ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Jan 2022
Highly recommended timeslip adventure series.
This 4 book timeslip middle grade series quietly concluded at the end of last year. All four highly-readable illustrated adventures can be strongly recommended for newly confident readers and are sure to be regularly borrowed from primary school and class library shelves.
In this latest adventure, Alex and Ruby find themselves in the freezing-cold winter of 1947. Food is scarce in the aftermath of the Second World War and life at Applecott House is hard. As Alex and Ruby discover they must solve the mystery of a missing family heirloom to ever have hopes of returning home, their adventure takes them trekking across the snow and treacherous ice on a perilous treasure hunt. Will they make it home and back to the present day or will they be stuck in 1947? Full of action and humour and featuring intricate black-and-white illustrations throughout.
The earlier three titles are:
An Escape In Time
A Chase In Time
A Christmas In Time
Follow Rachael Dean, who created the black-and-white interior illustration, on Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
The cover illustrator, Swiss-based Isabelle Follath, is also on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/isabellefollath/
Take a peek inside:
Extracts from a ReadingZone interview with the author:
Why did you choose to set this adventure in 1947?
The Great Winter of 1947 is such a great bit of history, and it’s not something we really teach children about. I’m also really interested in endings and transitions and what-comes-afters. Some of my favourite children’s books are set just after the war and explore what happens next. There’s a lot of The Minnow on the Say in this book, which is set in the fifties.
Where did you go to research this period?
I read a lot of novels set in this period! A Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden which I loved. Autumn Term by Antonia Forest. Grass in Picadilly by Noel Streatfeild, which was packed with historical detail but horrifically anti-semitic, which was a bit of a shock. I also read some non-fiction texts about the period. And talked to my mum, who was born in 1947. The anecdote about playing ‘queueing’ instead of ‘shopping’ was hers.
