Libraries are magical – a guest post by Louie Stowell

We are incredibly pleased to share the news that we’ll be publishing two new fiction series by the amazing Louie Stowell – and today Louie has written a guest post for us about some of the inspiration behind her first series, The Dragon in the Library.

Libraries come in many shapes and sizes. Some look like this.

Photo by David Iliff.

Or this.

Photo by Ralf Roletschek.

While others look more like this.

One very important library in my life looked like this.

But all libraries are magical.

My book, The Dragon in the Library, is inspired by many libraries – and by many books. It’s about a library run by wizard librarians.

A librarian who’s also a wizard? I can’t imagine where I got that idea from…

It’s also about a girl who discovers she has magical powers one day, when she picks up a highly unusual book.

It’s also inspired, a little, by my dog, Buffy, who’s always struck me as part dog, part something else that’s a little more than dog. So here’s an entirely gratuitous picture of Buffy (the dog) dressed up as a dragon. (Note the tiny library beside her.)

And here’s another one.

And here’s Buffy thinking: “Enough with the photos. Where’s the bacon?”

I’m incredibly excited to be working on this book – and other books – with Tom and Nosy Crow. I can’t wait to share them with you.

Thank you, Louie! You can read The Bookseller’s coverage of Louie’s books here. The Dragon in the Library series will launch next year – if you’d like to be the first to hear more about the books, and be in with a chance of winning early reader copies, sign up to our books newsletter at this page.