Louie Stowell’s The Dragon in the Library is a funny magical adventure for 7 year olds about a girl who’d rather do anything than read, and then finds out she’s a wizard.<\/p>\n
Kit would much rather be climbing trees in the old cemetery than sitting in a library. She likes mud, danger and setting things on fire. Books? “They have words in them.”<\/p>\n
But her best friends Josh and Alita are desperate for the new Danny Fandango, so off they all go. The copies have already gone. Then Faith, the head librarian, hands Kit a dusty old book about dangerous animals.<\/p>\n
One page later Kit is standing in a desert with a black mamba about to strike.<\/p>\n
That’s how she finds out she’s a wizard. The youngest one in the world, probably, since wizard powers aren’t supposed to turn up until you’re eighteen. Faith is one too (she’s also a librarian, and a person can be more than one thing, thank you very much).<\/p>\n
Some books turn out to be doorways you can walk through. Under the library there’s a secret forest where the trees grow pages instead of leaves. And there’s Dogon, half dog and half dragon, puppy-sized and very keen on breathing fire at guests.<\/p>\n
It’s VERY funny. Josh asks so many questions he once sprained his shoulder putting his hand up. Kit’s wizard training turns out to be mostly shelving books. And when she tries the spell to get home on her own, she summons a house on chicken legs instead.<\/p>\n
What’s lovely underneath is Kit herself. At home she’s the middle one of five, the child nobody quite notices. Finding something that’s just hers matters a lot. Any child who’s ever felt a bit overlooked will probably feel that too.<\/p>\n
It’s a brilliant pick for a reader who doesn’t think they like books, because the books really are the magic here.<\/p>\n
There isn’t much to worry about. The snake is scary for a moment, and Faith makes a dark joke about witch burnings. Otherwise it’s cosy danger, lemonade and ginger cake.<\/p>\n
If they’re hooked, Kit’s story carries on in The Monster in the Lake, where a fireball spell goes bang over the treetops and the wild magic around the library is suddenly much too high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Louie Stowell’s The Dragon in the Library is a funny magical adventure for 7 year olds about a girl who’d rather do anything than read, and then finds out she’s a wizard. Kit would much rather be climbing trees in the old cemetery than sitting in a library. She likes mud, danger and setting things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13974,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9250,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Monster in the Lake","lr_seo_hook":"Portal books, a half-dragon puppy and a secret forest under the library.","lr_series_id":449,"lr_series_name":"The Dragon in the Library","lr_series_position":1,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[643],"class_list":["post-13975","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-louie-stowell"],"yoast_title":"The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Portal books, a half-dragon puppy and a secret forest under the library. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n