The enchanted LibraryKaren Andrea

Legend/YouWriteOn, £5.99

After visiting a bookshop promoting the works of Spanish novelists Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, and Carlos Ruiz Zafón, who wrote The Shadow of the Wind, family law locum solicitor Karen Andrea had a dream about a boy and an abandoned library of animated books. That dream became her own book, The Enchanted Library.

The tale is one of a teenage boy, Max, who since the death of his parents has been in children’s homes and passed from one foster family to another. Max feels lost and lonely, and in a last-ditch effort to settle he goes to live with his grandpa, in whose house he discovers a magical library where the books come alive, talking and flying about the place, and becoming characters in themselves. He meets the well-spoken Harold Potters about His Garden who is a stickler for good grammar, Malice in Wonderland, a book with mood swings and a northern accent, and Fairy Tales of the Mother Grimm, known as Momma, who is more than three inches thick and speaks with a velvety American accent. Other titles include Peter Panic, James and the Giant Quiche and Badladdin.

The books are all rejects and Max, a sympathetic and likeable character, identifies with them. This charming and exciting book, with illustrations by Loretta Schauer, encourages children to believe in their own abilities. It kept me, a reluctant grown-up, reading to the end.

Catherine Baksi is a reporter with the Law Society Gazette