The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams by Victoria Williamson

Book Blurb
In a strange little village called Witchetty Hollow, eleven-year-old Florizel is the first to run into the curious visitors who’ve come to open a brand-new Daydream Delicatessen and sack-baby factory. At first, the poor folk of the Hollow are delighted – after all, who has the money to rent a real child from Storkhouse Services these days? But soon the daydreams turn sour. The Delicatessen’s products are expensive, and villagers trading their worldly goods in the newly-opened Pawnshop begin to disappear. With no money for rent payments, the real children of Witchetty Hollow are being reclaimed by Storkhouse Services at an alarming rate. Can Florizel and sack-boy Burble stop the daydream thieves’ evil business before it’s too late to save the Hollow?

My Review
The Pawnshop of Dreams by Victoria Williamson is the first book I have read in the ‘Middle Grade’ genre. I have reviewed quite a lot of YA fantasy so I thought I would try something new. This book is aimed at 9-12 year olds, and set in the fantasy village of Whitchetty Hollow where people can no longer have children so have to rent them from Storkhouse Services. When the Gobbelino family come to Whitchetty Hollow with their new Delicatessen, the villagers are enchanted, spending all their money on the magical cakes meaning they can no longer affored to rent children so are offered sack-babies which are cheaper. But something is wrong, villagers go missing in suspicious circumstances. Packed in to the two hundred pages is adventure, mystery, fun and a touch of darkness.

The Pawnshop of Dreams has a feel of the Grimm Fairytales about it; the heroine children, the evil adults, a moral tucked in and a balance of light and dark. The heroine and hero of this book are Florizel and Burble. Florizel is rented by Gammer Oakenshaw, they dont have much money so to keep the rent low Florizel has to purposely do badly at school. One evening she sees the carriage of the Gobbelino’s come to town, and straight away knows they are bad news. Burble, escapes from the back of the carriage trying to escape ‘recycling’and before long he teams up with Florizelto try and save the day. They do get themselves into several scrapes along the way, normally due to Burble, but their friendship really touched my heart.

The writing of this book is beautiful. The descriptions of the characters and places are amazing and further enhanced by the illustrations of James Brown, my favourite being the drawing of Griselda Gobbelino that made the Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang look loveable. As with a lot of fairytales the child’s fear of being taken away from parents or of being unwanted are played out brillinatly in this book, with those who take children away being terrifying. Although as with most fairytales good wins over evil and it’s the children who are triumphant.

I  have to admit that I surprised myself in how much I enjoyed The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams. It was a truely magical read, about good and evil, familiy and most importantly friendship. The characters were fabulous, both good and bad, and the story was engaging and full of adventure and mystery. I think it is perfect for 9-12 year olds and Im going to put it away for my grandaughter for a year or so. Magical and enchanting this is a fabulous read.

I’d like to thank The Write Reads for inviting me to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.