Product Description

Jamie Meek has a quiet life, if you ignore the fact that his Dad recently left his Mum taking all the family savings, and he has few friends to speak with, oh, and his sister is the school's biggest pest (female category) while he is the target of the bullying intentions of a gang of equal pests (male category). At least he knows his place in the world, until Dr Sylver the school librarian gets orders to open up a new world to him; a world that moves sometimes faster sometimes slower; a world with unexpected friends and enemies; a world with more at stake than the usual business of surviving at school or improving scores on his PS2. But how on earth did Jamie get roped into that football competition?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254864 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
The author's day job is designing console games - the only guy I know who is paid to play on PS2s! Youth worker, father or two, loves Christian music and writes under a pen name.

Customer Reviews

Fragile people, strong God....
Paul Kercal has created an edgy, compelling story that will delight and challenge young people.

The complexity of the characters, in terms of personality and motive, becomes ever more apparent as the book progresses. We see a wide range of people here; some are heroic, some are tragic, all are fascinating.

As I read "Dr Sylver and the Library of Everything' the first thing that struck me was the fragility of the main protagonists. We have Jamie, Charlotte, Dennis 'Mushy' Mushrell, and later Natasha; each with their own challenges and weaknesses, some obvious and others less so. These young people have to contend with adults, other children, and a range of dark spiritual forces that are ranged against them; and all with an agenda to harm them in some way.

I felt for them as they struggled with insecurity and their exposure to harmful forces, physical and otherwise. I think partly as a consequence of this, I warmed to the welcoming confidence of Dr Sylver, who was calm and unflustered in Kercal's arena; an 'ever present help in times of trouble' for the youngsters.

I also warmed to the author's treatment of a number of potentially difficult issues, including disability and social class. I think the readers of this book will learn at least as much from the relationships between the characters as they do from the spiritual dimension of the story.

The 'Adventology' cult was impressively, and frighteningly realistic, and certainly a reminder to me of how much damage these groups can do.The poverty of those involved meant that I wavered between anger and pity when faced with the hapless Hannah Kerral (who must have been the vehicle for the author's wit, as they share almost the same surname). It made me wonder how many millions of women out there are working hard for their day of glory, hoping to achieve some acknowledgement from God and the men around them.

The connection between the Spiritual and Physical worlds is explored in fleeting moments throughout the book. I was certainly intrigued, especially by the dual role of Dr Sylver, librarian to the school and, it seems, to heaven as well. The juxtaposition of the physical and the spiritual is something that I have always found fascinating, and the treatment here, especially in the school assemblies, was excellent.

It would be true to say that the book closes with plenty of action. Then the tension really winds up and the presence of a powerful threat encourages our concern for all of the major characters, who I think 'come of age' as the story closes.

This book forms part of a steadily growing body of contemporary British Christian fiction that deals with the physical reality of every day life and its juxtaposition with spiritual powers and personalities. I am sure a sequel will be coming soon, and it will be fascinating to see how Paul Kercal develops his characters. This is a good read and I recommend it, especially for 12-16 year olds.

Angels and Demons are very real in this book!
Angels and Demons are very real in this book!
A book for everyone to read I'm 30!..with the drama feel and gritty action. Some scary moments and edge of your seat reading especially the ending! If you like Lord of the rings you will like this. Charlotte is disabled, I'm disabled and felt it was handled very well. It was nice how her friends treated her as normal. Also the school was adapted for her deafness so she can be with hearing people. It was great how real and fantasy was mixed it often got blurred. It made me think of are role in all this. May it open your eyes to another plain of thinking and make you ask questions.

Anyone know any other words for Amazing and Superb?
According to my thesaurus, I could also have 'Brilliant', 'Excellent', 'Outstanding', 'Wondeful', and 'Fine', although 'Fine' isn't really a good enough word to describe Dr Sylver and the Library of Everything. I've read a lot of books (mostly because I have nothing better to do with my time except homework, and any excuse to put off homework has got to be good), including a lot of Christain Youth Fiction books (and unfortunately for most of them, 'Fine' is probably the best they'll ever get called) and Dr Sylver and the Library of Everything is one of the best. Admittedly it sort of pales in comparison to books by Dianna Wynne Jones and Robin Jarvis, but then in my opinion so does Harry Potter.

It is Amazing. It is Brilliant. It is Excellent. It is Outstanding. It is Wonderful. It is well worth the risk of sneaking it into an maths class and reading it behind the text book (especially if you're doing algebra).

The only (ONLY) thing that annoys me about the Sylver Chronicles is WHEN DOES BOOK 2 COME OUT?

I'll just have to make do with reading 'Fine' and 'Ok' books until it does come out. And get a new thesuarus...