A remarkable story about love and death from the winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
Eleven-year-old Mouse is travelling to see his grandparents on Christmas Eve with his mother and two sisters. But it’s snowing, and visibility is bad, and the car goes off the road, and crashes.
Mouse is thrown from the car.
When he wakes, he’s not in his world any more. He meets a sheep named Bar, who can only say Baaa, and a sarcastic horse named Nonky, who is a surprising mix of his beloved toy horse and his older sister.
So begins a quest to find a castle in a world of wonder – a world of monsters, minstrels, dangerous knights and mysterious wizards; a world of terrifying danger but also more excitement than Mouse has ever known.
But why are they looking for a castle? As the cold grows, we realise it might just have something to do with the family he’s left behind; and that Mouse’s quest is more important than ever.
This is a novel about love and death. It’s about the power of stories to change the way we view the world – and it’s about the power of a child to change their own world. Emotionally arresting but ultimately uplifting, this is a remarkable novel for our times.
(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Eleven-year-old Mouse is travelling to see his grandparents on Christmas Eve with his mother and two sisters. But it’s snowing, and visibility is bad, and the car goes off the road, and crashes.
Mouse is thrown from the car.
When he wakes, he’s not in his world any more. He meets a sheep named Bar, who can only say Baaa, and a sarcastic horse named Nonky, who is a surprising mix of his beloved toy horse and his older sister.
So begins a quest to find a castle in a world of wonder – a world of monsters, minstrels, dangerous knights and mysterious wizards; a world of terrifying danger but also more excitement than Mouse has ever known.
But why are they looking for a castle? As the cold grows, we realise it might just have something to do with the family he’s left behind; and that Mouse’s quest is more important than ever.
This is a novel about love and death. It’s about the power of stories to change the way we view the world – and it’s about the power of a child to change their own world. Emotionally arresting but ultimately uplifting, this is a remarkable novel for our times.
(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Reviews
Full marks ... for a story not afraid to take on some of the fundamentals of life while still managing to preserve the lightest of touches
Heartbreaking, surprising, uplifting - Mouse's snowbound journey is one you'll remember for a long, long time. There May Be a Castle proves that stories matter. They really do
A fantastical and surprising allegory, There May Be A Castle is unlike any other book for children dealing with the subjects of death, family and the power to shape your own stories. Heart-warming, heart-wrenching and, at times, quite bizarre, this is another fantastical tale from Piers Torday and not one to miss
A remarkable story of about love and loss from the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
A gripping, memorable adventure which celebrates the power and scope of our imagination
A magical new adventure from the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction prize.
Piers Torday is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure ... Torday understands the lot of the younger sibling, the power of the imagination to heal and the strong, irregular rhythms of grief
Brimming with humour and excitement ... beautifully described and the tension never breaks
An outstanding book and a future classic
Original, ingenious and bold ... I am still reeling.
Piers Torday continues to demonstrate that he is one of the best writers for children working today
Original in its accurate representation of the actual experience of children and its satirical approach to the fantastical ... this novel works emotional truth and tension into its adventure and comedy
If you were to dislike this book, I would not be your friend!
The narrative is skillfully strung together and the ending deeply surprising, challenging the norms of what might be expected in a children's novel, which is all to the good.
Heart-warming and heart-wrenching ... another fantastic tale from Piers Torday and one not to miss.
Mesmerising and overwhelming with emotion.
Not many books change readers' views of the world, this might be one of them.