A few weeks ago, I encountered a problem.  I had to drive ten hours round trip in less than a day and a half, and I wanted entertainment.  I would have my 13-year-old son with me, because of course, this trip involved a soccer match.  And, I had a rapidly expanding “want to read” shelf on Goodreads.

Solution: audio book!

But what to download?  iTunes had Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore listed under “Award Winning Books for Teens” category.  It was also on my TBR list.

I’m not sure Mr. Penumbra actually falls under “Young Adult”.  iTunes classifies it as a mystery.  But after checking out reviews on Goodreads,  I decided that my word nerd offspring might enjoy a story that involved ancient codes, modern technology, and the secret to immortality.

The Premise

Clay Jannon, a twenty-something art school graduate, has recently lost his job in web design.  By luck, he stumbles into Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and lands a gig as the night clerk.  He’s happy to have pay check, but soon, strange customers visit the store.  Clay gets curious about the special books they take with them.  Despite Mr. Penumbra’s warnings not to peek inside those special books, Clay does and discovers an ancient code.

To help him crack the code and solve the mystery behind it, Clay enlists the help of his friends: Matt, who designs movie props the old-fashioned way, with glue and xacto knives; Neil, who has developed software to create perfectly realistic CG boobs for movies and TV; and Kat, a Google employee who knows how to harness the power of 1,000 computers to create a piece of “high-tech data visualization.”

(Thank you, Mr. Sloan, for creating a female character who makes intelligence and nerdiness look cool.)

Besides the obvious mystery of the plot, Sloan presents his readers with this modern conundrum:

• How can we combine “old knowledge” with the power of technology?  How can we simultaneously embrace the old and the new?

Sloan has worked in digital media, and he realizes that technology, specifically the Internet, offers blessings as well as problems.  As he told NPR’s David Green, the Internet has made it really difficult to hold people’s attention.  Books are one of the few things left in our culture that demand consistent focus.  How can we keep them from disappearing in the digital age?

My recommendation

My son and I enjoyed Mr. Penumbra.  Clay tells his story with witty, wry narrative style.  Ari Fliakos reads the iTunes audio book, and he does an excellent job bringing the story and characters to life.  

Mr. Penumbra gave the eldest child and I lots to discuss: the pros and cons of technology, the importance of human connection, and the ability to notice important details.

I also had to include a short lecture on the hazards of casual sex so readily accepted in our society.  (Cough, cough)  But in general, the book is very PG, with only two brief and vague references to sex and a little bit of “language.”

In general, I’d recommend this book to adults and bright teens- anyone who loves gadgetry and mystery.  It should spark great conversations about technology, history, and the benefits of working at Google.  (Do they really serve food specifically designed for the needs of each employee?)  

Have you read Mr. Penumbra?  Can you recommend any other books addressing the role of technology in our society?  How can we embrace modern technology without losing knowledge from the past?

Thanks for stopping by!

Julia