The Miraculous Sweetmakers

Natasha Hastings's The Miraculous Sweetmakers is a magical story for 10 year olds about a girl who's offered the one thing she wants most in the world, her twin brother back.

What happens

It's the winter of London's Great Frost, and the Thames has frozen so hard that people are walking on it. Thomasina is thirteen. She makes the gingerbread in her family's shabby little sweet shop.

Four years ago Arthur, her twin, died. Since then she's done everything. She makes the sweets, keeps the house and feeds her mother, who hasn't spoken since. Her father can barely look at her.

Then a very strange gentleman comes into the shop, all blue velvet and silver stars. That night a blue light floats past her window. She hears Arthur's voice outside the door, asking her to open it.

Following the light, she ends up in the middle of the frozen river. There the gentleman tells her his name is Inigo, and that he can bring her brother back from the dead.

This one's very sad at the start, and that's worth knowing before you begin. The first chapter shows Arthur's death. He has a bad asthma attack in the snow while Thomasina is pushing him to race her, and she's just said something cruel. She's blamed herself ever since.

For a child who has lost someone, or who finds the death of a child upsetting, that opening could be hard. For a reader who likes a story with real feelings in it, it's what makes the magic matter so much.

And there is plenty of magic! There's a will-o'-the-wisp, and a huge kelpie made of ice bursting up through the river. You can almost smell the cinnamon and almonds in the gingerbread.

It's funny too, which you might not expect. There's the parson who picks someone to terrify every Sunday. There's also Miss Maplethorpe, who will NOT stop trying to sell everyone parsnips.

And then there's Anne from the grand apothecary shop, who's kind to Thomasina when she really needs it. You'll be rooting for that friendship straight away.

What to read next

If they're after another wintry story about a sister who won't give up on her brother, The Ice Children has a little boy found frozen in a city park.