A really great middle grade. Not my normal kind of bpok but a really great read. Will definitely recommend with a wild fantasy and a great cast of characters.

A travel agency which is not as it appears to be. The suitcases are all portals to other worlds. The character go on magical journeys which keep you hooked. The plot is fun, full of mystery and unpredictable. I was hooked right from the start. I kept thinking I’ll read just one more page.

The Strangeworld’s Travel Agency is such an imaginative, fascinating and wonderful read and one that I am so glad I decided to read. Flick is a wonderful character who could easily walk off of the page and I just absolutely adored going on adventures with her as she travelled through the many worlds that this book has to offer. I also really, really, loved Jonathan as well. They were such a vibrant and interesting character and I just loved learning more about them and watching their relationship with Flick grow throughout this book. I cannot wait to read more books set in this world. It's definitely a book that I will be recommending to as many people as I can.

It must be great fun writing a book about multiple fantasy worlds where anything can happen. Strangeworlds has bouncy worlds, Fae worlds and worlds that are the centre of magic, an adventure that is a real treat for the imagination with some mysteries left to find the answers to 😍📖😍

When Flick wanders into the Strangeworld's Travel Agency, she never imagines that she'll be heading on a journey through a suitcase! Soon she's heading off on adventures with Jonathan into world's where time might move faster, or slower than in the world she inhabits. When she is kidnapped by professional Thieves in the City of Five Lights who are keen to head to a new world. Will she make it home before her family realise she is missing?
This was an exciting adventure full of magic and excitement. Fast paced and with just the right amount of tension, I can't wait to find out what happens next in Flick's magical world.

I received an eARC of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A really great debut. This is a magical world, with brilliant characters, and a strong female heroine. I hope there are more to come in this series, it is one that pre-teens will love.

I work reguarly with primary schools in developing aspects of English so I'm always on the lookout for new texts that I think will inspire children. I can see this book being really enjoyed and will be recommending it to schools to develop aspects of the curriculum in interesting and engaging ways.

I loved this book from start to finish. It's full of adventure and excitement with great characters and a super female protagonist. I can't wait to read more adventures through more suitcases!

This is 100% one of the easiest 5 stars I have ever given. I picked this up because Gav (How To Train Your Gavin on YouTube) was hyping it up so much before its release and every time I saw it on my shelves I just felt so drawn to it so I knew I had to pick it up sooner rather then later.

We follow Flick Hudson, a 12 year old girl who's family have just moved to a small village from the city. Naturally Flick isn't that keen on the move because no 12 year old wants to leave an entire life behind. This soon starts to change when she finds the Strangeworlds Travel Agency where she realises that there is an entire magical multiverse out there and (with the help of a boy called Jonathon Mercator) that she can travel to different worlds through suitcases. Both Jonathon and Flick start to get concerned when they realise that something isn't quite right in the multiverse and that a lot seems to be going wrong, one city is even losing entire streets. It soon becomes a race against time to try and figure out what is wrong with the magical multiverse.

I remember when Nevermoor came out and everyone was saying that it was like Harry Potter in the sense that it made them feel the same as they felt when reading Harry Potter but that wasn't the case for me (my expectations were wayyyyy too high). However, Strangeworlds gave me those feelings and I can't describe how happy it made me. The writing was fantastic for a debut author, the world building was some of the best I have seen and the characters were just so excellent. I highly implore everyone to pick this up as a think it's a story that transcends ages.

An incredible debut, full of excitement and curiosity.
The story begins with an introduction to the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, before moving to the story of Flick Hudson, a girl who has just moved into the area with her parents and little brother. As she's exploring, she is drawn to the mysterious building and feels compelled to go inside. There, she meets Jonathan Mercurator, who when realises that Flick has the ability to 'see' magic, introduces her to the world-hopping adventures that the Agency provides. As expected, things start to take a more sinister and interesting turn, as a disappearance investigation leads them to discover that the worlds they visit appear to be changing.
Journeys to other worlds are often seen in children's books, but as long as they offer something different and are exciting, I think there's room for them all. What I loved about this book are the descriptions of the worlds visited and their inhabitants. It reminded me of Doctor Who or Quantum Leap, where you never quite know what is going to be there until you arrive. The descriptions of each world were so incredibly vivid that they evoked physical reactions in me: one made me smile and want to jump on my bed, where another made me feel so unsettled that I wanted to scream, 'RUN!'. I know it's a cliche but I felt as if I was there. The other thing I loved about it was how realistic the characters were in terms of their reactions to what was happening around them. People who are sad don't always cry. People who are struggling don't always ask for help. People who are scared don't always stand there trembling with wide eyes. How Flick and Jonathan, and others, reacted to their situations added something wonderfully real to this tale of magic. Amongst the adventure, there is real heart. I loved it.
The book leaves you with just enough questions to look forward to the next book (there had better be a next book!) but not so many to be left irritated by loose ends. I can't wait to share this with Y5/6 when we go back to school.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and am already looking forward to the next book in the series.

Imagine being able to travel anywhere in the world, or even to an exciting new land, by stepping into a suitcase! Where would you go? To a new, magical city...a wild and wonderful jungle...on an adventure to a brand new world. This is exactly what the two main characters - Flick and Jonathan - can do!

If you love adventures mixed with magic, you’ll love this book!

Thanks to @netgalley and @hachettekids for the advanced copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#bookworm #readersofinstagram #ilovereading #middlegrade #childrensbooks #2020book #strangeworlds #ldlapinski

Right from the start, the set up, stunning. Simple but stunning. This allowed for the adventure to feel real and believable (not far fetched).

I love that the story has so much scope and the scale of the story was a motivator to read on and look forward to the next one.

A brilliant adventure story perfect for all

Finally got round to reading this and so pleased I put it to the top of my ‘to read’ pile! The story is well balanced and explains the world and ‘suitcase travel’ incredibly well without feeling complicated or daunting to follow. By doing this, I felt as a reader I could enjoy it whilst having understanding the way the world works! Flick is a wonderful central character, well supported by Jonathan. The friendship that builds is great and feels authentic.

The worlds that have been created in the suitcases are wonderful.

This is definitely a high recommendation for my class!

I ended up purchasing a copy of this to read because it's just so brilliant! Flick is sassy and witty and I absolutely cannot wait to read the next Lapinski book!

Brilliant. Imaginative, funny, hopeful and compelling. The first in a very promising series. Excellent characters and concept - delivered with aplomb.

I didn't really have any high (or low) expectations for this book, as it's a really new book from a debut author so didn't know what to expect, but this was so fun and whimsical and I had such a fun time reading it.

Flick accidentally stumbles upon The Strangeworld's Travel Agency when exploring the new town she's just moved to and when Jonathan, who runs the shop, tells her she's got the gift of being able to see the magic which allows members of Strangeworld's to be able to go between different worlds in the multiverse, at first she doesn't believe him. They go on an adventure across different worlds to try and find Jonathan's dad who has gone missing, and while looking for him have to try and fix a problem that could destroy a whole world and put all others in danger. There is literally nothing about the plot that doesn't make me want book two immediately and wish I could be a member of The Strangeworld's Travel Agency.

The characters were all so good (although I don't like that Flick's parents always expect her to help out with her baby brother, she's only 12 and she shouldn't have to help parent a sibling). I do think Flick is too trusting, but I think that's mostly because of her age. Jonathan does take advantage of her trust, and her gift, to try and find his dad but I liked him most of the time and hope that we see more character development from him in the sequel. In the City of Five Lights I love the punny names of the Thieves; Nicc, Pinch, Lute and Swype are just a few of them.

Fantastic start to this magical middle-grade adventure series. Twelve year old Felicity, 'Flick', stumbles upon a travel agency where myriad worlds can be accessed via the many suitcases stored there. This had humour, peril, mystery and magic by the bucketful and had a similar feel to Jessica Townsend's Nevermoor series. In fact Jonathan Mercator, the eighteen year old Custodian of the agency, did remind me of Jupiter in Nevermoor. I thoroughly enjoyed this and am looking forward to the rest of the series.

A unique and magical debut, with elements of The Chronicles of Narnia and Doctor Who (a combination which totally works!). The writing style is assured and Flick is an immediately likeable heroine, and the book is rounded out by a well-developed cast of supporting characters. I would not hesitate to recommend to younger readers!

This book and me did not get along. I thought it was very plain, and the relationship between Johnathan and Flick really rubbed me up the wrong way - in his first introduction he seems about 100, and then the author backtracks and says he's young. I also found some of the 'magical moments' incredibly repetitive. Would not reccomend.

Little Wyverns seems a wholly unremarkable and dull place to have moved to until Flick discovers The Strangeworlds Travel Agency and its young apparent proprietor Jonathan Mercator.

The revelation that this travel agency, with its stacks of strange bartered suitcases, is full of doorways to marvellous other worlds turns Flick’s quiet world upside down. She is soon a part of marvellous adventures with Jonathan, to worlds full of  strange and wonderful things and magic. 

But Jonathan’s father is missing and there is something very wrong beneath the surface of these worlds and perhaps Flick might just be the person to help figure out these mysteries.

This book is a whirlwind of charming imagination and delightfully strange characters in whose pages I was delighted to get lost. The pages teem with Neverland-esque forests of strange children, snowy mountains with Yetis and zany places where the very ground makes you bounce! The story is a Far Away Tree for older readers, imaginative, spellbindingly exciting and leaving me sat at the end desperately excited for another world to explore.

I would highly recommend for kids and kids at heart, Lapinski has written a real gem!