Verse novels are a guilty pleasure of mine. I love that the author gets straight to the story and uses only the most vital words needed to share the story.
This is the third verse novel from Nadine Aisha Jassat and I love each one. She writes with such heart but deals with important issues within each one.
In this story, we meet Amal and Sara along with their parents and Aunt Muriel as they leave their beloved home and library. They weren’t able to stop the closing of the library and were desperate for a new home when a mysterious letter arrived offering them an inheritance. The family has inherited Hope House.
Arriving at this mysterious house, the family discover it has some hidden depths and adjust to the comfort and hope it offers each of them individually. What they also discover is that a couple in the local village believe the house belongs to them and gives them 30 days to vacate. Amal and Sara are determined to find out the truth and begin investigating at the local archive and in the attic of the house. They uncover some facts which may help their case.
This book not only share a love of libraries and books but deals with grief, mental health and families. Amal is one who worries and has troubling thoughts so she focuses on words and keeps a diary of them. She worries about drifting away from her sister and making new friends.
She is filled with Hope amongst her worries and it is this that leads her to the truth behind Hope House.
It was the perfect book for me to read and I just adored it.

I love Nadine Aisha Jassat's writing and was swept away by this mystery with a magical twist. The cast of characters in the book (including Hope House) is brilliantly conceived with both feisty, gentle and villainous characters all playing their parts to perfection creating a balanced dynamic that is a joy to read. I instantly connected with Amal - our storyteller - who struggles with anxiety and invasive Thoughts (as she calls them). The way those Thoughts could obstruct Amal's confidence, invade her dreams and make her feel guilt was handled with such grace and with a poetic turn of phrase that will deepen understanding makes this story one that will build empathy as well as self-compassion. And the way Amal manages those Thoughts, and overcomes them, is inclusive and supportive.
Above all this is a book about Hope. And it leaves the reader with that hopeful message in their heart. It's incredibly uplifting.
With beautiful poetry, humour and a keen sense of the challenges of modern childhood, Jassat is a must-read children's writer and I cannot recommend The House at the Edge of the World highly enough.