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

Product Information

Thanks so much to Goodreads friend (artist) Laura for telling me more than once about this book and for all her book suggestions to try to help me get out of my latest reading slump.

Tilly and the Bookwanderers - Goodreads

I guess a book about a nice safe place where nothing happens would be kind of boring and no one would read it.” Milo lives on board the Sesquipedalian, or “Quip” – a magical train that uses the power of imagination to travel through both Story and the real world. The train is owned by Milo’s uncle, Horatio, and Milo has witnessed many of his uncle’s dodgy dealings as a book smuggler trading in rare books. Meanwhile, the Underwoods are expanding their control over bookwandering – and they still have their sights set on Tilly. Leaving the safety of the bookshop, Tilly heads to America to find the legendary Archivists and save bookwandering…

This is the book of any bibliophile's dream. It is written with the true passion of a reader and with a great understanding of various classics. I'm not quite sure the middle grade age range this is aimed at would have a full understanding of the classic influences and nods throughout, but this adult reader appreciated them all immensely. What a charming story! Not only was it incredibly clean, but there was such a winsome style of writing with the “book magic”. Something similar to a fairytale, but with no spells or curses. I definitely plan on continuing the series and getting my own copy of this book. It was really quite charming and unique—I would think those that do a happy sigh when you walk into a bookstore would enjoy this book as well. I don’t want to get into any of the plot details of this story, as I think that would diminish its charm. I will say, however, that you should absolutely gift this to any middle grader in your life who is obsessed with books, or even an adult reader like myself who has never really grown up and is completely infatuated by the written word. Besides being a fun story in its own right, this novel is made even more lovely by being a book about books. Books about books are one of my favorite things in the world, and have a cozy charm rarely found in their less bookish literary counterparts. I would like to thank TS again for giving me such a wonderful and unexpected gift. It’s something I��ll treasure! 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.

Books — Anna James

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.”

Through learning about bookwandering and her Grandparents experiences with it, will Tilly be able to find out what truly happened to her mother all those years ago ? Grandad had always told her to write her name in her books, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that her mum did the same thing when she was little. “It’s about creating a record of who’s read and loved each book,” he would say.” I love thinking about other people reading the books I love, or why someone gave that book as a present - those names and messages are like tiny moments of time travel linking readers from different eras and families and even countries.” This is basically a book about me...sort of...not really. BUT the main character is called Tilly and she loves books!!! 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.”

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

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. 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 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.

BOOKWANDERERS | Kirkus Reviews THE BOOKWANDERERS | Kirkus Reviews

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... Tilly’s favourite books, especially, are Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Anne if Green Gables. One day Tilly’s favourite book characters appear in the shop and discovers that she can not only converse with them, but can also travel into their worlds. This is through the magic of bookwandering that Tilly holds... and she is not the only one in her family to do this. I appreciate that (except for maybe one word?) that the original British English is in the American edition, but I think the title was changed from Tilly and the Bookwanderers to The Bookwanderers and I have no idea why that choice was made.Often characters in books are considerably more consistent than the people around us. All that messy life stuff does rather get in the way.” 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, 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.”