The Book of Stolen Dreams

David Farr's The Book of Stolen Dreams is a dark, gripping fairy-tale adventure for 10 year olds set in a country where children aren't allowed to play outside.

What happens

Rachel Klein was born on the very day Charles Malstain's army marched into her city. Ever since, Krasnia has been his. Parks are for adults only. Books get banned. People on the tram keep their eyes on the floor.

Her father Felix is a librarian who talks more than anyone on earth. To make up for the grey days, he turns their living room into a pirate ship or a polar expedition every evening. Then, on Rachel's eleventh birthday, he takes her and her brother Robert on a real adventure.

They sneak into his library after dark. In a locked room sits The Book of Stolen Dreams, hundreds of years old. Malstain's men are coming to take it away and burn it in the morning. Felix wants to get there first.

It doesn't go to plan.

The story actually starts later, with Rachel alone on an airship and a secret tucked in her sock. A kind little man in a penguin hat buys her some truly awful cocoa. You soon find out he isn't quite what he seems.

What makes it special is the voice telling it. The narrator keeps turning to you, warning that this book is banned and suggesting you read it under the covers with a false name ready (Maurizio, unless that's your actual name). It's funny and a bit thrilling at the same time.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

There are some hard moments early on. The children watch through a grate as soldiers punch and kick their father, and he's sent to a prison camp for life. Later their mother dies of a chest illness, and Rachel is with her when it happens. The old Emperor is shot, too, in a single sentence.

The early chapters are sad rather than gory, and there's plenty of warmth and hope pulling the other way. A child who loves stories where children stand up to a bully in charge will be right behind Rachel. A reader who has recently lost someone might find her mother's death very close to home.

What to read next

For another girl whose family is up against a ruler's soldiers, try The Wolf Wilder. Feo lives in a snowy Russian forest with her mother, teaching wolves how to be wild again, until a general comes knocking.