Wolves Chronicles 06 – The Cuckoo Tree

Joan Aiken's The Cuckoo Tree is a twisty, spooky adventure for 9 year olds starring Dido Twite, a girl who never waits for a grown-up to sort things out.

What happens

It's the sixth of the Wolves Chronicles, and Dido has just come home from sea. She's travelling to London with Captain Hughes, who is wrapped in bandages and carrying important papers for the Admiralty. Then their drunken coachman tips the carriage over on a dark, windy hill.

So Dido climbs out of the window, hops onto one of the horses and rides off into the night for help. Would your reader do that? Dido doesn't even think twice!

On the way she's stopped in the dark by a gang of shadowy men with a blunderbuss, who give their names as Yan, Tan, Tethera and so on and then whisper about meeting "at the Cuckoo Tree". They send her to Tegleaze Manor, which is enormous, dusty and very, very odd.

Inside she finds Sir Tobit, a bored boy of twelve or thirteen dressed like someone from two hundred years ago, who only wants to hear her stories. His grandmother is terrified of germs. And a tiny old woman called Tante Sannie grabs Dido's hand to read her palm, then flings it away because she's seen a tree.

By the time Dido gets back to the carriage, the seats have been slashed open, the luggage has been searched and the driver has vanished. Something is definitely going on!

The best thing about these books is Dido's voice. She talks in her own London slang ("Oh croopus", "mussy knows how") and she's rude, brave and kind all at once. The country folk have their own thick accent too. It takes a page or two to get your ear in (reading a bit aloud really helps), but after that it's half the fun.

It's properly atmospheric as well. Gales, candlelight, creaking passages and a cottage that smells of something horrible. Nothing too frightening happens in the opening, but there's a lovely shivery feeling that everyone Dido meets is hiding something.

What to read next

If your reader enjoys a heroine who takes charge and a mystery with lots of strange characters, they'll love this. And if they want more of Dido, try Nightbirds on Nantucket. It starts with her waking up on a whaling ship after sleeping for months, with a kind boy called Nate who has been feeding her whale oil and molasses.