Pages & Co: The Last Bookwanderer
Anna James, illustrated by Marco Guadalupe
Harper Collins Children’s Books

All good things must come to an end: that oft used sentence is now sadly applied to the wondrous and wonderful Pages & Co. series. Sadly for its countless followers, but not necessarily so for Tilly, Milo, Oskar and Alessia as you will discover herein. They are still endeavouring to stop the Alchemist carrying out his final plan, as well as finding a way to untangle what he’s done thus far and to save Pages & Co and indeed save bookwandering and the imagination for everyone.

To begin with they venture into Arthurian legend to find the first bookwanderer, the wizard Merlin, keeper of The Book of Books. To succeed in this final quest and get everything they require and discover all they need to know, Milo and Alessia then have to separate from Oskar and Tilly as they travel into different aspects of stories and mythologies. By so doing, can they succeed and receive the help they require?

Milo and Alessia travel into Norse mythology to try and make a deal with Loki. Tilly and Oskar travel into Greek mythology and meet the Muses

and the Fates: it’s through information thus acquired that Oskar asks Lachesis, “Bookwandering isn’t as old as imagination?” “Certainly not as you understand it,” comes her reply.

So, Bookwandering is not what they understood it to be ‘. but neither is it what some people desire it to be; Moreover, one character they meet is not what he leads the children to believe either.

The narrative twists and turns so many times that it’s well nigh impossible to recount all that happens but that would surely spoil the book for those who have long awaited its arrival.Let me reassure you though, that there’s a thrilling, satisfying finale, with friendship, imagination and the power of story being key throughout. Who could ask for more; certainly not this reviewer.