When you walk into Manhattan’s Tony Kiser Theater to see the new off-Broadway production of Between the Lines, the first things to greet you are the enormous bookshelves lining the stage set, creating the feeling of a cozy library that you just want to get lost in.

For book lovers, it’s a promising sign.

The musical is adapted from the YA novel of the same name written by bestselling adult novelist Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Picoult and Van Leer tell the story of nerdy teen girl Delilah, an outcast at her new high school who always has her nose in a book. When she stumbles across a self-published fairy tale in the school library—there’s only one copy in existence, the librarian informs her—she discovers that the book’s prince has written her a message on Page 43: “Help!” Soon Prince Oliver is talking to and romancing her, and it won’t be long before Delilah escapes into the book itself. Kirkus called Between the Lines “fizzy fairy-tale fun” when it was originally published back in 2012.

Now the team of Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson (music and lyrics), Timothy Allen McDonald (book), and Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun (director) have reimagined the story as a feel-good musical with a pulsing score, colorful costumes and sets, and even a tap-dancing “dog.” (You’ll just have to see the show.) Delilah is played by the accomplished and appealing Arielle Jacobs (Aladdin, In the Heights), and the supporting cast all do double duty as characters in the real world and from the storybook. One standout is Vicky Lewis (familiar from TV’s NewsRadio) as the school librarian, who belts out a memorable ode to literary lust, “Mr. Darcy and Me”; Austenites will relate. (Lewis also appears toward the end of the show as Jessamyn Jacobs, the author of the storybook, a Jodi Picoult stand-in in a long red wig.)

Between the Lines may run a little long and have a few too many musical numbers, but it’s a winning show with some genuine laughs and a hardworking cast that really sells it. (I’m still chucking over the wacky line “Mean girls are an inevitability, like how a strapless bra will eventually become a belt.”) Bibliophiles of all ages will take a special pleasure in the show’s depiction of their favorite pastime, but unsurprisingly, it will appeal most to teen readers—for whom the original novel was intended.

Between the Lines is the latest in a series of high-profile stage shows adapted from books. Around the corner, Matthew Spangler’s The Kite Runner is playing at the Hayes Theater after a successful run in London’s West End. The drama is adapted, of course, from Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling 2003 novel, already the basis for a feature film. It joins the ranks of Wicked, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Hamilton, all currently running on Broadway and inspired by literary source material. Along with the endless stream of book-to-screen projects, they’re proof that books still offer the best entertainment around and that adaptation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.