The Book Jumper is a YA fantasy by award-winning German author Mechthild Gläser, her first book to be translated into English.

After some difficult events, 17yo Amy Lennox leaves Germany with her mother Alexis, to spend some time on their native Stormsay in the Shetland Islands. Amy meets her estranged grandmother, Mairead Lennox, Lady of Stormsay, and is tasked with going into the book world to protect the stories as her ancestors have done before her. She discovers the Lennox and Macalister clans on Stormsay have the magical ability to jump into books and must overcome their age-old enmity to keep the books intact. She joins with the handsome Will and supercilious Betsy Macalister in entering her favourite stories.

Amy soon discovers something is terribly wrong in the book world and someone is stealing ideas from the stories. She knows she must act fast or the literature she loves will be damaged or erased forever.

This was an enjoyable story, basically every book lover's fantasy, to actually meet the characters from our favourite stories and enter their world. The concept I think borrows heavily from fellow German author Cornelia Funke and her brilliant book Inkheart. Amy is an enjoyable character, a passionate bookworm who has struggled to fit in at school. Possibly she is neurodiverse, but this is not stated. Much of the backstory in Germany was left unexplained. The ending was unusual and a little neat but overall this was a pleasant, light-hearted read. ( )

I was looking for something to listen to on a long drive, and this worked perfectly.

The Germans really seem to like the idea of people being able to manipulate text. . . at least. . . if one only read this and the Inheart series that's what they'd think. I would have enjoyed this book more if the ending hadn't been so oddly contrived. . . it was as though the author felt the need to shoehorn in 8 different motifs. However. . . . because this is a work in translation, the awkwardness of the resolution might be attributed to the work of the translator. I found Amy's character to be fairly well done but her mother's character was a bit flat. ( )

Although there was a part in the middle that was a bit slow, I enjoyed reading this story. It is original, fun to read and I loved going on adventure with Amy. The ending was really fitting to the book, so this was very satisfying. ( )

This story is something I believe is/would be comforting to readers who adored stories like Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland.

I adore the concept of the book jumpers and the ability to go in and out of stories. However, I did want it to be a more limited ability...perhaps to Amy alone or to Amy's family.

Early on, I had a two real complaints:
First, the span of the books recounted. I struggled a bit with the age of the main character and if it was feasible for her to want to read all the books mentioned in this book. The Jungle Book, Shakespeare, and Pride and Prejudice seemed a bit too scattered.
Second, the character development. Amy never really came alive to me as an empathetic character, but I'm okay with that in the end, because the plot itself was really strong.

The mystery around who was stealing pieces of stories is what really drove me through the plot. And I devoured this book in a single sitting.

I must say, I read a review with spoilers, and I'm happy I did. It actually brought some of the foreshadowing to light and made it a quicker read for me. If you don't mind that kind of thing, I suggest you look them up for this book.

Like I said, a comforting read for literature lovers. Also, it's almost a fairy tale retelling, but a totally different spin. ( )