It follows on from Tilly’s first adventure in Pages & Co: Tilly and Bookwanderers, where Tilly first discovers her ability to bookwander (when Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland keep turning up in the bookshop to chat to her).

This is a brilliant middle grade novel perfect for book lovers. I love all the fairy tale characters she encounters, from friendly and helpful Jack and the Beanstalk to the refreshingly feminist Rapunzel, annoyed by all the princes trying to 'rescue' her. She is intelligent and strong willed and, whilst she loves and respects her grandparents, she also isn't afraid to question their decisions and think for herself. Tilly is a relatable and likeable character. He starts changing the rules for bookwanderers and Tilly and her family have a feeling all is not as it seems. The strange new Librarian at the Underlibrary is also causing unrest. But even so, Tilly can tell that what she is seeing is beyond just unstable someone is tampering with the fairy tales! As fairy tales have their roots in oral story telling rather than written-down story telling, bookwanderers can end up wandering into different versions of the story and getting stuck. Tilly’s grandparents had warned her fairy tales were unstable.

What is going on, and how will Tilly and Oskar escape when they accidently end up in another book? There are holes appearing and characters vanishing and puddles of book magic leaking out. Tilly and her friend Oskar wander inside a book of fairy tales and something is not right. She lives in her grandparents bookshop and her Grandad used to be the Head Librarian at the Underlibrary, which monitors the comings and goings of bookwanderers. Did you know that there is a whole secret community of bookwanderers out there who can wander inside books and chat to their favourite characters? I couldn't wait to return to Pages & Co and the magically imaginative world of bookwandering.

Book reviews for kids fairy tale