Further proof that librarians are mighty in all universes. Any questions?
An inkling that something has gone “Terribly Wrong” in the cosmic Library prompts Second Apprentice Librarian Lenora to book a return visit.
Almost immediately, 12-year-old Lenora learns to her dismay that the vain, choleric (and oddly familiar, at least to politically aware readers) new Director is firing Librarians wholesale, crowing over fictive “patron fees,” and cutting down the book collections. Stoutly, she ventures back into the endless stacks of the Library of Ever (2019) to confront him—only to discover that he’s just a tantrum-prone pawn of the Forces of Darkness, a trio of slithery agents out to extinguish the light of learning everywhere. Joined by the Director’s naïve but computer-savvy young daughter, Lenora resolutely sets out to stymie the bowler-hatted foes. Along the way, she demonstrates the well-known thrills of reference work by, for instance, responding to a young patron’s query by seeking out the largest meaningful number (pro tip: “infinity” is not a number) and helping a tentacled extraterrestrial archaeologist recover stolen research notes on the mysterious Mississippian culture. (All in a day’s work, as any public-service librarian will attest.) Between the cast of intellectual-freedom fighters and the hissing forces of ignorance, Alexander leaves no doubt about which side to cheer for. Lenora, the Director, and his daughter present white; several other members of the human cast are people of color, indicated by name or description.
Further proof that librarians are mighty in all universes. Any questions? (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16919-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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