Blog Tour: The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

Welcome to THE FORBIDDEN LIBRARY blog tour! In honor of Django Wexler’s new series, perfect for fans of Coraline, Inkheart, and The Books of Elsewhere, we’ve paired Django and fellow Penguin author Seth Fishman (The Well’s End) in a battle of wits! Each day for the next two weeks, Seth and Django will challenge each other to escape from popular story scenes in the most creative way. Follow along as the two try to outmatch each other and check out some cool interior art from THE FORBIDDEN LIBRARY along the way!

Seth to Django: How would Alice convince the Wild Things to follow her?

Alice is very good at talking people into seeing things her way, if they're willing to sit down and listen to her point of view.  She certainly wouldn't be intimidated by the Wild Things -- she's not easily intimidated at all -- so I picture her getting them around a table and patiently explaining the benefits of putting her in charge.  She'd end up implementing a program of civic improvements on the island, maybe clearing out some underbrush to provide better transportation, building an aqueduct, that sort of thing.  (A life of orderly study has left Alice a bit too serious for her own good, sometimes.)

I imagine she'd also be intrigued by the boundary between fantasy and reality.  She's not the sort to just go along with things if she can help it; she'd be curious, and start investigating her room as it gradually transformed into the Wild Things' jungle.  What happens if you open the windows?  What's going on in the rest of the city?  She'd want to know that sort of thing.

The Forbidden Library Synopsis:

Alice always thought fairy tales had happy endings. That--along with everything else--changed the day she met her first fairy

When Alice's father goes down in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with her uncle Geryon--an uncle she's never heard of and knows nothing about. He lives in an enormous manor with a massive library that is off-limits to Alice. But then she meets a talking cat. And even for a rule-follower, when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist. Especially if you're a reader to begin with. Soon Alice finds herself INSIDE the book, and the only way out is to defeat the creature imprisoned within.

It seems her uncle is more than he says he is. But then so is Alice.

About Django Wexler: Django Wexler is the author of The Thousand Names. He lives near Seattle, Washington.

The Well’s End Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Mia Kish's small town of Fenton, Colorado is known for three things: being home to the world's tallest sycamore tree, the national chicken-thigh-eating contest and one of the ritziest boarding schools in the country, Westbrook Academy. But when emergency sirens start blaring and Westbrook is put on lockdown, quarantined and surrounded by soldiers who shoot first and ask questions later, Mia realizes she's only just beginning to discover what makes Fenton special.

And the answer is behind the wall of the Cave, aka Fenton Electronics, of which her father is the Director. Mia's dad has always been secretive about his work, allowing only that he's working for the government. But unless Mia's willing to let the whole town succumb to a strange illness that ages people years in a matter of hours, the end result death, she's got to break quarantine, escape the school grounds and outsmart armed soldiers to uncover the truth. 

About Seth Fishman: Seth Fishman is a native of Midland, Texas (think Friday Night Lights), and a graduate of Princeton University and the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.  He spends his days as a literary agent at The Gernert Company and his nights (and mornings) writing. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.  This is his first novel (that's not in a drawer).