Sky Song

Abi Elphinstone's Sky Song is a snowy, magical adventure for 8 year olds about a girl trapped inside a music box and the boy who sets her free by accident.

What happens

Erkenwald is a frozen kingdom in the far north, where the sun doesn't rise all winter. An Ice Queen has taken over. She's locked the grown-ups of two tribes in her ice palace and is stealing their voices one by one. If she swallows every voice in the land before the midnight sun rises, she'll live forever.

Eska is her prisoner. She's twelve, with wild red hair, and she spends every day frozen on a pedestal inside a glass dome, made to dance like a clockwork ballerina. The Queen has stolen her memories too, so Eska has no idea who she is. And the Queen is desperate for Eska's voice. Eska has decided she simply won't speak.

Then Flint climbs in through the window. He's a boy from the Fur Tribe with a fox pup called Pebble in his hood and a rucksack full of homemade inventions. He's come to rescue his ma, not some strange girl. But Pebble has other ideas!

What a pair they make. Flint is grumpy, proud and determined not to have "conversations". Eska is fragile but very stubborn and keeps asking questions anyway. Their squabbling on the back of a dog sled is lovely, and you can feel them slowly starting to trust each other.

The writing is really beautiful. There are hammocks spun from moonlight, a cape made of snow-hare fur washed in sunbeams, and candles in the palace that whisper to the Queen. It's the kind of book that makes you feel cold just reading it (in a good way).

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The opening pages tell the kingdom's backstory, and it includes a shaman killing his chief with an enchanted knife while he sleeps. Flint's father has already died fighting the Queen's warriors. The Queen herself is properly menacing, and a child locked up alone for months is sad to read about.

A very sensitive reader might find that a lot to take in. But if your reader is ready for a real, shivery fairy-tale villain and two brave children who don't give up, this is a gorgeous one to get lost in. Who wouldn't want a fox pup who hides in your hood?

What to read next

For more of Abi Elphinstone's magic, try Saving Neverland, where a girl who's decided she's far too grown up for make-believe moves into a house with a bedroom window that won't shut.