Title: Over the Woodward Wall

Author: A. Deborah Baker

Publisher: Tordotcom 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 208

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

Oh goodness… This is definitely going onto my year-end Top 10 Reads! A new fun and twisty book from Seanan McGuire was just what I needed this week! Right away I got Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz vibes from this tale of two opposite children transported to a very improbable world. And those feelings kept getting stronger as the story progressed. I loved following Avery and Zib (hello A to Z!) as they attempt to escape the Up and Under, but ultimately find themselves and each other along the way. This is for fans of twisty fairy tales and nonsense worlds. I imagine that I will be pushing this book onto all my friends for the rest of the year.

Next up on the TBR pile: