Title: Pages and Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Author: Anna James
Publisher: HarperCollins UK, Children’s
Release Date: 18th September 2018
Number of Pages: 400
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Goodreads Synopsis
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.
*I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review*
I haven’t read a middle grade book in a long time and I had forgotten how much I enjoy middle grade fantasy novels. This novel gave me that magical feeling I use to get when reading books such as The Magic Faraway Tree and made me feel very nostalgic of my childhood, which definitely contributed to my enjoyment of the book.
This novel follows the story of 11 year old Tilly who lives with her Grandparents, after the mysterious disappearance of her mother when she was a baby. Her grandparents own a bookstore and one day when Tilly is helping her grandparents to organise their annual book party she finds Anne from Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Alice in Wonderland in the store. From this encounter she finds out that her grandparents have been keeping a secret from her, that she is a book wanderer. She has the ability to read herself into stories as well as bring the characters of those books into the real world. However, while her new power is magical it is also dangerous and Tilly must be careful especially when she decided to find out the real reason behind her mother’s disappearance.
Tilly reminds me a lot of me when I was 11. Her love of books, wanting to escape into their worlds and feeling like she connects with fictional characters more than real people. I loved her relationship with her grandparents and her friendship with Oskar, the son of one of her mother’s friends, and the way that their love of reading connects them.
The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that it has a lot of info dumps throughout it.
Overall I adored the premise of this book and really connect with Tilly and her love of books. This is a magical book that I think book readers of all ages will love and I gave it 5 out of 5 stars.
Journey into Books 
I’ve been rereading all the books I loved as a kid and this month I’ve read a lot of middle grade! The story line of this books reminds me a lot of Inkheart – her mom is missing at the beginning of the book, she finds out her dad can read characters out of books, and if I remember right in the later series she can end up reading characters back into the book. Pages and Co sounds cute and I enjoyed rereading Inkheart so much!
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I love rereading books. I have yet to read Inkheart but it is on my TBR. Knowing how similar it sounds to this one makes me even more excited to read it 😀💜
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