The Thirteen Curses

Michelle Harrison's The Thirteen Curses is a dark, twisty fairy adventure for 10 year olds about a girl who'll risk anything to get her little brother back.

What happens

Red has one goal. Fairies stole her baby brother James, and she is going to find him.

She's been living by her wits ever since, with a knife on her belt and her hair hacked short. Now she has finally made it into the fairy realm.

It doesn't go well. She wakes in a hollow tree to find the berries ripe and her hair grown, as if months have slipped by overnight. Then she falls into a pit, and the old woman who pulls her out is not what she seems.

These are NOT the sweet fairies of picture books. Faces stir in the bark of the trees. A gargoyle-like creature cackles overhead. Nothing in that wood is on your side.

Red is great company because she's so tough. She's practical and prickly and never wastes a word. She still gives her precious water to a starving fox, though.

This is the second of the Thirteen Treasures books. The story also follows Tanya, who can see fairies too, as she heads back to her grandmother's creepy manor for half-term.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This one is genuinely dark. An early flashback shows the car crash that killed Red's parents, and it's vivid. The witch's cottage is hung with animal skins, some still dripping, and there's a child's lost shoe at the bottom of the trap. The fox doesn't make it.

For a sensitive reader, that's a lot to take in. For one who loves a spooky story with real danger and a fierce heroine, it's gripping stuff.

What to read next

Fancy more of Michelle Harrison at her spookiest? A Pinch of Magic opens with a girl locked in a prison tower, then follows three sisters and a family curse of their own.