This is a story I simply could not put down. It was magical and so beautifully written. It follows the story of Bastjan, a member of a travelling circus, whose mother died whilst performing many years previously. He was then left to be brought up by the circus. However, Bastjan wants to find out about his mother and is given a box by the ringmaster with some of her personal possessions. This box is sought after by other people though.

There ensues a wonderful story filled with adventure, travel, running and shapeshifters. Bastjan is desperate to find out the truth and prevent others from doing so. The friendships and found family throughout are just beautiful and the ending is just perfect, even though it may not be to everyone’s tastes. A wonderful book that I cannot wait to purchase a hard copy of and share with my class.

Bastjan was born into the circus, his mother Ester the star of the show. When she tragically dies during a stunt, Bastjan is left in the charge of his step father, the circus ringmaster, Quinn. Years later, Quinn bribes Bastjan into attempting a risky stunt in return for some of his mothers possessions. The stunt that killed his mother. Desperate to have something to connect him to his lost family, Bastjan begins training to become the new super star of the circus, but someone soon comes looking for a box that had belonged to Ester. Bastjan sets out on a journey to right an old wrong, making friends and redefining what it means to be family along the way.

Sinéad O’Hart absolutely captured my heart with this fast paced, action packed story. The characters are so well developed, each as eccentric and flamboyant as you'd expect from a troupe of circus performers. The 19th century settings are described in such depth and detail that you're transported so smoothly from the real to the magical and you forget what you're reading is fiction.

O’Hart doesn't fall into the trap of wrapping the story up with a big bow, it's nice to have a middle grade fiction with an ambiguous ending. Answers to questions you don't even notice you have are subtley placed for you to piece together yourself, for example, the indentity of Bastjan's father. This makes it as immersive a read for adults as it is for children.
There still feels so much to explore in this world; the Silent City, the Tunnelers, the farming family and their connection to Bastjan and the circus. To me, the mark of a great book is putting it down when it's finished and wanting more, and Skyborn definitely made me want to read more from Sinéad O’Hart.

Spellbound by Skyborn, this emotionally thrilling adventure is told with atmospheric flourish. Perfect for UKS2, a tale of fantasy, folklore & finding your family. I loved the respectful descriptions of the circus folk and their traditions, and the disturbing descriptions of more than one evil villain!
Circus, railway gangs, airships & mysterious islands-Greatest Showman meets Cogheart, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Last week, we passed the first anniversary of the date when – as a country – we first went into lockdown. Although it has been a truly dreadful year for a great many people, there have been some things to come out of this time which have been enormous positives. For me, one of those things is the friendships I have made on Twitter, including one with fellow book enthusiast and blogger, Liam (@notsotweets). Not only has he been an enormous encouragement and support with my blogging, but for a few months last year he provided a great many of us with a weekly oasis of calm in his story-telling streamed on Twitter.

This was something to which I looked forward enormously every Tuesday, and while some of the books he shared were not my cup of tea, one of them stood head and shoulders above the rest, at least as far as I was concerned. That book was The Eye of the North by Sinéad O’Hart, which has an opening chapter so powerful that I immediately added it to a list of titles to give to Mr S from which to select some suitable birthday presents for me. And what a present it turned out to be – an exciting adventure that had me gripped the whole way through and a book that I enjoyed so much that I am going to be sharing it with my children after the Easter holiday as our class read, because I know that they will love it just as much as Liam and I do.

When I saw that there was to be a new middle grade title by the same author, I was immediately curious to see what it would be about. After discovering it would be a prequel to The Eye of the North, I was determined to read it at the earliest possible opportunity, so when I saw that it had been added to the titles on Net Galley, I immediately requested it. Being me, I dutifully read and reviewed those titles I felt obligated to read first before picking this up a few days ago and allowing myself to read a little every evening before bingeing the second half of it at the weekend. While quite different from Eye, it is another incredible adventure – one which left me with my heart in my mouth at the end when I realised just how it leads into that book, and one which has made me even more excited to share that title with my class than I already was.

After a short prequel which sets the tone for the rest of the book, we meet our hero, Bastjan, waiting in the wings to take his final bow in the ring of the circus to which he belongs. Rather than a full house, Bastjan notices the many empty seats as the final act is about to start – an artist whose act is not entertaining enough to prevent several audience members leaving early. Following the show, and desperate to restore the fortunes of the circus, the ringmaster Cyrus Quinn summons Bastjan and tells him that he is to retrain as an aerialist to follow in the footsteps of his late mother. Leaving the boy with no option but to agree, Quinn also gives the boy a chest of things that belonged to her, amongst which he finds a small box, which is locked and missing the key.

As Bastjan starts to train to walk the wire, Quinn’s plans take another direction when the ringmaster announces the circus is to break with their schedule and instead head to Oxford to meet with a mystery benefactor by the name of Dr Bauer. En route, the performers pick up an additional traveller, a young girl called Alice who is on the run with her dog – and who soon falls in with Bastjan and strongman Crake, with whom Bastjan shares a wagon.

When Quinn’s henchmen search the circus folk’s wagons, it becomes clear that Dr Bauer’s plans for the circus are not being made out of the kindness of his heart, and that he has plans for Bastjan’s mother’s box. In return for food and shelter, Alice agrees to act as a guard to keep it safe from harm but it is soon apparent that Quinn will stop at nothing to get hold of it.

Will the friends be able to prevent the box and its contents from falling into Quinn and Bauer’s hands? And just why do they both want it so badly? As Bastjan learns more about what his mother had hidden inside the box, it becomes evident that it is not just him or the circus folk whose futures will be affected by Bauer’s plans, and Bastjan will have to travel to his mother’s homeland to try to prevent something truly terrible happening…

Prequels are funny things. The ones that I have read recently, I have read after I have enjoyed the original titles and I’m never really sure that that’s the best way to enjoy them. Like a great many people, I suspect, I much prefer to read a sequence in order which is – after all – generally how books are written. Having said that, I think it is the sign of a truly great story when there is a demand for a prequel, and from the response I have seen on Twitter from bloggers lucky enough to receive hard-copy proofs over the past week or so, in this case there is an awful lot of love for the original book – and quite rightly so.

In this title, there are threads of The Eye of the North running through it – delicious little hints of what is to come – in a very subtle way so that, unlike the other prequels I have read, I wasn’t constantly thinking about comparing this with the original story, but was able to enjoy reading it on its own merits. These are a great many, and for those readers who come to this title looking for an exciting, action-packed read, whether or not they have read Eye, they will be delighted by what they find.

The life of the circus folk is described in beautiful detail here – not just their performances, but their superstitions and practices, all of which brought the book to life perfectly and gave the story a feeling of incredible reality. When those parts of the story which were more fantastical came along, this feeling continued so that at no point was the credibility broken. I could see and hear what was happening in my mind so vividly as I read, that at no point was my belief in the narrative suspended – no mean feat.

Bastjan is a wonderful character. Courageous, determined, with a strong moral code but with a definite fragility to him, and someone who is thrilled at the prospect of suddenly having access to his mother’s belongings. When he finds the box, he hopes it will allow him to feel closer to the only parent he remembers and is prepared to do whatever it takes – firstly, to open it and then to keep hold of the box and its contents once he has does so. In Alice, he finds someone whose background is very different from his own but in whom he can place his trust and very soon they become firm friends – the first proper one that each has had.

I absolutely loved this book – to the point where pretty much as soon as I had started it, I pre-ordered a copy from my local independent bookshop – such was my confidence that I would want to share this with my class: something that is not always the case with my Net Galley reads. Perfect for readers in Year 5 and above, whether or not they have read The Eye of the North, this will appeal enormously to fans of adventure and mysteries.

As always, enormous thanks go to Little Tiger Press and Net Galley for my advance read ahead of publication on June 10th, and – on this occasion – to Liam, for introducing me to Sinéad’s writing. I am awarding this a perfect 5 out of 5 stars.

With more twists than an aerial acrobat, Skyborn is fast-paced, action-packed and unpredictable from the first word to the last. It’s a beauty of a book, filled with the atmospheric and immersive description that I’ve come to expect from Sinead O’Hart. With her skill as a master storyteller, Sinead makes the outrageous and impossible seem entirely plausible. The cast of misfits, which make up the characters, are extremely likeable and intricately created: Sinead breathes colour into everything she touches, making the characters and setting come alive for the reader.

Skyborn tells the story of Bastjan, a young boy born into the circus. When his mother passes away, he is left with the burden of righting her wrongs - a quest which sees him getting involved with more danger than he ever realised existed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the latest offering from Sinead O’Hart and, like a fire-eater with a flame, I inhaled it! I found it so unpredictable that I was desperate to read on and find out what unexpected twist would happen next. Skyborn has everything a reader could want: unlikely heroes, an elephant-sized amount of heart, utterly detestable villains... As well as being captivating, it’s full of mystery, intrigue and potential peril. I think it will be adored by young readers. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.