Pages and co series book review

 Every bookworm feels as if they have lived their favourite characters world,cried with them, laughed with them & been a part of their lives. This book is based on that concept but it is so much more than that. The start of the book shows,main character Tilly struggling with starting secondary school and wishing her old best friend still wanted to be friends. Tilly turns to books for comfort and soon discovers she can have real-life adventures in them.  

I adored how real this book felt, I felt I was Tilly I and that all these beloved characters were with me whilst I went about my day. 

I also admired the addition of Oskar, 

I'm twenty one and looking back I can't remember any dyslexic characters in books when I was growing up,

giving him dyslexia but allowing him to love books is a really great idea. Anyone can have a passion for reading no matter who they are & that stories are always with us no matter how we choose to access them.

I felt I could relate to Tilly especially when she is commenting on the ups and downs of friendships, I could Oskar more enjoying stories as much as I do but not always being able to read I acses books through audible versions. 

Pages and co has a special place in my heart, I began to regain my ability to read ,write and concentrate when the first book was released.

 It was one of the first audiobooks I properly got into,

 being able to concentrate on an audio version is a massive thing for me. And pages gave me one of the first experiences of books I'd had in a long time. 

The best part of this book was finding new stories I'd never read or listened to before,  listening to them, then understanding the story on a whole new level. 

It's important for old loved classics to be brought back into circulation so a whole new generation of children can love them as much as the last. 

Moving on to book two 

Pages & co: Tilly & the lost fairy tales 

I loved this book just as much as the first the way it links up to the first yet still has its own storyline with new & complicated characters. 

 I love fairytales & this book is a fantastic mix of realism & fairytale. Telling new stories whilst creating new & updated versions but preserving old ones to keeping them alive. This book does that brilliantly. 

Another thing definitely worth a mention is the ceremony that takes place in order to find a new Liberian. 

One of the candidates happens to be in a wheelchair, something so simple but it makes alot of difference. 

I would love to see book wandering from this characters point of view. So much of the real world isn't accessible so presumably that would reflect in books. 

I would love to see other character's reactions upon seeing a disabled person especially within older books where there would be much more prejudice.

Following on from book two pages, Pages three (Tilly and the map of stories) adds new exciting characters and a magical train. 

Tilly and Oskar travel through layers of stories to save book wandering, along the way they realise they can travel into plays as well as books.

Anna James has a brilliant way of mixing reality with fiction and in this book as Tilly and Oskar follow a strange alternative map historical events and timelines fit into Tilly's world as well as ours. 

This years been tough on us all but these books gave me a real escapism and not for the first time. 

If you are looking for a Christmas gift for a young family member I cannot recommend these books enough.

There's a real sense of family connection,friendship, fantasy and a whole lot of inclusion in many forms.

I really struggled writing without giving too much away so I hope this review does these books justice without giving too much away.