National Library Week: Teen Books About Libraries

Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine (Berkeley paperback, 2016).

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.
 
Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.
 
When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn....


The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) by Genevieve Cogman (Penguin paperback, 2016).

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it’s already been stolen.
 London’s underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.
 
Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself…

Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1) by Brenda Drake (Entangled paperback, 2017).

Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels-magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books-rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren't busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.

Love & War (Library Wars #1) by Kiiro Yumi (VIZ paperback, 2010).

Fight for your right to read!

In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves---the Library Forces! 

Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Defense Force ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore when she was younger. But now that she’s finally a recruit, she’s finding her dream job to be a bit of a nightmare. Especially since her hard-hearted drill instructor seems to have it out for her!

YA Thursday

Wow!  The first two books I read in 2016 were so good, I need to add them to my 2015 "Favorites" list!


Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas (HarperTeen hardcover, 15 September 2015).

The cover implies that this is a pastiche of the Cinderella story, but it takes a long time before we recognize it.

The book opens with a nameless young woman has just been deposited into a row of seamstresses, bent over fine stitchwork.  The girl doesn't know who she is, or how she got there.  She does know that she's not a very good seamstress, and that she is in possession of a silver thimble that no one else knows about.

The seamstresses are shoeless, dressed only in coarse cotton shifts, and are fed meager rations of cold porridge.  The threat of "The Godmother"  discourages then to conversing, but they manage anyway, in the occasional whisper.

The girl, who has decided to call herself "Pin", resolves to escape, but how?  When one of her fellow seamstresses attempted it, she met with a gruesome fate.

Then, opportunity presents itself when The Godmother tells her to act as a model for the Shoemaker, since she has such small feet.  Suddenly, Pin has a reason to move around the building, and communicate with other workers.

This riveting story does begin slowly, but after the few pages, the reader is hooked.  Make sure to set aside a few hours to read this; you won't want to put it down.



Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine (NAL hardcover, 7 July 2015).

Jess Brightwell is a "runner": he smuggles rare books for his wealthy father, who is ostensibly an importer.  This, of course, provides a perfect cover for the illicit nature of his real line of work.

In this reality, in the year 2025, it is not allowed for individuals to own original manuscripts.  All are stored in The Great Library, in Alexandria.  There are other, smaller, libraries in major cities, which are allowed to store books, but they are strictly controlled.

People are allowed to read, texts are delivered to the electronic "blanks" that everyone owns, but personal ownership of physical books is forbidden.

Thus, Jess's job is very dangerous.  By the time he's sixteen, he's been doing it for over half a decade, hating every minute of hit.  His greatest fear is that his father will expect him, as the older son, to take over the business.

Fortunately, Brightwell père recognizes that Jess does not have a flair for the business, and arranges (at some expense) for Jess to go to Alexandria and train to work in the Library. 

Since private ownership of books is not allowed, working for the Library can be a hazardous occupation, something Jess doesn't fully comprehend until he's actually settled in the students' dorm.

This was another book I wanted to read through without stopping, yet at the same time I didn't want it to end.  

The second book in the series, Paper and Fire, is due in July.  It's going to be a long seven months.




FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed both these books from my local library.