Pages and Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James

Summary from Goodreadsd:

A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa debut from a uniquely talented author.

Eleven year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents' bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories.

One day Tilly realises that classic children's characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of `book wandering' - crossing over from the page into real life.

With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland. Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.

Review:

This is another gem I picked up in Paris, on my honeymoon. In case you were wondering what do two librarians do on their honeymoon? Besides go to a lot of museums? We find bookstores. The funny story here though is, I actually purchased this book’s sequel first, not realizing it was a sequel! Huge mistake! It just looked so adorable, and it was signed by the author! And it took place in Paris. It just seemed like the perfect book nerd book to buy in the moment. Of course I noticed my novice mistake later that evening…

I made Nick walk all the way back to Shakespeare and Company. “Make” is a harsh word. He didn’t really need to be persuaded. I explained the situation to the bookseller who then handed me book 1 and told me I was the third person to come back for book 1 that day and it was the last copy! They did a good job of displaying book 2! The power of book displays.

Any way, long story short, I’m so glad I made that extra trip and found this book because it’s wonderful. And so much of it, ironically, has to do with bookshops. I imagined the bookshop of the story to look a lot like Shakespeare and Company.  

Who hasn’t dreamt of talking to and befriending, and maybe even falling in love with fictional characters? This book makes it all seem possible. That alone makes this book a dream. Then add in a great friendship story, a family mystery, an undercover library, literary references galore, jumps into children’s stories, adventures with pirates, Alice in Wonderland themed bookshop parties, literary baked goods, and well, this book was just magic.

This is a book for booklovers. This is certainly a book for every girl who’s ever imagined herself in Avonlea with Anne or Wonderland with Alice. But, it’s also for anyone really who loves a good adventure and who refuses to leave a good mystery unsolved. I definitely see other stories where this author got her inspiration (like Inkheart by Cornelia Funke), but I fell like Anna James has made this fun trope her own, and I cannot wait to get started on the sequel. I give this one a 9/10.