This is a great start to a fascinating world from the mind of Seanan McGuire (writing as A. Deborah Baker). It makes me feel even more linked to Middlegame and its lore, which I especially love. I really enjoy her writing style used here.

I loved getting more information on Zib and Avery. Middle Game was a wonderfully complex and fun read. I love how meta it is to read the book that's mentioned in a book I loved.

A standalone novel that features characters from Middlegame, you don't need to read Middlegame and still enjoy Over the Woodward Wall but honestly having read Middlegame afterwards, it did help me enjoy the book more. The audience is unclear and I think it's best suited to middle readers but some things might go over their heads. Although as an older reader it seemed too young for me to authentically enjoy but I did feel some things were like the cartoon movie nods to the adults they know are watching? Which is odd in a book.

I’m a huge Seanan McGuire so I was excited to see a new story under a pen name that’s from one of her other books getting its OWN story. Very cool. That said… I haven’t read Middlegame, the book Baker is a character in. I don’t know that it was a big problem ultimately, though, because this reminded me a lot of the Wayward Children series which I adore. It’s whimsical, it’s adventurous, it’s filled with interesting characters. But I likely won’t pursue the rest of the series until I read Middlegame. It’s a lot of fun as a story and I could actually see myself reading this as a teen despite it not being marketed as middle grade/young adult.

Portal fantasies are some of my favourite kinds of fantasies especially in younger fiction and this one was so lush and interesting I couldn't put it down

I’m a fan of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series so I definitely was excited to try Over the Woodward Wall. The descriptive writing drew me in but I had trouble connecting to the characters. I feel this may be in part because I did not read Middlegame first and not sure if this affected my reading experience. I plan on continuing The Wayward Children series though.

I have to admit, I was so excited to read Over the Woodward Wall after finishing Middlegame. I love it when authors get creative with their stories and then write subsequent stories to bolster it. Honestly, it's always a treat when an author continues to share more stories from a universe they've built. And like I mentioned, this book doesn't require you to have read Middlegame before you've read it.

I'm always surprised by how much story can be told in such a short book. In the 200-page novella, Seanan McGuire really captures the world within the Up-and-Under introducing a myriad of characters that I hope to follow throughout the series and providing some interesting story line to help us root for the children and boo at the villains.

It reminded me a lot of Wayward Children series where the kids leap over a mysterious wall in the middle of their neighborhood and enter a world where owls talk to them, girls can be made up of a murder of crows, and the kings and queens have nefarious dealings throughout the lands they rule. It's got Alice in Wonderland vibes, Wizard of Oz vibes, and all the vibes of any other story where children are transported to another world that's a bit topsy-turvy.

The narration of the story felt like you were sitting at story time with a bunch of kids. It would probably be a really good audiobook to get into because the way its written really feels like you're being told a story rather than actually experiencing it. The way it's written makes you think this is a fairy tale with all the possibilities available to Zib and Avery. They start off so plainly and then as they travel through the Up-and-Under, they learn about themselves, each other, and what really matters to them. They start off as unassuming kids at the beginning, but what they learn while they're forced to survive in a world without parents or authority is something most of us only learn when we become adults.

I will say that the ending is a little bit abrupt, but it's also a longer series so I have no doubts that the next one will be better. Overall, this was such a magical journey that I really loved and appreciated. I'll definitely be getting into book 2 once it's out.

This was another brilliant read from the author of the Wayward Children's series.
Part touching story of friendship, part action-filled romp and part fever dream, this book was a big hit with myself and my kids.
I have already preordered the next book in the series.

While I normally really like most of the work this author puts out, and I was genuinely excited by Over the Woodward Wall since I tend to love exactly this type of thing, unfortunately this book really did not work for me. I struggled but was unable to get into it. I couldn't find a reason to care for either of the main characters and the writing style didn't feel like it worked well for me.

Over the woodward wall is about a boy named Avery and a girl named Zib who live on the same street, go to the same school, but have never had the opportunity to meet, until one day they come across a huge wall that takes them to a world similar to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz.
The book has its good parts but there were times that bored me a lot,This one in particular was not my favorite but I really enjoyed the epilogue, I think that ending gave this review half a star more.
I love that Seanan Mcguire always has such originality when writing his books.
If you have not read Middlegame by the same author, I recommend you read it before this one.
Thank you so much to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 ⭐⭐⭐ 💫

Expanding from the Middlegame world, Seanan McGuire (writing under the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker) brings us to the Impossible Road to the Improbable City.

Hepzibah "Zib" Jones and Avery Alexander Grey are two kids who live on the same street. However, despite their proximity, they never cross paths. They each go to schools on opposite sides and never walk in the direction towards each other.

That is until one very ordinary day (that happened to be not ordinary at all) their paths were blocked, and on the way, there was a giant wall.

Both kids were determined to make it to school on time and decided to go over it. Alas, the wall did not make it easier for them to find their paths, and instead sent them to the hauntingly magical land of The Up and Under.

In order to make it back, both kids must journey together and travel the Improbable Road to the Improbable City. This can be tricky as Zib is a spirited child with wild hair and Avery is a logical boy with pressed-down clothes.

In their adventure, they will meet incredibly large owls, a mysterious but helpful Crow Girl, the menacing Page of Frozen Waters, and many other magical beings.

Heavily inspired by The Wizard of Oz with sprinkles of The Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story, Over the Woodward Wall is a children's book for adults. Seanan McGuire is so clever in her writing, making this book (although short) dense with meaning and metaphors.

I do think there's a slight issue with pacing around the halfway mark. It's as if there's too much happening at once and then nothing at all. For such a short book it took me a very long time to finish it. This does improve towards the end, creating a nice setup for the next installment in the series.

4.25 stars. This was super cute. Lots of pluses on social commentary and overall narrative styles and shifts. However, some of the repetition was annoying and I was out of the story for a bit because of it. Review to come.

Due to being a high school teacher, I have been falling behind on reviews. Here are my initial thoughts.

Over the Woodward Wall began its life as an imagined book, existing merely as a set of excerpts “quoted” at the end of certain chapters in Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame. But these excerpts were compelling enough that McGuire decided to use them as the building blocks for an actual fantasy series, using the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker (the alchemist credited with authoring this book in Middlegame).

Avery and Hepzibah (“Zib”) are two “very different, very ordinary” children who live on the same ordinary street but don’t know each other at all. They’re as far apart as A and Z in their personalities: Zib is free-spirited and adventurous, with a mass of frizzy, untamed hair; Avery is cautious, neat and sensible. One morning, on their walk to school, they find themselves faced with a stone wall that blocks their way. When they climb to the top of the wall, their town disappears and they find themselves in a strange, fantastical land, the Up-and-Under, filled with even stranger creatures. Immense candy-colored owls speak to them; a girl breaks up into crows and then reforms.

A boulder unfolds into a man and advises Avery and Zib to follow the Improbable Road to the Impossible City, and ask the Queen of Wands there to help them get home. There’s both wild adventure and deadly danger before them, and they’ll need each other to get back to their home world. But they need to escape the dangers of this world, and especially keep out of the clutches of the cruel Page of Frozen Waters and her master, the King of Cups.

There’s a sense of familiarity to Over the Woodward Wall, and it’s not just from the excerpts that appeared in Middlegame, which McGuire has woven into the text of this book. The parallels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are obvious, and the story has the same episodic, meandering plot, though the actual details are different and the dangers are more pressing. Stylistically it fits in more with McGuire’s WAYWARD CHILDREN series, where children wander through a magical portal into a fantasy world that follows an unfamiliar set of rules. The wise and insightful omniscient narrator, a voice that McGuire uses to such good effect in her WAYWARD CHILDREN books, also makes an appearance here.

Over the Woodward Wall was referenced in Middlegame as the basis for a completely different worldview, one that L. Frank Baum was intentionally diverting readers away from when he wrote his OZ books. In that sense, Middlegame set up expectations that Woodward Wall doesn’t quite live up to, at least in this first book of the UP-AND-UNDER series. I have to admit I expected something more from Woodward Wall based on the groundwork laid in Middlegame. Middlegame was mind-blowing and wildly creative; Over the Woodward Wall, despite its fantastical Oz-like setting, is somewhat mundane in comparison, never rising to the same imaginative heights.

Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable and whimsical fantasy portal tale, with the perceptive narrative voice doing most of the heaving lifting in making this story better than your standard run-of-the-mill fantasy adventure. The reader can see Zib and Avery begin to subtly change as a result of their growing friendship and their frequently life-threatening escapades, with Zib learning that all adventures aren’t wondrous and delightful, and Avery learning that he can be more courageous and daring than he would have guessed. Perhaps they’ll meet in the middle of the alphabet by the time they make their way out of the Up-and-Under.

Over the Woodward Wall ends mid-tale: it’s not quite a cliff-hanger, but the overall story arc is clearly unfinished. The adventures of Avery and Zib in the Up-and-Under are just beginning.

3.5 stars.

Two children, one a conformist, the other a spontaneous adventurer, find themselves transported to a magical world of beauty and peril. Avery is conventional, precise, analytical. Zib is an elemental force of courage and chaos. When their separate, parallel routes to school are blocked by construction, they take a short cut over a wall and end up in the land of Up and Under, befriended by owls and a Crow Girl, who periodically disassembles herself into a murder of crows. Occasionally guided by a glittering Improbable Road, they embark upon a journey home. Other character, both sympathetic and sinister, form often dangerous alliances with the children.

The narrative style is often humorous, always witty, as if the third-person narrator were a character in itself. I suspect that Seanan McGuire, writing as A. Deborah Baker, had a hugely entertaining time writing the book, as the reader will have reading it. A fast, entertaining read.

Much like Middlegame, this book tried to be profound but I was just baffled on what the point of it all was. It's odd because I do love Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series but, somehow, the writing in both Middlegame and Over the Woodward Wall was what lost me. Will continue with her other series but may be cautious about venturing into her other works.

This was a pleasant read and a nice addition to other books about kids unknowingly crossing over into a magical world. Although well written and enjoyable, this books is nothing new since built on old tropes and nostalgic stories. I will definitely recommend it to any kids wanting more after the Narnia series and the like.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a honest review.

I am a big fan of Seanan McGuire's work, and found this to be just as enthralling and delightfully written as her Wayward Children series. I look forward to diving in to Middlegame, which this fairytale comes from (if my knowledge is correct).

I loved both characters and especially Crow Girl, and the absolutely bonkers world they found themselves in. It was almost like a dream that had been written down as the author was experiencing it. Perfect for fans of Vicious by V E Schwab and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.

I liked this book but felt like it didn't break any new ground for me. I wanted more...maybe more substance or depth. I don't know! There was so much to the Up and Under world but yet it just didn't hold my interest.

I love Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series and October Daye, but haven’t read her other series. I feel like I’m definitely missing something here and finally found that this book is related (it’s a book in the book?) to one of the books I haven’t read. Her writing always pulls me in, but I just didn’t enjoy the plot as much as I have in some of her other books!

Under this new pen name, Seannan McGuire does it again. This was a fun, enjoyable read and I hope McGuire writes more as A. Deborah Baker in this series.