Dark secrets, moonshine and emotions with
a super new line-up from Usborne Books
Enjoy a thrilling, atmospheric adventure set against the Great War, journey into space for a Moon landing anniversary visit, and learn how to understand your moods with a selection of entertaining and educational new children’s books from innovative publisher Usborne.
Age 9 plus:
The Garden of Lost Secrets
A.M. Howell
A visit to National Trust-owned Ickworth House in Suffolk, and the amazing discovery of a 100-year-old gardener’s notebook wedged behind an old filing cabinet, sowed the seeds of one of this year’s most exciting middle-grade debut novels.
A grand, neoclassical building set in acres of beautiful parkland, Ickworth is a favourite haunt of A.M (Ann-Marie) Howell and on a winter’s day visit, she looked up at the Gardener’s Cottage, with its attic window high in the garden walls, and felt ‘the itch of a story brewing.’
Set during the uncertain and turbulent years of the First World War, this gripping debut stars a 12-year-old Kent schoolgirl who is sent away to stay with her aunt and uncle on a large country estate in Suffolk, only to find herself caught up in a perilous mystery.
In October of 1916, Clara Millar is forced to leave behind all she has ever known when her mother sends her to Suffolk to stay with her uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Gilbert. It’s a wrench for Clara because her father is very ill after inhaling poison gas on the battlefield in France and has been told to convalesce in the clean sea air of Devon.
Clara tries desperately to shut the door on her memories but she has brought with her a secret… a secret that touches on her older brother Christopher who is also fighting overseas; a secret that she hasn’t told her parents about.
Lancashire Post book review
And her arrival at the cottage on the enormous country estate, where her uncle is head gardener and her aunt is the housekeeper, is not greeted with the welcome she had expected. Clara is not allowed to go to school, her aunt is inexplicably mean to her, and there is a dark, locked room in the cottage she is not allowed to enter.
Lancashire Post book review
And her arrival at the cottage on the enormous country estate, where her uncle is head gardener and her aunt is the housekeeper, is not greeted with the welcome she had expected. Clara is not allowed to go to school, her aunt is inexplicably mean to her, and there is a dark, locked room in the cottage she is not allowed to enter.
DEBUT: Ann-Marie Howell
Clara has always feared she is not as brave as her father would like her to be despite his assurance that she IS brave and that ‘when you are brave, you can be anything you want to be.’ And she is soon tested to the limit when she is plunged into a tangle of secrets which will lead her to a scheming thief, and a mysterious boy who only appears at night.
There is the feel of a modern classic in this beautifully written, wonderfully descriptive, and thoughtful story… Howell perfectly captures the haunting air of melancholy that enveloped those who lived and endured the ravages of the Great War.
Against the evocative backdrop of the aftermath of the terrible Battle of the Somme, she weaves a multi-layered, emotion-packed debut which explores trust, friendship, the effects of grief, our different interpretations of bravery, and the importance of not judging people on first appearance.
But this is also an enchanting adventure… cleverly created, full of secrets, mystery and memorable characters, and with an exquisite coming-of-age story at its heart.
Inspirational storytelling…
Published on June 13
(Usborne, paperback, £6.99)
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