The Secrets of Droon 8 – The Golden Wasp

Tony Abbott's The Golden Wasp is a fast, spooky Droon adventure for 7 year olds about three friends who have to rescue Eric's dad from an evil sorcerer's fortress.

What happens

Eric, Julie and Neal have a secret. Under Eric's basement stairs is a closet, and inside it a rainbow staircase leads down to the magical world of Droon.

There's one rule. Never bring anything back.

Julie did, by accident (a charm bracelet). Now a snarling blue moonfox is chewing up the basement, and Eric's dad has vanished into Droon. As long as he's stuck there, the wicked Lord Sparr might be able to climb the stairs into our world.

It all gets going very quickly. A faceless creature in black attacks the king in the palace courtyard. It turns out to be a wraith, someone stung by Sparr's Golden Wasp, which lets him take over people's minds.

To find Eric's dad, they visit Portentia, an oracle who is really a talking boulder. She's supposed to be booming and mysterious, but she's rubbish at rhyming and sprays everyone with gravel when she talks. Who wouldn't want to meet her?

There's plenty for Princess Keeah too. She finds the little cottage where she lived as a small girl, and her mother's old harp, which makes the furniture march about when she plays it.

It isn't the first Droon book (Sparr found the Wasp on their last visit), but you're caught up in a couple of pages.

It's lots of fun to read. There are sound effects everywhere (Kla-bamm!), Neal is always hungry and always joking, and scenes often end on a little cliffhanger.

What gives it heart is Eric. He keeps thinking about his dad teaching him guitar chords and how to climb the apple trees in the garden, and at one point he tears up. It's very sweet and very real.

A creature with no face and a missing parent might give a sensitive reader a shiver. Everyone's back to being brave within a page or two, though.

What to read next

If they'd like to go back to the day the staircase was first found, The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet is where it all begins, with Eric supposed to be tidying the basement (and very much not tidying it).