Eleven-year-old Mouse is travelling to see his grandparents on Christmas Eve with his mother and two sisters. But it's snowing, visibility is bad and the car goes off the road, and crashes.
Mouse is thrown from the car.
When he wakes, he's not in his world any more. He meets a sheep named Bar, who can only say Baaa, and a sarcastic horse named Nonky, who is a surprising mix of his beloved toy horse and his older sister.
So begins a quest to find a castle in a world of wonder - a world of monsters, minstrels, dangerous knights and mysterious wizards; a world of terrifying danger but also more excitement than Mouse has ever known.
When I found this book lurking in my local charity bookshop I almost let out an external squeal. I'd just finished reading The Last Wild and loved it, AND this is an excellent condition proof copy, and there's something slightly magical about proof copies.
Piers Torday yet again transports you to a magical, yet believable world where animals can seemingly talk and where reality and imagination blur seamlessly together. When Mouse is involved in a car accident on Christmas Eve, he is transported into the world of his own imagination. Nonky, his toy horse, has become 6 foot with bags of sass, and his favourite iPad jousting game now becomes slightly more terrifying now it's actually real.
The narrative switches between Mouse's adventure and his sister Violet's story as she wakes up in the wreckage of the car. Both have a duty to protect their family and I really enjoyed the way the stories mirrored each other and then gradually intertwine as the book reaches its climax.
And the ending...I cried. And that is all I will say.
This would be a perfect read-aloud for any class who love an adventure and a bit of fantasy, probably from Year Four upwards as long as they can handle the car crash scenes. If you're read the Last Wild you'll love this, and if you haven't, you'll still love it.
An excellent adventure into the imagination of a daydreamer.
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