From the fabulous Tracey Corderoy, author of the acclaimed Shifty McGifty books, comes a fantastic new series for children of 5+ that is big on adventure and will set young imaginations alight.

Everything in Puddletown is normal except for one most unusual shop…The Story Shop. Shop owner Wilbur and his assistant Fred sell adventures and they have all of the plots, props, settings, clothes and characters you could ever want. When a feisty and demanding Mouse visits, an out-of-this-world space adventure is just the ticket. Join Mouse as he eats his way into trouble on the Moon, risks his tail in a game of Tiddlywonks against the devious Phoebe Fairplay and causes chaos with his meddling on Planet Cog - home to the caterpillar-like Coggles. Adventure awaits inside The Story Shop but be warned…anything might, and probably will, happen…

The Story Shop is such an awesome place with the perfect recipes for cooking up adventures of all kinds. Ingredients are plucked off shelves and out of drawers, tossed into the Story Pot, given a quick stir and then ‘WHOOSH…POP’ an adventure begins.

And what an adventure it is for Mouse and Fred, who accompanies all customers on every adventure. Visiting the Moon and planets, encountering aliens and black holes, and munching on super stinky cheese, this is one adventure that is most definitely out of this world. As Mouse boasts his way from one troublesome situation to the next it is left to the frazzled Fred to try to keep his travelling companion out of as much danger as possible, coming up with escape plans and using his quick-thinking to make sure they get back to The Story Shop in one piece.

Exploding with fun, humour and the power of imagination, these three highly illustrated mini-adventures in one delightful little package are just the thing for emerging and newly independent readers. As an added treat, a short quiz is included at the end with responses determining what kind of adventure you are suited for - a nice little springboard for children to being planning and writing their own stories.

I loved everything about The Story Shop: Blast Off and with the promise of further adventures I cannot wait to be back with Wilbur and Fred and their shop of stories. A second book is due out later in the year; I’ve got my cutlass, grog and eye-patch and I’m ready to go and plunder me some treasure. Any idea what the adventure might be?

With huge thanks to Little Tiger and Stripes Publishing for the copy I received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Recommended for 5+.

The Story Shop began as a picture book and has now evolved into a fantastic chapter book series for younger readers! Fred the Ferret is the shop assistant and is always there to lend a helping paw. He travels with each customer to ensure things stay safe and the customer is happy. When a young, boastful mouse enters the shop hunting for an adventure, Fred knows this may go wrong. As the pair journey into space, they meet aliens who live in houses made of cheese. Their leader, Gordon Zola, is not impressed with Mouse’s nibbles…and tries to punish him. When the pair finally escape, they land on the Planet of Games and must battle Phoebe FairPlay in order to leave, but she does not live up to her name. Mouse’s boasting continues to cause chaos as they find themselves on a third planet with The Coggles, an inventive alien race. Can Fred get them safely back to The Story Shop and will Mouse learn to be less boastful? With plans for more in this series, they offer wide appeal! Ideal for boys and girls, those who love stories, and those who want to have brilliant adventures with superb characters. Tony Neal’s illustrations are perfect and give the reader plenty to look at as they enjoy the story.

Superb! I devoured this book and then read it to my daughter. The Story Shop: Blast Off! had me gripped from the start. It begins with Wilbur and Fred who own a Story Shop, not a book shop. This is a shop where adventure awaits you and whisks you off to wherever in the world (or out of this world) you would like to go.

I adored the idea of there being a shop with draws stuffed full of settings and characters just ready and waiting for you. You pick out your perfect story ingredients, mix them together in a large pot and off you go on your very own adventure. What could be better! There are blank books ready for your story to be written in that eagerly await your adventure to be put to paper.

Fred the ferret is always on hand and goes with each story voyager into their story to keep them safe. However, even a seasoned story traveller like Fred may have bitten off more than he can chew when mouse demands a story. There's light peril at ever corner in this hilarious story that has you unable to stop and put it down as you just can't not turn the page!

I don't want to give any spoilers but there is a section in the middle where on their second of three adventures into space they land in what can only be described as an alien Alice in Wonderland style setting where there's a character very reminiscent of The Queen of Hearts. Oh and the alien caterpillars with all of their boots are brilliant! It's an absolute feast of delight for those who love nothing better than to be swallowed whole into the world of fantasy.

There's a cool little quiz that you can take at the end and depending upon your responses the Story Shop give you an adventure starting point that's perfect for you. A lovely addition and a great spring board for children's own adventure stories to develop.

Little Tiger press do a great range of early chapter books. For me early chapter books are for those newly independent readers who are just moving into the world of chapter books but need the scaffolding of illustrations to hold their interest and support their comprehension. This one is black and white illustrated and I love the daintiness of the drawings that are full of laugh out loud moments.

It's a highly recommend from us. Thank you #NetGalley and #LittleTigerPress for our eARC of #TheStoryShopBlastOff

Yet another brilliant story for very young readers from Tracey Corderoy. Full of action, adventure and lessons on how to behave with new acquaintances. For those of us of a certain age, there are definite echoes of "Mr Benn" by David McKee; although the shop is not full of fancy dress costumes. This is full of imagination, with some great characters and one very irritating customer, who needs to learn a few lessons. This will be great fun to read to a young class.

This new series from awesome author, Tracey Corderoy, is a story-lover's treat. Taking a similar format to Corderoy's other chapter books, The Grunt and the Grouch, Hubble Bubble and Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam, it contains three fabulous stories in one and yet cleverly follows one character's story shop adventure.

When a bold mouse visits Wilbur and Fred's story shop, he chooses an adventure that is out of this world. Blasting off into space, accompanied by Fred, he has a cheesy encounter on the moon, almost loses his tail in a game of Tiddlywonks and causes carnage on Planet Cog. Can Fred get him out of trouble before his adventure ends badly?

This series is a glorious celebration of imagination. With an endless array of themed story choices, there will hopefully be sequels galore where readers will never get bored. What story adventure would you choose?

The world-building , characters and illustrations are brilliant and engaging. Mouse's over confident attitude is hilarious whilst Fred brings everything back down to earth. The story plots are bold, bright and as captivating as a shooting star and, with each story being split into 3-4 chapters, they are the perfect length for emerging readers.

Anyone who loves story will love this series. It's crazy, it's cool and this one is super spacey. But what will the next one be? Roarsome? Arrrggggggsome? You'll have to wait to find out.

Billed as three linked novellas for the very young, this is one rollercoaster of a piece. An arrogant mouse enters The Story Shop, and demands a space adventure. Permanently bailed out by the ferret that is the store's assistant, the pair first land on the moon, where everything is made of cheese, but the locals aren't too keen on a mouse doing what comes natural when that foodstuff is concerned. Fleeing, the pair enter a bizarre Games World, with their lives depending on their success at different hobbies and games, before some STEM-loving space caterpillars are called upon for the final third. Throughout the wackiness is either exuberant, or tiresomely irksome, depending on your taste – and I guess your age. But for many the bigheadedness of the mouse will be a character quirk that grows old very quickly.