2015
This book is so funny. Mariah is a sixth-grader who cares little for school and less for books, but is passionate about making money. She's a veteran of several moneymaking schemes, and when her mother, in a fit of annoyance at Mariah's latest crummy report card, drags her to the public library, Mariah gets a brainstorm: why not put her parents' vast collection of books to work making her money?
Mariah henceforth turns her apartment into a lending library with the goal of making a profit off the inevitable late returns. She sticks labels in each book saying "Property of the Mariah Delany Lending Library" and with the help of a couple of friends, devises a card catalog of sorts. She even has a category for "sexy books" with a key to the best pages in each one.
Things seem promising at first, but then Mariah's rather spacey parents begin to wonder where their favorite books have gone. No one suspects Mariah; after all, she is well-known for having no interest in books, right?
Things head south fast as books become overdue and the money doesn't start to roll in. Mariah finds it impossible to collect the fines or to get the books back. There is one hilarious scene when Mariah and her friend Emma go to a kid named David's house to retrieve Mariah's father's prized copy of "Great Expectations." They learn that David has wrapped the book up as a gift for his mother, and his mother is quite angry when she catches Mariah unwrapping the "present." The book is saved only after Emma trips and falls and Mariah implies that Emma is prone to having fits, which startles David's mother enough for Mariah to grab the book and run.
I won't tel you how Mariah gets the rest of the books back or what happens when her parents finally catch on to what she's been up to, but suffice it to say that Mariah does develop a proper respect for the printed word.
Mariah henceforth turns her apartment into a lending library with the goal of making a profit off the inevitable late returns. She sticks labels in each book saying "Property of the Mariah Delany Lending Library" and with the help of a couple of friends, devises a card catalog of sorts. She even has a category for "sexy books" with a key to the best pages in each one.
Things seem promising at first, but then Mariah's rather spacey parents begin to wonder where their favorite books have gone. No one suspects Mariah; after all, she is well-known for having no interest in books, right?
Things head south fast as books become overdue and the money doesn't start to roll in. Mariah finds it impossible to collect the fines or to get the books back. There is one hilarious scene when Mariah and her friend Emma go to a kid named David's house to retrieve Mariah's father's prized copy of "Great Expectations." They learn that David has wrapped the book up as a gift for his mother, and his mother is quite angry when she catches Mariah unwrapping the "present." The book is saved only after Emma trips and falls and Mariah implies that Emma is prone to having fits, which startles David's mother enough for Mariah to grab the book and run.
I won't tel you how Mariah gets the rest of the books back or what happens when her parents finally catch on to what she's been up to, but suffice it to say that Mariah does develop a proper respect for the printed word.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2014
Unlike some of these old books I've been reading, I actually remember this one quite well. Maybe it's because it's a book about books or because it's about a kid who has no interest in reading then suddenly finds love for it at the end. I still really like it :) I feel that I'm a bit like Mariah's parents, without the thick rimmed glasses and I would be just as disappointed as them if my child had no interest in reading. Nothing winds me up more than when people say " I don't like books" WHAT!? Thats like saying, I don't like music or films. You are not reading the right ones! However I refuse to belive that Great Expectations is the book that made her like them. Now that is a boring book!
October 5, 2014
A blast from my past as I tried to get my son to read one I remembered, and that was really fun. Mariah is surrounded by a family of readers, and all she wants to do is come up with business ideas and make money. Alas, the girl name in the title and on the cover made this a non-starter for my 8yo boy.
April 17, 2016
Cute little book, dated but endearing. It took me back to my days of listing books on paper; treasuring my moments in the library; loving to number and track and scheme to make money by lending it out at exorbitant interest rates.
The plot's awfully contrived but I don't think the young reader would mind. I'm not sure if they'd get it like I did, not having been there in the day.
The plot's awfully contrived but I don't think the young reader would mind. I'm not sure if they'd get it like I did, not having been there in the day.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews