Information
Goodreads: Maggie & Abby’s Neverending Pillow Fort
Series: None (so far)
Source: Library
Published: April 2018
Summary
Maggie’s best friend Abby has been at Camp Cantaloupe for six weeks. Now Maggie finally has her back and she’s ready to stage spy missions from her new pillow fort. However, Abby only wants to do camp things and hang out with other kids. Then the two discover that their pillow forts connect with each other’s. They have unwittingly created a network and now must pass the entrance exams for the North American Founding and Allied Forts Alliance–or be shut down forever. Can they work together long enough to pass?
Review
I love quirky MG books with a twist of magic, but the absurdities of Maggie & Abby’s Neverending Pillow Fort were almost too much for me, especially when paired with Maggie’s perpetual bad attitude. I cannot describe exactly how a silly book crosses over into unamusingly ridiculous territory; I only know that this happened here for the first half of the book or so. By the end, I was getting into the adventure and vaguely excited for a possible sequel, however.
So, yes, this book is silly. Maggie builds a pillow fort that somehow magically connects to her friend Abby’s fort–and potentially more. But the friends’ ideas for adventure are quickly stalled by a group of sunglasses-wearing kids who explain that they run a federation of pillow fort networks all bound by various strange and potentially unnecessary rules. That premise I could mostly accept (except, well, how does one keep a pillow fort up for years? Will this ever be explained?). It was just something about the writing that grated on my nerves. It was a bit too ridiculous somehow.
Additionally, Maggie annoyed me. She only wants to play her games and she does not want Abby to have other friends. She plans ways to manipulate Abby into doing what she wants. She thinks she’s the victim, but, in reality, she’s not being very nice to her friend. It’s hard to get behind somehow so incredibly whiny when you can’t understand what’s so bad about playing different games now and then. Or having more than one friend.
The ending of the book, however, was pretty exciting. As a result, I might be tempted to read a sequel, which this volume clearly sets up, should one appear.
Pages Unbound | Book Reviews & Discussions 
I’m sure if you were 7, this would be a hilarious book. Reading my daughters books are torture. I read all her elementary age books and the Bad Kitty ones are the best by far. Fancy Nancy is terrible. Magic Treehouse, weird.
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Yeah, I typically don’t read chapter books because they are too simplistic for me. This is a middle grade book, though, and I love middle grade so I was expecting more. 😕
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I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t love middle-grade books for that reason, but some adult books are like that too.
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This sounds so cute!
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I do like the concept of magic pillow forts!
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I can understand the appeal of this book based on the premise, but I’m sorry it didn’t quite work out for you. I can definitely understand how a silly book might turn into unamusing and ridiculous! I find that when a book seems too silly for me, reading it aloud often temper s my inner “bored adult” voice. I like to use silly voices and make things extreme. These help me let go of the adultish things which might be holding me back from truly appreciating the book.
I’m glad the ending was encouraging! Do you expect there will be more pillow fort books?
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Well, I don’t think I would have appreciated this book as a child, either! XD I’ve always liked things to make sense and I’ve never found the absurd to be humorous. I used to play the story game with friends, where you each tell part. My parts were usually trying to be high romance and then someone would bring in something “stupid” like a tap dancing jellyfish army and I’d be really annoyed. This book felt like that. It was too absurd even to be fun or quirky.
Last time I looked, there were barely any reviews for the books on Goodreads. If that’s a reflection of sales, I’d assume a sequel isn’t happening. But I don’t know for sure either way.
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Hahaha! I’m glad we didn’t play that as a kid, because I’m definitely the one pulling tap-dancing jellyfish into your high romance! XD Young Jackie was an absurdist dreamer.
Goodreads is probably a good marker for sales. I’m certain there are fewer reviews for MG books and picture books than YA+ reading levels, but there will definitely be people like us and teachers who write these reviews.
I always find it interesting when a debut novel is listed as the first in a series, but the rest of the series never follows. I’ve noticed a trend of obvious first-in-series books where they are not identified as first-in-series until the second book is in contract. There are pros and cons to this… As a reader, I get frustrated when there is a cliffhanger I wasn’t expecting, but as a publisher or author it gives an out. Either way– there *could* be a sequel to this series, but we might never see it.
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Shame this was a bit too ridiculous! And maggie does sound like an irritating character 😉 Great review!
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I’m sure someone somewhere loves it. Someone with a different sense of humor? 😀
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haha!
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