Book Spotlight: The World Between Blinks by Amie Kaufman and Ryan Graudin

Welcome to book spotlight where instead of giving you another book review, I’m just going to talk about books I’ve read recently that I enjoyed. Prepare yourself for the fangirl gushing.

Do you ever read a book and think, “Man, I wish I had come up with this idea first?” Yeah, me too. All the time. But most recently, I wish I had come up with the idea for The World Between Blinks by Amie Kaufman and Ryan Graudin because it’s brilliant.

Middle grade has a special place in my book loving heart. It has all the fun of a YA novel but usually without all the teen drama and angst. It also usually has such clear, heartfelt themes and messages that I want to either weep or shout for joy, or both, because the author is so brilliant.

So of course I had to read the middle grade novel by two awesome authors like Amie Kaufman and Ryan Graudin, and The World Between Blinks is such a fun book.

I love, love, love the idea of a “world” where lost things go. All the people and places and things Mari and Jake encounter are so great. Part of my motivation to keep turning the page was to find out who or what they’d run into next. I love that Amelia Earhart, Percy Fawcett, the Amber Room, the Loch Ness monster, and more are included in this book. And I love that they include “curator” notes at the end to explain some details of what they encounter. I kind of want to do my own research about everything to learn more about the mysteries behind some of these “lost” things.

I also love the cousin relationship between Mari and Jake. It reminds me a lot of the relationship I have with my cousins, and as a kid, I would have loved getting “lost” in the World Between Blinks with them. All of the family connections in this are so well done.

And I also love the twists and turns throughout the story! The themes and messages, the reason behind everything that happens, it’s all so great. I’m thoroughly impressed by this book. It took me a little while to get into it and I didn’t quite connect with Mari and Jake like I have in other books (realizing also that I’m not the prime audience for this story), but I still enjoyed reading and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

Waffle recommendation: If I could think of something they ate in this book that still existed in our world, I would recommend that with your waffles. But since everything they ate has been “lost,” I one-hundred percent recommend a peanut butter and chocolate waffle. Lots of peanut butter, lots of chocolate to balance it out, just like Jake figures out in the book. Believe me, when you read this book, you’ll understand why.

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