Review “Pages & Co. – Tilly and the Bookwanderers”

Title: Tilly and the Bookwanderers |Author: Anna James |Series: Pages & Co. #1 |Publisher: HarperCollins |Genre: Middlegrade |400 pages

This book has been the pick for my bookclub in May and unfortunately I never finished it until recently. I don’t even know anymore why I didn’t go on with this book for several months since I actually quite enjoyed it once I picked it up again.

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. 

When I first started the book, I was worried. Worried that the moral of the story would be, in a rather preachy way, that real life is better than books. It’s probably why I took my sweet time finishing it, or at least, why I put it away and didn’t pick it up for a while. In the end my worries were unneccessary.

The main character, Tilly, is a 11-year old bookworm that lives with her grandparents. She loves books to bits and has a strong character. She also has problems, with her missing mother and troubles with friends that she has to go through but it never felt annoying or got old.
Tilly also makes friends with the boy from across the street called Oskar who is dyslexic and gives the reader a different look at the whole thing.

Tilly’s favourite books are Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, with A little Princess also playing a major role in the book. The selection surprised me, since I’m rather sure that those are books children that age might not read (anymore). I know the stories but I’m quite a lot older than the target group. I would be delighted if more young readers would, through this book, be enticed to read these stories.

The story around Tilly evolves gradually, more and more mysteries and small adventures pile up. There is a lot to discover and I was glad to go along on this journey.

I quite loved the book with all its whimsy and adventure. It’s a loveletter to books and the author has really succeeded in building a cozy and lovely and crazy- wonderful world. I would definitely love to visit the Pages & Co. bookshop.

I don’t really know what else to say about this book. Once I really got into it, I couldn’t put it away anymore. It was cute and sweet and full of booklove with some wonderful characters, a great plotline and even some sweet illustrations. It makes you appreciate the world of books so much more and I’m thankful that I have discovered reading and books all those years ago. (I would also lie, if I would say I hadn’t thought about what books I would have wanted to wander into and what characters I would hope that would visit me.)