The Borrower

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Makkai, Rebecca	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024

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?

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Meh submitted by evelyn on July 8, 2011, 8:22am This is one of those highly anticipated summer books but I thought it fell flat. There's no denying that Makkai's writing is excellent, but her main charecter Lucy drove me crazy. She was whiny and self-centered to a point that completely distracted me from the writing. I also found the plot to be so nonsensical as to lose me completely.

Recommended for Liberal Book-Lovers submitted by sdunav on July 2, 2012, 4:25pm This is an interesting and intelligent novel about a children's librarian and a kid who wants nothing more than to read all the books his conservative family - especially his high-strung, unpleasant mother - forbids. Also, the parents are sending him to a Pastor Jim Bob for anti-gay class.

Anyway, the allusions to all kinds of classic children's books in this book (including The Borrowers ) are wonderful. The story is really interesting, but I wanted to smack the protagonist a couple times. The ending made up for my frustration with her, though

Unexpectedly Interesting submitted by Maria Maguire on July 23, 2018, 3:05pm If you’re someone who reads a lot, you’ll appreciate all the references to children’s books and the passages that play around with different genres sprinkled throughout.

I lliked the plot more than I thought I would, and found the main character, the librarian, more interesting than I anticipated. I also liked the ending so much I copied it down to read again later before returning the book!