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A review by jhliu
Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier
5.0
I have been impatiently awaiting this book for nearly five years now, when I first read Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. It’s a magical adventure about a blind thief, told by a much-too-clever narrator, and is filled with nonsense and wonder. When I interviewed Jonathan Auxier about it, he mentioned that he was working on another tale set in the same world but not exactly a sequel. Well, his second book turned out to be The Night Gardener, which turned up the spookiness and toned down the whimsy, great for kids who love stories that give them the chills.
Now, Auxier has returned to Peter Nimble’s world. There are some familiar characters: Peter himself, Sir Tode (the fearless knight-cat-horse), and Professor Cake. And a whole host of new characters. Chief among them is Sophie Quire, the daughter of Augustus Quire, a bookseller, and Coriander Quire, a bookmender who died under mysterious circumstances when Sophie was just a baby.
The little town of Bustleburgh, spurred on by Inquisitor Prigg, is getting ready for the modern world by ridding itself of nonsense. Anything frivolous–particularly anything magical–has been banned, with various items collected and burned on the annual Pyre Day. This year, it’s storybooks–much to the consternation of Sophie and her father. But then Peter and Sir Tode show up in Bustleburgh with a mysterious book for Sophie to fix, and she quickly finds herself in the middle of an exciting (and sometimes scary) adventure.
Although Peter and Sir Tode are present throughout much of the story, the focus is really on Sophie. I love that Peter tries at first to make her just another sidekick, but that she is really her own person and isn’t interested in being rescued. (It was a little reminiscent of the scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Finn first encounters Rey at the market.)
If you love books about stories, you will want to add this book to your list. It celebrates the power and magic of stories and particularly all of the stuff that Inquisitor Prigg calls “nonsense.”
And, by all means, if you haven’t read Peter Nimble yet, you really should!
Now, Auxier has returned to Peter Nimble’s world. There are some familiar characters: Peter himself, Sir Tode (the fearless knight-cat-horse), and Professor Cake. And a whole host of new characters. Chief among them is Sophie Quire, the daughter of Augustus Quire, a bookseller, and Coriander Quire, a bookmender who died under mysterious circumstances when Sophie was just a baby.
The little town of Bustleburgh, spurred on by Inquisitor Prigg, is getting ready for the modern world by ridding itself of nonsense. Anything frivolous–particularly anything magical–has been banned, with various items collected and burned on the annual Pyre Day. This year, it’s storybooks–much to the consternation of Sophie and her father. But then Peter and Sir Tode show up in Bustleburgh with a mysterious book for Sophie to fix, and she quickly finds herself in the middle of an exciting (and sometimes scary) adventure.
Although Peter and Sir Tode are present throughout much of the story, the focus is really on Sophie. I love that Peter tries at first to make her just another sidekick, but that she is really her own person and isn’t interested in being rescued. (It was a little reminiscent of the scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Finn first encounters Rey at the market.)
If you love books about stories, you will want to add this book to your list. It celebrates the power and magic of stories and particularly all of the stuff that Inquisitor Prigg calls “nonsense.”
And, by all means, if you haven’t read Peter Nimble yet, you really should!