Despite growing up in the bookstore she was abandoned in, eleven-year-old Property Jones cannot read...and she's been keeping that hidden for years.
Little does Property know the skills she's developed in place of reading could save her adoptive family from a dastardly plot that's set to cheat them out of everything. You see, the Joneses have just won a contest for ownership of another bookstore, the Great Montgomery Book Emporium—and it's every booklover's dream! The pull of a lever calls forth rooms full of marvelous wonders―from the Room of Space Adventures with its rocket ship to the Room of Ocean Tales with its aquarium ceiling.
But there is more to the Emporium than its thousands of books in extravagant displays. In fact, the previous owner, Mr. Montgomery, has not paid a very greedy man for a very expensive book. A book which the Joneses discover Mr. Montgomery damaged. While her family worries about losing the Emporium altogether, Property begins to notice strange things about this book. Things which can only be smelled or touched...
Sylvia Bishop's fantastical middle grade mystery debut is an entertaining tale filled with whimsy, mechanical wonder, and memorably quirky characters.
The Bookshop Girl came into my life because of my local library. In fact, many books I wouldn’t have ordinarily have heard of come into my life because I look at my library’s list of new books on the 1st of every month (it is literally my favourite day of every month, I’m not even kidding). I was a bit dubious because who is called Property? It’s not a name! But it’s actually explained, before the book starts, that Property came by her name because she was found in the bookshop and her brother, Michael, put her in the lost property cupboard and the name stuck, I love little additions like that, because it tells you that the author wanted to explain Property’s unusual name, because she likely knew people like me would wonder.
The Bookshop Girl is a quick read. I read it in under an hour and, according to Amazon, it’s for 7-9 year olds which is about right, when you see the words used, the shortness of the text, the big font, etc. The plot moves incredibly quickly – one moment we’re at the White Hare, and Property, Michael and Netty and trundling along, the next they’ve entered the raffle to win the Montgomery Book Emporium and then they’ve won and they move down to London quick as you like. There’s very little let up and it will very easily keep younger readers attention, and the illustrations are incredible. Ashley King has done a fantastic job, he’s supremely talented and he really helped bring the Emporium and the Joneses to life.
I really enjoyed The Bookshop Girl. It was such a quick, fun read. The Joneses seem like a lovely family, and there was a nice bit of villain-ness to the plot, when all isn’t as it seems at the Emporium. The Emporium actually sounds like an immense bookshop. I would literally love to visit there, as a reader and book lover and can you imagine getting to live there? I’ll be dreaming about it for weeks… Sylvia Bishop is a wonderful storyteller and I loved getting to know Property Jones and her family.
