Harper 03 – Harper and the Night Forest

Cerrie Burnell's Harper and the Night Forest is a dreamy, musical adventure for 7 year olds about a girl with a flying umbrella and a fairy tale that never got its ending.

What happens

This is the third Harper book, and it opens in a secret library of forgotten music. Harper wants a brand-new harp tune for Great Aunt Sassy's birthday. Her friends pitch in, and Smoke the wolf pulls out an old blue book with a golden songbird on the cover.

Then the Wild Conductor sweeps out of the shadows and snatches it. He wants a song that can call an Ice Raven out of the trees. With that bird in his orchestra, he thinks he can win back his old place in the Circus of Dreams.

So everyone's off to the City of Singing Clocks, on the edge of a deep, dark forest. Harper flies there in her Scarlet Umbrella, towed behind a helicopter (with a cat and a wolf on board!). The Wild Conductor cycles through the sky on a bicycle held up by ravens.

It's a very magical, very gentle kind of book. The rain has names, the cuckoo clocks sing and there's a cottage made of gingerbread in the woods. The family who live there look after the fairy tales, and they tell the children about a prince and a girl under a witch's spell who've forgotten who they are.

The best bit is how each friend brings something different. Nate can only see light and dark, but he reads old books by the creases in their pages and moves through the shadowy trees better than anyone. Ferdie writes very serious poems. Little Liesel is desperate to meet a wicked witch (and she's the only one hoping the woods are full of bears!). And whenever they're split up, they play three sharp notes as a secret signal.

There's a little tension when the children get lost in the dark woods and something growls in the trees. But it's more hushed and spooky than scary, and it's always balanced by music and kindness.

If you've got a reader who loves fairy tales, animals and a bit of sparkle, this is a lovely one to share at bedtime.

What to read next

Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella is where it all starts, if they haven't met her yet. Harper's cat Midnight goes missing, and she finally gets to open the birdcage where a very special umbrella has been locked away.