Absolutely loved Rumblestar by Ali Elphinstone! Rumblestar really takes you to new places, meeting new people and a capturing plot! I personally really enjoyed visioning all of the places on the map and cannot wait to read more by her!

A great audiobook that both my children and I all enjoyed. Was well written and well read, great storyline that kept them interested throughout.

Magical book that will interest kids in reading! It reminded me of Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, that humour and magic but for the kids of today.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

This surpasses Roald Dahl-esque imagination in every way!

Rumblestar is the first book in the Unmapped Chronicles, essentially about a young boy called Casper Tock who stumbles into the sky kingdom of Rumblestar. From then, we follow his adventure as he meets a girl called Utterly Thankless, who is utterly brilliant to be honest - I love her fire and the way she becomes friends with Casper. And Casper himself, oh, what a cinnamon roll! I was rooting for him from the very first page and you will just absolutely love him - oh I was so proud of him by the end of this.

The entire plot was interesting as we traverse this new world, watching the characters learn important life lessons and developing so beautifully throughout. Oh, I felt just that little bit braver after finishing this myself. Another fantastic middle grade adventure to add to the recommendations list.

I absolutely adored this! Adventurous, wonderful characters (shout out to evil Candida) and a wonderful message of courage, kindness and bravery underneath. Nicky Diss is the best audiobook narrator I have listened to this year. Perfect actor, charming voices. Love love love.

I listened to the audio version of Rumblestar with my twin daughters and they loved it. Abi Elphinstone is a very talented author. We loved Rumblestar and the world Abi has created. To quote one of my daughters: I'd give Rumblestar 100 stars if I could. We'll be listening to the other books in this series.

I am pretty new to using audiobooks and find certain conditions/settings make it easier for me to follow the story when I don’t have the physical text in front of me.
This is a great adventure, with characters that you can’t help but admire, want to succeed and which made me feel a lot braver just reading about them. Eleven year old Casper likes routine and his life is led by his timetables. Unfortunately, these timetables mostly consist of helping him to avoid the school bullies determined to make his life awful.
One day Casper finds himself hiding in a clock to escape them, and is transported to a magical world. Rumblestar is a strange place, full of whimsy, but the characters he meets as he tries to prevent the evil taking over the world. From Arlo the dragon to his first proper friend, Utterly Thankless, these characters were full of life.
There was a great blend of fear and humour, and our character’s journey was inspirational. Huge thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me listen to this prior to publication.

This is my very first audiobook review!

I listed to Rumblestar through the NetGalley app, which (before it updated and stopped working properly) meant I could listen while doing everything from housework to running.

Casper Tock lives a life full of strict timetables and hiding in lost property baskets. When he finds himself in Rumblestar, accompanied by the adventurous, stormy Utterly, with the fate of worlds both magical and more familiar at stake, all he wants to do is go home. He definitely doesn't want to set out on a journey that will see him face drizzle hags and storm ogres, or - more terrifying than anything else - consider making a friend.

If you want an example of brilliant, limitlessly magical and amusing world building, look no further than an Abi Elphinstone novel.

Casper and Utterly are brilliant characters who readers will instantly warm to. Casper's loneliness will strike a cord with anyone who has ever felt afraid to make a friend, and the emotional journey he goes through over the course of the novel is as uplifting as the dramatic one.

Nicky Diss's narration added an extra level of enjoyment to this story, and she had me giggling throughout as she brought Casper, Utterly and their companions vividly to life.

This definitely won't be the only time I listen to this story as an audiobook as I think my fantasy-loving six year old will really enjoy it too.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

Casper Tock's world is defined by timetables and to do lists. Class bullies feature into these and he has devised a series of careful strategies for avoiding them. One day, these strategies fail him and, with no other place left to hide, he finds himself inside an ancient grandfather clock whilst looking for escape. He believes those he fears remain outside but quickly finds out that a new world has been opened, with much inside it to fear, as well.

Utterly Thankless belongs to this new world of sky dragons, pocket dragons, and an inexplicable plethora of other beings. She is Casper's opposite in every way and yet the unlikely duo must work together to save both of their worlds from the evil clutches of those who would destroy them. Along the way, and without ever realising it, they learn and overcome much about themselves, as well.

I have recently been in the mood to devour a series of whimsical and fantastical middle grade stories, and this provided me with everything I had been looking for. Adventure is thrust upon this unlikely hero and heroine, and they overcome the series of trials set to challenge them as well as overcoming more internalised hardships in the process. The amalgamation of the two made this read as fun and quirky as it was heartfelt and profound.

The plot continued to excite and intrigue me at every stage. This was a novel entirely filled with dreadful foes to overcome, daredevil tasks to complete, and difficult challenges to puzzle out. These, combined with the sassy and timid lovable duo, quickly proved as appealing for adult readers as the far younger age range this is aimed towards. The wit was pretty spot on, as well!

Good-book-goosebumps for Rumblestar!

Whenever I'm looking for a truly exciting and fun adventure story, I will always turn to childhood favourites or the newer selection of middle-grade books released in the last 5 years or so because the level of talent amongst the authors writing for this demographic is mind-boggling! This is my first Abi Elphinstone book and it did not disappoint, in fact I think it sky-soared (wink-wink) itself into being one of my favourite reads of the year so far. The vastness of Elphinstone's imagination is painted across these pages in a multicoloured composition of delight, wonder, peril, wholesomeness and comfort.

The main character in Rumblestar, Casper Tock is an extremely sensible and risk averse 11-year-old boy. He is lonely, has grown up a bit too fast and is the victim of some cruel bullies at school. Not only that but his town, the rest of England and seemingly the entire world, are under threat of being destroyed by some vicious and unprecedented storms. When all hope seems lost Casper happens upon an artefact that propels him into Rumblestar where he is summarily arrested by Utterly Thankless, a wild, independent, risk-taker. Utterly and Casper are chalk and cheese but over the course of their adventure, along with Utterly's pet dragon Arlo, they discover the true meaning of bravery and friendship.

Casper, Utterly and Arlo were such a great team. The characterisation was incredibly vivid; I immediately knew who each of them were and I was fully invested in the success of their adventure. I adored the focus on the friendship between Casper and Utterly, especially as they each desperately didn't want to be lonely anymore. The sections where Elphinstone wrote about the small hidden lonely part of Casper's heart, made me tear up! Lonely children will always capture my heart because I tend to feel very protective of them - Casper and Utterly were no different.

The audiobook narration is performed by Nicky Diss, who has a lot of experience voicing children's/middle grade books and what a wonderful performance it was. The tone was consistently spot-on and the voice acting was perfect for the type of story being told; I couldn't imagine it being performed by anyone else. When I read on in this series, I'm definitely going to continue with the audiobooks because there is something very comforting and nostalgic about having someone else read a children's book to you and even more so when the voice acting is top-notch!

A wonderful start to a series that captured my imagination from the very first line. I am looking forward to Jungledrop!

This was exactly what I needed. If Rumblestar had been my first ever audiobook experience, then I would have already loved them from the start.

Rumblestar was perfect, the story by Abi Elphinstone and Nicky Diss’s narration was everything. It was adventure, it was thrilling, it was magic. It was an escape. One that I highly recommend. Especially right now.

If choose to read this book I am sure you will love it just as much because Abi Elphinstone is just that wonderful. The world building is grand, the characters are excellent but ohhh the writing. I loved the descriptions of people, places and emotions. Descripting Utterly as the girl who’s swallowed a storm to explain her turmoil. It’s so straightforward but instant. The names of places (and characters, I mean Utterly Thankless is a brilliant name if ever there was one!), the world Utterly and Casper adventure through.

If you choose the audiobook, you have all of this and Nicky Diss’s narration and I can only praise this. I have a real rollercoaster relationship with audiobooks and this is the first one where I really loved it. It is how I would want a story told. (Yes I still have a copy of the book but super glad I got to experience the audio version.)

This surpasses Roald Dahl-esque imagination in every way!

Rumblestar is the first book in the Unmapped Chronicles, essentially about a young boy called Casper Tock who stumbles into the sky kingdom of Rumblestar. From then, we follow his adventure as he meets a girl called Utterly Thankless, who is utterly brilliant to be honest - I love her fire and the way she becomes friends with Casper. And Casper himself, oh, what a cinnamon roll! I was rooting for him from the very first page and you will just absolutely love him - oh I was so proud of him by the end of this.

I love Nicky Diss as a narrator! She has narrated some of my favourite middle grade books in the past and she has a way with conveying a story so compellingly.

The entire plot was interesting as we traverse this new world, watching the characters learn important life lessons and developing so beautifully throughout. Oh, I felt just that little bit braver after finishing this myself. Another fantastic middle grade adventure to add to the recommendations list.

oh my goodness I loved this.

This book has such a beautiful message and I think had I read this as a child I would have loved this and really related to it. Casper is a realistic relatable character and Utterly is a great match for him in this story.
Rumblestar is fully of whimsy and magic and I was immediately sucked in. Abi Elphinstone had created a world that I want to see a lot more from. There are wonderful emotionally poignant moments and some great comic relief too. I didn't want to put this down at all and will definitely be checking out future books from this author!

I recently listened to another book by Nicky Diss and was honestly shocked to find out she had also narrared this too. She does a fantastic job of capturing different characters voices that I didn't even recognise her. I honestly think I'd listen to anything she reads!


This is definitely a book I will recommend to my students for years to come!

My 10 year old son really enjoyed Rumblestar.
The narrator, Nicky Diss, was great to listen to. She had brilliant expression and character voices.

My favourite character was Utterly because of her adventurous personality,but I thought all the characters were great.
The story was exciting and you never knew what to expect! I liked the short chapters as well, they made the story move on fast.

Caspar never does anything unless its on his To Do list. There's no way he could ever be prepared for ending up in the magical kingdom of Rumblestar, but that's exactly what happens when he escapes from a bully by hiding in a grandfather clock. Another thing he doesn't do is have friends, which is absolutely fine by Utterley Thankless, the strange girl he meets, as she doesn't either. However, the evil Harpy Morg is hell-bent on destroying both their worlds and the two find themselves working together to save their homes.
I loved listening to this, the narrator was wonderful and gave the book a real storytelling quality. It's all so magical, with Drizzle Hags making rain marvels, places like Shiverbark Forest where snow marvels are conjured and Arlo the miniature dragon who I adored, he is the best character. The book had elements of Narnia and the Magic Faraway tree. I would love to read more about the Unmapped Kingdoms and will definitely be picking up more of Abi Elphinstone's books.