Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 10/01/2018 A girl who can’t read saves a wondrous book emporium in this winsome novel. Property Jones was abandoned at the cozy White Hart bookshop when she was five. The kind owner, Netty Jones, and her son, Michael, take her in, but Property never tells them she can’t read. The three share a happy but financially unstable life at the White Hart, until they enter a contest and win ownership of the Great Montgomery Book Emporium—a massive mechanical bookshop in London with rotating, themed rooms. The Joneses’ excitement over the emporium is cut short when they realize they have also inherited a large debt from the previous owner, and the creepy Eliot Pink comes to collect. But clever, observant Property soon discovers a solution. Filled with warmhearted protagonists, a suitably villainous adversary, and a witty third-person omniscient narrator, Bishop’s fast-paced story charms and entertains. The emporium itself—containing such marvels as a real forest in the “Room of Woodland Tales”—captures the feeling of being immersed in a good book. A funny, inventive tale ideal for booklovers. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.