A moving and layered middle grade story about grief, memory, loss and acceptance, originally written in Dutch and now translated for the first time into English. 

In this book we meet Cate whose mother died giving birth to her and as a result her dad pulled away into his own world of sorrow and grief. Cate finds that she has to navigate her lonely life by keeping busy with her love of kung fu, her pet rabbit that thinks its a pig and her photography hobby. As she whiles away the hours finding the places and things not seen by people around her she comes across a card from a Mrs Kano who runs a cinema with movies showing nowhere. Intrigued she goes to investigate more and in doing so steps into a world of memory that teaches her valuable lessons about life, family and learning to let go.

I picked up this book because the fantasy/time travel element of the story really intrigued me and as I read on became invested in unravelling the mystery of Mrs Kano and what her motivations are. This and the nature of the memory cinema made the heavier storylines more accessible especially as we worked towards working out the mystery and what her ultimate link to Cate and her dad is.

For adults of course this entire plot point is likely to be very obvious but for its intended audience I can see young readers being very intrigued and easily get caught up in the story and the adventures that Cate goes on whilst helping out at the cinema as a time buddy.

This really is a cleverly crafted book with multiple layers that children will easily want to come to again and again and find new things each time. I loved how the story unfolded and found it to be truly though provoking in many ways.

Grown up themes written carefully and with great empathy and attention for it's intended audience make this a highly recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Children's Books for a copy of the eArc in exchange for an honest review.