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 grooming 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.
Creators
Kekla Magoon is the renowned author of numerous fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers, including X: A Novel, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People, and The Season of Styx Malone. 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.
Reviews
Magoon (Chester Keene Cracks the Code) champions self-determination while examining race and gender constructs in this high-spirited, South Carolina–set fantasy. . . . Whimsical worldbuilding, swashbuckling action, and buoyant third-person narration complement Magoon’s vibrant character portraits and twisty, nuanced plot.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Multiple award-winner Magoon has crafted an engrossing story that skillfully combines a coming-of-age story with fantasy and historical fiction. Dally is an irresistible protagonist, full of curiosity and longing for the joy she experienced with her grandfather. The lively, well-written narrative contains many surprises, pulling readers into Dally’s life and the incredible choices she must make. A deeply satisfying, page-turning, genre-defying read.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon’s The Secret Library is a spellbinding tale of self-determination and family history. . . . The book handles substantial concepts in an effortless manner. It introduces the emotional overwhelm that accompanies grief and racial identity, and its depictions of racial and gender constructs are nuanced. Dally’s biracial identity (Black and white) is configured through modern context and the ancestral past—a Kindred-esque approach to examining the stolen history of Black Americans. Smatterings of black-and-white art reinforce the whimsical nature of this masterpiece. The Secret Library is a gratifying, adventure-filled novel that’s sure to stand out in middle grade collections.
Foreword Reviews (starred review)
Magoon’s novel is like the very best of children’s fantasy literature, in that for all its whimsy and magic, it also carries something almost ineffably, crucially human: what it is to be alive, what it is to grow up. In that way, Magoon has more than earned her place on the shelf of life-changing, classic children’s fantasy novels.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
The nonlinear plot takes place across varied periods in time, propelling readers into situations involving friendships, family, slavery, pirating, theft, colorism, LGBTQIA+ profiles, gender discussions, and the pure joy of spending time with someone gone eternally. Humor breaks up the heavier topics, and the character duo of Dally and fellow traveler Jack is particularly endearing. . . . Magical and reflective.
School Library Journal
