The Secrets of Droon 11 – The Hawk Bandits of Tarkoom

Tony Abbott's The Hawk Bandits of Tarkoom is a magical adventure for 7 year olds about a wicked lost city that rises out of its own ruins.

What happens

Eric, Julie and Neal have a secret. There's a little closet under Eric's basement stairs, and sometimes it turns into a shimmering staircase down to the magical world of Droon. They've had lots of adventures there already with their friend Princess Keeah and the ancient wizard Galen.

This time it's Neal's dog Snorky who goes first. He bolts down the stairs before anyone can stop him (Neal was trying to teach him to fetch cookies, which tells you a lot about Neal).

At the bottom a two-headed beast is waiting for them. An earthquake has broken open its tomb after four hundred years. And that's a very bad sign, because legend says if the beast howls again, the old city of Tarkoom will come back. Tarkoom was home to the hawk bandits, half human and half bird, led by a vain bandit prince called Ving.

The moment the ruins rebuild themselves stone by stone is really magical. Then the friends are inside the city walls and things get tricky fast.

Eric falls down a deep pit and gets lost in winding tunnels. He meets two friendly creatures and eats a horrible-smelling fruit (that tastes like raspberries with sugar on). It turns out to have magic in it. When Ving gives a lovely welcoming speech, Eric can suddenly hear what he REALLY means!

These books are super easy to get into. The story rattles along, there's always a bit of peril and something funny straight after it. Neal is the comic one, always hungry and always a step behind. And there's a lovely surprise when a much younger Galen turns up with a ponytail and a rainbow cutlass.

There are some bigger mysteries simmering in the background too, like where Keeah's wild new powers came from. It's the kind of thing that keeps readers going from one book to the next.

If you've got a reader moving on from early chapter books who wants proper magic, monsters and a gang of friends, Droon is a great fit.

What to read next

This isn't one of the early adventures, so if they want to start where the friends first found the stairs, go back to The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet. It's the one where Julie's ball rolls into the closet under the basement stairs.