275. Bookweirder by Paul Glennon

Bookweirder by Paul Glennon (Canada) - (USA)
Bookweird Trilogy, book 2

Pages: 246
Ages: 9+
Finished: Dec. 7, 2010
First Published: Sept. 28, 2010
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Genre: children, fantasy, magical realism
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

It could have been a forest back home.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Random House Canada.

Reason for Reading: next in the series.

When I read Bookweird back in 2008, I had no idea there would be a sequel, and I'd be pretty surprised if the author was positive there would be a sequel either as the book just didn't read like part of a series. That first book made my honorable mentions list of best books read that year so when I discovered the sequel published this year I just had to read it!

It's been a year since the previous events and Norman has not gone into a book again figuring the results are much too dire for him to be messing around with. His family is spending the summer in England in his mother's family home, owned by her brother, who is away. Here Norman finds a set of his mother's childhood books about "The Intrepid Three" and starts reading one only to fall asleep and wake up in the book. Both Norman and Malcolm, the stoat king, have been lured into this book by the mysterious librarian who is playing the part of Mr. Todd, the lawyer this time. But just what is going on? Malcolm needs a map that his father gave Norman as a gift last time, things are not going right in this book for the Intrepid Three as they are being harassed by a "poacher" who just happens to be the killer Norman set loose from his mother's mystery book last time. As Malcolm and Norman try to put this book back on track Norman needs to go into other books to put the pieces together of a family secret as Norman suspects his mother might actually know about the bookweird. This time he visits 19th century Paris in a Poe short story, then a medieval adventure story as well as the WWI era Intrepid Three.

A splendid book. The events from book one, Bookweird, are quite pertinent to the story so do read that first to appreciate this book at its fullest. Though it's been two years since I read Bookweird, the events came back to me very quickly as they were briefly referred to here and I was deep inside Bookweirder right away. This is a brilliant world Glennon has created and one that any bibliophile is going to love immersing themselves into. Wouldn't it be wonderful to hop into the books you were reading and have a quick conversation with your favourite character? But unfortunately, going into a book starts to change the story as soon as you arrive so you have to be careful! The book is deceptive with its 246 page count, since it is a trade paperback and the type is unusually small. So don't count on it being such a quick read as it looks before you open it up. However, it's an engaging story, which this time has definitely been written as the precursor to another book. There are plenty of mysteries still unsolved, threads hanging, and in fact the book ends with one problem all wrapped up and Malcolm and Norman setting out to fix the next. Any guesses on the next book's title? Bookweirdest? Bookweirderer? I'll be looking forward to it!

PS - Just found out this is being called a trilogy. So one more book, but no details can be found yet.