Bookweird (26 page)

“You know this is a day pass? It's not good for overnight stays. Right?”

Norman had no answer to that. Mrs. Balani would hardly be the last person to tease him about his night in the library.

He read
The Scythian Scimitar
carefully at first, worried that this was just the sort of book to draw him in—all ancient intrigues, customs and magic. But he couldn't hold off very long. On his second night with it, he found himself reading by his desk lamp, which was bent and pointed in a tight cone of light toward his pillow. It had just been revealed that the sword, long protected in a crystal case in the Scythian vaults, was a fake, just when they needed its powers the most. The city was sure to fall to the evil monk Savanorola now. Norman knew it all along. The monk had tricked a young groom in the Scythian stables into hiding the true scimitar. If only he were there, Norman could explain it all to the groom and save the city. He was just about to rip off the corner of the page when he stopped himself. That was close, he thought to himself. He put the book down for the night.

He finished
The Scythian Scimitar
the next day, in the daylight. The next few books were a little easier. He was slowly curing himself of his habit of eating paper. After a while, not eating parts of books became as natural and unconscious as eating them had once been. For a very long time after that, the strangest thing that happened to Norman was a dream in which he was failing a cycling safety test given by a bunch of pencil drawings. That seemed to be the end of bookweird for him.

By the time summer holidays rolled around, Norman was pretty sure he had dreamed it all—the Vikings, the gypsies, even his friend Malcolm. He might not have forgotten so easily if he hadn't lost the map that Duncan had given him. When it went missing, he just assumed that it was one more thing that he had imagined. It wasn't as if he could, as he usually did when he lost something, ask
his mother if she'd seen his authentic stoat heirloom map of Undergrowth. Had he asked, though, he might have received an unexpected answer. It would have been interesting to hear her explain why, when she found the map on Norman's floor that day, she peered at it curiously for some time before folding it up and putting it in her pocket.

 

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful for Lara Hinchberger's sympathetic editing, which made
Bookweird
a much better book. I must thank Denise Bukowski for introducing the book to the world and Amy Black for making sure it emerged in the best possible shape.
Bookweird
would not exist without the early encouragement of the Stickman and his sister, the book's earliest readers, editors, and critics. One of them also knows a secret or two about
Fortune's Foal
.

 

About the Author

Paul Glennon is the author of an adult book, which was a finalist for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and was selected as one of
The Globe and Mail
's 100 Best Books of the Year.
Bookweird
is his first book for young readers. He lives in Ottawa.

 

Copyright © 2008 Paul Glennon

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

Doubleday Canada and colophon are trademarks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Glennon, Paul, 1968–

Bookweird / Paul Glennon.

eISBN: 978-0-307-37175-1

I. Title.

PS8563.L46B66 2008     jC813'.6     C2008-901083-3

Published in Canada by
Doubleday Canada, a division of
Random House of Canada Limited

Visit Random House of Canada Limited's website:

www.randomhouse.ca

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