Voyage of the Sparrowhawk

Natasha Farrant's Voyage of the Sparrowhawk is a big-hearted adventure for 11 year olds about two lonely children, a narrowboat and a stolen dog, in the spring after the First World War.

What happens

Ben was adopted from a grim orphanage by Nathan, a painter who lived on a narrowboat called the Sparrowhawk. Nathan took in Ben's brother Sam too. Now Nathan is dead and Sam is missing after the war. Ben is desperate not to be sent back into care, so he tells a lie. A letter has come, he says, and Sam is on his way home.

So Ben goes back to the Sparrowhawk alone with his dog, Elsie. And there, in the cabin, is a girl he's never met.

That's Lotti. She's nearly thirteen, lives in the big house up the hill and has just stolen a very skinny Chihuahua from the town's best-known crook. Lotti's parents died in a plane crash when she was eight. The aunt and uncle who now run her house (and her money) are about as cold as grown-ups get in a children's book. She got herself expelled from boarding school on purpose, and she tells Ben exactly how.

Lotti is a brilliant character. She talks nonstop, bounces on Ben's bunk and warns him he's probably an accomplice now. Ben is quieter and more careful, and you can feel him thawing as she chatters. Their first evening together on the boat roof, with two dogs in a heap between them, is a really lovely scene.

The storyteller chats to you too, with little asides like "if they had stayed, there would be no story". It gives the whole thing a warm, old-fashioned fairy-tale feel, even though the sadness underneath is real.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Almost everyone here has lost someone. Nathan was killed when the hospital he was visiting was bombed. Lotti's uncle slaps her in public and sends her to eat alone in the kitchen. There's a young woman by the canal who hasn't heard from her sweetheart in months. The losses happen before the story begins, but they're very present.

A reader who's grieving might find it a lot. But if they love found families, a dog or two and children who refuse to be pushed around, this has all three.

What to read next

If they're after more from Natasha Farrant, try A Talent for Trouble. It starts with eleven-year-old Alice, who'd rather be writing stories than anything, saying goodbye to the house her mum loved.