THE LIBRARY OF UNRULY TREASURES

THE LIBRARY OF UNRULY TREASURES by Jeanne Birdsall

The Library of Unruly Treasures is the story of Gwen MacKinnon, a girl that finds herself the unwanted baggage constantly shuffled between her divorced mother and father. When plans don't work out for her to be with either of them, she is pawned off onto an Uncle Matthew she's never met for supposedly two weeks. For the first time, Gwen experiences what it is like to be cared for and thought of. She also encounters a small race of fairy-type people (although they would be offended that I described them as such) called Lahdukan that live in the local library. Gwen's family has been involved in their survival for generations and now the job has fallen to her as she fulfills a prophecy that has been handed down through the generations of the Lahdukan people of a helper that comes in a time of trouble. Gwen can't figure out how she is the answer to the problem when she'll only be around for two weeks, and besides, she's never been much help to anyone in the past from what she can see.

I was not expecting this type of story from Birdsall. Obviously, in the Penderwicks series we encountered characters who had hurt in their lives whether it was the Penderwick's family with the loss of their mom or Jeffrey with his overbearing mother. We encounter that here as Gwen deals with her selfish, uncaring parents. However, the fantasy element definitely threw me a bit. The beautiful part of the story is that we have an unwanted child who learns that she is wanted, valuable, and able to fulfill a role that only she can do.

HEADS UP- There is some light magic in the story.