Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis’s The Map to Everywhere is a world-hopping adventure for 9 year olds about a boy nobody can remember and a girl a very long way from home.<\/p>\n
Fin is the Master Thief of the Khaznot Quay. Nobody knows that, because nobody remembers him. People forget his face minutes after they see it, which is brilliant for stealing and horrible for everything else.<\/p>\n
He steals a brooch back from a swindler and drops it into the Parsnickles’ bread tin, where Mrs Parsnickle will find it in the morning. She has pawned it, and he has stolen it back for her three times this month. She thinks she is losing her mind.<\/p>\n
The bit that stings comes next. Fin says, it’s me, Fin. And she says, do I know you? He is used to it. That doesn’t make it easier to read.<\/p>\n
Then a letter turns up addressed to M Thief, promising him the path to his mother if he can rob one particular ship. Of course he goes.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on the other side of everything, Marrill is in Arizona chasing her one-eyed cat across an empty car park. The tarmac splashes under her trainers. Then a four-masted ship sails into the parking spaces and an old man in a purple hat leans over the rail to ask her which branch of the Stream this is.<\/p>\n
The two stories take turns, and they feel completely different, which is the fun of it. Fin’s chapters are quick and cheeky and stuffed with horrible things that sound delicious (toadbutter, puke pills, a pie shop that never has customers). Marrill’s are warmer and a lot more worried.<\/p>\n
Before you start, a word about Marrill’s mum. She is seriously ill. Her dad says the words on page one of her story, the house they were selling is suddenly theirs to keep, and the travelling life she loves is over for now. It’s written with real tenderness and nobody is dying in front of your reader. But if your child has someone poorly at home, this will land close.<\/p>\n
For most readers it’s the engine of the whole thing. Marrill has been told to be a normal kid. Then a pirate ship turns up in a car park and asks her a question.<\/p>\n
If your reader likes the moment an ordinary house turns out to be sitting on a magical route, then The Train to Impossible Places is the one to hand them next. Suzy hears a crash downstairs at two in the morning and finds a train roaring through her living room, crewed by trolls who are already running late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis’s The Map to Everywhere is a world-hopping adventure for 9 year olds about a boy nobody can remember and a girl a very long way from home. Fin is the Master Thief of the Khaznot Quay. Nobody knows that, because nobody remembers him. People forget his face minutes after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10121,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9481,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Train to Impossible Places","lr_seo_hook":"A boy nobody can remember and a girl whose car park turns into an ocean."},"book_tag":[27],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[167,1139],"class_list":["post-9222","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-fantasy-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-carrie-ryan","book_author-john-parke-davis"],"yoast_title":"The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan & John Parke Davis | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A boy nobody can remember and a girl whose car park turns into an ocean. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n