Want to kick-start a discussion about the value and challenges of intellectual freedom?
Picture
Discussion and Activity Guides Available

Discussion/Activity Guide for The Accidental Keyhand

Discussion/Activity Guide for Sword in the Stacks

     Master Phillipus AureolusTheophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim's Guide to Petrarch's Library

Intellectual Freedom Mission Activity Kit

Three good reasons to read the Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand, or the Ninja Librarians: Sword in the Stacks, with your Book Club or class...

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 is a discussion/activity kickstarter available for Sword in the Stacks which focuses on these questions. You can access it below by clicking on "Sword in the Stacks".

Reason Three: The Author Is Happy to Skype with Your Book Club

"The Author". That's me. Talking to kids about the books is one of my favorite things to do. Once your book 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, bits of history, themes, as well as the experience of writing these books, and writing in general.  You can contact me at jsdowney@earthlink.net 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!