The Library of Ever

Some adventures are quite perilous, like getting hurled into a void that, Lenora's robot pal tells her, will eventually "rip us into nothing too." Or venturing into tombs. Creepy villains bent on keeping kids and adults from getting the knowledge they seek -- "For their own good," of course --menace and threaten the librarians with weapons and clouds of darkness. Here, Lenora meets the first of them:

"The man's body turned slowly toward Lenora. The rest of his body was perfectly still. Then something moved under his overcoat, like a snake wriggling across his stomach. She felt a tremor inside and took a step back."

Parents need to know that The Library of Ever is the first installment in a new series by Zeno Alexander (who may or may not be a real person, as he's described as "elusive" and depicted as a cartoon illustration). It concerns the adventures of 11-year-old Lenora and her mentor Malachi (a woman) as they strive to preserve knowledge and make it available to all. This turns out to involve a lot of conflict with villains who want to keep people from learning things that might, for example, make them think differently. There's a lot of factual knowledge as the tale unfolds, and also futuristic fantasy, as the library of the title isn't limited by time and space, and time travel is common. Kids who love collecting odd bits of knowledge (such as whether the year 8000 will be a leap year) will have a lot of fun here. But there's also plenty of wild adventure from the Library of Alexandria to the tomb of Genghis Khan.