I was sent this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, full review can be found on Amazon and Goodreads!

I loved this book from the first page, I can't wait to read more by this author!

I loved this book so much. I love that this was another portal fantasy and it just felt so wholesome. All the characters were amazing and they storyline was just so well thought out. Ben Miller has fastly become one of my favourite authors this year.

I don't now why it's taken me so long to leave feedback for this one. I read and loved it straight away. Ben Miller is such a refreshing author and his wit and intelligence shine through in this funny adventure. Great for young readers and those young at heart too. Loved it.

This was such an interesting read! I found myself so engrossed in the story, the characters had such incredible arcs, and I can't wait to follow this author's journey!

this review was written by our nine year old reviewer (see below):

i always really enjoy ben miller’s books. they are always so fun to read and are some of my favourites. i like how the story followed siblings and their relationship - it was a fun book to read and i loved how i was reading a story about them being pulled into a story. how funny is that.?! this is a really good book to read and i think that many other children like myself will enjoy reading this. this is a great book to get a child into reading.

Thankyou to netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book. Ive read a couple of books by Ben Miller and they are all feel good, easy reads that are quick to read and bring me out of a reading slump. This one was no different, i loved the characters , the plot and the way everything concluded

Another great read from Ben Miller. This one read fairly quickly, but was enjoyable and had some interesting characters. I particularly liked Elvia, he needs his own book. One I will definitely read to my class at school. Looking forward to the next one.

I wanted to read this book as I read other stories by Ben Miller and they're alwyas well plotted and gripping.
This is a great story that will appeal to children and adult: well developed characters, a fabolous world building.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I always buy Ben Miller books for my grandchildren they love them. This is another great addition, well-written, funny informative. Just the right mixture to fuel a child's imagination. Recommended.

Another fun and gripping book from Ben Miller. I love it as an adult and I’m sure my niece and nephew will too.

It is straightforward and exciting for children to follow, but developed enough to interest older readers.

I didn’t know what to expect from this at all, but I didn’t expect to give up with it so quickly. The first third just seemed so bonkers and irresponsibly daft I couldn’t carry on. Two kids like climbing up inside the hollow tree near their grandparents’, but they can’t as it’s in a building site, although the building works might be put off by the fact some endangered spiders have been found there. That night, the girl of the siblings wakes up with a mahoosive spider’s thread stuck to her finger, so she wakes her brother and they follow it all through the house, all through the marsh to the tree, and all up the tree until lo and behold out the top they’re in another world, peopled by different versions of characters they’ve just met.

Then the thread is ensnaring a unicorn – just because – but the unicorn bamfs out of existence to be replaced by the baddy of the piece – just because, and she snatches the brother, but that’s OK, the girl can hear hunters approaching and they might help her find him, except then the talking bear comes along… It’s just so wilfully incoherent, to me. I’m sure there’s something here for the target readers (definitely under-tens), and there certainly is a pell-mell flow to the plot, but I seldom read something for this audience that is so adult-proof, meaning this really is for young minds only. This was so speedy and yet so ungainly – like an ice-skating crocodile, it might be snappy but I wouldn’t bother getting too close. One and a half stars from me.

I requested this book for my daughter, who absolutely loved the first book of Ben Miller's that she read. I let her write the review and she said:
What I liked: It was clever how you could imagine the characters in your head while reading. I was intrigued when Lana entered the hall in the little village and got attacked. I also thought the characters were really imaginatice and creative.
What I disliked: Nothing.
I would recommend this to my brother and Mum because they book like reading books about books. I give it 5 STARS.

Thank you to Ben Miller, his publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great little story about how humans can impact the environment, and that all creatures need to be respected, not just the cute & cuddly ones.

Lana (and to a lesser extent, her brother, Harrison) go on an adventure through the hollow tree near their grandparents home. They discover that there is a very rare species of spider, the golden diving bell spider, that lives in the marsh and the tree, and housing developers are going to destroy all of it. Some people want them to relocate the spiders, but the builders dont want to wait. Lana says she doesn't care about the spiders, she'd rather have an adventure playground.
But then she wakes in the night, being drawn by a golden thread to the hollow tree. There she must go on a quest to save her brother, captured by the spider queen. She meets a whole host of different people and animals on her adventures, and learns a great deal about working together, and how important even a little spider can be.

I enjoyed the story, and it was really fast paced, so you never felt it was dragging at any point. I think this'll be a good read for kids, especially if they are into the environment.

Another fantastic story by brilliant author, Ben Miller. The familiar characters of Harrison and Lana discover that a tree near their home is going to be cut down to make way for building work. However, this tree is home to a very rare species of spider. As is usual in these stories, the children enter a magical world where they work to save the tree and the spiders from being destroyed.
The story highlights the importance of friendship and teamwork, as well as making some good points about ecosystems and conservation.
I liked that at the end of the book there was some clarification about which pieces of information about the spiders are true and which were made up for the story so children don't take away false information from the book.

I didn’t know that Ben Miller did write stories, however really loving the the magic involved in this one!

This is the story about how Lana and Harrison meet some spiders and end up on a magical adventure at night-time. Lana is the younger of the two and she is very much into play and believing, whereas Harrison is just that more grown up as he’s a teenager.

They both want to play on the old hollowed tree at their Grandparents area, but when some developers ask Lana if she wants to save the spiders that live there or have a big climbing frame. She wants to play and Harrison wants to save the spiders.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this book is that the chapters aren’t very long and a straight forward read which, really helps when you’re reading with younger children, or maybe when they’re reading by themselves. Recommended for parents looking for a fun and magical bedtime read and children who like magic and relatable characters.

I found myself really caring about the spiders by the end of the book too, which I think was the point. The writer makes you feel and understand things from the spider’s perspective.

There was definitely a ‘Narnia’ feel about it. (with magical lands and talking animals.) and I think this book could do a lot to change peoples perspective on spiders, especially children.

My 8 year old daughter and I read this together and she really enjoyed it. We had already read The Day I Fell into a Fairytale and she was eager to see which children's stories this book drew inspiration from and she immediately got the Chronicles of Narnia parallels.
I would say we enjoyed the first book better by Ben Miller better than this one but she was still excited each evening to read a few more chapters of this one.
Would recommend for readers age 7-10.

I feel a bit behind s I didn’t know Ben Miller even wrote books, which is exciting, as I’m a big fan of his. Yes, I know this is a children’s book and probably not aimed at a 29 year old but it sounded like such a fun story. It turned out to be a proper fantasy adventure.

I read an early e-copy; it would be lovely to see a finished book to see the final images as the description of this fantasy world sounded so bright and beautiful, and the black and white images in this copy don’t do them justice.

There was definitely a sense of Narnia about it, with magical lands and talking animals.

By having a boy and a girl as your protagonists, it would appeal to all children as they are all able to identify with them and follow them on their adventure.

I liked the main plot point of the spiders. In my experience, most people do not think favourably of spiders, and a lot of the children I know fall into that category. And whilst I’m not about to go and stroke a spider, I think this book could do a lot to change their perspective, especially for children.

It is straightforward and exciting for children to follow but developed enough to interest older readers.

Yet another fantastic read from Ben Miller. I really enjoyed the combination of mystery with a real-life dilemma. It might even be enough to persuade some of my spider-phobic children to review their current opinions. I'll be adding this to our class story time list.

This is the first book I have read by the author but it wont be the last. It was well written with an engaging storyline and well developed characters. I loved the message behind the story and I related to the part about spiders as I hate them, although I never kill them I just get someone to remove them for me - the struggle is real.
I think kids will love it.