Vashti Hardy’s Firesong is a sky-ship adventure for 9 year olds, and it’s the third book about the Brightstorm twins, Arthur and Maudie.<\/p>\n
The twins are home again in Lontown, living with the explorer Harriet Culpepper and Felicity, who cooks wonderful pastries and swears her very large feet can sense when trouble is coming. Maudie’s latest invention is selling fast. Arthur’s trousers are suddenly three inches too short, and he’s itching to fly again.<\/p>\n
Then the dreams start. Arthur keeps hearing his parents singing a song about the beat of the earth. It turns out Maudie has dreamed it too.<\/p>\n
At the same time an auction catalogue arrives, and in it is their mum’s old wooden box with a moth on the lid. It was sold off with everything else when the family lost their house. They scrape together every sovereign they can to buy it back. You can probably guess the auction doesn’t go to plan!<\/p>\n
This is a world with a lot going on. There are rival explorer families with very grand names, sky-ships that run on dirty pitch fuel and animals called sapients who understand far more than most people believe. Parthena the hawk is one, and so is Valiant, a water-bear who sleeps curled up at Maudie’s feet.<\/p>\n
The twins are lovely company. Maudie is practical and wants a scientific answer for everything, while Arthur is happy to believe in signs. They finish each other’s sentences and tease each other constantly. Arthur has one arm, and there’s a quietly lovely moment when a stranger shakes his left hand without a second’s hesitation.<\/p>\n
There’s a darker thread as well. The book opens in a secret laboratory where clever animals are kept in steel cages and fed something that makes them sleepy and forgetful. It isn’t graphic, but a reader who hates to see animals mistreated might find it upsetting. The twins have also lost both parents, and missing them comes and goes throughout. Most readers will be too caught up in the mystery to find it heavy.<\/p>\n
Because this is book three, a lot of what happened before is summed up quickly as it goes. A new reader could follow it, but they’ll probably enjoy it more if they already know the crew.<\/p>\n
So if you’re starting fresh, go back to the very first Brightstorm adventure, where the twins are sitting on a rooftop watching a sky-ship leave Lontown when it all begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vashti Hardy’s Firesong is a sky-ship adventure for 9 year olds, and it’s the third book about the Brightstorm twins, Arthur and Maudie. The twins are home again in Lontown, living with the explorer Harriet Culpepper and Felicity, who cooks wonderful pastries and swears her very large feet can sense when trouble is coming. Maudie’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12272,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7001,"lr_next_read_anchor":"the very first Brightstorm adventure","lr_seo_hook":"The Brightstorm twins chase a mysterious song and their mum's lost box."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[1008],"class_list":["post-7424","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-vashti-hardy"],"yoast_title":"Firesong by Vashti Hardy | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"The Brightstorm twins chase a mysterious song and their mum's lost box. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n