Snowglobe by Amy Wilson
A shimmering , mesmerising gem of a novel, Snowglobe is absolutely stunning.
I do feel we are spoilt these days with a wonderful array of children’s authors and the imaginations they possess. Amy Wilson, author of A Girl Called Owl and A Far Away Magic returns with her third novel, Snowglobe. I was delighted to receive a proof copy back in the summer and I can honestly say that Amy’s writing, beautiful from the outset, continues to bring us the most wonderful stories. Snowglobe is a magical tale of a hidden house upon a hill, filled with snow globes, each a tiny prison protecting the world from those who have magic in them. Yet should everything we don’t quite understand be made small and locked away?
This is a story about accepting the chaos that surrounds us and that it all works together to create a world filled with magic and wonder. We can’t always control what happens to us but we can make a difference by being ourselves and showing courage even in the darkest of times. It’s a story about accepting past mistakes and rather than hiding away, embracing what we have learnt from them so that we can move on and become the very best version of ourselves. Snowglobe shows us that when times are tough, we should not hide away but embrace the world and add our own precious magic to it.
I shared this novel with some of my young readers in the school Library asking should we have a copy for the school? Is it good enough to sit on our shelves? A resounding ‘yes’ I heard in response but of course I knew it would be. Every time I recommend an Amy Wilson book to a child who loves magic, mystery and adventure, they always return it with a smile saying ‘I loved it.’ What better recommendation can you get than that?
Synopsis:
When daydreamer Clementine discovers a mysterious house standing in the middle of town that was never there before, she is pulled towards it by the powerful sense of a mother she never knew. The place is full snow globes, swirling with stars and snow and each containing a trapped magician, watched over by Gan, the bitter keeper of the real world but who is now desperate for her help.
So Clement ventures into the snowglobes, rescuing Dylan and discovering her own powerful connection to the magic of these thousand worlds. Vowing to release the magicians from the control of their enchantments, Clem unknowingly unleashes a struggle for power that will not only put her family, but the future of magic itself in danger.
Snowglobe is published by Macmillan on the 18th of October 2018
Suitable for aged 9-11yrs+
Also by Amy Wilson…
A Far Away Magic by Amy Wilson
Beautifully written, filled with magic, love and grief, this is a powerful novel with wonderful characters
– I was left feeling a little of the magic had stayed behind with me.
Haunting prose that feeds the magical story as monsters are battled, fears are faced and grief is overcome. There is something quite beautiful in Bavar and Angel’s relationship. A special connection that makes them gentler, braver and more compassionate.
Angel doesn’t fit. Not in her new school or in her foster home in the vanilla house with nice Mary. The day her parents died was the day everything changed for her. A burglary gone wrong they said but Angel knows different. Angel knows that monsters really exist but when they don’t believe her she tries to forget the memories that haunt her dreams…that is until she meets Bavar.
He too is different except that he doesn’t draw attention to himself and seems to shrink back into the shadows even though he is seven feet tall. But Angel can see him, and she sees the magic that surrounds him. The two are drawn together by their differences, by the way they stand out and by the sadness that surrounds them. Soon they discover that they have an even deeper connection and Angel believes she’s found a way to stop the monsters but she needs Bavar’s help. He’s reluctant but if there is one thing she’s sure of it’s that she wants to stop the monsters once and for all and make sure that no one else suffers the loss she has.
Bavar, sees the light in Angel, in his world of shadows and darkness she is sunshine and starlight and his need to protect her draws him into her plan to fight the monsters. But are two young teens enough to defeat the Raksasa, the strange, winged creatures you’d only expect to find in a nightmare. Everyday they are growing stronger and it’s only a matter of time until before they break through the gate and kill again.
Beautifully written, filled with magic, love and grief, this is a powerful novel with wonderful characters – I was left feeling a little of the magic had stayed behind with me.
Synopsis:
‘A Far Away Magic’ is the second stunning novel full of magic and friendship from Amy Wilson, author of ‘A Girl Called Owl’.
When Angel moves to a new school after the death of her parents, she isn’t interested in making friends. Until she meets Bavar – a strange boy, tall, awkward and desperate to remain unseen, but who seems to have a kind of magic about him. Everyone and everything within Bavar’s enchanted house is urging him to step up and protect the world from a magical rift through which monsters are travelling, the same monsters that killed Angel’s parents. But Bavar doesn’t want to follow the path that’s been chosen for him – he wants to be normal; to disappear. Fighting one another as well as their fears, Angel and Bavar must find a way to repair the rift between the worlds, and themselves, before it’s too late . . .
Suitable for aged 9-11yrs+
Discover more about Amy Wilson here.
Published by Pan Macmillan
Published on 25th January 2018
I write pictures and doodle words for Bloomsbury, Puffin, Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, The Guardian; Disney, Nickelodeon.
Harriet Muncaster is the author and illustrator of the Isadora Moon series of young reader books, published by Oxford University Press. So far Isadora Moon has been translated into nearly twenty different languages, including Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Japanese, and is available as an audio book.
