Nevermoor – Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow

Jessica Townsend's Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow is a dazzling, funny fantasy for 9 year olds about a girl whose dream comes true, only for everyone to find out her secret on the very first night.

What happens

Morrigan used to believe she was cursed. Now she lives in the magical city of Nevermoor, at the wonderful Hotel Deucalion, with her patron Jupiter North. And she's just won a place in the Wundrous Society, which everyone in Nevermoor looks up to.

It's her twelfth birthday. There's a pink cake the size of a wedding cake, a brass band and a sign on the hotel roof (so much for low-key). That night she wakes up outside the Society gates in her pyjamas, with eight other new members. Dragons write their names across the sky in fire.

Then it all goes wrong. The grown-ups find out what Morrigan really is. She's a Wundersmith, the same kind of person as the most feared villain in Nevermoor. Her new unit, who've just sworn to be loyal to her for life, suddenly look at her as if she's dangerous.

That feeling is what makes this one so easy to get attached to. Morrigan wanted a proper family more than anything. Now she has to start lessons knowing the rest of her unit are scared of her. Luckily her best friend Hawthorne (who's been riding dragons since he could walk) doesn't care one bit.

Nevermoor itself is a treat. There are umbrellas you ride along the rooftops, a vampire dwarf who plans the hotel's parties and a housekeeper who's a giant cat. It's full of jokes too, a lot of them from Jupiter.

It's worth knowing it opens backstage at a music hall. A winged singer's fans are called junkies, and he drinks spirits in his dressing room. It's brief, and it's handled with a raised eyebrow, but some parents like a heads-up.

What to read next

This is the second Nevermoor book and it assumes you know Morrigan's story so far. If your reader hasn't met her yet, start with The Trials of Morrigan Crow, where she first arrives in Nevermoor.