Pages & Co.: Tilly and the Bookwanderers: Book 1

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I'm not sure best friends are a one-size-fits-all sort of situation, Tilly,' Grandad said carefully. 'Sometimes a person who becomes a friend is the least likely person you'd expect. friends should bring out the best in you, not be the same as you. I'm sure you're someone's perfect fit.” This is basically a book about me...sort of...not really. BUT the main character is called Tilly and she loves books!!! You follow Tilly who is living with her grandparents after her mother mysteriously disappeared after she was born. Her father was gone before she was born and there isn't much information on him. One day, Tilly finds a box of her mothers old books and suddenly she starts to see characters from books. Alice and Anne also take Tilly into their worlds. Tilly soon learns that she's a bookwanderer and about the rules for doing so. She also realises that there are some mysteries surrounding her mothers disappearance and she takes them upon herself to find out more... because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered – so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.”

Tilly and the Bookwanderers - Goodreads

It is said that Tilly's mother left when she was a baby; A few mentions of divorces & parents not being married when they had a child (Anne is scandalized by this information); A mention of witchcraft/sorcery (by a book character); A couple mentions of wine. Some people see a bookshop as an archive, or a shrine, or even a time machine. But I think a bookshop is like a map of the world. There are infinite paths you can take through it and none of them are right or wrong. Here in a bookshop we give readers landmarks to help them find their way, but every reader has to learn to set their own compass.” But we're all anomalies in one way or another - it's what makes being alive beautiful. We're more than neat plot devices; we're contradictory and confusing, and it's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with a few contradictions, and I think you might have to embrace them, as it would already seem that there are going to be some unpredictable side effects caused by your dad being fictional.” She tells this to a boy from school, Oskar who doesn't believe at first but when he's also whisked into the book with Tilly comes to believe everything. They both finally confront Tilly's grandparents and the grandparents explain that it is called bookwandering. They also tell her that bookwandering without actually reading the book at the time is a thing unheard of as in Tilly's case and then they explain that Tilly is half-fictional so may be that's the reason Tilly is able to bookwander without physically reading the book. Tilly finds out that her father is none other than the book character from A Little Princess so Sara from A Little Princess is Tilly's half sister. A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa debut from a uniquely talented author.I am not sure whether or not I’ll read the rest of the series. This book’s story felt complete in its own way and I felt satisfied when I got to the end of it. Then again, I’d probably enjoy spending more time with these characters. I love Tilly and Oscar. I think it is a good choice that in a book about books to have the character Oscar have dyslexia and show how he often reads audiobooks and that yes they count. I love Amelia and both of Tilly’s grandparents. I like Oscar’s mother too. I appreciate it when older characters in children’s books are written as interesting and fully developed people. There is a scary villain in this story, more frightening than I would have expected in a story for this age group, but I’d have probably taken that more in stride when I was in elementary school than I do now. I guess a book about a nice safe place where nothing happens would be kind of boring and no one would read it.”

BOOKWANDERERS | Kirkus Reviews THE BOOKWANDERERS | Kirkus Reviews

but the baddies are more interesting sometimes, don't you think? Or the heroes who aren't always very heroic. People who do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons.”She was sure she hadn’t seen their cab swerve in the road to avoid hitting someone, but she was also learning that once you were inside a book anything was possible.” And I have to take down the rating from three stars to two stars because I just started reading the second book in the series and all the disappoint from reading the first book came down really hard on me and I just can't justify the rating of three stars anymore. Sorry to disappoint anyone but I just had to. This book shows a girl who has a love of books (which is enough on the first basis to draw me in). It was great to see all these characters come alive and the author, Anna James, does a brilliant job at portraying how those characters would speak and act if another person was suddenly part of their story. The book shows the power of reading (and a little extra through the magic of book wandering!). It also shows love to your family and friendships.

Tilly and the Bookwanderers Quotes by Anna James - Goodreads Tilly and the Bookwanderers Quotes by Anna James - Goodreads

I love middle-grade fantasies and when a book is set in a bookshop or a library, it's even better. When I read the blurb about this, I knew that I had to read it but I was not very impressed with this. It's an unpopular opinion and here it goes. This is a book for people who love books. And for people who read to escape, to fall into another world. For all of us who feel, when we read, that we’ve magically been transported to another time and place, this book is sort of the embodiment of that feeling. One of the things that honestly caught me off guard about this one, was that there was a genuinely interesting mystery happening around her about her mother's whereabouts and where that plot goes is actually such a great twist. I never saw it coming and I thought it was brilliant. There are a lot of family and friendship themes in this story and the grandparents may not be the most generous with giving details about their missing daughter (they are in a lot of pain themselves over it), but they are loving and supportive and doing their absolute best for Tilly. I really appreciate seeing different family units in middle-grade and I appreciate it even more when they are loving and involved, which these grandparents very much are. Sixteen modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy.Tilly seems to have a special ability awakened when two of her all-time favourite fictional characters visit her at her grandparents' book shop - Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and Anne of Anne of Green Gables. Not only can they visit her, but she can visit them by entering their books and traversing their worlds. But there are rules to being a book wanderer and things can become very dangerous if she finds herself at the end of one of their stories. At the same time, a man seems to be following her into the books, and she wonders if there's any connection between book wandering and her mother's disappearance. I am absolutely enamoured with every single thing about this book. I don't think I've had such a connection with a children's story as an adult before and I have definitely found a new favourite here. A sweet book about reading and loving stories. Bookwandering is a cool meta kind of magic and seems like a promising thing to base a series on. As Tilly, Oskar, Alessia and Milo venture into Arthurian legend to find the first bookwanderer – the wizard Merlin – they discover that everything they thought they knew about bookwandering might be wrong. Well, this was a thrill-a-minute and adventure aplenty, it also has some important messages on friendship. I am sure that this will appeal not only to youngsters but adults, too. I am certainly a lot older than the recommended reading age, but I absolutely loved this! So much so, that I am already eagerly anticipating the follow-up. There is no doubt that this was written by a book lover for other bibliophiles to enjoy - there are many descriptions that only the bookish would delight in. It portrays accurately the intense and magical feelings you get when reading a timeless tale. Nostalgic and imaginative, this is a superb debut!

Books — Anna James

It’s wonderfully imaginative and the first of a series I plan to continue. There are so many interesting things to explore in this world that I’m sure the series will be great! This collection of original stories have been written to celebrate 21 years of Goldsboro Books. Wide in scope, beautiful, charming, thrilling and clever, this is the perfect celebration of authors, their stories and 21 years of Goldsboro Books. Well, is Wonderland really real at all? Is Wonderland more real than where Alice has come from, or where you have come from? You're both visitors to the land, and who's to say which or where or who has the greatest claim on reality?" the cat said.” You’re so much like her, Matilda. I don’t want to make you feel like Harry Potter, but you really do have her eyes,’ Amelia said, and Oskar struggled to suppress a giggle.”because the writer is saying that our dreams and our stories matter. I think it's quite beautiful that you can read the whole book as Alice telling her sister a story. And then Alice's sister is thinking about passing on the story to their future children, because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered - so we've got to make sure they are worth telling.”