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News

8/3 - I got to talk about the NINJA LIBRARIANS on Virginia Public Radio! Thanks Sandy Hausman! http://wvtf.org/post/ninja-librarians-fight-your-right-read#stream/0

7/11/16 - Family dog #2 has issued a press release stating that while he did indeed steal and consume the 2 lb block of cheese, there were mitigating circumstances, and that all further questions should be directed to his lawyer.

6/7/16 - Release of THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: SWORD IN THE STACKS! Out! About! Tripping the shelf fantastic!

3/ 24/14 - Some new reviews have rolled in! At least I think they rolled in. It's possible they could have ambled or skipped, I was watching a pot boil over but anyway...


From Booklist: "Delightfully funny from the first page, this middle- grade time-travel adventure is surprisingly full of fun and action. Downey’s hilarious debut is perfect for any library-loving reader and those who never considered librarians to be cool.”

From School Library Journal “The melding of fantasy, adventure, and history is enlightening…Readers who miss the collegial, magical setting of Hogwarts will enjoy exploring Petrarch’s Library.”


 2/19/14 - Where DID that five and a half months go? I will, as promised in September of last year, be at the Greene County Library on Friday, March 21st (7pm) as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. Please join us there for some hot donuts, a cool reading, and some warm conversation about how THE NINJA LIBRARIANS came to be written and published. Greene County Library, 222 Main Street, Stanardsville, VA 22973  http://www.vabook.org/index.html/


9/24/13 I might have just booked my first ever author event. At the Greene County Library in March of 2014. And I didn't even have to bribe them with an offer of a box of full-sized pencils! I've got five and a half months to come up with something to make them not regret their invitation. Aaaaaand go.

8/15/13 The children are still being denied flugelhorns. 

1/25/13 The children are begging for flugelhorns. Just trying to keep you abreast of the fast-moving reality here.

11/26/12 from Publisher's Marketplace: Jennifer Downey's debut THE NINJA LIBRARIANS OF PASSAIC, the first in a series about a girl who stumbles on Petrarch's Library, the headquarters of a secret society of warrior librarians who use their mysterious library to travel time, protecting those whose words have gotten them in trouble; she longs to join their battle, but when she learns that a traitor hides within, she knows that saving Petrarch's Library could mean erasing herself from its history, forever, to Aubrey Poole at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, by Susan Hawk at The Bent Agency (World English).


*Upcoming Author Events

*I'm pretty sure that sounds pretentious, but you know what I mean, right? A happening, an affair, an occurrence. At which I'll be reading. Or knocking things over  with over-large gestures while talking about intellectual freedom. Or pounding cheetos at the snack table with the kids.
Calendar 2016
October 12th,  - Richmond Public Library YAVA Awards & Celebration. Open to public.

October 14th/15th - Talking censorship and honorable gatekeeping with authors and book bloggers at the KidlitCon in Witchita, Kansas.  http://kidlitosphere.org/news/2016/8/26/2016-kidlitcon-program-released.html

October 22 - Reading Q & A with me, Megan Shepard, and Gigi Amateau. The Fountain Bookstore. Richmond, VA 2pm.  Come talk horses and camels, and all the other strange creatures that populate our books.

November 11th - Author Visit with REACH Homeschoolers, Fredericksburg, VA.