SPOOKY CHILDREN’S
SALLY MORRIS
THE WAY PAST WINTER by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Chicken House £10.99, 256 pp) MiLA is the middle of three sisters who, along with their brother, Oskar, fend for themselves after their griefstricken father disappears following his wife’s death in childbirth.
They scrape out a life in a forest that’s frozen by an endless winter.
One night, a stranger arrives, demanding food, but, by the morning, he’s gone — and Oskar is missing.
Mila, convinced her brother has been kidnapped, sets out on a quest to find him and his mythical abductor, known as The Bear, accompanied by her younger sister and a mysterious boy Mage.
This is another atmospheric folklore drama from award-winning Millwood Hargrave, starring a charismatic, resourceful heroine and underpinned by the unquenchable fire of sibling love. The evocation of ice and snow is so chilling that you’ll need to turn up the heating. Ages 9–12
SNOWGLOBE by Amy Wilson (Macmillan £6.99, 288 pp) THere’S more frosty sorcery in this thrilling story of clem, who struggles to contain her magic powers, inherited from her missing mother, when she is bullied at school.
Defying her protective father, she sneaks into an imposing fantasy house to find it filled with snowglobes, each holding different miniature worlds and people.
She’s shocked to see a globe containing Dylan, one of her school tormentors, who possesses untested supernatural skills.
The house belongs to her bewitched aunts, who hold the secret of where her mother has gone — but can clem rescue Dylan without being imprisoned herself?
Wilson is conjuring up a reputation for darkly mystical stories based on myths and legends and this fast-paced adventure is perfect for dark winter evenings. Ages 9–11
THE AFTERWARDS by A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Emily Gravett (Bloomsbury £12.99, 224 pp) Since her mother died, the two people ember adores most are her gentle, kind father and her best friend, ness. But ness dies suddenly in an accident and, in her shock and grief, ember is tricked into the grey Afterworld, where she finds ness slowly fading away.
Determined to bring her back to the land of the living, ember risks her own safety and discovers the harshness of the natural order in an extraordinary rite of passage.
This is a brave, challenging and beautifully written book that unflinchingly confronts death, grief and denial, but which is redeemed by a dark humour and, beneath everything, a beating heart of love.
Young readers will root for the compelling character of ember and, when she’s faced with an agonising decision, will urge her to choose life. Ages 8–11