Otto Bloom and the Enchanted Coin

Estelle Grace Tudor's Otto Bloom and the Enchanted Coin is a magical family adventure for 9 year olds about a boy who makes one very big mistake.

What happens

Otto is ten, with his eleventh birthday a week away, and he's stuck in bed with measles at Castle Bloom. He's fed up and lonely. His otter, Sage, is lovely company, but he misses his sisters and cousins.

This is the final book about the Bloom children and the tiny golden Fairy Door hidden in the castle attic. It helps a lot to have read the earlier ones first.

When the girls arrive for the holidays, Otto should be thrilled. Instead he feels muddled and left out. Then he overhears his sister Octavia saying, "Just don't tell Otto." What are they hiding?

That night a silver note appears at the Fairy Door. Castle Enfys is under attack! Otto decides this is his moment to be the hero. He grabs his shield and catapult and goes through alone, leaving poor Sage behind.

It's a trap. And Otto hands over the one thing he should never have given away.

What follows is a race to put it right. Otto meets a cheerful mouse called Marren, a guilty dream fairy and Dant, a tooth fairy who looks like a very well-dressed pirate. He has a strange dream about a beach covered in coins. And he gets a pair of dragonfly wings for one night only!

The heart of the book is Otto's feelings. He doubts himself. He snaps at his best friend and hates himself for it. He wonders if he really belongs. Lots of children will recognise that horrible gloomy feeling after being poorly, when everything seems worse than it is. It's very reassuring to watch the people who love him show him he's wrong (and to find out there's a sneaky reason he's been feeling so low).

The magic is gentle and colourful. Singing birds, glowing flowers, a squirrel with a straw hat and a castle with musical glass stairs. There's a proper villain, though, and Otto's gloomy mood takes a while to lift.

If you've got a reader who loves fairy worlds, talking animals and big families, the whole series is a treat.

What to read next

For another family house with a secret way into a magical land, try The Unicorn Quest. Two sisters spending the summer in their great-aunt's strange old mansion find a ladder going up inside an enormous fireplace.