Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen on September 9, 2014
Pages: 352
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When Cynthia Rothschild’s best friend, Annie, falls head over heels for the new high-school librarian, Cyn can totally see why. He’s really young and super cute and thinks Annie would make an excellent library monitor. But after meeting Mr. Gabriel, Cyn realizes something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s the creepy look in the librarian’s eyes, or the weird feeling Cyn gets whenever she’s around him. Before long Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is, in fact ... a demon.
Now, in addition to saving the school musical from technical disaster and trying not to make a fool of herself with her own hopeless crush, Cyn has to save her best friend from the clutches of the evil librarian, who also seems to be slowly sucking the life force out of the entire student body!
From best-selling author Michelle Knudsen, here is the perfect novel for teens who like their horror served up with a bit of romance, plenty of humor, and some pretty hot guys (of both the good and evil variety).
He’s young. He’s hot. He’s also evil. He’s . . . the librarian.
Guest Post from Michelle Knudsen
Evil Librarian was some of the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is definitely that it let me revisit some of my favorite musical theater memories. I’ve loved musical theater for pretty much ever. In elementary school, I used to write plays (both with and without songs) and force my friends to help me perform them in front of the class. I auditioned for every school musical and several community theater productions too, and went to theater sleepaway camp for many magical summers. I got parts in straight plays sometimes, but in musicals I was always in the chorus — and that was fine with me. I knew I wasn’t a strong enough singer to ever be cast in a musical lead, and the beautiful and often complex harmonies of the chorus were part of what I loved most about singing in musicals: all those different voices coming together to create something amazing and richer and bigger than anything one person could sing on his or her own. So for this guest post, I thought it would be fun to make a list of my favorite chorus experiences — that is, the shows I had the most fun being in the chorus of, that I can wholeheartedly recommend to other chorus types like me!
- The Pirates of Penzance (W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan)
Hands down, my absolute favorite, favorite show to be in. The last time the Village Light Opera Group did it in NYC, I was over the moon to get in, and then devastated when I realized I’d have to drop out because my schedule made it impossible to keep up with the rehearsals. I’ve done this one a few times over the years, including performances with Richmond Theater Collection/Center Stage Productions in Staten Island, NY (during high school), and the Cornell Savoyards in Ithaca, NY (during college).
- Cabaret (John Kander and Fred Ebb)
I was in this one at summer camp one year, and in addition to just being an amazing show, it’s a fun one for the chorus members, too. I got to be one of the featured chorus dancers in the Kit Kat Klub, which was extra exciting for me.
- Of Thee I Sing (George and Ira Gershwin)
This was another theater camp experience. I don’t think I’d ever even heard of the show before I was placed in the ensemble. But it was super fun, and included a lot of great chorus numbers, including one where we got to sing about corn muffins. The music was both silly and beautiful, and I can still remember a lot of the chorus parts to this day.
- Iolanthe (W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan)
I first did this show in college, and then again many years later with the Village Light Opera Group in NYC. The women in the chorus all get to be fairies (and pretty kick-ass fairies, at that), and the music (like most G&S) is gorgeous, and the multi-part harmony in the Act I finale is probably one of my favorite ensemble parts to sing of all time.
- Les Misérables (Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer)
This one doesn’t have quite as much for the whole chorus to sing as some of the other shows I’ve been in, but it’s all so lovely, and there are lots of little character moments and even some solo lines (I got three!) for chorus members over the course of the musical. It’s also one of my overall favorite musicals, so getting to be a part of it was just really exciting. This was another one from theater camp, and may have marked the beginning of my recurring crushes on bass-baritones (I had it bad for the guy who played Javert).
Now that I’m in the beginning stages of working on a sequel to Evil Librarian, I’m listening to a lot of musical theater recordings (both old favorites and shows that I don’t know well yet at all) to help me decide which ones might end up being involved in the next story. This is definitely my kind of research. I just downloaded two more albums while writing this post! 🙂
About the author:
Michelle Knudsen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 books for children, including the picture books Library Lion, Argus, and Big Mean Mike, as well as the fantasy novels The Dragon of Trelian and The Princess of Trelian. Her newest book is the YA novel Evil Librarian, which comes out September 9, 2014. Formerly a full-time children’s book editor, Michelle continues to edit manuscripts on a freelance basis and sometimes teaches children’s book writing at Gotham Writers’ Workshop in NYC. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Don’t forget to check out the rest of the blog tour for Evil Librarian!
|
WhoRuBlog |
http://www.whorublog.com/ | 9/9/2014 |
| Elizabeth O. Dulemba | http://dulemba.com | 9/13/2014 |
| Random Chalk Talk | http://randomchalktalk.blogspot.com/ | 9/10/2014 |
| Books 4 Your Kids | http://www.books4yourkids.com/ | 9/11/2014 |
| Green Bean Teen Queen | http://www.greenbeanteenqueen.com/ | 9/12/2014 |
| Katie’s Book Blog | http://katiesbookblog.com/ | 9/15/2014 |
| Word Spelunking | http://www.wordspelunking.blogspot.com/ | 9/16/2-14 |
| Book Chic Club | http://www.bookchicclub.blogspot.com/ | 9/17/2014 |
