Evil librarian targets children
You might think that a library would be the last place on earth where anyone would be afraid. Libraries are quiet and peaceful places where people go to read books. There is nothing frightening about a library.
But if you think that, you have not visited the library where Mrs Murphy is in charge. Mrs Murphy is a librarian with a difference. She is not kind and helpful like most librarians. Mrs Murphy is a tyrant who rules her library with a rod of iron. Nobody is allowed to smile or be happy in Mrs Murphy's library. If you dare to laugh and Mrs Murphy hears you, you are banned from the library for life.
There is one thing that Mrs Murphy hates more than anything else - children. Most librarians actually like children and are pleased when one comes in to ask for a book. But not Mrs Murphy. There is a rumour that she used to be an enemy tracker in the army and that her speciality was hunting down children from enemy countries. It doesn't really matter whether this is true or not, since almost any child can see hate in Mrs Murphy's evil eye and knows instantly to steer well clear of her.
Adults think that Mrs Murphy is a lovely old lady, but children have a different view. She looks innocent enough with her grey hair and round spectacles perched on the end of her nose. She even manages an occasional smile when a serious adult asks for a serious book. But as soon as a child walks through the front door of the library, Mrs Murphy changes into a monster.
Yesterday afternoon, a little boy ran out of the library in tears. Somebody had tied his scarf tightly round his neck until he could hardly breathe. He was terrified.
And what had he done? He had been one day late returning a book back to the library. Mrs Murphy has various ways of dealing with children who do 'terrible things' like this.
There is a rumour that she keeps her favourite weapon under the desk at the front of the library. Nobody has actually seen her use this terrible weapon but all the children in the town know that it is there. On the bottom shelf under her desk, Mrs Murphy keeps a gas-powered gun that fires hard potatoes at children if they misbehave in the library. That's why all the children call her Spud Murphy. She is the enemy of children of all ages and she is spot-on when she fires her gas-powered spud gun.
Eoin Colfer's funny, fast-moving story, The Legend of Spud Murphy, tells what happens when two brothers, Marty and Will, visit Mrs Murphy's library during the summer holidays. Will they be targeted or will they discover something even more surprising in Spud Murphy's library?
The Legend of Spud Murphy
By Eoin Colfer
Published by Puffin
ISBN 0141380160
