Equal Rites, pgs. 151-180 Summary

When the bell rings, Esk resumes sweeping and thinks about learning to read, since wizardry is about words and names, and things are connected. Esk runs into Granny, coming from tea and in a hurry to train someone to help with a big order, since Esk is heading her own way. Whitlow cannot remember the library ever being cleaned but allows Esk to do it. Esk bribes the Head Librarian, an orangutan, with bananas and enters a place where books have a mind of their own. Reality bends around such a concentration of magic. Esk finds no book with happy rabbits and kittens on the cover on shelves that sizzle with magical discharges, while chains clink and pages rustle. Esk opens a book like Simon's, whose letters are ugly creatures doing evil things to one another. She...