Saving Neverland

Abi Elphinstone's Saving Neverland is a wintry magical adventure for 9 year olds about a girl who has given up on make-believe just as Peter Pan climbs in through her window.

What happens

Ten-year-old Martha Pennydrop is in a BIG hurry to grow up. No more games, no more hugs and no more bedtime stories. Instead she keeps checklists of jobs to keep her little brother Scruff safe, with his inhaler right at the bottom in capitals.

Something frightening happened six months ago on what Martha calls the Terrible Day. She blames herself, and it's the reason she's become so serious.

The family have just moved into a tall London townhouse, and one bedroom window will not shut. Silver-veined leaves keep appearing under it. There's golden sand in a drawer. Then one night a boy in a waistcoat made of leaves leaps into the room with a cross little fairy called Muddle on his shoulder.

It's Peter Pan, of course, and he needs help. Captain Hook's curse is freezing Neverland. The fairies have vanished, and snow and ice are swallowing the jungles. And an envelope has turned up in Neverland with Martha's name on it.

Martha says no. Scruff says yes, and off he flies over the rooftops without his inhaler! So what choice does she have?

Peter is brilliantly annoying. He ties Martha up with a skipping rope, tells her he'd hoped for two boys, and gets his hair yanked by Muddle for it. Scruff is a joy, a seven-year-old stuffed with animal facts who thinks all of this is the best night ever.

The flight over London (St Paul's, the Thames, second star to the right) is gorgeous. Martha's gymnastics kicks in, and for a moment she forgets to be grown-up.

If you've got a reader who has started announcing they're too old for things, Martha might feel quite familiar. The story is gently funny about growing up without ever telling them off for wanting to.

There's worry in it, mostly Martha's fear for her brother's health and her guilt about that day. Their mum left when they were very small (that's backstory, not something that happens in the book). It's all handled warmly.

What to read next

If the frozen kingdom is the bit they love, Sky Song is another Abi Elphinstone adventure in a snowbound land under an Ice Queen's spell, with a brave girl at the centre of it.