They were alone, far from home, on an island, with the sea rising and nobody knew where they were . . .
Alice Mistlethwaite has been packed off to an unusual boarding school in Scotland! Everyone is talking about the great orienteering challenge, where students are sent off, unsupervised, for three days!. Alice sees her chance. Away from school she can undertake a secret mission. She just needs to persuade her teammates, rule-abiding Jesse and mischief-maker Fergus, to follow her off-route, across the wild Scottish highlands and islands, in search of a legendary castle . . .
March 2018, Faber and Faber
Nominated for the Carnegie Award
Longlisted for the UKLA
Shortlisted for the Leeds Book Award
Shorlisted for the Bolton Children's Fiction Award
Shortlisted for the StAlban's Schools Book Award
REVIEWS
"Outstanding... This wise and touching novel has originality and a fresh voice . . . it is about friendship, families, loss and trust, the joy of nature, facing fears and how children should live big lives" - The Sunday Times (Children's Book of the Week)
"Glorious" - Metro
"Unputdownable, funny and wise" - The New Statesman
"Thrilling" - The Times (Children's Book of the Week)
"Like the Secret Seven on steroids, in a good way" - The Observer
"A joyously old-fashioned, Blyton-esque hymn to unsupervised childhoods, this fast-paced, witty adventure has undertones of grief and shows the power of friendship to heal the disappointment of adults' emotional neglect" - The Daily Mail
"Lashings of adventure, the highs and lows of friendship and a good pinch of mystery, this delightful story already feels like a classic" - WRD Magazine
"A brilliantly suspenseful novel, in which Farrant raises schoolgirl high-jinx to the pitch of a John Buchan" - The Oldie
"Wonderful contemporary storytelling with a classic feel" - The Bookseller (Editor's choice)
"She has a magic touch writing about and understanding children's everyday thoughts, feelings and lives" -
Books for Keeps
"Blyton meets Buchan in this good old-fashioned adventure romp ... a gem" - The Daily Telegraph
Rights sold:
Audio, W F Howes
China, Citic Press Corporation
France, Gallimard
Japan, Tokuma Shoten
Poland, Wydawnictwo Juka-91
Romania, Curtea Veche
Turkey, Kultur Yayinlari Is Turk LtdRomania,Curtea Veche
USA, Clarion Books (published as A TALENT FOR TROUBLE)