|
Button Up, Minnesota is home to BUL (Button Up Library) the state’s oldest and largest privately funded library. Button Up is also home to ten year old Landon Snow’s Grandpa Karl and Grandma Alice and the Snow family (Landon, his mother, father and two sisters) are traveling there to celebrate Landon’s eleventh birthday.
On the first night at, after finishing Grandma’s good dinner and famous lemon bars, Landon opens birthday gifts from Grandpa and Grandma. These gifts will prove to be the keys to the mysterious adventure he is about to go on. An adventure like no other.
Before bedtime, Grandpa tells the kids the legend of Bartholomew G. Beneford and how the Bartholomew G. Beneford House of Knowledge and Adventure came to be at the BUL, ending with the scripture John 21:25. Even though the kids know the story by heart, they anticipate it tale none the less.
After the story, getting ready for bed in his grandparent’s study, Landon carefully places his gifts on the desk, climbs into bed, and commotion breaks out. Grandpa’s been in an accident and must go to the hospital. Landon’s beginning to doubt there is a God. After all wouldn’t God who supposedly controlled everything, stop Grandpa from being hurt? It’s when Landon begins investigating ‘things’ that adventure begins.
Landon reads a scripture from his Bible about visions and dreams when the bookcase slowly slides to the side, revealing an open chamber. Landon falls into the empty space and experiences an adventure like no other. A journey that involves a talking horse, Odds in the Land of Odds, chess pieces that talk are among other weird things that make Landon’s life a confusion of riddles and rhyme. It’s not until the end that we find out if Landon makes his way home, if his grandpa is okay, and if he finds answers to his questions.
Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle are geared/written/marketed for kids age 8-12. The hard cover smallish book with a fanciful drawing on the cover, has, like any classic book an elegant sort of design on the spine that will make the series a nice addition to any collection.
The story delivers on its promises of adventure, fantasy, suspense and humor. Landon Snow will join other literary gems like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lemony Snicket's
Series of Unfortunate Events and others. And it may be marketed to children; it will delight readers of all ages.
Reviewed by Linda Mae Baldwin
for The Road to Romance
October 29, 2005
|
