The Bookwanderers (Pages and Co. #1) - imagine if you could wander into your favorite book

Title: The Bookwanderers (Pages and Co. #1)
Author:  Anna James

Publication: Philomel Books, hardcover, 2019

Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction/Fantasy/Series

Plot: Eleven-year-old Tilly Pages has taken refuge in the books at her grandparents’ bookstore since the loss of her mother. But when her favorite characters “wander” into the shop, Tilly learns she can follow them into their stories and her adventures begin. Can she use Bookwandering to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance?

Six Degrees of Separation: From Alice to The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month the book is Alice in Wonderland.  I have very pleasant memories, not only of reading it but my grandmother gave me LP versions of Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which I listened to often as a child on my own little record player.  At one point, I could quote long passages.  Prior to this gift, I will admit I'd thought the book was called Allison Wonderland. 

Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, and Aloysius
(copyright Granada Television)

Alice made me think of my first book which begins in Oxford: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. When I visited Oxford, reminders of both books were everywhere!  Brideshead is one of the few books of which I consider the miniseries as good or better.  It really captivated viewers when it first came out, including me.  Oh, Anthony Andrews, I could watch you in anything!   In fact, I loved you in a movie of my second book:

A Fellow Collector

Just came across this item that appeared in Shelf Awareness via BBC News back in December about former Harvard football player Pat McInally, who graduated in '74 and went on to a great career with the Bengals (I could add that his presence would elevate the current tone of the team but that might be unfair). I have always admired him from afar but never knew he also collected children's books! I would really like to know what inspired his collection. Although the Friends of Harvard Football needs money, I must say I sympathize with his desire to add to his Winnie the Pooh collection (and wonder if he dislikes the Disney version as my family does). I hope he comes to Cambridge some time so we can discuss our collections - although I can imagine the looks we would get. But how many former NFL players do you think read for pleasure, let alone collect rare books? Perhaps more than one would think . . .

Former Cincinnati Bengals football player and children's book collector Pat McInally will put several rare early editions of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland up for auction. The books, including a copy that once belonged to 10-year-old Alice Liddell herself, are "expected to fetch up to £90,000 (US$147,416)," BBC News reported.

"I think it is the most important children's book ever written... so finding a book given to Alice by Lewis Carroll was really exciting," said McInally, who is parting with his copies to make room for the real focus of his collecting--Winnie-the-Pooh books.

"I'm hoping to use some of the money I get from this sale on more books by A.A. Milne at a sale coming up soon in London," he added.

McInally is also renowned, in certain circles, for having achieved a perfect score on the Wonderlic test, which is given to NFL prospects.