The Island of Dr. Libris

The premise (while done before) was good. A boy reads aloud a book from a locked bookcase in the cabin he's staying in, owned by a mysterious-ish Dr. Libris. He discovers that when he reads the characters and scenery from the book come to life on the island (also owned by Dr. Libris). He meets and quickly befriends his neighbor Walter and together they have great adventures on the island.

My problems with the books were simply that everything was too rushed. Both Billy and Walter accept quite easily that the island/books are “magic”. Everything sort of comes very easy to them, but most of all, the Dr. Libris character who you hear from every now and then shows up for the climax moment and let's us all down.

But there were many funny moments (curses and foul language!) that kept me entertained and enjoying myself hence the 3 stars instead of 2.

Mmm, this was fine, and would probably be a lot more refreshing to a younger kid who hadn't read/seen other “fictional characters come to life” stories. I thought his choice of characters to bring to life was a little strange... I mean obviously it's limited by copyright etc, but it was a little hard to swallow 2 tween boys happily bro-ing out with Pollyanna and the Three Musketeers? I guess it might introduce some young readers to those classic characters, but it was a bit weird.

I will say it's interesting since I think a lot of the fairy tale retelling/characters come to life stories I can think of are focused more on like princesses and the like, so this book would appeal more to readers with typically “boyish” interest.

The audiobook reader was great though. This would probably be a good choice for a family road trip.

Also: the part where Billy resolves his parents' rocky marriage with time travel was.............. ethically questionable.

While I did not enjoy this as much as Lemoncello's Library, it's still a good story that promotes reading. I'm going to add this to the canon of great reads for reluctant readers.