Walking Mountain

The hero of this story Pema lives up in the high lands and is used to the fact that the mountain moves slightly north on a regular basis.  However a day comes when the mountain reverses and starts to move in the opposite direction.  His family send him up to the distant Abbey to try and find out why the mountain had changed.  There, he meets Singay, a young girl who has grown up with the ‘Sisters of the Snow’, who guard the mountain.  They both have a determination to find out what is happening, but what they discover makes their quest even more urgent and could have a profound effect on our whole world.

This is a truly amazing story.  The idea is a mammoth one and takes us into the realms of Douglas Adams and our world being just a small part of the cosmic whole.  The introduction of characters called Drivers, who herd meteors through space, so that they can be used as an energy source on their own planet, really creates something special.  Pema and Singay are engaging young people who have a range of challenges they have to overcome.  This story is a quest in the truest sense and we are totally gripped by the adventures that the three main characters have to undertake.  There is humour as well as a lot of pathos and we really feel for the Driver (called Rose) when he thinks that his two other driver colleagues might be dead.  I have read and enjoyed this author’s work before, but on this occasion she has taken it to a new level and I can only look forward to the next book that she decides to write.  Whilst this is aimed at the younger teen, there is no reason why a very confident year 6 should not read and enjoy this story.