The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

When a series of unfortunate events related to the Cold War force Janie and her family to move to London, the last thing she expects to find is adventure at the pharmacy. Of course, it's London, so they call it the apothecary shop. (One must admit, that does sound a little better.) Her first day of school does not go well, until of course, it does. She meets Benjamin who dreams of being a spy, and he turns out to be the son of the apothecary.

They make plans to spend the day together, and what she assumes will be a date quickly turns into a stake out. There's something fishy going on in the park with the Russian who passes messages out by the chess tables. Benjamin is determined to put a stop to his plan.

Things get dangerous quickly as the two are thrown into a plot much more dangerous than they could have imagined. Soon Benjamin's father has disappeared, they are being threatened, and mysterious people are telling them that Benjamin's father - known as the Apothecary - is actually a powerful alchemist using secrets passed down in an ancient book known as the Pharmacopoeia! Could this really be true?

A group of alchemists have been working to oppose the nuclear threat, but going public with their plan would only put them at greater risk. They had all planned to meet at a test site to see if their preparations could be used to stop such an attack, but with key members of the group missing, the plan may be ruined!

Can Benjamin and Janie manage to bring together the scattered group before it's too late? Do the alchemists have what it takes to prevent nuclear war? Does the Pharmacopoeia really hold such amazing secrets?

Whimsical and flawlessly written, I couldn't put it down. Very inventive and fun to read middle grade fiction. Recommended for 4-6th grade readers. This could fall into several categories: historical fantasy, alternative history, magical realism. I love a good story that captures me and makes me forget the outside world, and this did exactly that. I read it in one sitting, and am looking forward to reading the sequel! The pictures, too, are delightful.

"'Why does my father have a book of phony magic spells?' Benjamin asked.
'They aren't spells,' the gardner said. 'It's the Pharmacopoeia, a book of medicines, or it was originally. Many of the processes in the book began as methods of healing, many generations ago: How to close a wound? How to combat sickness in the human body? Those were the original questions, but in certain minds they took unexpected directions, having to do with the fundamentals of matter. Just as cave drawings led to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, early medicine led to the Pharmacopoeia. The world is made up of atoms, which can be influenced and masked and even rearranged, by someone with the necessary skills,'" (Meloy pg. 72, 2011). 

*Library Link*

If you liked this, check out:

The Apprentices by Maile Meloy (Apothecary, Book 2)
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
The Water Castle by Megan Frazer Blakemore

Meloy, Maile. (2011). The Apothecary. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.