Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key

Estelle Grace Tudor's Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key is a magical mystery for 9 year olds about a girl who finds a tiny golden door in the attic of her family's castle.

What happens

Octavia is nearly ten and desperate for an adventure. She's spending the summer holidays at Castle Bloom, high on the Cornish cliffs, with her sister Felicity, their twin cousins and a very strict grandmother. Her parents are off on yet another research trip.

During a game of hide-and-seek, a spark jumps between Octavia's and Felicity's hands. It lights up a tiny door on the skirting board, with ivy and flowers climbing round it and a tiny scroll lying outside. The scroll says that time is running out.

Then Great-Aunt Clara arrives, dripping wet, with a knobbly walking stick and a red squirrel called Rowan on her shoulder. She's loud and funny and says the girls with copper curls are the magic ones (Grandmother is NOT amused). She starts to tell them the family's fairy tale before Grandmother catches them all in the attic at midnight.

And that night Octavia dreams of a boy called Otto. He looks a lot like her, and he begs her to find the key and save him.

It's a proper old-fashioned castle adventure. There are suits of armour, secret passages, midnight trips up to the attic and a housekeeper called Mrs Fawcett. It's set in the late 1980s (Great-Aunt Clara says they're nearly in 1990), so nobody has a phone to sort things out.

You're right there with Octavia's impatience the whole way. She's cheeky and dreamy, her laces are forever coming undone and she can't bear being told to wait. Felicity is the sensible one who worries. Sound like anyone at your house?

If your reader loves the idea of a secret that's been kept in a family for hundreds of years, this is a lovely one to get lost in. There's plenty of cosy detail too, from sticky toffee pudding to an Old English sheepdog called Bronwen.

What to read next

For two more sisters spending the summer in a rambling old house full of strange things, try The Unicorn Quest. Claire's great-aunt has vanished on a treasure hunt, and in a dusty gallery of her mansion Claire finds a ladder going up inside a fireplace.