This book came highly recommended by respected colleagues as well as my wife and daughter who read it a while ago and loved it.

The Girl of Ink and Stars is an adventure book about a girl called Isabella who lives in a fictional (but familiar) world on the Isle of Joya.

When her friend disappears, she is determined to be part of the team who saves her, so much so that she cuts off her long hair and pretends to be boy. With the help of an ancient map and the knowledge of the stars, taught to her by her father, Isabella navigates a part of the island that no-one has been to for a long time, called the Forgotten Territories. As if this journey wasn’t harrowing enough for her, when she finally does find her friend, Lupe, this turns out to only be the beginning of the journey as the whole story takes several more unexpected twists.

This epic adventure story is brilliantly written, powerfully moving and quite dark in places, but, in truth, we never really got that into it. It wasn’t always easy to imagine where they were or keep track of what was actually happening. In fairness, we read it mostly in a stop/start fashion, so somewhat lost the flow, but as I said earlier, my wife and daughter adored it, some I’m sure other will too.

Tom, age 11, says: “I liked the adventure concept of it and that it was set on a made up island.”