The Battle for Roar

Jenny McLachlan's The Battle for Roar is a big, warm fantasy adventure for 8 year olds about twins who crawl through an old folding bed into the world they made up as small children.

What happens

Arthur and his twin sister Rose invented Roar years ago. They filled it with everything they loved (dragons, a merwitch, a ninja wizard) and put everything they feared on the Bad Side. Then it turned out to be real.

This summer they've got ten whole days there. Mum and Dad are off walking in Spain, Grandad is in charge, and the plan is to sail a pirate ship to the mysterious green islands beyond the End.

But first, the best surprise. Grandad picks them up from school in his clown car, and there's singing coming from the boot. It's Win, Arthur's wizard-ninja best friend, who has been secretly popping over to Grandad's to eat grilled cheese and watch Ninja Warrior!

Arthur tells the story, and he's a worrier. A crow swoops at him in PE and he's instantly convinced it's a message from Crowky, a winged scarecrow and the worst thing in Roar. Everyone tells him to relax. Should he?

It flips between funny and spooky all the time. One minute you're laughing at Adam, Arthur's friend at school, who talks like a medieval knight ("Gadzooks!"). The next, Arthur is down in Grandad's creaky cellar, staring at an old jam cupboard that Grandad swears has a world of its own inside.

And then there's Roar itself. Rose talks to her dragons in a made-up language. The ship's crew are orangutans. Mitch the merwitch wakes the boys up with a shower of hot, smelly stars. Anything the twins ever imagined could be waiting round the next corner.

There's plenty of brother and sister stuff running through it too. Rose is braver and bossier than Arthur and has a new friend at school, and he's noticed they're seeing less of her. That will feel very familiar to anyone with a sibling.

What to read next

This isn't where the twins' adventures begin, and the story leans on what's happened before. If you'd rather start at the start, The Land of Roar is in the library too. That's the summer Rose would rather be on her phone, and Arthur spots something that looks a lot like a wizard in Grandad's attic window.