This is another chicken House publication, written by Pat Walsh. According to a Guardian review I’ve just read, it was runner up in the Chicken House/Times competition in 2008, to Reaver’s Ransom, which is now being retitled Flood Child. This is a great read too. It’s set in  the winter of 1347. Will, an orphan, has been taken in by the Crowfield Abbey, where he’d be nothing but a hard-worked servant if not for the friendship of Brother Snail. Into the abbey come two men, a leper and a sinister-looking servant, just after Will has found a hob caught in a trap and taken it home for Brother Snail to cure. The hob tells Will about some strange events in the history of the area, and the strangers seem to know the story too. From there the story develops, with wonderful writing, terrific characters and a good vs evil clash to match Harry Potter. I liked this book very much. It has one of the most striking covers I’ve seen in a while, (the picture here doesn’t do it justice at all) and the book doesn’t disappoint after that. For fantasy and spooky-story lovers from about nine up, and a good read for anyone older than that.