Reason One: For Fun!
A New Jersey kid who wants to wield a sword against villains -- (modernity mod-shmernity), a magical library connected to dozens of centuries, secret entrances, Roman Baths, rampaging aurochs, Petrarch's Library's thousand rooms, ancient roller-skates for zinging through them, warrior lybrarians with a "y", a pack of apprentices trying not to die, insufferable anti-suffragists, fashionably dressed camels, Dorris's guts, Marcus' conniving heart, Ebba's common sense (in the absence of distracting animal life), betrayals, besottedness, beseechings, Greek rhetoric gone awry, and a star-shaped stone that in the wrong hands will allow the Foundation to steal reading and writing from the world.
Reason Two: Springboard to Interesting Questions About the Notion of Intellectual Freedom
Why have the ninja librarians devoted their lives to protecting writers who get into trouble for expressing their opinions and ideas? What does it mean to be a supporter of intellectual freedom? Is life better when people are afforded intellectual freedom? Worse? Is it ever dangerous for words to be spoken? To speak them? Why does speaking out take courage. How about listening? There are discussion guides available for both books which focuses on these questions. Here is a link to the Sword in the Stacks Discussion Guide: .
Reason Three: The Author Is Happy to Skype with Your Book Club
"The Author". That's me. So fancy!..Talking to kids about these books is one of my favorite things to do. Once your club has read one or both books, I'm happy to arrange a Skype visit with your crew to answer questions about the books' characters, plot, the history woven into the fantasy, intellectual freedom themes, as well as the experience of writing these books, and writing in general. You can contact me at [email protected] to arrange a time. I don't charge for book club Skype visits, but I do ask as a courtesy that club members, if at all able, purchase books to read, rather than borrowing them. Please give me at least a month's lead time for Skype requests. Thank you!