It all began with a strange crack in the wall. Benjamiah covered it up with a poster, like any normal eleven year old, but when that split down the middle too, he knew something odd was happening.

He already had a lot on his mind. His mum and dad had left him with his grandmother while they spent some time away together to talk about their future together. Benjamiah can’t understand why his scientist mum and booklover dad have fallen out and he just wants them to sort out their marriage.

He isn’t impressed when he receives a package containing a strange looking doll, thinking that his parents have sent it. He is eleven for pete’s sake! But when the doll comes to life as a monkey, he can’t understand that either, especially after it trashes his room and his Gran blames him for it.

By the time the monkey leads him into the cellar and through a door that was definitely not there before, Benjamiah’s stubborness at believing anything that can’t be explained by Science, has to bend a little. It’s not long before he’s in trouble with the law in a very strange place. Luckily, a complete stranger comes to his rescue and he meets a bookseller named Hansel and his maelstrom of a daughter – Elizabella Cotton.

She is like nobody he has ever met, not that he has many friends – in fact, he has none in his own world. Elizabella is angry at everyone. Her twin brother Edwid is missing, and she’s desperate to find him. She’s also clever, courageous and exciting! Benjamiah is quickly caught up in her quest across the enchanted and often dangerous Wreathenworld as they learn the truth of Edwid’s disappearance and follow the clues he’s left behind.

Called Whisperwicks, each clue leads the new friends closer, but do they really want to know the truth that’s waiting for them?

If you love middle-grade world-building at its best, The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found is definitely for you. Characters Benjamiah and Elizabella (I loved the mesh-up names) are poles apart – he a lover of Science, logic and reason, and she a resident of a magical world where everyone has a doll clipped to their hip (which can turn to other creatures at will).

At age 11, Benjamiah refuses to believe his doll is in any way connected to him. He calls it Nuisance, but cannot deny the bond that slowly forms. I loved the explanation at the end of the story where Nuisance came from.

I must admit, the middle of the story was a little slow for me, but like I said, the world-building is excellent, imaginative and unique. A mix of Philip Pullman’s daemons, Harry Potter’s horcruxes, and a whole new magical world to encounter.

I loved the ending which brought a few gasps of surprise and even shock, and the excerpts before each chapter from a book named A Brief History of Wreathenworld, added to my understanding of this magical world.

Vivienne To’s soft black & white illustrations add even more to this tween novel.

(Thanks to Penguin Audio & Libro for an ARC of this novel)

Author – Jordan Lees

Illustrator – Vivienne To

Age – 9+

If you like this, you will like: (Click on the Cover)

(2024, Penguin UK, Action, Adventure, Family, Grief, Magic, Fantasy, Courage, Labyrinth, Dolls, Animals, Unmappable, Science, Logic, Reason, Explanation, Secrets, Searching, Quest, Twins, Puzzles, Puzzle pieces, Conundrums, Spell)