**Despite growing up in the bookstore she was abandoned in,
eleven-year-old Property Jones cannot read...and she's been keeping that
hidden for years.
**
Little does Property know the skills she's developed in place of reading
could save her adoptive family from a dastardly plot that's set to cheat
them out of everything. You see, the Joneses have just won a contest for
ownership of another bookstore, the Great Montgomery Book Emporium--and
it's every booklover's dream! The pull of a lever calls forth rooms full
of marvelous wonders―from the Room of Space Adventures with its rocket
ship to the Room of Ocean Tales with its aquarium ceiling.
But there is more to the Emporium than its thousands of books in
extravagant displays. In fact, the previous owner, Mr. Montgomery, has
not paid a very greedy man for a very expensive book. A book which the
Joneses discover Mr. Montgomery damaged. While her family worries about
losing the Emporium altogether, Property begins to notice strange things
about this book. Things which can only be smelled or touched...
Sylvia Bishop's fantastical middle grade mystery debut is an
entertaining tale filled with whimsy, mechanical wonder, and memorably
quirky characters.