In these grim times, we like to think of children’s books as a walled garden of innocence, safety and peace. Yet the greatest children’s writers have always known that the young need arming against the worst, whether war, climate change, displacement or mortality.
One of the best new books for 9-12s is David Farr’s The Book of Stolen Dreams (Usborne, £12.99). Farr adapted John Le Carré’s The Night Manager for TV: often screenwriters struggle to transition to a different genre, but this is seriously good fantasy. Rachel and Robert live in a totalitarian state that has killed their mother. Its president hates children and anyone with a moral compass. Now the siblings must flee, because their librarian father has smuggled out the Book of Stolen Dreams, whose magic might make the president immortal. What follows is a heart-stopping adventure of the kind that should appeal to fans of Eva Ibbotson and Philip Pullman. There is a plot to assassinate the dictator, betrayals and resistance, as well as pancakes, airships and loyalty. It’s not an escape into a better world, but a challenge to this one.
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