I guess I read this book when I was 14 or 15...though I would have thought I was younger, that was how old I was in 1981 when it was published. At any rate, I have very fond recollections of it, 20+ years later. Don't recall all the particulars, but a very engaging book about a young girl who sinks into the pages of a huge old book...each time emerging in the middle of a fresh adventure. Worth a read, or a re-read.

Who hasn't dreamed of stepping out of the boring reality of everyday life and into some wonderful fantasy world? In this delightful tale by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, that's exactly what young Jane Charlington does when she finds an enormous book in a supposedly haunted wing of her family's castle.

I read this book around age ten when my grandmother gave it to my sister for Christmas, finishing it in a couple of hours. My normal fare at that age was Tom Swift, and the presence of a female protagonist offered a breath of fresh air into the world of fantasy and adventure I lived in at the time. I highly recommend this book for both young boys and girls alike--there's adventure for all inside the magical book within this story.