The Land of Roar

Jenny McLachlan's The Land of Roar is a fantasy adventure for 8 year olds about twins who discover that the pretend world they made up when they were small has been waiting for them all along.

What happens

Arthur and Rose are eleven and about to start secondary school. Every summer they stay with Grandad by the sea while Mum and Dad go camping. It used to be brilliant. But Rose has a phone now, and a thirteen-year-old neighbour to impress, and she thinks Arthur is SO annoying.

Grandad has a surprise. He's giving them his attic as a den, as long as they clear out all the junk first (he can't help, because of his asthma).

Buried up there they find their old toys, a map they drew years ago and a rickety folding cot with words scratched into it. Enter here for the Land of Roar! (Well, it actually says ENTUR HEER FOR THE LANED OF ROAR.)

Arthur starts to remember. They used to crawl through that cot and come out in Roar, a land of dragons, mermaids and wizard-ninjas. And out at sea stood the castle of the villain Rose invented, a scarecrow boy with crow's wings called Crowky.

Then Grandad climbs into the cot. And he doesn't come out.

Arthur tells the story himself, and he's very funny about his sister. Their squabbles feel so real, from his worst insult (you look like me!) to the silly game where they pretend to drain each other's energy by holding on tight.

Underneath the adventure there's something quieter too. It's about growing apart from someone you used to do everything with, and wishing you could get them back.

Crowky is properly creepy, though. He has black button eyes and a stitched-on smile, and he was made from the two things Arthur was most scared of. Arthur also mentions that their Nani died when they were three (that's backstory, not something that happens in the book). A reader who scares easily might like to share the Crowky bits with you.

If your reader has ever built a den with a brother or sister, or made up a whole world together, this will feel like their own game come to life.

What to read next

If they'd like another pair of siblings stepping through something ordinary into somewhere else entirely, try The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lucy pushes past the fur coats at the back of a wardrobe and finds herself in a snowy wood.