Releases / Ages 9–12 · Middle Grade
Dash Okafor
The Library of Alexandria didn't burn. It went underground, and it's been unraveling in secret for two thousand years. When a coin arrives in the mail, twelve-year-old Kofi finds out he's descended from the order that's kept it safe ever since — and that someone inside that order wants to finish the job the fire started.
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Inside, wrapped in a twist of blue tissue paper gone soft with age, was a coin. One side showed a tower rising out of waves, tiered like a wedding cake if wedding cakes were built to survive earthquakes, with a fire blazing at the top and tiny carved ships sailing past its base.
"That's the Pharos," he said out loud, to nobody. Tucked behind the coin in the tissue paper was a slip of paper, and on it, in careful handwriting: Kofi — keep this on you. Always. I'm sorry for everything. I'll explain when I can. — Aunt Fola. Kofi read it four times. He'd assumed, honestly, that she'd died somewhere interesting and nobody had told him yet. The number on the one saved contact labeled AUNT FOLA rang twice and then made the flat, final sound of a disconnected line. We're sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service.
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