Flame Chasers

Julie Pike's Flame Chasers is a magical sea adventure for 10 year olds about a girl who refuses to give up on her dad.

What happens

Ember lives in Bright Beacon, a harbour town where golden flamebirds rest every winter before flying west to their secret home. Boats chase them out to sea, because a flamebird's tail feather will grant you a wish. Ember has always longed to go (more than anything, she'd love to fly alongside them).

So when Pa loads the boat with twice the usual supplies and gives her a jewelled flamebird pendant for her birthday, she's sure they're finally going chasing together. They aren't. Pa sails off without her. The town's peace magic, left over from an old wish, whisks her home the second her foot touches his deck.

A year later, his boat has been found wrecked and everyone says he's lost at sea. Everyone except Ember. She's asked every skipper in the harbour to take her on the chase, and every one of them promised Pa they wouldn't.

Then Stanley arrives. He's the new boy off the Sea Quest, and he'll do anything to stay out of school, including creeping into the rocky hollow where the flamebirds sleep to touch a tail and make a wish. It goes badly wrong. The birds take fright and leave early, and one old flamebird is left behind on the rocks, too tired to follow.

What happens next is a real lump-in-the-throat moment. The flamebird burns up in a rush of fire, and what's left in the ashes is a scruffy little grey chick who keeps forgetting her own name. Ember calls her Hope. Hope needs to get home before her last feathers fall out, and Ember needs a boat. Who could say no to that?

Ember is stubborn in the very best way, and it's lovely being inside her head as she hangs on to hope when the grown-ups have let go. Stanley is a pain to begin with, but he's got his own reasons for wanting to be out on the water.

Ember's mum died when she was a baby, and Pa is missing for this whole part of the story, so a child with a parent away might find it close to home. It's gentle, though, and full of warmth.

What to read next

If they fall for a girl who won't believe what she's told about a parent lost at sea, Rooftoppers is a gorgeous next step. Sophie was found floating in a cello case after a shipwreck, and she's certain her mother is still out there.