Wishyouwas: The tiny guardian of lost letters

By Author / Illustrator

Alexandra Page, Penny Neville-Lee

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

ISBN

9781526641212

Format

Hardback

Published

30-09-2021

Synopsis

Classic-feeling storytelling with bags of charm. Fans of thrilling animal adventure and enchanting underground worlds will fall in love with Wishyouwas.

It's 1952 in smog-shrouded London. Christmas might be fast approaching, but with her mum away and Uncle Frank busy running the post office, Penny Black is lonelier than ever. All that changes when Penny discovers a small, fluffy, funny, springy and - most importantly - talking creature in the post office one night, trying to make off with a letter. But Wishyouwas is no thief. He's a Sorter, and he soon introduces Penny to a fascinating secret world hidden in the tunnels underneath the city's streets.

Self-appointed guardians of lost mail, the Sorters have dedicated their lives to rescuing letters that have gone astray and making sure they get delivered to their rightful owners. Penny is determined to protect the Sorters, but how long will she be able to keep them safe with Stanley Scrawl, the sinister Royal Mail Rat Catcher, on the prowl? Can Penny save the Sorters and deliver a joyful Christmas?

Q&A with author Alexandra Page

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Reviews

There are few books you pick up and you feel the words rather than just read them and when this happens, you know you are reading something special: Wishyouwas is going to be a classic.

Wishyouwas is set in smog-filled London in 1952, it is just before Christmas and Penny is staying with her Uncle at his Post Office. Uncle Frank seems cold and unused to having children around although Penny tries her best to make herself useful, not always in the most useful of ways! Penny misses her mum dreadfully, she is stuck abroad and unable to return thanks to the smog and London seems cold and unwelcoming.

It is when she is feeling her loneliest and most isolated that Penny finds a friend in the most unlikely of places. One night, whilst writing a letter to her mother, Penny spots a mysterious creature who appears to be stealing the mail. At first glance, Penny assumes the creature is a rat and the problem is almost remedied when the creature gets caught in a trap, which is when Penny discovers the animal is most certainly not a rat, he tells her so himself!

Penny has stumbled across a very secretive breed, one hiding under the streets of London and incredibly mistrusting of humans: Sorters. They are bound by their vows to protect the mail and reunite lost letters with their true recipients. Only the Sorters aren't as secret as they thought they were, other humans know of their existence and the Sorters are in danger. Penny must race against time to save the Sorters and show them that not all humans are bad!

This book is filled with charm, a real sense of friendship and full of heart. I was utterly enchanted by the Sorters and I would love to have a friend as loyal and as undeniably cute as Wishyouwas. This is going to be so popular in school, there is a brilliant blend of adventure, betrayal and underneath it all, a thread of recognising what is truly important in life.

288 pages / Reviewed by Nicola Mansfield Niemi, teacher