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Jen Swann Downey

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.jenswanndowney.com

Twitter

jenswanndowney

Genre

Children's, Young Adult, Fantasy

Member Since

December 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jenswanndowney

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Jen Swann Downey's non-fiction pieces have appeared in New York Magazine, the Washington Post, Women's Day, and other publications. She is the author of the middle-grade novels, THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: THE ACCIDENTAL KEYHAND (Sourcebooks 2014) and THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: SWORD IN THE STACKS (Sourcebooks 2016).

So far in life, Jen has learned how to fail at growing broccoli, dismount a horse by sliding down its neck, and eat a piece of coconut pie with maximum possible pleasure, if not tidiness. She will be forever haunted by that post-apocalyptic episode of Twilight Zone in which the dude finally has the time to read all the books he wants, but then accidentally steps on his eyeglasses. Aaaaaauuuuugggghhhh!

Jen is hard at a work on the THIRD bo ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Has the book Sword in the Stacks been mailed out that I won from Goodreads on April 21? Sent a notice on goodreads that I had not received on 5/21. I still have not received it. I would appreciate any help you can give as you are the author and contact person if there is a problem in receiving. I thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Jen Swann Downey Hi Barry - Thank you for entering the giveaway. I apologize for the delay in getting your book out, but yes, the book has now been mailed, and you sho…moreHi Barry - Thank you for entering the giveaway. I apologize for the delay in getting your book out, but yes, the book has now been mailed, and you should receive it shortly. Enjoy!(less)

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This question came from Louise Galveston over at the "From the Mixed-Up Files" blog: "It’s been a couple of years since the Ninja Librarians first began their adventures. What was the genesis of the idea for this series?"

Jen Swann Downey I think the seed for the series was planted when I saw the phrase “Petrarch’s Library” scrawled on a notebook I found in our never-very-organized, and…moreI think the seed for the series was planted when I saw the phrase “Petrarch’s Library” scrawled on a notebook I found in our never-very-organized, and always-very-clutterful house. Everyone in the family denied being the scrawler, but the phrase ignited my imagination, especially after I looked it up and found it associated with a collection of books that the 14th century humanist and poet, Petrarch, had carried around with him when he traveled on the back of a donkey. That made me laugh, because the phrase had suggested some sort of grand magnificent library. But then I thought, well, even a small collection of books IS a sort of imaginary grand magnificent place because each of the books is a doorway into a different world of ideas, and knowledge, and story.

Suddenly I was imagining “Petrarch’s Library” as a solid, if sprawling building, made out of library chambers from different times and places knitted together by magic into one incredible super-library.

Since I was a kid, I always had the feeling that librarians were masquerading at doing something mundane while actually doing something incredible, mysterious and magical. It seemed reasonable that the work of librarians who staffed the imaginary Petrarch’s Library would defend and protect the flow of information in shall we say, some additional warrior-ish direct action ways!

The rest of the interview is here: http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/ta... Though the giveaway on that site is over, I'm about to launch a goodreads giveaway for THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: THE ACCIDENTAL KEYHAND -- the first book in the series -- so keep an eye vaguely peeled for that....(less)

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Jen Swann Downey’s books

Average rating: 3.71 · 796 ratings · 232 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Accidental Keyhand (The Ninja Librarians, #1) 3.66 avg rating — 665 ratings — published 2014 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sword in the Stacks (The Ninja Librarians, #2) 3.93 avg rating — 130 ratings — published 2015 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ninja Librarians: Sword in the Stacks 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ninja Librarians: Sword in the Stacks 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

7 posts
Jen Swann Downey's Blog

When The Big Chill Is Not Achieving The Big Chill

You can read this post with pictures AND "fancy" formatting on my website: http://www.jenswanndowney.com/blog

Or sans here:

I graduated from college thirty years ago, and twice a year, every year since, I’ve been sent a request to submit a precis about how my life is going to the “Class Notes” section of its Alumni Review.

I’ve never responded.

I could say I haven’t responded because I could never fi Read more of this blog post »

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on April 17, 2017 09:12 • Tags: college, disappointments, expectations, friendship, reunions, the-big-chill

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Series by Jen Swann Downey

The Ninja Librarians (2 books)
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Jen Swann Downey (Goodreads Author)

3.71 avg rating — 795 ratings

Jen is Currently Reading

Jen Downey is currently reading

On Liberty

by John Stuart Mill

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Dec 20, 2016 01:15PM

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Wild Seed (Patternist, #1)

by Octavia E. Butler

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Jan 06, 2017 09:51AM

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Between the World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Jul 18, 2016 04:47AM

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Jen Downey is now friends with Bree Luck
May 31, 2025 05:46PM · like

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Quotes by Jen Swann Downey (?)

“A properly trained lybrarian is one of the most fearless and fearsome beings in the world!”
― Jennifer Swann Downey, The Accidental Keyhand

5 likes

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Jen’s Quotes

“I would let her...have adventures. I would let her...choose her path. It would be hard...it was hard...but I would do it. Oh, not completely, of course. Some things have to go on. Cleaning one's teeth, arithmetic. But Maia fell in love with the Amazon. It happens. THe place was for her - and the people. Of course there was some danger, but there is danger everywhere. Two years ago, in this school, there was an outbreak of typhus, and three girls died. CHildren are knocked down and killed by horses every week, here in these streets--" She broke off, gathering her thoughts. "When she was traveling and exploring...and finding her songs, Maia wasn't just happy, she was...herself. I think something broke in Maia when her parents died, and out there it healed. Perhaps I'm mad--and the professor too-- but I think children must lead big lives...if it is in them to do so.”
― Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea

16 likes

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

tags: life

109268 likes

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

tags: birth, identity, life, self

2570 likes

“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You

5894 likes

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
― Albert Einstein

tags: science

8413 likes

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