The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond

Amy Sparkes's The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond is a gloriously daft magical adventure for 8 year olds about an ex-pickpocket, a very odd household and a mystery about her mum.

What happens

Nine used to steal for a living. Now she travels with a wonky, eleven-storey magical House and the strangest housemates you could imagine.

There's Flabberghast, a young wizard in indigo pyjamas who insists on calling her Madam. There's Eric the troll, the kindest housekeeper ever and the worst cook (grey pancakes with bones in, anyone?). There's a gloomy skeleton who gets very excited about socks, a grumpy wooden spoon and a toilet that hops about and hides.

Honestly, the first chapter alone is a treat. Nine is chasing a small blue woolly creature that has pinched her toast. Then the spell on the tea cupboard goes off and she's zapped into a rocking horse with a dragon's head and a pig's tail!

The House lands in Beyond, a magical shopping town where the buildings are shaped like boots and bottles and hourglasses. There's one very silly rule. Every household has to buy something from every single shop before their house is allowed to leave.

Meanwhile, the spoon's old partner, Professor Dish, is missing somewhere in the town. And Flabberghast's aunt, Ophidia the Unpredictable, may be looking for her too.

Nine has a secret of her own. She finds a teapot full of torn parchment, and the message on it points to a mysterious Safekeeper, who looks after dangerous things for a price. She's sure it has something to do with her mum.

It's very funny. The parking meter is a sleepy bronze dragon that burps out your ticket. A sweet-shop wizard pretends to read your mind. And the candle Nine is handed won't stop giggling and chatting (Flabberghast specifically warned her about talking candles!).

But there's real feeling under the jokes. Nine knows almost nothing about her mum, and you can feel how badly she wants answers.

It follows on from the first book, so it'll make most sense if your reader has already met Nine and her strange new family. The names alone are a joy to read aloud.

What to read next

If they haven't started at the beginning, go back to The House at the Edge of Magic, where Nine is still a thief dodging an angry shopkeeper at the market.