The Nowhere Emporium: 1 (Kelpies)

Product Information

This story reads like the bedtime tale you wish your dad had told you when you were a kid, spinning it out over many weeks while you fought sleep as valiantly as you were able, always wanting to hear just a little bit more. Trying to be realistic for lots of my readers/friends here on GR, I don't think many of you would go out of your way to read it without a younger loved one to share it with; but I think you could have an opportunity to do that since many children younger than the recommended age of 8 would enjoy having this book read to them before they could read it to themselves. If you have a child who likes fantasy and adventure and can deal with a PG level of scariness, then this book would likely be a home run. Reading it by myself, I genuinely enjoyed it but was always aware it was rather more for kids than for me. Well. Let me not mislead you. Fun *for me* and stressful for our young hero, whose relationships are...fraught...throughout the book. Does he understand the rules Mr. Silver sets down? Is he doing it right? Are his friends really his friends or are they going to abandon him?

I wanted to see more of their downtime when there wasn't a problem to be solved or a bad guy chasing after them. It almost feels like you got dropped into the middle of a breathless race without a second or two to catch your bearings. I liked Mr. Silver too! He had a quiet kind of strength, he was kind, generous and utterly magical. However, he was also tormented by the ghosts of his past and it showed. He wasn't a perfect character but I loved him nonetheless. I will also say that this book could have been written to be read aloud -- the descriptions have just the right amount of detail to them to be vivid when spoken with a little flair, but not so much that you or a young audience will forget what you were even talking about by the time you get to the end of a paragraph. The language and the pacing are comfortable for speaking, too. Daniel Holmes is the protagonist of the story. He's an unlikely hero and a lovable one. I adored him. He was brave, he was clever and he was kind. He's an orphan boy who lost his parents in awful circumstances and the orphanage he's been placed in is a building devoid of friends, kindness and warmth. I also loved that he was a realistic kid, he made some silly mistakes but he had a heart of gold and I LOVED HIM OKAY. I felt a burst of happiness for Daniel when he was taken under Mr. Silver's wing and discovered a life of wonder and magnificence because the precious marshmallow really, really deserved it. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

If you're able to cast aside your comparisons with HP and The Night Circus, then I'm sure you'll really enjoy this book.

Another thing that I really liked was the ending. I love how satisfying the ending was and how well it concluded this book. It's refreshing to read fantasy stories that are concluded within one book instead of being stretched across several installments.Commenting on his Scottish Book Awards win, Ross said: “I'm so delighted to have won the SCBA for ‘The Nowhere Emporium’! Scottish Book Trust do such an amazing job, and these awards are extra-special because it's the readers who make the final decision. Children don't often get the chance to have a voice on this sort of scale, and I believe it's important for them to know that they have that voice and that their opinions matter. I loved Ellie as well, Mr. Silver's twelve-year-old daughter. On the exterior, she's fierce and stubborn and brave, but there were little chinks in her armour that allowed her fear, her sadness and her uncertainty to reach the reader, making her feel like a very authentic character. She felt trapped and stifled due to not being able to leave the Emporium's walls and I felt so sadfor her because she was just a real girl who was a ghost to everyone but her father, Daniel and the Emporium's staff. She just wanted to set foot outside the Emporium's walls and see the real world, breathe fresh air into her lungs and explore the extraordinary beauty of Earth. She was sassy and brave but she showed her vulnerability as well which made her feel so much more real! But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. When the mysterious Nowhere Emporium arrives in Glasgow, orphan Daniel Holmes stumbles upon it quite by accident. Before long, the 'shop from nowhere' -- and its owner, Mr Silver -- draw Daniel into a breathtaking world of magic and enchantment. Before I start this review, let me first point out something most people have or are likely to notice when reading this book. Yes, you can see that the author was inspired by Harry Potter and The Night Circus. Yes, there are a few similarities between these books and The Nowhere Emporium.

We know that teaching vocabulary is crucial to support successful reading comprehension, and potentially word recognition. But what does this mean for me, planning for my Year 5class? You get to see a lot of cool things at the price of character development. I wanted more from their interpersonal relationships. The plot left me confused as to where characters stood with each other. I never got a strong emotional connection between Daniel, Ellie and Mr Silver.That said, it left me wanting in a few areas. Number one, I hate to compare it to Morrigan Crow, but in that book you feel like you could walk away from the story and have just as much fun exploring the city of Nevermoor. You don't get that sense in “The Nowhere Emporium”. HOWEVER, that hardly means this book is a rip-off of either of those books. Just because The Night Circus had magicians and magical rooms/venues, doesn't mean other books containing magicians and magic are necessarily rips-off of it. Similarly, just because Harry Potter featured a young boy who is introduced to a world of magic doesn't mean that this theme can no more be used in other books. When the mysterious Nowhere Emporium arrives in Glasgow, orphan Daniel Holmes stumbles upon it quite by accident. Before long, the 'shop from nowhere' -- and its owner, Mr Silver -- draw Daniel into a breathtaking world of magic and enchantment. Recruited as Mr Silver's apprentice, Daniel learns the secrets of the Emporium's vast labyrinth of passageways and rooms -- rooms that contain wonders beyond anything Daniel has ever imagined. But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. The Nowhere Emporium is an enchanted shop which appears at will in any time or place. The proprietor, Daniel Holmes, uses his imagination to create wondrous spaces in the Emporium’s vast interior. Whatever he writes in the enchanted Book of Wonders appears as a room inside the shop, ready to be enjoyed by visiting customers, who will instantly forget about it as soon as they leave. However, a dark force is seeping through the Emporium and Daniel has disappeared.