Oliver Wormwood has found his calling. He will now work at the library but on his very first day the librarian dies. There is no one else who can run the library so Oliver must step into the role and learn how the run the library and keep the borrowers happy and keep himself safe from the very dangerous books and he must do this very quickly or he too might end up dead!
I have said this before but I marvel at the imagination of some writers. There are so many fabulous moments in The 113th Assistant Librarian - inventive plot twists that made me gasp and smile.
This book has it all:
- It is a page turner
- It has some laugh out loud funny moments (wait till you encounter the hideous bookworms and that pesky firedrake owner)
- It has a hero you will love along with his two friends Agatha and Ember and a series of cats some of whom are very helpful
- It is set in a library - surely that is enough to tell you it will be interesting
- There are parts of this story that will resonate with all librarians - such as due date stamps, the power of bookmarks and the need for shelving and classification systems. This made me laugh "He'd been working in the library so long that his idea of a deadly weapon usually comprised a preface, an afterword, and a bunch of pages in between."
- The titles of the various books are hilarious and so inventive - I wanted to create a list of them
- There are moments of great drama and danger
- And this book contains the most amazingly rich vocabulary
Oliver Wormwood is a splendid character. I love his emotional intelligence, his natural ability to understand and embrace how libraries work, his desire to keep the library organised and tidy, and surprisingly, his attention to his own cleanliness.
"He paused to wash the mud off his shirt in the Spellwater Fountain ..."
"He even got into a rhythm when it came to washing his clothes and bedding. Finding a spot in the otherwise overgrown garden that was lucky enough to receive sunlight for a few hours a day, he tied some string from one tree to another to form a washing line ... he did not like to have dirty clothes strewn all over the floor."
Vocabulary: demeanour, impartiality, codex, gauntlet, coffer (small chest), bandolier, imperative, cantankerous, decagonal, dodecagonal, glommed, trepidation, clerestory (a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level), synchrony, chapodiphobia (fear of octopuses), poultice, exsanguinate, illustrious, ruminate, surreptitiously, filching, kettle helm, text block, Inncunabula, parley and parlay.
I do like the character names. His sisters are called Heloise, Isolde, Willow, Elsbeth and Octavia. The town where Oliver lives is called Blackmoor-upon-Wyvern. A wyvern is a small dragon so this is most certainly a place filled with magic. If you plan to introduce this book to your students I suggest sharing some of the character descriptions:
"An old man dressed in a long magenta cloak stepped forward. He peered at Oliver over a pair of tiny reading glasses perched on the edge of his long nose."
"(he) came face to face with a tall woman with shoulder-length straight brown hair wearing a cloak of midnight blue. The bronze bracelets poking through her tattered cuffs signaled her power ... "
"An old man stood before Oliver. He had a slight hunch and grey wiry eyebrows so long they might have been about to take flight. ... He was dressed in a threadbare knee-length jacket and breeches and he had holes in his shoes. ... His skin was so pale it could have been made from porcelain."
"Dressed in a sodden cloak of midnight blue, the slim man was average height, with a narrow face and pointy nose. He had a long tuft of black hair growing from his chin that he had knotted into a braid. ... He had light brown eyes that were almost amber, an attribute that was hard to ignore because the man maintained eye contact for a fraction longer than was customary."
"The man was wearing a lurid green cravat which gave the effect of a frog perched on his collarbone."
There will be a second adventure for Oliver by Stuart Wilson- and it is sure to be just as good as this first one. Listen to an audio sample from the first installment here. In this insightful interview Joy Lawn talks to Stuart Wilson about his book.
I recommend The 113th Assistant Librarian for readers aged 10+. It could also be a terrific class or family read aloud. There is an interesting political layer to this story that you could explore with older readers around the idea of censorship and corruption of the populace through knowledge. The 'Member for Upper-Lower Tumbledown Barrows tells Oliver to remove all books about yellow or golden apples - you need to read the book to find out why. I also loved the description on page 183 where Oliver's friend London Llewelyn describes his 'occupational and health' training as an apprentice lamplighter.
I think the CBCA 2025 judges must be having a very hard time this year deciding on their Younger Readers notables, short list and winners. Here are two others I also loved.
Stuart Wilson says: I wanted to set a story in a library because they are such unique places. Anyone, old or young, can walk straight in, spend hours reading or watching or listening – without spending any money. And there are staff on hand to help you, should you need them – magical places indeed!
Other books set in libraries:
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