This was a quirky, fun and whimsical story and I did enjoy it. I would recommend it for those who like just a bit of nonsense in their middle grade. 

Where it fell down for me is that as a quest story, there wasn't a lot of drive to it. It isn't until close to the end that we really come to understand the reason for Bronte's journey, and so for a long time it felt needless to me, nonsensical in a whole different sense. Like most quest stories this has a lot of episodic adventures and I needed something to tie them all together - this did eventually materialise but too late in the book for me personally. 

I do have to mention the cover, which is illustrated by Karl James Mountford  - it's absolutely gorgeous.