This book was a bit of a disappointment. The premise was really promising, but the plot moved at a glacial pace and the characters weren't interesting enough in themselves to sustain my interest. I made it to the end of the book out of sheer determination, rather than enjoyment. Ostensibly a book for book lovers, there were some interesting devices used. I liked the little chapters that mirrored aspects of the plot but in the format of different popular children's books, such as Eric Carle's "the Very Hungry Caterpillar." Even the title of the book alluded to another childhood favourite "The Borrowers." The parallels drawn between the main character's father running away from Soviet Russia and her own flight from the small town she lived in broke up an otherwise very slow plot.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a quick pace and kept me reading, unfortunately the book slowed down in the last few chapters. Overall very good though.

An unexpected pleasure to read, the story was interesting and compelling. The characters are well defined and relevant. A great book.

It had potential, however I did not like the fact that the parents of Ian were left out of the narrative during their travels.

What started out with such tremendous promise and a touch of brillance quickly, quickly faded and resulted in a very frustrating and annoying book.

When the word "borrower" is used in conjunction with a story set at a public library, one would expect it to refer to a patron who checks out books. In this refreshing first novel, that is most certainly not the case. When the adventure begins, it's not clear that "borrower" refers to books at all. Did Lucy Hull, children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri borrow (i.e., kidnap) 10-year old Ian Drake, a regular who connives with Lucy to get books his mom won't allow him to read; or did Ian camp out overnight at the library with the clear intention of hijacking Lucy and trapping her into helping him runaway? Ian is an odd duck of a kid with a voracious reading appetite.His parents want to restrict his reading to books "with the breath of God in them." Mrs. Drake presents Lucy with a list of taboo subjects: witchcraft, magic, weaponry, evolution, Halloween, and authors Roald Dahl and Lois Lowry. The Drakes are a devout Evangelical family and Lucy suspects that they are worried Ian is gay. Actually, she thinks they are right about that, but her progressive, liberal, sympathetic heart is rooting for Ian to survive the restrictions and the special "corrective" religious group he attends, and she knows that literature will help him do this. Lucy is also a rebel at heart. She finds herself driving Ian, not to his house as she first intended, but all the way to Vermont with stops along the way. It turns out she could not just leave him to the miserable fate a gay kid with such strict, far-right parents faces. Makkai's picaresque story is loaded with references, parallels and parodies of the much-loved books that have enriched all our lives. The evolution of this odd friendship between two book lovers will warm your heart and their conversations and predicaments en route will make you laugh. -Madame Librarian

Small town children's librarian tries to deal with 10-year-old boy obsessed with books and running away