The Last Bookwanderer (Pages and Co #6) by Anna James

Title: The Last Bookwanderer (Pages and Co #6)

Author: Anna James

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 20^th March 2024

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 416

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: The final new thrilling adventure in the bestselling bookwandering series for readers aged eight to twelve

The Pages and Co. series comes to a thrilling end in this perfect final instalment.

When Tilly, Oskar, Milo and Alessia venture into King Arthur’s realm in search of the wizard Merlin, they discover that the magic of bookwandering is not at all what they thought.

Together, they must journey into myth and legend – to bargain with the trickster Loki and unlock their destinies with the help of the Three Fates – and find a way to untangle the Alchemist’s grip on the world’s imagination.

To save Pages & Co. and the very foundations of bookwandering, Tilly and her friends will have to learn the true power of imagination in a thrilling final adventure, but an unexpected enemy stands in their way . . .

~*~

The adventures of Tilly, Oskar, Milo and Alessia are coming to an end as they venture into Camelot in search of Merlin – to help them save bookwandering and stop the Alchemist from destroying it. Yet, things are not as they seem, and bookwandering is not quite what they know it to be – nor is it what certain people want it to be either. It is up to them to save bookwandering, and to do so, they must travel through myth and legend, into Norse myths to bargain with Loki, and into Greek mythology to meet the Muses and the Fates – because going back to the start of Story and unlocking their destinies will help them untangle to grip that the Alchemist has and wants to maintain on the world’s imagination.

Saving Pages and Co is at the heart of this novel, the magical bookshop that has sparked many imaginations and been the backbone of this series, the place that literary worlds, the Quip, the Treehouse of Books and so many other places have sprouted from and become part of the fabric and pages of Tilly’s life and family.

To find out everything they need to know, the children have to split up – Tilly and Milo, and Alessia and Oskar – as they travel into different mythologies and areas of Story – but will they be successful, and will they get the help they need? Everything in the first five books has been leading to this, from Tilly finding out she could bookwander, to finding out she’s half-fictional, travelling through fairytales, the Underlibraries, and finding Reader’s Records, as well as becoming friends with Oskar, Milo, Alessia and Rosa. And now, they’re facing off against the Alchemist and another foe who have been plotting to change bookwandering forever. Throughout the series, Anna has drawn on a range of books, characters, mythologies and legends to tell Tilly’s story and create her world, and they have grown from book to book, stretching further and further into the past and history of stories and writing, which invigorates the series.

In doing so, Anna shows how stories are part of everything and everyone, and how important they are in written or oral forms, and that every story has its reader. Everyone finds something within stories that they will enjoy, relate to, and that will become part of them – and as Tilly’s adventures show, it is often the books that we discover and love when we are young, and these tend to be the ones that stay with us, because they gave us that first Story magic. Ever since I first discovered this series five years ago, I have wanted to find out how it was going to end, eagerly awaiting each book since I picked up Tilly and the Bookwanderers on a break and diving into it immediately. It was one of the books that started me on my books about or set in bookshops journey, and each one has had something different – each one has spoken to the magic of books and reading, and I loved Tilly’s journey that was fraught with danger at times, but I knew that everything would be all right in the end – it had to be, as a series aimed at children. There’s something comforting reading a series like this with a lovely comforting resolution as an adult as well, because I think readers of all ages need to have somewhere safe to go after a grand adventure, and to know that books can give us these safe places.

The final book in this series wraps everything up but promises so much more. We get adventure, battle, gods and goddesses and the hint and promise of a happy ending – an ending that is fitting to the series. We can say goodbye to these characters knowing they have served their purpose, knowing that they are where they should be.

I have loved the journey I have gone on with Tilly, she’s exactly the kind of character I would have loved as a younger reader, and the kind of character whom I adore these days as well – she’s brave and creative, fun and inventive, and filled with the magic that every book character needs and should have – the magic that in some way will connect with, relate to, and have fun reading about.

I loved the way this series ended, and think it will be a favourite for many years to come.