Matthew Salesses's Reviews > The Apothecary

The story of an American girl who moves to England with her parents during the Cold War, after her parents are suspected as Communists. She meets a boy who wants to be a spy and whose father, the apothecary, has a magic book and is in trouble because of it. When real spies show up looking for the book, the two children set off on the kind of quest you want from a book like this. This time, the quest, the characters, the world-building, the magic, are in top form, so good that this book has set me off on a kids' books binge. There's so much fun here. Best book I've read all year.

I'm starting to think what makes a kids' book is Wonder. And also that Wonder is something that is missing from a lot of books written (only) for adults. I miss it. I didn't even know I had been missing it for so long until I read this book.