The Secret Library: (A Magical Time-Travel Adventure about Family, Courage, and Identity for Middle-Grade Readers Ages 8-12 in Grades 3-7)

An instant New York Times bestseller!

Travel through time with National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon in a page-turning fantasy adventure about family secrets and finding the courage to plot your own life story.

Since Grandpa died, Dally's days are dull and restricted. She's eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother's clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time. As Dally "checks out" adventure after adventure--including an exhilarating outing with pirates--she begins to dive deep into her family's hidden history. Soon she's visiting every day to escape the demands of the present. But the library has secrets of its own, intentions that would shape her life as surely as her mother's meticulous plans. What will Dally choose? Equal parts mystery and adventure--with a biracial child puzzling out her identity alongside the legacy of the past--this masterful middle-grade fantasy rivets with crackling prose, playful plot twists, and timeless themes. A satisfying choice for fans of Kindred and When You Reach Me.

Author: Kekla Magoon
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 05/07/2024
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.90w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781536230888
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.1
Point Value: 12
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 551608 / Secret Library


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/12/2024
Booklist 02/15/2024 pg. 68
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2024
School Library Journal 04/01/2024 pg. 129
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 05/01/2024
Foreword 04/25/2024
Horn Book Magazine 07/01/2024 pg. 132
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2024 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style

About the Author
Kekla Magoon is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Secret Library and many other fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers, including X: A Novel, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz; the Blue Stars series, cowritten with Cynthia Leitich Smith and illustrated by Molly Murakami; and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People. She has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award, an NAACP Image Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and four Coretta Scott King Honors, among others. Kekla Magoon lives in Montpelier, Vermont, and teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.