Legend of the Book Keeper
Daniel Blackaby
Russell Media, June 1 2012, $14.99
ISBN: 9781937498047

In Havenwood, Utah, after school, ninth-grade friends Cody Clemenson and Mari “Jade” Shimmers visit Wesley’s Amazing Used And Rare Antique Book Store. Clumsy Cody knocks over a pole of books that concealed a door with one word in blood: RESTRICTED. Cody flees while Jade thinks he is a lunatic.

In his bedroom he hears someone calling his name and he sees a figure in his closet holding a knife with a sign above the door in blood: RESTRICTED. Stunned Cody races to the bookstore only to find a For Sale sign. The teen sneaks into the building to witness Wesley Simon scrambling as the old man thinks this was the first time someone stumbled into his secret and escaped from the store. Inside the room Cody tries to look at an antique book by Hawthorne when Wesley catches him and realizes the world is doomed. He tells Cody to run with the tome while he races upstairs with a sword to fight an intruder. Sheriff Messiner announces that Wesley was murdered as Cody tells Jade he caused Wesley’s death and something big and ugly is after hum.

The first Lost City Chronicles is an exciting action-packed fantasy thriller. Fast-paced, younger teen readers will root for their adolescent “peers” as the lead duo engage in a deadly odyssey to prevent evil from destroying the world. Although at times the scenes are overly described, fans will enjoy following where the Book takes the Keeper Cody and his sidekick Jade on misadventures against a sinister Master.

Harriet Klausner