Author: Jen Swann Downey
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Rating: WORTHY!
Well here we are on the fourteenth day of December, the start of the twelve-day count-down to Xmas day (although the actual twelve days of Xmas begins on Xmas day). The fourteenth letter of the alphabet is 'N', so in keeping with my little scheme for this month, this is a review of a novel which has a title starting with that letter.
Dorrie Barnes is a rather ill-behaved and irresponsible twelve-year-old who is represented on the book's cover as a woman who appears to be in her mid-thirties with improbably long legs. Once again Big Publishing™ strikes! I don't normally rant about covers, but this one in particular has two strikes against it. Usually the plain hard-back has a decorated or illustrated cover. This one does, too, but underneath the paper cover, the hardback cover isn't plain: it shows precisely the same image as the paper cover does, so why add the paper cover? Why not leave it without one and save a tree? Yet another fail by Big Publishing™. Do they never end?
You might guess that I hated this book, but I didn't actually hate it. It just wasn't for me, but it might well be for the age group at which it's aimed, which is why I'm rating it positively. There were some really good parts after all. Seriously, how can you hate a book titled "Ninja Librarians? Unfortunately for me, the book was too long, and too dissipated and meandering. It seemed like the author couldn't decide what to write about and the editor evidently couldn't say no when the author would stray from topic.
Also, for a book with 'librarians' in the title, there was precious little in it that was actually about books - except how Dorrie was neglectful of returning library books, which to me is a cardinal sin! In additional to that, Dorrie was in one case abusive to books in that she tore a page out of a valuable and important book, and instead of 'fessing up, she hid the page and eventually lost it. That was not forgivable and was one reason why I felt that this novel left a lot to be desired - especially given its title.
Dorrie came across as very selfish and self-centered, which is never a good thing in a main character in my book - or in any book, unless there's a really good explanation for it! That wouldn't have been so bad if she'd grown out of it, but she really didn't. I also was not too thrilled with the obsession with violence and sword-fighting. I don't mind a good mêlée once in a while, even in a children's book if done properly, but the fact that Dorrie obsessed on this and not on any other aspect of what these misnamed "ninja" librarians do with their time was distressing at best.
The book begins with Dorrie running off to a renaissance festival instead of looking for her overdue library book. She's a play sword-fighter, but when her friend's mongoose gets loose, and runs into the library, Dorrie chases it and uncovers a secret portal to Petrarch's library. Now why we get Petrarch's rather than the library at Alexandria I do not know. Petrarch never appears in the story, but Hypatia, a mathematician, teacher, and philosopher who was brutally murdered by psychotic Christian thugs, appears quite a lot. I found that incomprehensible.
Anyway, the library turns out to be a secret hub connecting to various places at various times, so that by passing through a portal, you could be in ancient Greece (not ancient grease, which really takes some getting off) or in medieval Paris. The only way to pass through these portals is with a key-hand - someone who has undergone training and become an approved key to the portal. When Dorrie, her brother Marcus and the pet mongoose fall through a closet in their local library, Dorrie somehow accidentally becomes a key-hand. This has never happened before.
Actually there's some confusion about who was a key-hand and who wasn't, and how it happened, but let's not get into that, since it's one of several issues I had with this novel. Another of these was with the poor world-building. There was no indication as to how the portals worked. We're given to understand from the blurb that the people can travel to any place at any time, but that's an outright lie! Duhh! It's a book blurb! Their whole purpose is to lie! The portals are actually limited in number, and each one leads to a fixed place and date which is slowly advancing!
The book tells us that time passes slowly outside, or conversely, quickly inside the library. Dorrie is gone, subjectively, for several weeks while only two minutes pass back in her hometown, yet this "rule" isn't consistent, and no explanation is given for why it varies between portals. I guess it's timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly thing, you know?
So lots of issues, but overall not too bad of a story for children. It just doesn't welcome discerning adults. However, I will rate it positively because I think children will like it - if they have the stamina to get through it all!
