The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict is based on the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, an African American woman who was able to pass as white, enabling her to become one of the most influential librarians in history. Growing up in Washington, DC, and throughout the rest of her life, she faced a lot of racial discrimination and witnessed her father, a well-educated black man who graduated from Harvard, experience hardships revolving around his career due to the color of his skin.

Belle worked extremely hard throughout adolescence and adulthood to attain her life calling of being a librarian. Her ambition led to her acquisition of a job under a famous financier when she was just twenty-three years old. Due to her great skills and knowledge surrounding art and literature, she rose to become her boss’s personal librarian, in charge of curating his vast collection of various books and manuscripts. Still shackled down by her race in society, she made the decision to conceal her true identity and ultimately present herself as a white woman to the rest of the world. She becomes a very influential figure who represents the possibilities of shaping your own life and determining its outcomes if you set your mind to it.

The novel continues to explore her internal and external struggles as she navigates, understands her identity, and juggles her ambition and desire for recognition with the limitations set upon her by the rest of society.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in historical novels, but also ones that grab the reader’s attention and have them not wanting to put down the book throughout every step of the way. An important life lesson that can be taken away from this book is that resilience is key to navigating life and societal expectations set based on race and gender.

Review by: Holly Childs

Holly is a senior at Santa Monica High School.

—Danielle Fox, Young Adult Librarian, West Los Angeles Branch Library