Here are two lovely, cozy Cybils-nominated middle grade fantasy books that are perfect for reading aloud as well as solo. Remarkably, both of them achieve this while being set in the aftermath of significantly traumatic events – and both have cats who play important roles.

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. Feiwel & Friends, 2023. ISBN Feiwel & Friends. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available from Libby.

A boy, a cat, and maybe a ghost join to bring a small town’s library back in this sweet story.  Mortimer the cat has two jobs: keeping the mice away from the food in the Historical House, and watching over the cart of library books that are all that’s left of the collection since the library burned down. But when one of the secret residents of the Historical House, Al, builds a Little Free Library in front of the house and puts the old books on it, Mortimer decides to stand guard by the books instead.

Al, the former Assistant Librarian, spends her time in the house making applesauce, tea, and cheese trays to give to Ms. Scoggin, the ghostly librarian, and Mr. Brock, the other ghost, as well as remembering times in the old library both good and bad. 

Evan is the kid who first discovers the Little Free Library and works to solve the mystery of why the books in it are all stamped as having been returned to the library the very day of the fire, why one of them was checked out in the name of a bestselling author he doesn’t think is from their town, and why the site of the library has been allowed to go to weeds and never been rebuilt.  Also, why his father won’t answer questions about this topic.  

Despite the trauma of the fire, this is a sweet and cozy mystery, with partnerships developing between Mortimer the cat and the mice he’s formerly rerouted, Al learning more about herself, and Evan learning about his father and exploring with his friend, whose parents have kept him extremely sheltered until elementary school graduation, which happens during the book.  

The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwabe. Translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa. Illustrated by Yukiko Saito. Yonder, 2023. ISBN 978-1632063373.  First published as Misaki no Mayoiga by Kodansha, 2015. Read from a library copy.  Ebook available from Libby. Audiobook due out April 2024.

This story from the author of Temple Alley Summer (and many other beloved Japanese books that haven’t been translated) begins, as an opening note tells us, the day in March of 2011 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the area of Tōhoku in Japan.  In the chaos following, we focus on three people, all meeting in the same gym that’s being used as an emergency shelter. Kiwa is an elderly woman who was just preparing to move, of necessity, from living on her own to living in an eldercare home. Yui is a young woman who decided to use the chaos of the earthquake to run away from her abusive husband, while newly orphaned Hiyori (about 8) was being sent off to live with an uncle she’d never met.  Despite her fear of her husband, Yui takes charge of Hiyori when she’s separated from her social worker, and Kiwa claims them both as family at the shelter, saving them both from unwanted discovery.  Kiwa is quick to make friends and is able to find an empty traditional-style house overlooking the sea for them to fix up and live in. Yukiko Saito’s pencil illustrations are beautifully helpful here, showing the characters, the traditional tatami mat room with its square sunken fireplace, as well as scenes from the stories Kiwa tells Yui and Hiyori.

At the beginning, this appears to be entirely realistic fiction, punctuated by Kiwa’s stories about the legends of the area.  As time goes on, though, it becomes clear that Kiwa has personal connections to the spirits of the area – and that the earthquake or the subsequent tsunami have let something dangerous loose.  It will take all three of them working together to stop whatever it is – and Yui and Hiyori will need to face their personal demons to do this. Hiyori’s trauma has expressed itself in her being unable to speak, which makes this especially challenging.  Though Yui’s abuse all happened before the story begins and we never get any graphic scenes of it even in flashbacks, I feel like it’s a rare and important acknowledgment that intimate partner violence can happen, and that escape and healing are possible.  It’s also rare in having an adult character like Yui who needs to grow herself- though I see that the movie adaptation made her a teen.  Hiyori also goes from being a very passive character in the beginning to being able to take personal initiative as the story progresses. Even before I knew about the adaptation, the book felt to me like a Miyazaki film, with its wonderful found family, a strong sense of place with lots of nature, and magic slowly seeping through into everyday life. ‘Even before I knew about the adaptation, the book felt to me like a Miyazaki film, with its wonderful found family, a strong sense of place with lots of nature, and magic slowly seeping through into everyday life.