Why adults should totally read Pages & Co by Anna James

We have always thought middle grade fiction can be read by people of all ages, especially adults and we just discovered a series that proves us right again. Drumrolls: Let’s chat about Pages & Co.

This 6-book series by Anna James is completed, with the paperback version of book 6 out just last month. As such it’s the right time to binge read it. The series follows Tilly who is a bookwander – she can pull characters out of books and can wander into any book she wishes to visit. As a booklover, we adore this setting and wish we could do the same. We can’t even begin to list the book worlds we would want to visit. The books are also very visually appealing – there are illustrations dotted throughout the pages, as well as different fonts and sizes to accompany them.

But the series is not just about visiting fantasy worlds built by other readers. While we thoroughly enjoy seeing Anne from Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Alice in Wonderland interact with Tilly, the series goes way above and beyond that. In fact, the series is grounded in the lore of books and publishing. There are discussions about Source Editions placed in the British Library, which is an actual practice in real life. There are also discussions about how fairy tales can have extremely different editions. Aside from these, the series also explores books that have gone missing, such as the first editions of Shakespeare’s plays.

Overall, we can’t believe Pages & Co is a middle grade series – adults would 100% enjoy this as well. The world building is phenomenal and the series really makes readers think about books in a way that they have not done before. We only wish that we could book wander too – chatting with our favourite characters, eating food from books. That’s the dream.