Rex Libris :)

Ahhh I love being a librarian...if only it could be this cool. :)

My review of Rex Libris (Graphic Novel)

I have a Goodreads site and I wrote this when I was still the librarian of Rockwell Charter High School.  I bought the book because I knew it would appeal to the boys at the school and really wanted to encourage them to come to the library.  It worked!  Not to mention that one of my TA's told all the other TA's that it was required reading and convinced all of the kids that wanted to be TA's in the future that they had to read it too.  It flew off the shelves.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I only wish I could buy a copy of the library bound edition for my personal library.

As a librarian I endorse this book wholeheartedly, it is intelligent, funny, interesting and oh-how-i-wish-i-could-get -overdue-books-back-like-Rex-fantastic. Rex and his band of librarians protect the world from evil and will do anything to retrieve an overdue book and fine. What a great story! This hardcover version covers Comics 1-5 and the rest of the remaining 7 comics are included in the book Sea of Monsters if you want to see if Rex ever gets the Principia Mathematic from the now destroyed Vaglox. There are lots of add-ons in the book like messages from Barry Horst the "publisher" of the comic, he "pops" into the story-line occassionally, extra Rex comics from various artists, and an ad for toy librarians. I want those, especially the one of Hypatia "Kicking Evil Ass"!! This comic is so intelligently written I have to wonder if James Turner is a fan of Jasper Fforde. Of course I couldn't resist James Turner's description of librarians for his small expose at the back of the book on the Ordo Biblitheca. That is me to a T. (I wish) Rex, Simon-the-megalomaniac-cursed-to-be-a-sparrow-for-4,000-years (telekinetic semi-sidekick), Hypatia (fellow femme fatale librarian agent and possible love interest for Rex) and Circe (former evil goddess turned cookie baking librarian...she also cursed simon and sometimes turns irritating patrons into pigs, but she's mended her evil ways....hmmm we'll see about that) are all terrific characters. Not to mention the bad guys with overdue books and fines that must be tracked down. I cannot say enough how intelligently this comic is written, you might need to arm yourself with a dictionary to figure out what Rex and his fellow librarians or ever Barry are saying, but isn't that what we should have with us when we read all good literature. Enjoy! 

I bought this book not knowing anything about it, solely for the fact it was about a librarian "superhero" and for the fantastic cover art, for the High School at which I am the librarian. It is a terrific find. My 2 sons ages 12 and 14 LOVED it and are anxious for me to get the rest of the comics so that they can see what happens. My 12 year old's favorite part is the fact that Rex constantly has a book with him and uses the knowledge he gets from within his books to defeat the bad guys.


Cool things to see :)


http://www.jtillustration.com/rex/dewey_secrets.html