The Strangeworlds Travel Agency: Book 1

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Jonathan, I never could get a grip on his age. At the one hand he felt like 14-15, but on the other hand also 30. It was utterly confusing for me. Rozhodla som sa pre druhú možnosť, keďže nemám vo svojom okolí žiadne mladé deti a nie som si istá, ako by som vnímala tú knihu v tej dobe ja. MYSLÍM SI, že by sa mi v tej dobe páčila a tešila by som sa na druhý diel. Desaťročný čitateľ nebýva veľmi náročný.

He gave a small laugh, barely more than a breath with sound in it, and turned to say something. “Did you—” He noticed the boy, whose mouth was flapping like he was a goldfish at feeding time. “Oh. Are you still here?” Author L. D. Lapinski and the cover of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency: The Edge of the Ocean Section 28The interest slipped from Jonathan’s face like water vanishing through a sieve, and he gazed around in false astonishment. “Isn’t it? Whatever gave you that idea?” Have you ever wished you could just grab a suitcase and travel to an otherworldly place? Well, what if we said all you have to do is step into and out one? In this middle-grade fantasy adventure for children ages 9+, The Strangeworlds Travel Agency can take you to other worlds just steps away from ours!

The couple lay on the floor, wet through, catching their breath and grinning like no one who had just climbed out of a suitcase along with an overly affectionate octopus had any right to. Then they looked at each other and started laughing.

Beside the church, leaning drunkenly into the alleyway, was a tiny, squashed-looking shop with a big bay window [which] looked the same as the other shops on the street: old, unpopular, rather unloved, and as though it might have a bit of a weird smell. L. D's new middle-grade fantasy series ARTEZANS launches in February 2024 with the first book Artezans: The Forgotten Magic. I turn thirty-four in a few weeks, and I still get a spark of delight run over me when I realise a children’s book I want to read is queer. A few recent favourites have been Robin Stevens’ Death in the Spotlight, and Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies. And non-binary characters in children’s books are still very rare, though A. J. Sass’ ice-skating novel Ana on the Edge was published this year and is wonderful. The Strangeworlds Travel Agency L. D. Lapinski is the best-selling author of JAMIE, Stepfather Christmas, and The Strangeworlds Travel Agency series, including Adventure in the Floating Mountains, which was a 2023 World Book Day title. JAMIE was nominated for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing. There is a satisfying resolution to this first instalment after an exciting roller-coaster ride, but the several loose ends -- Jonathan's missing father, the mystery about the founder of the Strangeworlds Society, the fate of the Overseer of the Thieves of First Lights, the nature of the so-called schisms that can be contained in the Society's suitcases, and how it is that an ordinary schoolgirl has the magical abilities that she has -- all point at welcome sequels yet to come. As the final sentence hints, the agency's door -- like its suitcases, and like the covers of a book -- is a two-way portal.