I ‘rediscovered’ our local library a few weeks ago when I was trying to find some ways for my dad to get ebooks of the latest books without having to pay for them, and discovered that with a library membership, you can loan ebooks in the same way as normal books using an app called Libby by Overdrive. All you need is a library card number.

So after getting my dad set up, I thought I’d have a good look to see what I could get for myself. And this was the first one that jumped out at me (if you’ll pardon the pun).

A story where the main characters can jump into books – in fact not ‘can jump’, but ‘must jump’ in order to keep the book world on track and to make sure that (for example) one of the seven dwarves doesn’t decide he wants to be a hairdresser.

But when elements start going missing from the book world, and not inconsequential elements, but the main ideas for the book – like the cyclone from the Wizard of Oz, it looks like Amy will have to fix this by herself, since the adults won’t take notice of her, and she’s not entirely convinced that it’s not one of them responsible.

And it turns out that there’s something about Amy that is more special than most book jumpers – but I won’t reveal that as it’s a pretty big spoiler.

There were a few things I loved about this book – firstly the relationship between Amy and Will which grows throughout the book. And secondly when Amy jumps into books that are so familiar to me – like Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice, and it made me so jealous that I can’t do the same thing! And her growing friendships with the book characters – how amazing to become friends with Shere Khan!

Certain things about the book did disappoint me – the fact that we don’t really learn too much about Amy and her relationship with her mother and the lives they left in Germany. And the ending of the book seemed like a bit of an anti-climax. I would have loved more details that kept me gripped – it didn’t have much about it that made my heart beat faster or make me desperately want to get to the end.

I feel like the book had a lot of potential, but it just fell a bit short. Perhaps it was aimed at younger readers and if it had been written for an older audience I would have been more fascinated by it. Or perhaps it lost some of the spark in the translation from the original German? I’m not sure. I definitely liked the book, but I wouldn’t say I was excited by it in the way I thought I would be when I read the blurb.