A young girl comes home after her last day of school with terrible news. She has to read an entire book during the school holidays.

Just one? For the entire school holidays? That is terrible news.

She hates books.

Blasphemy!

Her sister takes her to the library,

Ooh, the mother ship!

where she’s introduced to the book that will change her life.

Okay, so what you’re telling me is the sister is the hero of this story.

I love books. I love books about books. I love books about loving books.

The words in this one are wonderful, sure, but it’s the illustrations I keep going back to. Our soon to be kindred spirit is absolutely adorable!

Seeing our reluctant reader glued to the page is what joy is made of. Witnessing the moment she transforms into one of us is pure magic.

Prior to their visit to the library, the colours are muted. You can see more vivid colours beginning to escape the pages in the library and when the girl begins to read. Once her imagination sparks, though, that’s when the colours come to life.

I appreciated the sneaky inclusion of the author’s other books on the classroom bookshelf. Be on the lookout, as I always am, for Mary Poppins. You may also find a Lost polar bear.

You don’t need a spell to convince me of the life changing magic of books. My hope for this book is that it’s the first adventure for tomorrow’s bookworms.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, an imprint of The Quarto Group, for the opportunity to read this picture book.

I love this!!! The symbolism of colors, it’s all full when the character didnt like book but suddenly it’s very vibrant and full of colors once she started reading. It was nice!

Oh my gosh I think this should be in every little ones library!!! I loved this story especially for little ones that aren’t really avid readers. The illustrations aren’t overly bright but pull you into the story and add a wonderful layer.

I love it. I love it. I love it so much. I would purchase for myself and for my friends!!
This is a story about a girl who did not like reading and then got a taste of the magic of stories - Oh! It's wonderfully written, the colours are beautiful, the illustrations are gorgeous.
It makes me fall in love with books even more, and it reminds me of all the magical things about books and what it do to us.
AMAZING!

This is such a good story and I could definitely see children who don't love reading picking this up and giving reading another shot. I'm so glad I could read this early.

This was the CUTEST wee story. As an avid lifelong bookworm, it was really beautiful to see the journey from ick to magnificence in the relationship with stories, and the illustrations are full of life.

Story is cute and the art style was really cool. It took us on a journey and will be adding this to my beginning of the school year read aloud.

4 stars

This is a beautifully-illustrated picture book about the magic of reading and everything that opens up for you when you discover that one book that turns you into a reader. It's definitely a book that I would encourage my KS1 colleagues to read to their classes or one that I would share in a school assembly about reading.
After being blown away by Flooded by the same author last year, I think I was expecting this book to work on different levels in the same way, and it didn't for me. It's still a stunning book with an important message however.

A story about learning to love stories and the magic in reading.

I would use this book as a tool, to attempt to broaden the mind of a young reader, who was resistant to reading. This would be a perfect book to have in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. I cannot imagine that this is a book that will be returned to often however because to kids who are already readers, they may find the contents obvious.

The illustrations here, to me are the best part of this cute book. Very cute and engaging.

This book made me smile the whole time I read it. I love it when someone finds the love of reading. This book is the perfect example of what it is like when you read a good book. What a cute book! I liked the layout and the pictures were also good.

A wonderful story encouraging reading with beautiful illustrations. A great story for children who may not have yet found that perfect book to steer them toward the love of reading.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

"The Spell of a Story" is everything you could want in a children's book—adventure, drama, a tiny moral to the story, and a story-within-a-story. Oh, and lively illustrations to keep things extra interesting. When the main character is told to read a book over vacation, she can't imagine anything worse—and things don't get better when her mother takes her to the library. But it doesn't take long before she falls into the story and things start to change...

What I loved most about this is the way the character falls into the story and we get to see snippets of what's going on between the pages, all in full color and with plenty of adventure. The witches are my favorite; mischevious or no, they look like a delight to hang out with. I didn't need a book like this as a kid (from a very young age my father could stick me in the back of a conference room with a few books and I'd be happy as a clam for the duration), but I still would have loved reading it, just as I loved reading it now. After all, life is so much more colorful with a book or twelve...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

OH MY GOD! I DUNNO WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK! It is so cute and really tells us that to love reading book you need to love one book first then another-books-to-love will follow behind.

Thank you FLC/Quarto for sending me this Advance Reader Copy.

What an amazing little book for children who don't like to read and those who love it, showing them the magical worlds we can explore in fictitious stories. The illustrations are utterly charming and and colours that are a little dull at first and then literally explode once that little main characters opens up a book gave me so much nostalgia remembering how I dove into stories from a young age, I had tears in my eyes. I will definitely buy this book for all the children I know.

I loved this story of a reluctant reader who learns to love what stories can do. The palette of the illustrations communicated the power, emotion, and possibility of stories that engage readers. I appreciate how the adults in this book encourage a reader to find what interests her instead of pushing "should-read" books, modeling a helpful way to build a love of reading.

A young girl who dislikes reading is assigned on the last day of school to read a book. Her mother takes her to the library and helps her select the beginning of an adventure that changes her reading outlook. I love how the illustrations go from a few tones to more color as she falls into the spell of reading. This would be a fun book to read to all my students in my elementary school library at the end of the year. I’m always encouraging them to read over the summer. Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for the temporary ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

OMG, I loved this story! It’s about this girl who hates reading but when she finds the ultimate book for her she becomes a bookdragon herself. I love this so much and really think that every one who doesn’t like reading just hasn’t found his or her book yet. Inalso really liked the accompanying pictures. ♥️

This beautiful book by Klaus Flugge Prize winner Mariajo Illustrajo is full of magic and will bring you and your little ones joy to read.

At a time when reading for pleasure is at an all time low and the Book Trust and Children's Laureates are joining forces in order to tackle the issue at the grass roots, this book breathes hope and joy into the heart of any parent with a reluctant reader in their house.

The story begins with a young girl finding out that she must read a book over her school holidays. Why on earth would she ever want to do that? She HATES books. Why can't she just have fun and relax? Her mum takes her off to the library and chooses a book for her and the rest , as they say, is history. The dull sketches on the pages transform into vibrant illustrations packed with a spectrum of wonderful colours and the girl gets totally drawn in the the magic of her book. She is taken on an adventure full of witches, piranhas and dragons and she can not put her book down. When she finishes, she heads straight back to the library to find another story to cast it's spell on her.

Mariajo Illustrajo uses her beautiful illustrations and transition from muted to bright colours to bring the story to life in the way that a great book captures our imagination and fills us full of emotion whilst engaging our imagination. A good book can make us laugh, cry, love and all of the emotions in between and somehow, employing her drawings, Mariajo captures all of that and pops it onto the pages of this fabulous picture book. We loved it and can't think of a better tool to entice those children who think that books are boring and a chore into changing their outlook.

We read this book with children age 4-6.

Thank you to NetGalley and FLC/Quarto for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

This picture book has charming illustrations, and the story shows a reluctant reader getting swept away into a good book for the first time. The dialogue in the story feels honest and natural, and the illustrations depict the main character's experience of feeling immersed in an imaginary story after being so resistant to reading. This is really sweet, and even though the message could have felt forced or demanding, I think that this book is more encouraging and empowering than preachy.

This was a cute and endearing book about learning to love reading. I enjoyed the art and think kids will, too.