Blue Chair Bookshelf

I will have to admit right up front that I only made it to book three, Tilly and the Map of Stories, which greatly disappointed me. Ultimately I had to make the decision to abandon the series by Anna James.

Tilly and The Bookwanderers marks the first of six books making up the Pages & Co. series. It showed great promise and I loved the first installment. Tilly, whose mother has been missing since shortly after she was born, is an 11 year old girl living with her grandparents above their London bookshop. (Can we just stop right there and all dream for a minute about how AMAZING that would be?) One day Tilly encounters fictional characters that have come to life among the stacks of the bookshop. We have the great pleasure of meeting Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Wonderland as they enter their stories and “bookwander” with Tilly.

As Tilly embarks on these new adventures, she is often accompanied by her schoolmate and friend, Oskar. Oskar’s parents are divorced, and he spends most of his time with his mother in London, though he visits his dad occasionally in France.

In this first book, we are introduced to the world of the Underlibrary, as well as a sneaky villain. (Spoiler: Her mother is found and reenters Tilly’s life.) It was a good introduction to the series, and set us up for many more adventures. I think what I loved about this one was the sense of adventure and the further love it instilled in me for reading good stories.

The second book in the series is titled The Lost Fairy Tales. In this story, Tilly and Oskar make a visit to France and stay with Oskar’s dad in Paris. Again, our characters go bookwandering. Yet this time, they have noticed something is going wrong with the stories! They are disappearing into plot holes! Could something larger and more sinister be going on? I enjoyed this book just as much as the first!

I was excited to continue this fun adventure when I began Tilly and the Map of Stories, but things quickly reached a hard stop for me within the first couple of chapters. Tilly is wanted by the villains of the story, and in order to protect her, her grandparents and mom quickly try to formulate a plan. Tilly’s mom, Bea, invites Tilly’s friend Oscar over in a clever plan of her own to send Tilly to the US to visit the Library of Congress.

First, it made me uncomfortable to see a middle school girl and boy having a sleepover. There was nothing wrong happening on the page, but already I was feeling uncomfortable. I did not like the subtle message that sleepovers between girls and boys were at all appropriate.

Then we learned that Tilly’s mom was sending them BY THEMSELVES to the United States. I know this is a children’s book, and we must suspend disbelief, but that was just a little much for me. Let alone forgetting about the impossible logistics of that kind of trip happening overnight.

But the hard stop came when we learn that Tilly and Oscar will be helped by a man working at the Library of Congress and his HUSBAND. Sigh…

If I were reading this series for myself, I may have looked past a queer side character, but I cannot hand a book with these subtle messages to my children, especially knowing that these characters would play a prominent role. I was so disappointed to have to set these aside. But there’s too many other good books out there, so on to the next!