Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

Love this author and everything she has written. Fantastic book

I loved this and so did the students in my class. I have requested copies for my class library and for group reading.

I do love me a Cressida Cowell book but I have a little confession I have had Which Way to Anywhere on my TBR since last year (I'm from the UK) and I had not picked it up because of my ever growing TBR.

Again Cressida imagination and story telling has no bounds. She has made an amazing world which is really shown off in her illustrations. The you have two sets of siblings who are at loggerheads and my favourite character by far Annipeck who was the cutest bean plus a lot of adventure which makes the reader feel that they have been on too. You'd think that would be enough but Cressida then entwines the issue of Climate change so masterfully throughout the story it is breath taking.

For all the above reasons Which Way to Anywhere receives 4 stars

I managed to get a copy via Netgalley.
To start I was totally lost - my fault as I didn't read the blurb. Once I got into the story - I couldn't put it down. My copy didn't have the illustrations and I honestly think they would have made the world of a difference.

It is an epic adventure where the impossible happens.

Brilliant! From the first sentence it’s action - and I mean serious action…then we wind back,….and it’s calm…for a minute…literally…and it’s back on again.

Crazy aunts, magical secrets, new worlds at your fingertips - literally. There is also danger, huge amounts of danger, man eating plants…it just goes on.

Loved it!

My thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Children's Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

For fans who love magic and adventures.
When their little sister is kidnapped, siblings K2 O'Hero and his twin sister Izzabird go on a rescue mission. They need to cross to other worlds. But guess what? K2 is no ordinary boy. He can draw maps of fantastical other worlds and using this power, the siblings can look for their sister. The stakes are high, their family's secrets depend on them. Oh, small problem, there's a robot assassin to look out for.

Cressida Cowell's new book starts a series with a blended family of magical step-siblings. When baby Annipeck is kidnapped, they must overcome their differences to save her. The story is captivating and the characters' growth feels real. An imaginative and exciting adventure.

Cressida Cowell really is the queen of world building, and with this marvellous book kicking off her newest series, she has done it again!

Introducing us to a blended family of warring step-siblings - some of whom have magic, while others have no idea that it exists - the funny and fast-paced adventure begins when the youngest, baby Annipeck, is taken. It is at this point that her half brothers and sisters finally realise they must come together in order to figure out how to save her.

Prior to this, the four older children had consisted of two bitterly divided factions.

Theo despises K2, whom he considers to be hopeless at everything. His younger sister Mabel is kinder, but she is firmly allied with her brother. What they don't know is that the detailed maps of fantastical worlds, with wild, smoky rivers and ferocious plants that K2 creates are in fact real places.

But K2 and his sister Izzabird have been sworn to silence about their family's magical legacy - and they themselves are not aware of the value of the drawings. Still, they resent Theo and fear his suspicions and his allegation that their mother is a witch will lead to trouble.

It is when they need to rescue Annipeck that the real significance of K2's gifts will become apparent. But can they get past their sibling enmity to work together this one time?

This is a wonderful read, and a book that effortlessly holds the reader's attention, while transporting them to other worlds for a hilarious, eventful and occasionally quite scary journey.

The growth arc for the characters is authentic and absorbing, and Cowell effortlessly brings them alive on the page. I have no doubt that this series is going to join her other writings as an instant classic. So I am happy to give it five stars and I highly recommend it as an imaginative, escapist, rollicking adventure not to be missed.

i love cressida cowell. me and my son loved reading how to train your dragon series so when i saw this i knew we had to read this book.
we read this in a week at bedtime. we loved the adventure and all the characters met along the way. we loved the pictures too it helped bring the story to life for my son when he couldnt quite work out what some characters looked like from descriptions.
we really hope they will turn this into a film too.

The O’Heros and the Smiths are a blended family – their parents have recently married and they live together in a house belonging to the O’Heros, descendants of a family of magical adventurers. When mysterious strangers begin following K2 O’Hero and demanding to know the whereabouts of a magical atlas, the children are plunged unwillingly into a world crossing adventure in pursuit of the O’Heros’ father.
A madcap adventure, full of magic, humour and eccentric characters and related by “the Storymaker”, a none too reliable narrator, this is a highly entertaining and fast paced read. I loved it and know plenty of readers in our school library who will be equally enthralled by the world it creates and the whole idea of being able to draw a world that comes to life!

This was a really exciting quirky adventure (as you would expect from the author)
The main character is K2 O'Hero and his bossy twin. sister Izzabird. Their father was a great explorer and their Mum has remarried and they have stepbrother Theo and stepsister Mabel.

K2 and Izzy have inherited certain magical abilities from their Mum and K2 has a very special secret gift. He draws maps of imaginary worlds. what he doesn't know is that they aren't imaginary and that the family is in danger. Their new baby sister Annipeck has been kidnapped but what world is she in? Can They get there in time?

The story starts right in the thick of the action with the mysterious Storymaker who introduces us to the middle of the story. We then go back in time to find how they ended up being pursued by a Beast that can smell fear and is chasing them. Can the step siblings unite to save Annipeck?

Exciting and full of great characters like Horizabel who comes out of a washing machine, evil supply teacher Cyril, magic toothbrushes, monsters and a drone called Puck.

This has the magic, comedy and family truth of Diana Wynne Jones .

Highly entertaining

A magical forest world with a great cast, robot assassin & unusual plants and tree's.
Lots of twists & turns and gripping cliff hangers. This author has a brilliant imagination and the book helps us see her vision. Adults and children both I am sure will enjoy this.
My thanks go to the publisher, author and Netgalley in providing this arc in return for a honest review.

The cast list that children will meet is great. It instantly captures your attention, but that’s what Cressida Cowell’s writing and imagination does and this book doesn’t disappoint.

There is a magical world with a beast and a robot assassin, trees and plants that aren’t completely how you would assume them to be, as well as a family with magic powers. Amongst the adventure and all the creatures are themes of blended families and ecology. It is a world that has much depth that is quick to emerge into, with its immersive writing style.

The book is dramatic within the forest and intriguing within the lands and characters. It is also full of humorous situations that brings extra entertainment in its twisty, action-packed fantasy/sci-fi world. It is a treat for the senses that is a twisty fast-paced, exciting page-turner.

I am fast adoring cressida’s way of writing.

This story is focused on the idea that maps can be magical portals to another world if you make them doubled sided and line up the x marks the spot for the portals. We are introduced to the O’hero smith family. A blended family trying to hide their magic and hiding a lot of family secrets. That is until a guest turns up in their town and the children realise something isn’t quite right. When their baby sister gets kidnapped and taken to another world, can they family save her and themselves?

I love this writing style, so similar to wizards of once (which I adored). Loved the magical object and making objects have personalities. Loved the family dynamic and the strange and wonderful creatures and worlds they encounter. I really hope David Tennant does the audiobooks for this like he did Cressida’s previous novels

Another smash hit from Cressida. Loved this book and adored reading it to my daughter. Twisty, turn-y and exciting. Also truly fantastic to see a book dealing with blended families and the trickiness that can bring. I think a lot of children will find this incredibly helpful in navigating that, whilst also having a load of fun along the way. Will wholeheartedly recommend to all my mum friends.

My children and I really enjoyed this book!

K2 and Izzabirds dad is presumed dead. So much that their mother remarries a man with two children of his own.
Trying to be a blended family is harder than it looks. Especially when you don't get on and your new siblings are accused of being magic.

One day Aunt Trudie and Freya leave. K2 finds he has THE gift and the which ways. Will they be able to protect everyone?

This was everything I was hoping it would be. The illustrations at the start were a lovely way to get a feel for the characters before the story had even started. Filled with twists, turns and plenty of cliff hanger moments, I'm looking forward to sharing this with my class at school. I'm certain they'll enjoy it as much as I did.

According to Cressida Cowell, a former Children's Laureate, this story has been 25 years in the making and, boy, are you in for a treat. Which Way To Anywhere, as with all of Cressida Cowell's books, shows off the true depths of her creativity and imagination and will whisk readers away to an unparalleled world on an unrivalled adventure...

K2 is widely considered as being hopeless, especially by his annoying step-siblings, Theo and Mabel. Yet K2 and his sister, Izzabird, are hiding the secret that they are from a magical family and that K2 actually has the gift of drawing maps of worlds that are REAL!

When their baby sister, Annipeck, is kidnapped, the warring step-siblings must use K2's gift to travel to a dangerous world to rescue her. But do they have the power to defeat an abhorrent monster and a robot assassin? And can they unite their family before it's too late?

Aside from being an epic fantasy novel packed jam full of maps, monsters, robots, predator plants, walking trees and potions, Cressida Cowell also uses this story to explore two major themes. Many readers will surely relate to K2's awkwardly blended family and their journey towards finding common ground and also to the subtle but cleverly constructed eco-message regarding the impact humans can have on a planet. Both of these elements drive the story forwards with impact and heart, allowing readers to think.

As, again, with all Cressida Cowell's novels, all the above is mixed up with a huge dollop of humour and bags of quirkiness. There's some great characters to watch out for and some awesome dynamics. I particularly loved Annipeck and her total command of Cyril Sidewinder and K2 is a lovable, hapless hero. There were some strong similarities to Cressida Cowell's Wizards of Once series, although providing a total different adventure and, for me, it also evoked some echoes of the film, Labyrinth.

With her fabulous language and unique storytelling style this is a treat for all fantasy lovers and adventurers. And, with more books to come (I hope!), the adventure is far from over...

You can never go wrong with a bit of Cressida Cowell and this doesn’t disappoint. Her distinctive writing style can make young and old alike laugh and the characters in her stories are always so likeable and relatable.

Which Way to Anywhere is such a fun novel!

It has a fairly familiar concept at its heart. Magic is real and can be used to open doorways between different worlds. This is a longstanding fantasy trope, that's played with very effectively here by Cressida Cowell. These doorways are opened by drawings of maps, as long as they are done by someone with the right magical gift. The only problem is there hasn't been anyone with that gift for centuries, so someone born with the gift of creating an atlas like that would be both incredibly dangerous and incredibly valuable.

And would you believe there's a young child here on Earth with that very planet?

That's the cue for a thrilling adventure for five young children from the same family, though two of them have a mother and a missing father, another two have a father and no mother, and baby Annipeck shares one parent with all of them, as they are variously assisted and chased across different worlds by a robot assassin, a Grimm bounty hunter, a substitute geography teacher who might be a pirate, various robot assistants and a great and terrible beast!

It's non-stop thrilling action, told with wit and charm. I loved the way Pinch the robot mangles all of his words up. The jungle world felt very scary and dangerous, and the ambiguous nature of many of the supporting characters was fun and kept me guessing. There's a very strong narrative voice throughout, giving little insights into the worlds and what's going on that I really enjoyed a lot, and Cressida clearly had fun playing with the narrative structure of the book, opening on a dramatic and terrifying sequence and then returning us to a safer time (for now). The magic use was exciting and fascinating, a blend of magic and technology that I found really intriguing, and there's a moral issue at the heart of the novel that really makes the reader question their assumptions.

This is a book about magic and amazing technology and different worlds and the impacts our careless actions can have. But it is more than that. It is a book about family.

The O'Heros and the Smiths are two families that have suddenly found themselves as one family. There's a lot of hurt and animosity there and it really shows. But through the course of this lovely book we see them grow and change and it really is heart-warming to see. There's a lot of emotional depth in there, and I'm sure there'll be many children out there like Izzy, planning on getting rid of a stepfather and stepbrother, or like Mable, who secretly like their new family but have to hide it from an older brother who doesn't, or like Annipeck who is part of both sides of this new family. It's cleverly and beautifully done.

Which Way to Anywhere is a fun, thrilling many-worlds fantasy with magic and technology and a whole lot of heart.