By Zeno Alexander
(ratings are listed for book 1 and then book 2)
4Rbooks: 4/6, grades 3-6… 4/6, grades 3-7
Amazon rating: 4.5/5, grades 4-6… 4.6/5, grades 3-4
Good Reads: 3.78/5… 3.97/5
Common Sense Media: 4/5, ages 8+… not reviewed
Pages 191… pages 211
Synopsis:
(Book 1) Lenora is 11 and unhappy. Her rich parents are gone, and she is stuck with a boring nanny who drags her all over town doing boring things. Lenora wants to do something, anything, that would be interesting and important.
The nanny takes her to the library on one of the errands where Lenora finds more than she every thought possible in the hallways and on the shelves. She is suddenly in the midst of the world’s largest library containing the largest amount of knowledge wearing a badge that identifies her as an assistant apprentice librarian.
Lenora is soon helping patrons all over the library find and learn valuable information. She talks to animals, and they help her on her adventure. She travels through space and time. She is helped by many friends, including Malachi, the Chief Answerer, and escapes dangerous people and robots who want to stifle knowledge.
(Book 2) It is one year later. Though she has tried, Lenora has not been able to find the entrance to the Library of Ever again. Things are still boring at home, and her parents have never believed her stories of adventure on her first trip to the library.
All of that changes when Lenora tries to help a young man at the library and is suddenly back to “the library.” Things are different now. A new board and director have been hiding and discarding books and firing librarians. Even Malachi has been demoted and her responsibilities diminished. Malachi asks Lenora for help, and sends her off to find Zenodotus who can help restore the library.
Lenora is off on another adventure fighting the Forces of Darkness that are trying to squelch knowledge and curiosity behind fear, lies, and hatred. With the help of her new friends, Ada, Haruto, and Rosa Lenora races through the library, and sometimes time and history, to learn new things (universe’s largest number), find answers (who destroyed the library of Alexandria), and defeat intellectual darkness.
Parental Guidance: low
(Book 1) Lenora encounters dangerous situations and people.
(Book 2) More dangerous situations and people.
Ada’s father is temporarily sucked away into a black hole.
Recommendation:
In the grand tradition of stories like Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Narnia, and A Wrinkle in Time (plus shouldireadread selections The Silver Arrow, The Circus of Stolen Dreams, and the Samantha Spinner series) this two-book series (so far) is an adventure fantasy tale of a child being transported to fantastic places and situations where brave and heroic deeds need to be accomplished.
These are easy reads and should be interesting to most readers, but with appealing heroines, girls will truly appreciate the stories. There is quite a lot of historical information thrown in throughout the stories that will intrigue inquisitive children who always like to know more.
The series could be an effective group read with GATE and high achievers as there are ample opportunities to do side research on topics within the stories.
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