Prophecy of Days - 01 - The Daykeeper's Grimoire

✍ Scribed by Christy Raedeke

• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 288 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 073871576X

✦ Synopsis

From School Library Journal

Gr 7-10–This novel includes enough New Age and conspiracy-theory material for several books but fails to supply fully realized characters whom readers will want to follow. Soon after her arrival at her family's newly inherited Scottish castle, Caity discovers a secret room next to her bedroom. Inside she finds a series of coded messages that she presents to her computer wiz dad and safe-cracker mom as her own inventions. Caity's father writes a program to decipher them, but Caity steals the program and then erases it. The codes name her as the catalyst for a change of the entire world in 2012. The 16-year-old spends the entire book concealing the meaning of the codes and her activities that center on them from her parents. They include an attack by a Bavarian agent of the FRO, a sort of Illuminati group; brief imprisonment at the hands of a person unknown; and a jaunt to Easter Island. She is aided in her quest by two wise Asian gentlemen, a hunky Scottish lad, and a mysterious Mexican man seen by no one else in the story, not to mention an origami-creating monkey. She is also assisted via the Web by her best friend back in San Francisco. Caity shows moments of heroism but also poor judgment and is generally shallow. It will be hard for readers to sustain interest without a more compelling protagonist.–Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WIα(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Caity doesn't mind spending the summer at her parents' newly inherited Scottish castle. For one thing, there's a monkey that can do origami. For another, there's the hunky nephew of the housekeeper. But if that wasn't enough, 16-year-old Caity soon finds herself embroiled in a fantastical mystery. The castle itself, sitting on a lonely spit of land, is full of strange symbols and hidden spaces. In short order, she learns that she is to be one of the teenagers who will bring the world to a new enlightenment. First, of course, she has to quash the evil doings of some very secret societies. Just about every New Age totem one can think of gets a mention here: runes, sacred spaces, ancient prophecies, and especially the countdown to 2012. What leavens book one in the Prophecy of Days series is Caity herself. A delightful heroine, she's funny, frank, and mostly true to the way a real teen would act if she found herself in such an odd circumstance. Readers will want to follow Caity's adventure. Grades 7-10. --Ilene Cooper