The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor
About Amelia Mellor
The Grandest Bookshop in the World has won the Indie Bookseller’s Children’s Award, the Australian Book Industry Award for books for children aged 7 to 12 and the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. It was also a CBCA Notable Book and shortlisted for the Readings Prize. When she isn’t writing, Amelia enjoys hiking, gardening and drawing. Amelia is an English teacher in regional Victoria. The Bookseller’s Apprentice won the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize. For further information:
A Quote from Amelia Mellor
“I’m thrilled to be shortlisted for the first Childrens and Young Adult ARA Historical Novel Prize. Historical fiction is such a great way to engage young readers in times and places beyond their own experiences, and it has provided a great escape for those of us living through this historic pandemic. Thank you, ARA, for supporting Australian historical writing! Congratulations to Pamela and Katrina, too - I know how hard they must have worked!”
About The Grandest Bookshop in the World
Pearl and Vally Cole live in a bookshop. And not just any bookshop. In 1893, Cole’s Book Arcade in Melbourne is the grandest bookshop in the world, brimming with every curiosity imaginable. Each day brings fresh delights for the siblings: voice-changing sweets, talking parrots, a new story written just for them by their eccentric father.
When Pearl and Vally learn that Pa has risked the Arcade – and himself – in a shocking deal with the mysterious Obscurosmith, the siblings hatch a plan. Soon they are swept into a dangerous game with impossibly high stakes: defeat seven challenges by the stroke of midnight and both the Arcade and their father will be restored. But if they fail Pearl and Vally won’t just lose Pa – they’ll forget that he and the Arcade ever existed.
Quotes from the Judging Panel
“Based on the very real Cole’s Book Arcade in Melbourne, Amelia Mellor’s debut is nonetheless a feat of imagination. Set in 1893 at the height of the book emporium’s popularity, the novel uses the Arcade’s many array of delights as a base for its story. Alongside the thousands of books, it had smarty-dressed staff, a toy department, a sweet shop, a tropical fernery, a tea salon and a band. Into this busy, colourful environment, Mellor introduces Pearl and Vally, children of Edward Cole, the owner of The Grandest Bookshop in the World. Though Pearl and Vally did exist, it’s their fictional counterparts that drive Mellor’s book. When a trickster enters the scene, the kids realise that their father and his beloved bookshop are at risk. To reclaim them both the siblings have to defeat seven challenges set by the stranger by midnight. The Grandest Bookshop in the World is an intricately detailed, fast-paced adventure tale of good and evil; one that pits the resourcefulness and ingenuity of children against the cunning greed of a character called the Obscurosmith. It’s a gorgeous blend of magic and realism.”
