The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase

Let me start by saying again, as I did for the previous book in the series, that I love The Librarians. I think the show is better than it has any right to be, and a large part of that is due to the great casting. The movies were good as well, but I think the show really took the overall story world to a new level. I'm glad to be able to read these books, though it's frustrating to me that they're so vague about where they fit in the series. This one seems to take place after season 3, but while there are plenty of references to Prospero (and a spoiler for the end of season 2) and definitely to Dulaque (from season 1), there aren't any references to Apep from season 3. Plus, a major development for Cassandra that took place at the end show more of season 3 definitely doesn't come into play in this book, so it seems it can't have happened. Maybe it's just supposed to be vague, but I would have preferred to be able to read it at the right time while watching the show. And while the book does attempt to give some basic understanding of the overall setting and backstory of the Library and the Librarians, I think this book is best read by someone who has seen at least the TV show. Knowledge of the movies may not be necessary.

Now to the story itself. Overall it was decent. I didn't mind the Librarians being separated as much as others did, partly because they still each had a counterpart of sorts to work with. I thought some of the story was weak, for example the nursery rhyme connection to the man in Florida was a major stretch, and for a while, I kept expecting someone to say they were wrong about which nursery rhyme they'd associated it with. The stakes were as high as they get, and there was a bit of a twist that I only figured out a moment before Baird did. In the end, there things I liked more about it than the previous book, and things I like less about it. This book had all the campy fun of the show, and I like that the characters' personalities come through on the page like they do on the small screen. I still don't care for the narrator's breathy tendencies, and if I do re-read this series in the future, I'll probably skip the audiobooks. Still, I'm enjoying this extension of the show.

Fact check: Jenkins explains that "Mother Goose" is more of a title, passed down through generations, the bearer of which is meant to guard the spells that end up being written down and distributed as nursery rhymes. Elizabeth Goose was her generation's Mother Goose, and a real-life person, however her maiden name was Elizabeth Foster, and she married the Goose name, so it's weird she was coincidentally that generation's Mother Goose (and that this isn't brought up in the book). Also, Jenkins says that "tourists in Boston flock to what’s claimed to be the grave of the ‘real’ Mother Goose, blithely unaware that she was actually only one in a long line of Mother Gooses, carrying on an ancient tradition." But the grave in Boston that has become a tourist attraction is actually the grave of MARY Goose, unrelated to the woman whose rhymes prompted the publishing. Mary Goose was actually the first, late wife of Elizabeth's husband. show less

The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase by Greg Cox is the second book in The Librarians trilogy. Eve Baird along with Cassandra Cillian, Jake Stone, and Ezekiel Jones have just returned to the Library annex in Portland, Oregon after another successful mission. They are all off to relax when the Clippings Book (and the Librarians miniature versions) start acting up. A professor in Northumberland wakes up inside a pumpkin, a tree trimmer in Miami gets carried away by a freaky wind, a librarian in Ohio found three mice without eyes in her kitchen (and she attacked them with a butcher knife), and Mother Goose’s Magic Garden, an amusement park, is about to be demolished. Jenkins believes that the 1918 Mother Goose Treaty has been show more broken. In the 1700s Elizabeth Goose created a spellbook that ended up getting published. The Librarian at that time rounded up all the copies except one which remained with the family. It ended up getting divided into three sections for the three different factions of the Goose family in 1918. It seems that a descendant has decided to stage a coup and claim all three copies to enact a horrible spell. Stone, Cassandra, and Ezekiel each take a different clipping and set off. Eve and Jenkins have their hands full in the Library. Mother Goose’s magic has set off the goose that lays the golden egg. They need to catch it and return it to its cage before more magical items start acting up. Just another typical day for the Librarians and their Guardian! Join Eve, Ezekiel, Stone, Jenkins and Cassandra on another magical adventure in The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase.

The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase is bewitching. Greg Cox captured the quirky character’s personalities perfectly (for those of you who watch the show) as well as the Library. I could just envision the Library from the written descriptions. I found the book to be well-written, engaging, and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the humor in this story. I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase (especially when Jenkins was trying to capture the goose and Eve with Dead Man’s Chest). The book has a fast pace that never slacks. The description of Mother Goose was spot on from the children’s books. I give The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase 5 out of 5 stars. I do wish, though, that the mystery had not been so easy to solve. One clue was all I needed to identify the responsible party. The book is written with four points-of-view (Cassandra, Stone, Ezekiel, and Eve) which works for this book. It is not confusing or complicated. If you have not watched the show or the movies, you can read the book. The author provides the backstory needed. I think it does help, though, to have watched the show. As I read the book, I could picture it in my head. I have not had the opportunity to read The Librarians and The Lost Lamp (first book in trilogy), but I have moved it to the top of my TBR pile. show less

A hundred years ago a treaty was signed to prevent three factions of an ancient magical dynasty going to war over the spell book that was their legacy

This spell book contained the power to literally end and remake the world – only after long deliberations was the book split in three for safety

But now, someone claiming the legacy of that ancient sorceress is back and determined to reunite this tome

Mother Goose has risen again

I’m always a little wary of TV series to book conversions because they very rarely work. The problem is that so much of a TV series is left to interpretation: we’re not in the character’s heads, we don’t know how they think and seeing someone else’s take on these characters can be really jarring (just show more look at the Grimm book adaptations).

Even without that, just the tone set by books can be very different from TV – like the very act of describing characters: this book opened with Eve and Jake. Eve was described as a “statuesque blonde” and Jake “ruggedly handsome”. Don’t get me wrong, no-one looking at Eve on the show can argue that she is, indeed, a statuesque blonde and no-one will disagree that Jake is ruggedly handsome. But to open with these descriptions ironically makes the appearance of these characters more important than it would be on television

I think this happens a lot with tv-to-book adaptations. Because TV is such a visual medium, descriptions and appearance are automatic but, conversely, are not always relevant (beyond the constant drive to use pretty actors). Eve’s statuesque blondeness is rarely relevant in the TV series, it just is. But book adaptations feel the need to include the same level of description as they have in television – but Chekhov’s’ gun applies. If you mention appearance in a book we assume this is somewhat relevant: by trying to imitate the visual aspect of television, this book managed to create the impression in the first few chapters we were looking at an Eve/Jake romance: because when your book opens with two characters fighting for their lives against a mystical boar, the only reason “statuesque blonde” and “ruggedly handsome” would appear in the text is to establish a romance subplot

(Ironically the one place where I think it described a character too little is Ezekiel – it stands out that while we need to comment on Jake Stone’s rugged handsomeness, there’s no mention that Ezekiel is Asian. It has a vague feel of “colour blind” description, like mentioning his race would be racist)

I mention this, though, because it’s the only element of the TV-to-book adaptation that it got wrong. Oh there were a few slides that I didn’t quite follow happily – like Jake’s romance subplot (though, to be fair, a romance based as much on academic achievement, curiosity and interest as much as physical appearance does work) and I think both Jenkins and Eve were a little more Mother-Henish than I’d pictured them. All were within the realm of what I pictures though – except Ezekiel. The show depicts an Ezekiel who is pretty flippant and light but that’s his face he shows to the world and we’ve repeatedly been shown he goes much deeper

And I’m nitpicking. I’m nitpicking because this is one of the very few tv-to-book adaptations where I’ve generally really liked how every character has been depicted. I’ve generally agreed with their thought processes and haven’t been jarred at all from my experience of the TV show. This feels like a continuation of the show, not some weird unrelated offshoot of it.

I also really like how it handles the sow’s backstory and world building. A lot of these books tend to recap the shows HEAVILY. And I get that you want to be stand alone, but let’s be realistic – only a tiny percentage of the people picking up this book won’t have seen the show. Instead we have this book nicely explain the world by drawing on other events, other artefacts, other creatures. It gives us lots of snippets into the world of the Librarians, their daily adventures to explain what they do, each characters personalities and abilities without writing out previous episodes and without it being a drag to people who have watched the show; while still giving enough information for anyone who is genuinely new to the story

And the story itself? Is funny and fun and really covers everything the Librarians are. We see their different talents and personalities and their fun dentures. We have the whole concept of Mother Goose being real, of nursery rhymes being dangerous spells. The whole idea of children’s stories being part of a multigenerational war over world changing spells? It’s Librarians, classic, glorious, cheesey Librarians. This book is excellently part of the Librarians’ franchise and it works. The characters, the world, the story –it works

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The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase by Greg Cox is the second book in the Librarians series of books based on the TV Show and it is every bit as fun as the first one.

A book of nursery rhymes published by Elizabeth Goose in the early 18th century was actually a powerful spellbook. The Librarian of that time managed to secure all copies but one, which was left in the care of the Goose family and later divided into parts among different branches of the family. Now, odd occurrences are happening around the world; a tree-trimmer blown high into the air lands miraculously without a scratch, a Pennsylvania woman is attacked by large eyeless rodents, and a college professor in England wakes up inside a giant pumpkin. These incidents catch show more the attention of the Librarians, who soon discover that solving the mystery of the missing Mother Goose book is not child’s play, but a matter of life and death.

Greg Cox once again captures the fun, light-hearted spirit of the show. With the erratic Flynn once again unavailable, it is up to the rest of the Librarians to track down the missing book. Ezekiel, Stone and Cassandra scatter to each of the locations of the latest incidents to solve the mystery and track down the missing book of nursery rhymes. Meanwhile, Colonel Baird is left back at the Library to help Jenkins stop the pandemonium that has broken out there.

Splitting off the main characters allows them to have their own mini-adventures and highlight their individual strengths before coming back together as a team to avert catastrophe. Cox injects fun all along the way while also dropping clues to solve the mystery at the heart of the story. This is a great light-hearted adventure that will keep you smiling from beginning to end.

The narration is handled once again by Therese Plummer who does an outstanding job. She juggles a number of voices and accents yet keeps them distinct and memorable. She complements the tone of the story and is true to the flavor of the characters from the tv series. That these books are based on characters from the show makes them particularly suitable for audiobook and are a pleasure to listen to. The writing of Cox and reading by Plummer make this a great series to follow. Great for fans of the show and audiobooks in general. Highly recommended.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of the audio from the publisher. show less

This is the 2nd in a series based on the TNT television show, The Librarians, which also spawned a few movies. It’s an action-packed story written with a fast pace that will have you quickly turning the pages. If you’ve never seen the show you won’t have to worry about being lost but it might add a new television show to your watching list as it expertly captured the fun and humor of TNT’s offering.

I had not read the first book in this series but love the movies and television show, particularly since I’m a huge Christian Kane fan, so I was a little apprehensive about how this would turn out. Thankfully Greg Cox captured most of what made the visual version so good with its snappy dialogue and quirky characters. Since this is show more a book and not bound by the same constraints visual media is Cox was able to add more depth, facts, detailed scene work and whimsical elements which add another layer of excitement to a set of stories that already set the bar pretty high.

The book was entertaining and is a good fix for when the show is between seasons but can’t replace the magic the actors create on screen. Although Cox did a good job having the literary characters act like their visual counterparts as well as mimic their dialogue patterns, he still can’t encapsulate their mannerisms, tone of voice and other parts the actors bring to the stories.

I’d still recommend checking it out. As a fan of Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories which takes childhood nursery rhymes and turns them upside down, I found the similar idea in Cox’s book of using something we’re all familiar with to make it a little bit more fun. show less

Pretty much just like the show

If you like The Librarians show, give it a try. Fun, quirky, and a good story. Could use some work on characters - novelized series always skimp on that - but overall, a very enjoyable read.