Small Wonder

This is an ideal novel for an end of the week primary school reading aloud treat, even though some girl pupils may rue its paucity of female characters. But the repeated dangers facing ten-year-old Tick and his younger brother Leaf remain captivatingly urgent, and where gender is concerned Pebble, their heroic, life-saving mare, is more than a match for any stallion and its rider up to no good.

Leaving their now dead grandfather’s solitary forest cottage after a marauding neighbouring army invades, the children’s only hope is to make it to the King’s Keep, an impregnable fortress in their home country of Ellia. Unfortunately an evil Rider, routinely clothed in black, is out to kill them along the way. The boys’ forest skills come in useful along with knowing how to survive an avalanche. Villains meanwhile are properly villainous in voice and appearances as well as in deeds while the good characters the boys meet also obligingly look the part. The story ends in an orgy of wish-fulfilment, with Tick saving the day over and over again, his lack of years no obstacle to winning a war which up to that moment had looked properly lost.

All this time he is looking after his brother Leaf, also very brave and hardy but still young enough to complain about hunger and the cold. He too turns out to be more than he seems, playing his part in restoring the land of Ellia to its once positive state. The author has previously won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year Award, and on this evidence it is easy to see why. Short, pithy chapters and clear writing constantly keep up the pace ensuring readers stay on passage right up to the last page.