This is such a magical book. Brings to mind Narnia and other such adventure tales. the author mentions that Narnia was an inspiration for him, and it is very clear that's the case, but at the same time it's not like he's just rewritten the story or anything, it's completely got its own magic to it, along with some great characters.
I liked the it was told from the point of view of two of the four children. I think having all 4 would have made the story too crowded and complicated. As it is, there's a perfect balance.
Honestly I can't say much more than this is a fantastic book, I didn't want to put it down and I enjoyed every minute of it.
I ended up getting what is basically the prequel to this book soon after, Magicborn, also a fantastic book. But I dont feel you need to have read it first in order to understand what is going on here, but it might help later on with some of the characters. but it's an amazing book in it's own right.

The wonderful Peter Bunzl does it again. A family curse, a magical world and an evil queen. A great read.

Very much Narnia-influenced, this fantasy has four Georgian siblings end up the latest generation of their family to live under the curse laid down by the Fairy Queen a long time ago, and Acton, the youngest of them, the Chosen One destined to destroy her powers. Cue magical pathways starting with an entrance on a clock that chimes thirteen, talking wolves, armies of people turned to glass, and more. CS Lewis could easily have written this – well, except for the late-life lesbianism from some minor characters, of course. It's not bad at all, and many are the young readers who will take to this a lot more than I did – but with such an obvious derivation, it's always going to play second fiddle to superior books that came long before it.

A beautiful story reminiscent of Narnia where the Glassborn children undertake a magical adventure to save their family. This story was beautifully written; the world building was well-constructed and the pace of the story kept my attention throughout. The range of characters that the Glassborn’s interact with are simply brilliant and the suspense builds throughout - the twist with the flower was great!
I know that my pupils will definitely enjoy reading this story and I will be recommending it to them all!

Thank you to NetGalley, Peter Bunzl and Usborne Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this, a lovely modern Narnia-esque wholesome tale for a new generation

I ended up staying up late to finish it, rather than letting my loan expire!

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

For fans of CS Lewis, Sophie Anderson and all things magical, Glassborn is one of those books that transport you effortlessly to another realm. Packed full of magic, wonder and adventure, Glassborn will certainly grab you by the heartstrings and whisk you away to Fairyland. I really enjoyed getting to know the Glass-Belles and their intricate family history and became fully absorbed in the darker elements of the story. Isn't a little bit darkness essential in a fairytale? And what a great way to help children understand after darkness, there will always be light. Coriel the Robin will stay with me for a long time, what a beautful little character. The tussles of the other characters as they grapple with their conscience was excellent and a pleasant welcome to see main characters getting things a little bit wrong, a definite nod to The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe as noted by Peter Bunzl. I was sad to come to the end of this book, that alone shows how much of a good read it is and definitely makes me want to explore other books by the same author.

A wonderful follow-up to Magicborn which follows the Belle siblings to their new home in Tambling Village where they are transported to Fairyland in order to save the 5 kingdoms from the evil Fairy Queen’s cruel reign. With more than a nod to Narnia and the Brontes, this book is just magical.

A fanciful fantasia of fairy magic!

When four young children lose their mother, they lose their father to depression too. He returns with them to their ancestral home, Fairykeep Cottage, a place swathed in folklore and the source of many of the childhood stories their mother used to tell them.

A curse was said to have been placed on their family and it would take the Chosen One to defeat the Fairy Queen and break it. When Acton, the youngest of the Belle siblings, is woken on the stroke of 13 by a robin tapping at his window, he has no idea that he is about to become the Chosen One. The four Belle siblings get pulled into a world of enchantment and then must race against the clock to save not just each other but their entire family from the evil queen for once she gets her hands on the Glimmerglass Crown, she will have dominion over life and death.

Helped along the way by their shapeshifting friends, the robin and the wolf, Cora, Bram, Elle and Acton go on a journey of a lifetime to save the world as they know it.

If you are a fan of Narnia, you will enjoy the similarities to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and any Bronte family lover will spot links to them.

A good read for children aged 9-12 with a healthy imagination and a love of magical fantasy.

We are going to be searching our garden for hidden keys and talking to every robin that we see this weekend, just in case!

Thank you Net Galley and Usborne Publishing for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

I raced through this one, it was such a good story. This is the sequel to Magicborn which is also a great book and a treat to read. In Glassborn we meet the four Belle children, Cora, Bramble, Elle and Acton. They go to live with their aunt at Fairykeep Cottage and Acton gets kidnapped in Fairyland. Only the family’s magic can rescue him.
I was reminded so much of Narnia and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in this book, it is a lovely read for winter nights and the references to the Brontë’s was lovely. I can highly recommend this to 9 to 14 year olds as well as to adults who enjoy the wonderful writing for children that authors like Peter Bunzl give us.

Glassborn is the magical sequel to Magicborn by Peter Bunzl – a story of shapeshifting creatures, unknown powers, a twin connection and a enchanted forest. It reads well as a stand-alone novel so readers don’t need to have already traveled to this wonderful fantasy world to enjoy the story.

In Glassborn, we meet the four Belle siblings: Cora (a 14 year old story-teller), Bramble (a 13 year old who loves military history and likes to argue everything), Elle (a 12 year old who loves nature) and Acton (the baby of the family at 11 years old who loves games, adventures and Cora’s stories). Their mother has died and they are taken to live with their aunt at Fairykeep Cottage. Much to Acton’s delight, it’s the same cottage as in Cora’s stories of Tempest and Thomas (from the enchanting world of Magicborn). Could it be true that there is a curse on their family and a “chosen one” will come along to save them all?

Acton finds his way into Fairyland. Amidst the winter magic, he’s kidnapped by the Fairy Queen’s servents. His siblings must channel the magic of their family and the power of Cora’s stories to find Acton and defeat the Fairy Queen.

Glassborn is a story fizzing with fairy energy. There is a dark, cold magic that lifts from the pages, pulling readers into its depths. With clear links to C.S. Lewis and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it is the connection to the Brontë family that I find fascinating. We visited Haworth this past summer and were able to step back in time into the lives of this intriguing family.

Fairykeep Cottage was inspired by the parsonage in Haworth where the four Brontë siblings lived with their father and their aunt who cared for them. The three sisters (Charlotte, Emily & Anne) and their brother (Branwell) were all incredibly creative. The girls wrote endless stories while Branwell filled his room with drawings and paintings. Publishing was still very much a man’s world so the girls used pen names for their writing: Charlotte published as Currer Bell, Emily as Ellis Bell and Anne as Acton Bell. Peter Bunzl used these pen names, as well as a twist on Branwell’s name, as inspiration for the characters in Glassborn.

Thank you to Usborne & Eve Wersocki Morris of EWM PR for a copy of this magical book!

This book gave me all the childhood “feels”. It’s like a bit comfort blanket. Think Narnia, Hobbit, all of your favourite books feel like they’ve been given a nod, and woven into a wonderful new story.

I loved every moment of this book, from the very first paragraph.

My thanks to Netgalley and Usborne Publishing for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw the name of the author, I knew I had to read this book, having already read and loved Magicborn. I was hooked from the very beginning and very invested in knowing what the fates of the four Belle children would be. The characters and settings are expertly brought to life through the rich description.
I can this see this becoming a modern-day classic which will appeal to anyone who loves fantasy. I think it will be make a fantastic read out loud book for story time.

At first I thought this book was going to be a modern day retelling of The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe (I was excited, I love that book). Although there are similarities (a queen who turns people to statues, 4 siblings, 1 sibling who separates from the others and has to do something for the queen) it's so much more. The 4 children need to work together to help each other and come across people and characters who are trying to hinder them. Their hearts are all muddled and sore after a death in the family and, although they don't know it, this adventure will help them. I can't wait to get this book and put it in the library at school, it's such a lovely story.

Peter Bunzl's work is magical. His characters, settings, and plots are richly developed and although the stories are fictional, you can almost believe them to be true.
Glassborn centres around three children whose mother has passed away and they are being looked after by their father. As a side story, there is a robin, wolf, and fairy who are guarding a magical tree - in that tree lives an evil fairy queen. Both stories intertwine as the children often hear of fairy tales and the fairy queen. But it's when they move to their mother's childhood home that the fairy tale becomes a reality.
Perfect for those that love to delve into fairytales and for confident readers aged 9+

Peter Bunzl is one of a small group of authors whose name immediately get the children excited, and not without reason..His books are so well written and are absolutely magical.. They are instant classics. We will be having a physical copy of this for our bookshelf.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reading copy with no obligation to review.

I expected to enjoy this book very much but i was disappointed. I haven't read the first book and I didn't read the Q+A with the author at the end of the book until i had finished it, so i was distracted from the start with the obvious similarities to the Brontes. I knew about Gondal and Angria but, oddly enough, not about Glass town and I kept trying to relate what I was reading to Bronte works. I was also bemused that Acton here is a boy. It is only late in the book when the connection is (quite funnily) acknowledged - Cara is befuddled and calls herself Charlotte and starts talking about Jane Eyre.

There are a few literary quotations throughout the book and that could be a good way of introducing the intended reader to other works.

In the Q+A the author says he was thinking about Narnia and the story is indeed a quest with 4 children but for me that is the only similarity. I saw no underlying themes or any cohesive fantasy world. I felt that the characters were thinly drawn and easily confused. The True Names idea was quite interesting although perhaps too easy to solve. I did like the author's refusal to shy away from real life in what happened to The Nameless Girl.

All in all, for me, there was something missing but I think the intended readership would find a lot to enjoy and folklore to explore such as the Green man legends and it could prompt quite a few art projects too.

Following the death of their mother, the Belle family are moving with their father to their new home, Fairykeep Cottage, which was their mother's childhood home and where their aunty still lives. It's not long after their arrival when Acton, the youngest sibling heads out and befriends Coriel, a robin. That night, when the siblings are in bed, a series of events leads Acton to head to fairyland in a quest to defeat the Queen of the fairies who holds a curse over his family. Reluctant to admit that he is the Chosen One, he only has hours before the Winter Solstice when it will become too late to save anybody. Can Acton fulfil his destiny and can his siblings locate and help him in time?
From the very beginning of the book, it is clear that Acton feels different from his siblings (Cora, Bram and Elle) and doubts himself. He is a timid character and one who doesn't know his inner strength. The friendship he develops with Coriel the robin is delightful to read and one that gives Acton strength. Glassborn is the sequel to Magicborn but reads perfectly as a stand-alone book. It has a wonderful classic feel to it and will be adored by those who enjoy the Narnia series (the q & A with Peter at the end is definitely worth a read and explains the that The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe helped to inspire Glassborn).

With an evil fairy queen, a quest to save the day and just the right amount of magic, Glassborn is a book that is perfect for this time of year. Publishing on the 9th November, I highly recommend grabbing a mug of chocolate and curling up under a blanket to enjoy this book in the run-up to Christmas.

I’m sure that if you asked a random group of adults to name a classic series of children’s books a great many of them would come up with C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. When my now adult daughter was in Year 3, we shared the entire sequence as bedtime reading and although we both enjoyed the experience, there were definitely some aspects of the stories that made me feel very uncomfortable.

In this, his sequel to last year’s Magicborn, writer Peter Bunzl has again created a read with exactly the same sort of feel as those older stories, but one which is bang up-to-date in its inclusivity and suitability for young readers. Packed with magic, excitement and with its roots very firmly in traditional folklore, here is a story that could equally have been written in the 20th century as in 2023 and one which is perfect for cosy bedtimes and would make a fabulous TV serial in the run up to Christmas.

Our story opens on the day before the Winter Solstice when the Kings of England were always named George, as the four Belle siblings are travelling with their recently widowed father to their new home following a series of events that have left them without a roof over their heads. Arriving at Fairykeep Cottage, the childhood home of the children’s mother, the family is greeted by their Aunt Eliza and feeling the need for temporary solitude youngest sibling Acton sneaks off to investigate the churchyard next door.

Looking around for his mother’s grave, Acton’s attention is drawn to a wolf which appears for a split second, leaving him to believe he has imagined it, before he is joined by a robin which swoops down and lands on his shoulder. Marvelling at the robin’s friendliness, the bird helps him to uncover a hidden key, which he picks up and pockets. Meanwhile, his oldest sibling – sister Cora – is sent to find him and after she too briefly sees the wolf finds Acton, who shows her the key and makes her promise to keep it a secret.

After they have gone to bed that night, Acton becomes aware of a tapping sound and, on going to investigate what it is, is told by a mysterious figure that appears in his mother’s looking glass that he is the Chosen One. Confused and upset, Acton opens the window and discovers the robin on the sill who tells him his destiny is to defeat the Fairy Queen and free his family from her curse. When the other children wake, they find Acton gone and they are visited by the wolf who tells them that their brother will need their help in his quest and helps them find their way into Fairyland. With Acton charged by the Fairy Queen with stealing the Glimmerglass Crown, and the Winter Solstice edging closer and closer, can the siblings reunite in time to put a stop to her evil schemes, or are they destined to be trapped in Fairyland forever more?

The four siblings are bound to draw comparisons with the Pevensey children from the Chronicles of Narnia series, but other than there being two brothers and two sisters and their having a fabulous adventure, they do not have that much in common. The Belle children have been brought up with tales of magic in their family – initially by their mother and then by Aunt Eliza – but it is clear that their father does not want this continued and older brother Bram, 13, has reached the age where he is desperate to cast off what he believes to be childish things, at first totally denying the possibility of there being magic. Each sibling has their own strengths and weaknesses, but they are much more modern in there behaviour and there is a deep love and equality between them that unites them in their task.

The story links very nicely to the first but you do not have to have read that to enjoy this. The Belles are new characters and their relationship to those from Book 1, and what happened in that adventure, are fully explained beautifully here. Having said that, I’m sure that if you do read this first you will want to go back to Magicborn so would suggest you read that now to bring yourself fully up to speed ahead of this hitting the shelves. Confident readers in Year 4 will enjoy this is a solo read but it’s one that adults will enjoy too and the pleasure that would be gained from this being a shared read, in school or at home, make this a must-have purchase in my opinion.

As always, I am enormously grateful to both publisher Usborne and to Net Galley for my advance, virtual read. Glassborn publishes November 9th.

This book is about how three children restore order to fairyland. The story is impeccably written. The magic in the writing teleports the readers to a magical world right from the beginning. The characters are three-dimensional and there is a kind of magical, chemical reaction between them that makes the story more fun and easier for readers to bond with them.

It is definitely a must-read.

Be prepared to be swept up into the magic, drama and wonders of fairyland. This book crafts its magic on you from the very first page and it’s hard not to be fully immersed into this amazing world.

There’s an evil fairy queen to defeat, heartwarming encounters, a very cute and helpful talking Robin and of course, a tight knit band of siblings who are destined to restore fairyland to its former glory.

It channels major Narnia vibes and the whole story was just incredibly wholesome. It’s a heart healer, a happy fuzzy make you feel good and it’s easy to become invested.

We follow four siblings, Acton, Cora, Bram and Elle. The family is struggling to adjust after losing their mother but they are held together by her stories of a magical world. They find themselves in a race against time to save their brother after he falls through into the dangerous land run by a wicked queen and learns very quickly that fairies can be tricky creatures set to deceive…

It’s a fast paced, really well told story and I 10/10 enjoyed it.