This is a brilliant novel and premise, because while it is connected to Seanan McGuire's Middlegame and will provide some amazing context and easter eggs for fans of that book, it is also an excellent read as a standalone novel. AND it is easily approachable for middle grade and young adult readers who may be ready for some of McGuire's gorgeous weaving of faerytale and folklore, and maybe not quite as interested in as much of the blood or real-world stressors that her adult characters tend to encounter in her other books. Our characters are Avery and Zib who are as different as two children could be, and running late to school one day in their perfectly ordinary lives when they come to a huge wall blocking the road they usually take to school. They climb it to try to continue on their way to school, and so begins an adventure on the other side of the Woodward Wall.

There are a few things that make this book particularly excellent in my mind. First, is Seanan's mastery of folklore and how that fleshes out her world building of what Avery & Zib find over the wall from the descriptive colors of the plants and animals to the wandering nature of the tale and the improbable road the children take, there is just so much richness and texture to the world. Second, is the characters. As I said, Avery and Zib are as different as could be, and so their courage and fear and fierceness and loyalty comes through their characters in very different ways. It's well done in that while they may not always understand the other, and occasionally get frustrated, neither one is lesser in the other's eyes. They balance. There are also others they encounter along the way, some remain in the tale for a while and some who are there just briefly, and each character is striking and has just the right amount of detail. Third is the fact that there are and will be real world consequences for what happens over the wall, this isn't something they just get to wake up from and it was all an interesting dream.I personally like the weight and urgency this adds to their adventure.

As I said at the opening, fans of Middlegame will undoubtedly enjoy this book, and I also think it would do really well with fans of McGuire's Wayward Children series or other portal fantasies. And I do think this would be an excellent introduction for younger readers to McGuire's writing.

very cute and fantastical middle-grade story. It was really nice to read the actual story that we saw glimpses of in middlegame. I loved Zib and Avery and I'm glad they are getting their own little series

Over the Woodward Wall is an enchanting story of two ordinary children, Zib and Avery, who find themselves both willing and unwilling apprentices to adventure in the delightful and equally disturbing fantasy world of The Up and Under. There are mythic forces at play amidst the fog, feathers and frost. Zib and Avery are highly unlikely companions traversing a highly unlikely world. The Up and Under ferments with a dark pungency in the cruel rule of it’s Kings and Queens. Such grim power illuminates the hearts of Zib and Avery, who are from different sides of the fence in their own world. Owls, crow girls and others in The Up and Under are drawn to their unheroic, yet heartfelt quest to return home.

The depth of mythic imagination in this story thrilled me as a reader in the same way when I first read Charles de Lint, Terry Windling and Alan Garner.

Sweeping you up in the glitter and mud of this adventure, Over the Woodward Wall is the sort of story that forces you to confront why you have kept all the the forgotten pebbles, twigs and odd feathers that you always seem to find in your pockets. One day, like Zib and Avery, you may find a wall where there wasn’t a wall before. If that happens, you will need old magic woven into a story, just like this, to help you find yourself.

I’ll be braiding a feather into my hair just in case.

(Edited 4/10 to fix typographical errors)

Over the Woodward Wall is a magical and enchanting Novella that instantly leaves you wanting more. Avery and Zib live on an ordinary street, in an ordinary town but one day something improbable happens. On their walks to school both children are forced to veer from their usual routes and are instead lead to a road that ends in a brick wall. Avery and Zib know the wall hasn't always been here, they have been down this road before, but they also know the only way through it is over. Only what's over the wall isn't what they expect it to be, instead of the rest of the street, more houses, they find themselves in a wood unlike any wood they have ever seen. They soon find out this place is called the Up and Under filled with magical beings and ones not so different from their own world. They are told to walk the Improbable Road to the Impossible City where they will find the Queen of cups who can send them home. But like any journey, everything is no as easy as it seems. There are forces at work in the Up and Under, forces that wouldn't mind having Avery or Zib as their own. They will have to learn who they can trust and who is working against them if they are ever to make it out in one piece.

Avery and Zib are two characters who couldn’t be more different. Two completely different sides of the alphabet. Avery, a child constantly on the cusp of adulthood with his starched clothes and shiny shoes and Zib who fears she will never grow into her real name, content to be dirty and stay a child as long as possible. Their differences come in useful in this strange land Avery being the calm and calculated, and Zib being trusting and willing to fight for those she loves. They are both brilliantly resilient, in the way only children can be, accepting of their surroundings instead of trying to fight it, willing to go on the adventure set before them.

It's incredibly hard to narrow this book down to a specific age group. Would it pass as MG? Absolutely, and I would not hesitate in buying this book for children in my family. But as an adult, this book hit me in a different way. It took me back to a time when I would have been that accepting of something strange, when climbing a wall and finding a different world on the other side didn't seem impossible, when going on a grand adventure was all I wanted in life. It also offers a lot of social commentary that whilst it would go over the child's head, is something that an adult reader can't help but pick up on.

The Up and Under is a brilliantly rendered magical world that I would have loved to explore as a child. You will see echoes of some of the magical lands we all know and love: Wonderland, Narnia, Oz. But Barker makes the Up and Under her own, with unique characters that jump off the page and a vivid and quirky landscape. I defy you not to get swept away on Avery and Zib's journey.

Would I have picked this up if I had seen it marketed as MG? Probably not, but I would have kicked myself for missing out on this magical read. At only over 200 pages you will fly though it, and I am insanely glad that the author left it open enough for us to return.

Over the Woodward Wall is on one side a very straightforward children’s books, on the other a very meta experiment in mirroring.
This is A. Deborah Baker’s first book, which in our world means “the first novella Seanan McGuire wrote under this pseudonym”, but if you’ve read Middlegame, it means something completely different. And that’s where my main doubt comes in: would someone who hasn’t read Middlegame get much out of this at all? Because I’m not sure.

This is the story of Avery and Zib, two children who couldn’t be more different but have tied fates, as they stumble in a different world on their way to school. If you’ve read Middlegame, you also know that twins Roger and Dodger were as different as twins can possibly be while still being close in a way no one else can ever be, therefore encompassing the rest of reality between them – like two letters at opposite ends of the alphabet. This similarity has plot relevance in Middlegame, as Over the Woodward Wall sits inside it, but not here; here noticing the parallels is something that enriches the reading experience, but even if you can’t, you’ll be perfectly fine.
Because, if it weren’t for the existence of Middlegame, this wouldn’t be anything but perfectly fine in the most forgettable way possible.

This isn’t a children’s book, the same way Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children isn’t YA but an adult response to the YA portal fantasy genre – one that imitates its structure and some of its characteristics. By which I mean, Over the Woodward Wall is a cuckoo and doesn’t even really make for a good children’s books; I know that if I had read it in middle school, I would have found it bland, boring, and way too interested in its own cleverness. I would have found the Crow Girl bits very compelling, as I found them interesting and cool to read now, especially the tiny spin on gender and being fragmented it took – I wanted more of that, and less of the rest.

And is it preachy. Every single character in the Up-and-Under is interested in giving the main ones life lessons, only disguised in a quirky way – this is, when the narration isn’t already trying to do that to the reader. While this is clearly a stylistic choice more than a flaw, it’s one I don’t really get along with: it’s tedious, and I would have felt talked down to had I been a kid. Now I know that books written like this are soothing to listen to while doing chores, but don’t work for me on ebook at all. And that’s a shame, I feel like this book is (even more) full of easter eggs and meta commentary that I could find while I constantly felt like skimming all of it.
I hope there’s going to be an audiobook of Over the Woodward Wall, because it’s the format I would recommend it in, and even then, almost only to Middlegame fans.

This one was a lot of fun, a get lost in your brain that becomes a movie. I read it quick, but enjoyed every minute. Characters seem like real people that you might actually get to know.

Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review!

A. Deborah Baker is a pen name for Seanan McGuire, one of my very favorite authors. I was so excited to hear that this book, central to her excellent novel _Middlegame_, was coming out in book form. If you haven’t read _Middlegame_. this book still would be a great read on its own, appropriate for adults and younger readers alike.

Avery and Zib are the lead characters here. Avery is a rule-follower, proud of his shiny shoes and his orderly life. Zib is his creative, chaotic foil. Though they live on the same street, they never meet until the day their usual path to school is blocked and they climb over a mysterious wall into a land of adventure.

If you like stories with brave young protagonists and fantasy elements plus puzzles and mysteries to solve, you’ll find a lot to love here. The owls and the Crow Girl were among my favorite minor, magical characters. Throughout the story Baker/McGuire draws a beautiful, rich world. Her true, deep understanding of the mechanics of fairy tales is once again on display here. You’ll find echoes of Oz and Narnia and other favorite, classic fairy and fantasy kingdoms. Best yet, in this troubling year, I found so much meaning and comfort in this story about staying true to your friends and your sense of self. There are so many beautiful, meaningful lines here—I’ll let you find them for yourself, but I paused many times to hit highlight on my Kindle.

Best of all, from what I see on Goodreads, this is going to be a series? Count me in.

First off, I will admit I did not realize this was a Middle Grade book until I started reading it, nor did I realize that A. Deborah Baker is Seanan McGuire - I was just very attracted to the cover art, and I'm a sucker for portal fantasies. I had not read any other MG books as an adult, so I decided to expand my librarian purview and continue with reading this one.

"Over the Woodward Wall" is a cute, whimsical novella that gives off serious Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz vibes. There is an iridescent road the children must follow to get home, four rulers of different realms that are good or evil, and strange talking creatures they meet along the way. It felt a little too derivative at times, but maybe McGuire wanted to bring some of these classic elements to a young audience that probably isn't familiar with them. She brings much of her own imagination to the story as well.

At its core, I believe this story is about getting out of your comfort zone. It's about embracing new experiences, facing challenges head-on, and accepting those who are very different from you. There are some valuable lessons for children to learn in these pages, wrapped in a delightful world full of magic and adventure. At times, the children's dialogue felt more sophisticated than what would be used by this age group, but I don't regularly work with middle grade readers, so I may be underestimating their comprehension.

If you're looking for a quick and easy read that will whisk you away for a bit and provide you with some nostalgic feels, this is for you!

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker is a middle grade adventure novel in which two children, Avery and Zib, find themselves transported from their world into a mysterious new one. The two main characters, who are also meeting for the first time, must safely navigate treacherous terrains and wily sovereigns, travelling along the Impossible Road (an actual road) to lead them to the Queen of Wands, who can transport them safely home. Zib and Avery must learn to work together and discern who they can trust as friends to aid them in their journey. This book is for fans of Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, but it is much darker than both of them.

This is a really tough one to review, but I think my rating is floating somewhere between 3-3.5 stars.

"Remember this: that it was a very safe, very ordinary town. This will be important later."

So, I'm a major Seanan McGuire fangirl, and I cannot emphasize how much I love and respect her as an author, and just a person in general. She has created so many worlds where anyone can dive in and feel welcome, and she writes under so many different genres that a reader could simply never get bored with what her mind creates. While this book features a character seen in Middlegame, you do not have to read it first to comprehend what goes on in this novella. Over the Woodward Wall is truly its own story and you can dive right in.

Perhaps the reason why I couldn't fully settle into this tale is because it's a bit confusing who it was intended for. Is it truly a middle grade novella intended for children? Is it a child's fantasy marketed for adults by its inclusion of ambiguous social commentary? Either way, it's truly enjoyable, especially throughout the middle portion, but be prepared that this is the first installment in a new series, and it does finish quite abruptly. Once again, McGuire/A. Deborah Baker has me ready and waiting for the next book, and I can't wait to see where she takes us next.

REVIEW✍️

My favourite book of 2019, likely my favourite book of the decade, definitely a top five favourite of all time, is Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame. So going into Over the Woodward Wall, I had high expectations but also pretty chill expectations. I knew whatever McGuire wrote here would be good enough for me because it would be more of the Middlegame universe. Over the Woodward Wall can be read independently of Middlegame, as a middle grade fantasy story. But this story exists in Middlegame, where the greatest alchemist of all time wrote it to encode her knowledge – “to show the enlightened mind the way to expand its reach and grasp” (Middlegame, Book V, “Silence”).

MIDDLEGAME CONNECTIONS

If you are a Middlegame fan, this book will prove satisfying while also stirring up some questions. For example, IIRC, Baker wrote the books in the early 20th century. But it’s hard to pin the time of Avery and Zib’s world before they cross the wall. When did Baker set her story? This is a small example. But it leads me to questions like, how much did Baker really know? Is she predicting? Foreshadowing? Could her characters have become anyone or did she know well enough that they would represent Dodger and Rodger? Fun speculation! I think a reread of Middlegame would clarify some of these questions for me. McGuire has three more books planned, so let’s hope they all see publication. Perhaps we will get more tidbits and insight into the Middlegame universe through them.

I don’t have much to say about this title independent of Middlegame. Over the Woodward Wall is truly a standalone. You don’t need to be familiar with Middlegame to read Over the Woodward Wall. But because I adore Middlegame, it’s difficult to separate my enjoyment of Over the Wodoward Wall from it. My main source of enjoyment from the book is picking apart the parallels between characters in the two titles. All the notes I made while reading were regarding connections to Middlegame. In the next section, I’ll evaluate the book a little more generally, but I guess what I’m saying is this has become a review of Over the Woodward Wall written for Middlegame readers 😛

On that note I want to add one last purely Middlegame comment. I felt I learnt a lot more about Erin than Rodger or Dodger while reading this book. I am a-okay with that.

STYLE

Although Over the Woodward Wall is a portal fantasy of the sort McGuire explores in the Wayward Children series, I found it not quite as stellar as any of those titles. It is, after all, a middle grade story. It has an appropriately different atmosphere and style of adventure. Though McGuire does hit plenty of the emotional, heart string tugging notes she’s known for, none of them struck me in the same way as some of the Wayward Children stories do. Yet the prose remains strong as ever. The tone is definitely more Wayward Children than Middlegame (or any of McGuire’s other titles, I presume). Similarly, I felt the book ended far before I was ready for it to. (At least there will be a direct sequel!) But generally speaking, Over the Woodward Wall fits more neatly alongside Valente’s Fairyland series, particularly the latter books.

THE BOTTOM LINE 💭

A must read for fans of Middlegame, Over the Woodward Wall is also a strong entry to the field of middle grade portal fantasy. Best for readers who can handle a good dose of darkness and uncertainty, or who are drawn to more emotion than action.

3.5 stars
I am so happy that Seanan McGuire decides to give us this book from within a book! I loved the excerpts that were in Middlegame. We follow Avery and Zib on their adventures through the Up and Under. I liked parts of this book a lot but for a 200 page book it dragged a little in parts to me. This book made me discover that I don’t more nonsensical stories. Overall, I liked the book but maybe not quite for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

This book had a very nostalgic feel to me. It was written in the way of a lot of the fantasy books for children were written by British authors in the middle of the last century; books that I really loved when I was a kid. I felt this so strongly that it was a bit of a jolt when it was revealed that Avery and Zib were from the USA and not Great Britain!

I very much enjoyed reading about Avery and Zib's adventures, and loved that two so very different children who would never have been friends in the real world were thrown together on this adventure and not only learned to accept who the other was, but developed a true friendship and affection for each other.

I also loved the introduction of all the other characters; the three owls, Crow Girl, and Niamh. What was wonderful about them is that although they did help the children, their own fears restricted what they were able and willing to do.

I'm hoping this was only the first and that there will be another book that gives us more adventures for these two children.

Over the Woodward Wall is a middle-grade fantasy by A. Deborah Baker. And yet, it's so much more!

Seanan McGuire has written a stunning portal fantasy with well-developed and engaging characters both the human and the not so human. One of her gifts is to create characters that dare the reader to not care about them and get emotionally entangled.

She's created a magical though slightly menacing world filled with places that I want to know more about.

Avery and Zib, school children, live on the same street yet their lives don't cross. Until the day they're walking to their separate schools and become hopelessly lost in a strange world with only each other and the occasional talking tree or giant owl to depend on.

Avery is a quiet, well-behaved boy with pressed chinos and shiny shoes. Zib is wild and free, enjoying nature which frequently gets enmeshed in her springy wayward curls. They'll need to learn to put aside their differences and trust each other if they're going to overcome the challenges and threats that stand between them and finding their way home.

Lots of whimsy in this world, reminiscent of Oz or Wonderland. And also like those stories, this one has menace and fear. Not all of the characters want to help Avery and Zib find their way home.

No spoilers but like a lot of Seanan's books, the ending was a hard punch to the feels.

Despite being written for middle-grade readers, fans of her Wayward Children will feel right at home with Over the Woodward Wall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor.com for the ARC.

Over the Woodward Wall has the same touches of the whimsical I've come to associate with Seanen McGuire. Magic that flows, unhindered, through the pages to unfold slowly before you. It captivates you, leading you into a world of whimsical danger. It's easy to get lost in the fantasy. The waterfalls, portals, and creatures that lead us astray. But at the same time, Over the Woodward Wall has these moments of clarity. Sentences that speak pieces of truths scattered throughout.

First, I'm going to say that I really enjoyed this. The writing is excellent - it very much reminded me of Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi (which I loved). It's quirky and atmospheric and full of wisdom. Great coming of age moments, adventure, and peril abound. I think this would make an excellent transition to a visual medium in the correct hands.

Second, I'm going to say this has me anxious to read more by this author.

Third, despite how much I enjoyed this, I'm not quite sure the content matches the target audience. It's the author's first foray into middle-grade, and most elements of the story are solidly middle-grade material, but the writing is pretty sophisticated and ventures into the philosophical often. I think the age range between which young readers can read this and truly comprehend it without finding it too juvenile is going to be a small range; this is in that weird transitional place between upper middle-grade and lower YA. I think older readers who enjoy her other works will definitely enjoy it.

Loved Over the Woodward Wall. Somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and James Thurber, absurd and mythic and perfectly fitting for anyone that reads above or below their age and delights in word play! An adventure story of two children who go over a wall that suddenly appears, taking them to a world of Crow Girls, talking Owls and some very terrifying royalty. Highly recommend for readers of Seanan McGuire as well.

This book, oh this magical, fantastical book. I have been wanting and waiting to read this book since I read Middlegame and the fact that I have been able to read this brings me such joy. This novella is technically a companion novel to Middlegame; it is mentioned in that story and used as a metaphor for many of the experiences that those characters have. However, this is the rare book that I think you can enjoy without knowing anything about the companion. If this is your first foray into the world of A. Deborah Baker, welcome! If you already know who she is from Middlegame, you may, like me, be looking for the references and connections that entwine the two novels. (I should be clear here that "A. Deborah Baker" as the author of Over the Woodward Wall is the pseudonym of Seanan McGuire, fantasy and horror author extraordinaire. A. Deborah Baker the character is someone else entirely.)

Like many classic fairy tales, this one starts with two children named Avery and Zib leaving their ordinary town and their ordinary world and falling (or in this case, climbing) into a thoroughly impossible, improbably world to have adventures. These adventures will teach them about themselves and each other, and show them a bit more about the world around them. Avery and Zib are so relatable because, between the two of them, they encapsulate so many of us. We all so desperately want the world to be ordered and to make sense, and so often the world does not follow our requests.

This book was beautiful - everything from the language to the story pulled me in and created a fantastic magical world to inhabit. This is the book that will take you out of your life and allow you to escape into another world, where girls can become crows, where owls talk, and where the road will rise up to meet you if it is just improbable enough. 5/5 stars.

3.5 stars

Over the Woodward Wall follows the childrens tale referred to in Middlegame, and it feels very much like a classic childrens folktale (I would say I could especially see the paralells with the wizard of oz, alice in wonderland and hansel and gretel). I will say this book reads more like her wayward children series than middlegame so if you love the waywrd children series you will probably really love this!! (Unfortunately I dont love the wayward children books but I do adore middlegame so I super excited to read this!! And whilst I can defiently see the paralells to middlegame, especially with the personalities of the two main characters it didn't have quite the same magic for me).

I also was expecting this to be a standalone so was quite shocked with the ending, it didn't feel wraped up at all but also I'm excited for more books in the series because I think it has a lot of potential, especially if we saw more of the two main characters personalities, which I feel like this was the strongest part of the book but sometimes got a bit lost in convulted setences and descriptions.

The world of the up and under is very whimiscal and while the descriptions are very vivid I feel like sometimes it was just a little too weird for me and I got a bit lost, or the plot got too meander-y (which I do understand was kind of the point), I feel like sometimes we had these huge leaps and suddenly lots of things would happen,

Our two main characters Zib and Avery were very interesting children (and I could see definete paralells to rodger and dodger) and I feel like I would have liked more of their development cause we had touches of it and it was just on the precipce of being so good and profound but then novella syndrome would strike and the story would jump away.

Overall this was a fun, whimiscal story but felt almost a bit to pretenious to believably be a childrens book, however I think most adults would really enjoy it for the sense of wonder and nostalgia even if the plot is a little lacking.

"Writing as A. Deborah Baker, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of talking trees and sarcastic owls, of dangerous mermaids and captivating queens in Over the Woodward Wall, an exceptional tale for readers who are young at heart.

If you trust her you’ll never make it home...

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework - without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under - an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives."

Again, how does Seanan McGuire have the time!?! She's up to what, four names she's writing under!?!