The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan

Summary from Goodreads:

The new middle-grade fantasy that will make you believe in magic!

When Arthur and Rose were little, they were heroes in the Land of Roar, an imaginary world that they found by climbing through the folding bed in their grandad’s attic. Roar was filled with things they loved – dragons, mermaids, ninja wizards and adventure – as well as things that scared them (including a very creepy scarecrow. . .)

Now the twins are eleven, Roar is just a memory. But when they help Grandad clean out the attic, Arthur is horrified as Grandad is pulled into the folding bed and vanishes. Is he playing a joke? Or is Roar . . . real?

Review:

As I mentioned on Goodreads, I was shocked my library system didn’t have this book! But, then I realized it’s not out yet in the US. I picked this book up on my honeymoon in Paris in September, not even realizing it wasn’t out here! It’s a British book. This makes sense. It’s by a British author that I like for a past series called Flirty Dancing.

Now, I probably have to wait 2 years for book 2, which is a travesty because this book was adorable! It definitely reads on the younger side of Middle Grade, with lots of cute illustrations. But, also, there’s lots of family drama, suspenseful adventure, magic, dragons, feminism, and laughs. Overall, I really loved this.

Normally, middle grade adventure stories don’t do it for me. They have to be very special to hold my attention. They don’t normally have the same level of suspense, character development, or mystery that I really need. This isn’t always true. I have been proven wrong with this judgment more and more over the recent years, and while I wouldn’t have bought this in Paris, if I didn’t think I’d be wrong here too (at least a little bit), I wasn’t expecting to fall so deeply into this story. I ate it up. There’s just something so true about the brother/sister relationship here that takes center stage to the whole fantasyland. I easily could have read this book if it were twice as long. I wanted more.

There’s a definite Peter Pan/Golden Compass theme here about growing up and what it means for our imaginations. And I like how the author blurs the lines between fantasy and realistic fiction. Growing up and fitting in with the cool kids in the real world is very different from growing up and fighting scarecrows in a magical world. But, everything is always weirdly connected. And I like that there was a slight darkness to it all too. It’s not all flying horses and riding dragons, though that’s really awesome. I give this one a 9/10.