Escape from Silver Street Farm

Nicola Davies's Escape from Silver Street Farm is a funny, farmyardy Christmas adventure for 8 year olds, set on a farm in the heart of a city.

What happens

Meera, Karl and Gemma are three friends who've dreamed of a city farm since their first day at school. Now it's real, in an old railway station, with sheep, goats, chickens, dogs and ten turkeys. And it's the day before the grand opening on Christmas Eve.

So of course everything goes wrong. The two sheep, Bobo and Bitzi, find a gap in their fence and wander off into town. The turkeys vanish from their pen. And somebody has cut a secret little door in the wire, with a hidden tunnel through the brambles behind it.

Who would steal ten turkeys two days before Christmas? Meera and Gemma decide to be detectives (fuelled by lots of chocolate cookies).

What's lovely is how the book lets you see the animals' side too. Bobo leads the sheep into a supermarket and happily eats the flower stall. Bitzi ends up with a bucket on her head. Then Kenny, a grumpy new ram with a VERY long posh name, marches through the city to find them. Buster the guard dog is a big softie, except about rats. And Flinty the sheepdog is scared of sheep.

There's real excitement too. Meera has to hang upside down from a willow branch over a rushing dam, trying to catch a rope. And the turkeys turn up somewhere nobody expected, with an even bigger surprise underneath them.

It's a cosy, happy book, full of kind grown-ups, a friendly policeman and a Scottish farmer called Flora. The ending is very Christmassy and very sweet. If your reader loves animals, or has ever dreamed of running a farm with their friends, this one is a treat.

What to read next

Welcome to Silver Street Farm goes back to the very start, when Meera, Gemma and Karl first dream up their plan over a box of toy farm animals on their first day at school.