Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard: A Peter Nimble Adventure

Gr 4–7—In the grand tradition of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart and John Stephens's The Emerald Atlas comes this companion novel to Auxier's Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. Twelve-year-old Sophie Quire mends books in her father's shop and worries about Pyre Day, when Inquisitor Prigg will burn all the storybooks and purge all the "nonsense" from Bustleburgh. Enter dauntless Peter Nimble, the blindfolded thief, and his enchanted companion Sir Tode with the Book of Who for Sophie to mend. The Book is one of four magical tomes (Who, What, Where, When); if all four books are collected, they will unlock a riddle and save the world. Sophie, Peter, and Sir Tode follow the book's clues, dogged by Inquisitor Prigg, his bloodthirsty henchman Torvald Knucklemeat, and Madame Eldritch the potion maker, a tricky woman with her own motives. The final battle to retrieve the books assembles most of the cast in Bustleburgh, where the story began. It's impossible to feel lukewarm about Auxier's work. This author so clearly views books as the elixir of life, and this conviction oozes out of the text. This fast-paced, character-gallery book remains anchored by Sophie's passion for reading and family. Various magical settings like a menagerie surrounded by deadly quickbramble serve as proper backdrop for capacious bestiaries that can describe any person or thing in existence. The final unraveling of the dangers Sophie faces is so intense readers may need to take a breath as they turn the pages.