The Key to Extraordinary

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd is a treasure hunt for 9 year olds set in a town where the flowers never stop blooming.

What happens

Emma Pearl Casey is nearly twelve and lives above her family's bakery, which sits on the edge of one of the oldest graveyards in Tennessee. She runs the tours herself. The Love Tour lasts about seven minutes and comes with heart-shaped sunglasses for everybody (her great-uncle wears his with a violet tucked into his beard).

Every woman in Emma's family, back to a Revolutionary War spy, has had the same dream. A field of blue flowers, and in it a clue to what she's meant to do with her life. Each one is written into an old leather book called the Book of Days.

Emma's dream hasn't come yet. She waits for it the way other children wait for a birthday.

She's also carrying what she calls the Big Empty, which is the hole her mother left. Her mum handed her the Book of Days on her tenth birthday, already ill, and she's gone now.

Then there's the treasure. A ghost called the Conductor is supposed to sing the way to it, and the legend says he only shows it to somebody who isn't after it for themselves. A stranger turns up at the gates asking about him.

The voice is what carries this. Emma talks like she's leaning over a fence to tell you, and she's got a phrase for everything. Her curls are hallelujah hair. Her dog was That Dog at the shelter until Emma gave her a braver name so she might see herself differently. Her granny rides a Harley and looks, Emma says, like a walking talking rock song.

The grief sits in chapter one and stays, which I think is the honest way round. Emma's mother died before the book starts, so there's no death coming for your reader to dread. What you get instead is a child missing her mum every morning while getting on with her day. Some children find that a real comfort. Others will want you nearby at bedtime.

There's teasing about her looks too. Emma has a scar that slants from her nose to her lip, and girls at school have made a joke of it for years.

What to read next

If that voice suits your reader, Over the Moon by the same author would go down well. Another mountain town, another girl whose wages her family needs, and a dangerous competition she signs up for to get them.