Pages & Co.: Tilly and the Bookwanderers cover art

Pages & Co.: Tilly and the Bookwanderers

Pages & Co., Book 1

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Pages & Co.: Tilly and the Bookwanderers

By: Anna James
Narrated by: Aysha Kala
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About this listen

 A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa snuggle of a 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 walking’ – 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.

©2018 Anna James (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Action & Adventure Education & Learning Fiction Growing Up Growing Up & Facts of Life Literature & Fiction Mysteries Mystery & Suspense Science Fiction & Fantasy Fantasy Magic Adventure

Critic Reviews

'Delightful! A joy of a book’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Girl of Ink & Stars

‘A thrilling, inventive book-lover’s delight, where fiction really does come to life. It’s a treat for readers of every age’ Matt Haig, author of A Boy Called Christmas

‘Pages and Co. is a celebration of all the best things in life: books, friendship, adventures and cake. And pirates. And hot chocolate. It’s utterly beautiful and perfectly brilliant’ Greg James and Chris Smith, authors of Kid Normal

‘An enchanting tale for book-lovers of all ages, Tilly and the Bookwanderers is a magical debut that is NOT to be missed’ Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper’s Island

‘Pages & Co. is a true delight for book-lovers – you’ll adore exploring the magical world of the bookwanderers with Tilly’ Katherine Woodfine, author of The Clockwork Sparrow
All stars
Most relevant  
I purchased this for my 6 year old & also enjoyed the story, it is well written & well read. I Purchased the second one also

Good Kids story

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Review from a 7 year old boy...

“This book will make you want to keep on reading and never stop. “

Engaging beautifully read adventure

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What a great find. Both my daughter and I loved this story. A must listen!!!

A gem!

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I love this story and all the characters within. I’m a 39 year old man and the whimsy and imagination behind bookwandering and the dangers therein are amazing. So ezcited that there are 5 more after this (at this time)!

Extremely imaginative!

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I like this book it was very fun to listen to and really nice story line! The writing style isn’t relly my taste and the reader also, but apart from that good. Praise to the author, I want to wright books when I grow up so listening to these relly inspire me. Also that sweet but Simple comment was so long! Didn’t read it all
:( sorry

GJ

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Facebook is amazing and fun and so good and nice and great for kids and adults

This is so good and fun

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I loved the story it ticked all the boxes with suspense mystery and magic it was great I loved it ps I’m 10 years old :)

AMAZING

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My two loved this book - being familar with Alice in Wonderland and Anne of Green Gables definitely helps so make sure your children read/listen to them beforehand. I have boy/girl twins and we all loved listening to this book (including me!) - it is really gripping and a pleasure to listen to, with lots of twist and turns to keep you on your toes.

Very clever

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This was a nice story. An interesting concept but a little undercooked for me. I felt the key parts of the story unravelled rapidly and the rest was just a lot of padding. Of course it was written for children so maybe I was expecting too much. However I wondered how 9&10 year olds would relate to the underlying story of the Mum falling in love with a fictional character. The references to Pride & Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes and, to an extent, Treasure Island, would most likely also be lost on them.

On top of that, the Tilly/Mum reunion felt very tokenistic, rather glossed over, and altogether, rather lacked emotion from any of the characters, Tilly, Mum, best friend, or Grandparents. A bit of surprise felt like the main emotion expressed in regard to the mother's return.

I think it would have been nice to have developed the plot a little more and either woven in more classics or developed the intrigue and depth in the adventures within a single book. The split focus between Alice and Wonderland, The Little Princess and, more briefly, Anne of Green Gables, didn't really resolve itself all that well, I thought.

In the audio version, the reader had a lovely voice and was nice to listen to for the most part but her accent voicing was a little on the weak side. She appeared to struggle with the way the a number of characters used the word "why" to start sentences and this often resulted in the word being disjointed from the rest of the character's sentence and thus receiving undue focus. She also fell back on the stereotypical about/aboot Canadian accent which felt wrong for the character. She is usually played with a more British accent and if anything, Prince Edward Islanders have an Irish twang I believe. To my knowledge, "aboot" is more characteristic of central and southern Canadian provinces and it just felt out of place in this context. Furthermore, the reader struggled to provide more masculine voices which resulted in it sometimes being difficult to tell the grandparents, in particular, apart when they were both in the same scene. I found these issues all quite distracting.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read but I'm interested in getting a review from some of my 8-10 year old students, so watch this space.

Sweet but Simple

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The premise is that characters from books cross into the real world, and Tilly can cross into their book worlds. An interesting idea, but a bit lost on the kids who aren't familiar with Treasure Island, Anne of Green Gables or a Little Princess. I found the fictional characters a bit annoying and lacking complexity. Perhaps Mr 8 and Miss 6 were a bit young for this, but they do love the Nevermoor and Wizards of Once series, and love an audiobook.
We all found the narration quite annoying, especially the lengthy pause after each time a character speaks. One of the characters conceiving a child with a book character is bit awkward!

Intersting premise, not entirely convincing.

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