The Fireside Chats

I finished reading this book today and I really enjoyed it. I picked this book up thinking it was a book about books but it ended up being more of a book about an adventure surrounding a family owned bookshop. I was both happy and sad about the way the book ended but it was an ending I wasn’t expecting.

This book is geared towards the kiddos (middle grade), however, this could be something you can read to your kids or with your kids. Especially if you and your kids like historical fiction and/or books about books and bookshops.

Synopsis: It’s 1944 Sutton, NY, and Poppy’s family owns and runs, Rhyme and Reason, a magical bookshop that caters to people from all different places and time periods. Though her family’s world is ravaged by World War II, their customers hail from their past and their future, infusing the shop with a delightful mix of ideas and experiences. The shop runs on a set of rules handed down from one generation of bookseller to the next, with their cardinal rule their most strict: shopkeepers must never use the magic for themselves.

But then Poppy’s brother’s best friend is killed in the war and her brother wants to use the magic to save him. Young Poppy is caught between her love for her brother and loyalty to her family, all the while knowing that her brother’s actions could have devastating consequences that reach far beyond the bookshop, feeding an insidious, growing darkness.