I just (and I mean, just) started listening to this book via audiobook…I hesitated reading it because I had seen it around so much, heard it talked about so much that I thought it might be too hyped up and not worth the read (because this has happened before ya know!). Well, I’m at Chapter 5 and the constant smile I’m wearing on my face when listening to this on the morning and afternoon commute has got to be leaving people driving beside me wondering what is happening in my car. Ian is a fantastic little boy, his mother is nutty and Lucy the librarian is a good soul….
If you work with children, love to foster a love of reading in children, love your public library, books, reading and hearing many references to children’s literature, etc. and think those people out there that seem to really squelch the love of reading in young children are ridiculous in their thoughts on appropriate reading topics….you MUST read this book. I am having such a wonderful time with this book right now and I’m so early in to it!! It will be interesting to see what happens when Lucy takes Ian on this, what is mysterious to me right now, road trip….
Following is the Goodreads description: The Borrower
In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road.
Lucy Hull, a young children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?