when a story pulls you in, there's no going back - you just have to follow the words

FINDING SERENDIPITY
by Angelica Banks – Allen & Unwin, 2013
ages 12 ish to late teen / chapter books

Have you ever enjoyed a book so much that you felt pulled in, like you were actually a part of the book and there was no going back? I have, many times, and it turns out that’s how the good ones are written!

Finding Serendipity is a book about writing a book. It follows the adventures of Tuesday McGillycuddy, an ordinary girl with an ordinary family and an ordinary dog.

Except that it turns out things aren’t as ordinary as they appear.

Yes, there’s the secret that she’s not allowed to tell anyone, ever (that her mother is the famous author Serendipity Smith, writer of the best selling Vivienne Small novels). But that's not all! Things are about to get a whole lot more less-ordinary.

School has finished, it’s time for summer holidays, and Tuesday is excited because mother is about to finish the last chapter of her last ever Vivienne Small book: Vivienne Small and the Final Battle. Which means not only will she get to read the book, but also that a family holiday is just around the corner.  

But her mother goes missing - and Tuesday starts to do something she’s never done before. She begins to type a story on her mother's typewriter ... and the words raise themselves up from the page, wrapping themselves around her, lifting her into the air!

She doesn’t understand what’s happening, but her father doesn’t seem too worried:

‘Oh, dear,’ said her father. ‘I saw it coming, but I didn’t expect it quite so soon.’

‘What?’ Tuesday asked.

‘Don’t you see?’ he said. ‘You’re off! You’re off! A story has got hold of you. There’s no denying the undeniable, no dilly-dallying with the un-delayable. Off you go then! Follow the words, my love, That’s what a writer does. Just follow the words.’

And so Tuesday is off! Off to a world where stories are real and authors live them, at least until they find The End. Tuesday has some remarkable adventures, meets some wonderful friends, battles evil and learns that maybe, just maybe, she’s more than 'just an ordinary girl'.

Finding Serendipity is a fun book about the magic and adventure of story and how the story can shape us as much as we shape it.

You can buy Finding Serendipity via these direct links: Book Depository - Booktopia

P.S. For another little surprise, check out the author bio here on the Allen & Unwin website.

Names in this book - Tuesday