During World War II David is missing his mother, who died after a long illness. His father has remarried bringing Rose and a baby into their lives. David can hear books talk to him in the quiteness of his attic bedroom and when he finds himself in another world he embraces the chance to get away from the place he believes he is unwelcome.
There is a lot of talk about perception of story in this book and sometimes I worried that what was going to happen was that Daive would "learn" that truth was better than fiction, but thankfully this never happened.
I really enjoyed this book, the language in it engaged me from the very start and I liked some of the variations on fairy stories, sometimes it brought them closer to what may have been the truth, sometimes though it almost stripped them of their special, their magic, and the magic of these stories is what makes them linger in my mind. Altogether I found it a very satisfying read.
