Adventurous, magical and brilliantly funny next book in the House at the Edge of Magic series.

Nine and her friends have cured the house’s hiccups and are off to the strange and utterly unpredictable Back of Beyond in search of Professor Dish – Spoon’s best friend and partner in all things alchemy.

When they find Dish trapped by the greedy witch Ophidia in the basement of a particularly marvellous shop, it soon becomes clear they’re going to need something more than Flabberghast’s dicey magic and Nine’s quick thinking to triumph this time. What they really need is a rather clever witch – one particularly good at curses…

The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond is the third book in The House at the Edge of Magic series by author Amy Sparkes and the second book from that series that I have read – Note to self to remember to go back and read book one.

Nine and the rest of the gang are looking for Professor Dish. They believe that Dish is in Back of Beyond but unfortunately so is Aunt Ophidia, a horrid witch who wants Professor Dish for her own gain. The race to find the professor is now on.

The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond is a magical, adventurous, and amusing story featuring characters like you will have never met before. The plot is unusual and if you haven’t read the first two in the series I wouldn’t bother with this one as you won’t understand it. This is a series that needs to be read in order.

The characters are so much fun and I loved the unusualness of everything, especially the shopping village of Back of Beyond and the must buy something from each shop or you can’t leave rule.

This series is perfect for middle-grade readers who want to step outside the norm. The book is enthralling and hard to put down. For those that like magical strange places, people, and situations, this is a book for you.

Amy Sparkes studied English Literature and Theology at the University of Kent, and began writing after moving to Devon with her husband, six young children and an overactive imagination. Her books have appeared on CBeebies storytime and been shortlisted for several book awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the BookTrust Best Books Awards for Do Not Enter the Monster Zoo.

She runs author events for children, writing workshops for aspiring children’s writers, produces the Writing for Children pages for bestselling Writing Magazine, and writes short stories for Aquila magazine. She co-founded the Writing Magazine Picture Book Prize for aspiring picture book authors.