The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show by Katrina Nannestad

Title: The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show

Author: Katrina Nannestad

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 8^th March 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 256

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: The right book might just change your life …

Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they’re needed most … the place where the perfect book will find its way home.

Now Mim has arrived in the Cotswolds, just in time for a dog show. The judge, Lord Melville-Timms, is in a pickle. He has judged cakes and flowers and vegetables, but never dogs. And his bulldog, Bubbles, is shamefully disobedient!

Mim knows they’re here to help Lord Melville-Timms. To give him courage. To prevent a dog-show disaster.

If only Mim could find Lord Melville-Timms the right book. If only Dad would stop giving him the wrong book.

The jovial new adventure from award-winning author Katrina Nannestad and beloved illustrator Cheryl Orsini.

~*~

Mim Cohen lives a wonderful life – she gets to travel the world with her father, Zedekiah, and brother, Nat, in a magical bookshop pulled by their horse Flossy. They go wherever Flossy leads them, to the place that they need to be – which, this time around, is the Cotswolds in England. They are just in time for the Puddling Muddlebury Kennel Club Dog Show! But the judge, Lord Melville-Timms is having trouble with his dog, Bubbles who is meant to help give an obedience demonstration – but Bubbles is very disobedient! And Mim knows that’s who they have come to help – yet can she give him the right books? Sometimes, Mim wonders if her father has really given everyone the books that they really need – she always does, because some of the books don’t seem like they will be useful at first.

But as Mim learns, it will always be the right book, and there is always a right book for someone. And as Nat collects another letter – C- which has him breaking handles off of every teacup he can find, Mim keeps collecting words, unaware that there is something in her collection that will be helpful too. In book four, we head off on another word and letter filled journey – but this time with lots of dogs, jokes, games, and other hobbies mixed in. New friends are made, just as they are in the previous three books, and the caravan morphs into a suitable interior to match the Cotswolds, and all the books are in English – the language of where the Cohen family has travelled to.  This aspect of the travelling bookshop makes it magical, a part of something that is not of our world and ensures that there is an ongoing sense of mystery and wonder about the bookshop, Mim, and her family.

As well as a love for books, words, and family, I love that this book celebrates travel and cultures, allowing readers an insight into different countries and people. These books allow us to travel when we are unable to get anywhere, and even now when people still may not be travelling. I have been following this series since the beginning and have been to the Netherlands, Paris, Greece, and now the Cotswolds, and I am wondering where Mim and her family will go next. There are so many possibilities, and I am wondering if they will eventually meet up with Mim’s mother somewhere – this would be a wonderful addition to this fun and inviting series that I hope people continue to enjoy reading.