Book 1: The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

We resolved to publish something about each and every book we were given at Comic-Con as a thank you to the publishers who so generously gave them to us. Some of these books were ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of books that may change before publication, but most were not. They cover all genres and age groups, and we will not review them in any order whatsoever.

Book One was chosen because our scribe's son stood in line to get it and had the author personalize it for her.

Title and Author: The Forbidden Library, by Django Wexler

Illustrator: Alexander Jansson (He's not credited on the cover or title page!)
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books, published by The Penguin Group
Genre: Fantasy
Target Audience/Age Group: Children
Part of a Series? It looks like it, but you can't tell from the dust cover or end pages.
Will the Reviewer Keep It In His/Her Library? Yes

Alice lives with her father in gentile poverty. Home-schooled and happy, she eavesdrops on her Dad one night. Everything changes after that night. Her father leaves her and dies in a shipwreck. His entire estate is liquidated and she is sent to live with a relative she didn't know she had. He lives in a huge house with strange servants and puts her to work in his library. What a cool place that building full of books is!

I could not put it down and read it through the night it was given to me. It left me wanting to know what happens next. I try not to read the first book of a series until subsequent volumes have been published, but since it wasn't clear this was part of a series, I read it. I still can't tell if Mr. Wexler is going to write more books, but I will follow him at http://djangowexler.com Maybe I'll get the next book at Comic-Con 2015.