Festive Guest Post - Amy Ephron - The Other Side of the Wall - Tess & Max’s Top Ten Favorite Things about London at Christmastime

Today on Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books we have a wonderful guest post by Los Angeles based author Amy Ephron. We're going to take a winter festive walk with Max and Tess looking at their top favourite things to do in London at Christmas time.  

What would you do? 

Check out the post for inspiration and take a walk on The Other Side. If you would like to read my book review then please click the link below. Thank you for reading and have a GREAT Christmas. 
                             
                            The Other Side of the Wall by Amy Ephron
            Philomel Books | Hardcover ISBN: 9781984813275 | $16.99 |Ages 8-12
                     Mr. Ripleys Enchanted Books - BOOK REVIEW HERE
                                              
                                               ABOUT THE BOOK:
In this new adventure with Tess and Max, internationally bestselling author Amy Ephron takes readers to London at Christmastime, where a new fantastical journey awaits.

It’s Christmas break and Tess and Max are in London, staying at the posh Sanborn House with their Aunt Evie. As they wait for their parents to arrive, there is an unusual snowstorm that makes the city seem as if it's caught in a snow globe. Perfect weather for an adventure in Hyde Park. But when Max, Tess, and Aunt Evie leave to search for a cab, they find a horse and carriage and driver curiously waiting for them at the curb. And that's just the beginning...

Soon Tess is charmed by a mysterious boy named Colin who lives at the hotel all year round--on the 8th floor. But Max is sure the elevator only had 7 floors the day before. And how come everyone at the hotel seems to ignore Colin? Things seem to get stranger and stranger. There's a 1920s costume party in Colin's parents' apartment. A marble that seems to be more than it appears. And a shadow that passes mysteriously by Tess and Max's hotel window.

Tess & Max’s Top Ten Favorite Things about London at Christmastime

1. Ride the London Eye, the big Ferris wheel, and marvel at the Christmas decorations sparkling all over the city. (Hope Tess doesn’t have to rescue anyone.) 

2. Have tea at Harrods. (No Nutella, please.) 

3. Go to Hyde Park, especially if it’s lightly snowing. 

4. Watch the ceremony of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. 

5. Shop at a bookstore and check out the mysteries as their Dad likes British mysteries. Check out the poetry section for something that would appeal to their mom. Persuade Aunt Evie that they both need new chapter books. Max might even distract Aunt Evie, while Tess buys a book about British birds and hides it in her backpack for Aunt Evie to open on Christmas, too. 

6. Go to Victoria skateboard park. Awesome 

7. Convince Aunt Evie to take a drive in the blue Bentley all the way to Hampton Court. And, once there, try to navigate their way through the maze. (Careful, you never know what’s on the other side.) 

8. Split a prime rib dinner on Sunday night at a fancy pub in London. 

9. Wander Kew Gardens at night on their amazing new dark walk and explore the “immersive light trail.” 

10. Go to Portobello Market, the outdoor antique fair, with Aunt Evie. Hope Aunt Evie magically finds another matching glass to the crystal one that was their grandmother’s. and Tess finds a snowball with a horse and driver and carriage inside and when you turn it up-side-down and turn it right again, it looks as if snowflakes are falling all around the carriage and the cobblestoned street.

                                         (Photo by Katrina Dickson)
   About the Author

Amy Ephron (www.amyephron.com) is the author of The Castle in the Mist, her first book for young readers, which was nominated for a SCIBA Award, and of Carnival Magic, a companion book. Amy has also written several adult books, including A Cup of Tea, which was an international bestseller. Her novel One Sunday Morning received the Booklist Best Fiction of the Year and Best Historical Fiction of the Year awards and was a Barnes and Noble Book Club selection. She is a contributor and contributing editor at Vogue and Vogue.com, and her work has appeared in numerous other publications. She was also the executive producer of Warner Brothers' A Little Princess. Amy lives in Los Angeles with her husband; between them, they have five children. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @amyephron.

Amy Ephron - The Other Side of the Wall - Book Review - Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books

We all love a good book cover and I think this book cover has been illustrated brilliantly by Jennifer Bricking. It captures the story inside particularly well - there is a lovely use of blue and sparkling imagery to set alight the main themes. 

The Other Side of the Wall is the third thrilling installment from Amy Ephron that will be published in the US (but can also be bought in the UK) by Philomel Books on October 15, 2019. This story features the brother and sister duo (Tess and Max) undertaking another great adventure. 

You only have to open the first page to be nostalgically transported back in time as snow is falling and Christmas is on the horizon. The story is set with Tess and Max staying in London at the posh Sanborn House with their Aunt Evie. The story starts very sedately as the setting takes hold of you like a good old friend and shakes you by the hand. It's a perfect place for an adventure starting with a horse and carriage ride to Hyde Park which sets the wheels precariously in motion. Soon an air of mystery falls, like a shower of little confetti stars, as a mysterious boy named Colin turns up on the scene. 

Colin lives at the Sanborn House hotel all year round. He appears to stay on the 8th floor, but Max is sure the elevator only had 7 floors the day before. This sets the brother and sister duo with a mystery and puzzle to solve. It soon comes to light that no one in the hotel can see Colin. However, a curious glass marble that refracts light may just hold the key to the secret. 

You will be absorbed in a slightly mild and creepy tale that seems to get stranger and stranger. For example, a visit to a 1920s costume party and shadows that pass through walls. It's a very captivating story that fits in marvelously with the rest of the series. 

This is a very entertaining middle-grade read told with bucket fulls of imagination. The plot will captivate and entice you to read more. You'll find yourself moving between the present and the past which all makes for an entertaining ride for everyone. This is a good old classic family adventure that you will want to both read and own. Don't hesitate to pick up a copy and engage in a really great story.

Amy Ephron - Carnival Magic - Book Review (Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books)

Tess and Max are back in England for another summer with their Aunt Evie - this time by the seashore in South Devon. And they're incredibly excited about the travelling carnival that's come to town. There are rides, games, acrobats, The House of Mirrors - and even a psychic, with a beautiful wagon all her own. In a visit to the psychic's wagon, while Tess is being hypnotized, the wagon seems to move. Before Tess can shake herself out of the hypnosis, before Max can do anything, they seem to be travelling - along with the rest of the carnival - too quickly for the two of them to jump out. But where are they going and what awaits them? Will they be caught in a world different from their own? And do the Baranova twins, acrobats who miss their sister almost as much as Tess and Max miss their family, hold the keys to the mystery?


Carnival Magic is coming to a town near you. Although, it has already been published by Philomel Books (13th June 2018) in the US. You could easily be sucked into this story just by the book cover, as it is particularly captivating and inviting. This book is the follow up to The Castle in the Mist which was published in February 2017. However, you don't really need to have read it first as this book reads fantastically well on its own. Both books have similar themes, so if you like one of them then you will easily love them both. 

I really loved the black and white map illustration of the fairground which leads you into this amazing story. You will find yourself hurtling into an adventure that pulls on the magical heartstrings of being a child by providing a world of pure escapism. It is a captivating story that introduces the idyllic charm of England, particularly country life. The genteel and relaxed narrative washes over the reader like a babbling brook bubbling with fantastic, vivid imagination.  

The book is set in Devon and will hypnotically transport the reader into a magical adventure regardless of age or gender. The adventurous taste buds will fire on all cylinders as you follow Tess and Max into a wonderful timeless story. The story starts off with a visit to the zoo where Tess gravitates towards a baby tiger writhing on the straw. However, something strange soon happens which sets the reader off on a magical mystery filled full of suspense and wonder. 

The travelling carnival then comes to town and provides a brilliant backdrop for the author, with her calculating eye, to weave a tapestry of bright detail and description. At this point, just like Tess and Max, you are whisked into a family adventure full of love, friendship, and high-flying escapades. I really loved the plot as it is not over-worked or over-explained. It is perhaps a little naive at times, but it leaves the reader fantasizing and believing in dreams. 

It's a great adventure which is both eery and slightly surreal, but it will have the reader hooked until the very last page. It's a brilliant read for a summer's day as it encompasses you with warmth, magic, and love. 

Thank you very much, Amy and Lindsay, for getting this book to me from across the pond. 

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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Interview With Author Amy Ephron - The Castle In the Mist

Welcome, Amy Ephron, to Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books. Amy is an American author and her first novel for children The Castle in the Mist was published back in February 2017 by Philomel, Penguin Kids. The international bestselling author has kindly taken the time to answer some questions about her first children's novel and her writing. Castle in the Mist is an enchanting book that takes you on a fantastical journey into the realms of magic and beyond. Come and have a read to find out what it's all about and to inspire you to pick up a copy and give it a read. 

How would you sum up The Castle in the Mist to potential readers? 
I call “The Castle in the Mist” a modern-day mash-up of an old-fashioned children’s novel. It has one foot in the real world and another foot in… 
Call it magic or fantasy (or might they have imagined it, after all?) When I was little, I thought of books as magical places I could get lost in and I also thought that the characters and the places were real. (I still do sort of think this.)

I wanted to try to do a modern-day version, like Oz or Half Magic, all of which mix the real world with one that may be magical or fantastic two American kids, Tess & Max are sent to stay with their Aunt Evie in Hampshire, England. Tess discovers a key that lets her into the garden of a castle where she meets a young boy, just her age, also eleven, who is just as lonely as she is. 

A lot of magical things happen at the castle. Wishes sometimes do come true. And William warns her, and rightly so, to stay away from the hawthorn trees. And, also, tells her to keep the key because you never know when you might need it. 

One magical night, when there’s a blue moon, a blood moon, and a super moon all at once, strange things start to happen in the sky. Tess’s brother Max is mesmerised by the eclipse of the full moon and, by mistake, he steps into the hawthorn trees and simply disappears. And William runs after him, and he, too, disappears, and Tess has to figure out how to save them as the castle starts to disappear in the mist…. 

And I can’t tell you what happens after that… 

What would the main character in your book have to say about you? 
I would hope that Tess would want me to invite her to stay with me for the summer!! And that she would think that magical things might happen. 

What is important to you, when you write a good story? 
Place, tone, character, voice, that all of them seem real. I do believe that some of the books I love are real, the Oz really exists, that The Secret Garden is almost a work of non-fiction, that Mary Poppins was real and the Banks’ kids never grew up. 
I think the most important thing to me though is voice – how you choose to tell a story. “The Castle in the Mist” is told by a narrator, third person omniscient, which means that the narrator can sometimes see into the character’s heads. It, too, is a little old-fashioned. But some of my favorite books, like Stendahl’s The Red and the Black, are told by a third person narrator. And in the case of “The Castle in the Mist,” it allows for an amazing overview of all of the character’s lives, fears, strengths, and points of view. 

What does magic look like to you? 
Wishing for something and having it come true; coincidences that cannot be easily explained; the mere existence of love; a classroom of kids excited about learning and reading. I think it’s also a magical fact that Mr. Ripley, who I believe lives in England, thinks that I could successfully construct and craft a book set in England. (I have been to England and Hampshire a number of times though and it is a somewhat magical place.) I think Mr. Ripley believes in magic, too.


Does your book have a lesson or a moral behind it? 
Many. Believing in yourself; believing wishes can come true; trusting your instincts; paying attention to past lessons you might have learned (from your parents, teachers, your own experience) and realizing that those lessons can help you/guide you when you may have a problem. Also, believing that the best results occur when we work together. And a funny mantra for me, hash-tagged for modernity 
#believeinmagic.

What did you edit out of this book? 
There were a few flashbacks to Tess and Max’s) earlier semester at boarding school in Switzerland. My editor, Jill Santopolo, and publisher, Michael Green, both felt that the book read better, adventured better, without them. I do deeply miss Mr. Matheson, Tess’s history teacher in Switzerland, and am trying to figure out if he can make a guest appearance if I ever were to write another one… 

Have you written any other books that have not been published? 
I have written a number of novels that have been published – “A Cup of Tea,” based on a Katherine Mansfield short story (which I bought the rights to.); White Rose/una rosa blanca, set in Cuba in 1897, a novel based on a true story; One Sunday Morning, also period, set in New York City in the twenties; a book of essays, “Loose Diamonds,” some of which originally appeared in The New York Times’ and Vogue. I do have a couple of unfinished, not quite half-done manuscripts that may or may not ever go back to. I have a secret book of poetry that I’ve never shown anyone, at all. 

Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process? 
I can’t really speak to that. I know when a cover is just perfect for a book. “A Wrinkle in Time” comes to mind. For me, the hard copy cover of “A Cup of Tea” was simply gorgeous and perfect. I love the cover of “The Castle in the Mist” and the interior maps. I was incredibly touched – I had to do a mock-up of the map for the artist and I hand-lettered it, so he could see the castle was a castle, Aunt Evie’s house was Aunt Evie’s house, the invisible wall, the hawthorn trees... And he liked my handwriting so much that he recreated it for the map. And then Philomel created a downloadable font so that’s actually my handwriting in the chapter headings in the book, which I think is very fun and I’m very touched by it! 

What are you working on at the moment? 
That’s a secret. But I promise you, as soon as I can tell, I will!