Blog Tour: The Boy in the Post

Thank you so much to Chicken House for inviting me to be part of the Blog Tour for this exciting adventure , and for providing me with an early copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Boy in the Post is a charming, heart-warming and humorous fantasy adventure that took me aboard an enthralling venture brimming with excitement, daring and danger.

At the start of their summer holiday, siblings Orinthia, Séafra and Taber spot an advertisement for paid work, so decide to apply.  When they arrive at Tupenny Mill, they are met by the brilliantly eccentric, and utterly wonderful, Grandy Brock.  Grandy, and his crew of adopted orphans, are creating a postal service with a difference:  a postal service staffed by animal posties!  I absolutely loved meeting the fascinating assortment of animails from baboons franking envelopes to toucans transporting postcards and Sphynx cats licking stamps to – my favourite –snakes spelling out postcodes, and insults!  Just magical!  Grandy offers the children a job training Geronimo the pelican and her son Gungho to deliver mail, a job which the children readily accept.  Who could resist?

The youngest Shalloo sibling, six-year-old Taber, has a real affinity with Geronimo and begins training her; however, when she does not return from her first international voyage to New York, Taber is incredibly upset.  He is determined to find his new friend and leaves a note for Orinthia and Séafra to tell them that he is posting himself to New York to search for Geronimo.

Orinthia and Séafra are determined to rescue their young brother, so decide to follow his lead by posting themselves to New York.  And so begins a fantastically fast-paced, action-packed adventure across land, over sea and through air, as the siblings steal a stamp from the local Post Office and use it to have themselves posted to New York in a freight crate.  Will they be able to keep themselves from being discovered aboard the Royal Mail Steamship sailing across the Atlantic?  Will they find their young brother and his new friend if they make it to New York in time? Could danger be following them from home?

I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoilers; suffice to say that there are some first-class and unexpected twists and turns which kept me on the edge-of-my-seat.  This is such a thrilling adventure with the sense of anticipation and danger increasing as the plot unfolds, but there are also some wonderful moments of humour.

One cannot discover new oceans unless one has the

courage to lose sight of the shore

The Shalloo siblings are incredibly likeable children.  They have quite different personalities, but have a wonderfully natural and honest sibling bond.  Orinthia wants to be an explorer like her heroine, Ophelia Pearcart, and has a real sense of adventure.  Her brother, Séafra is more cautious and a worrier, yet he shows strength and courage as he faces his fears.  Youngest brother Taber is a nature- lover who has a natural affinity with animals.   All three children are resilient and resourceful, attributes which help them on their incredible adventure.   

An enchanting, exhilarating adventure with courage, friendship and family at its heart, perfect for readers of 9+.

Please do check out the other stops on the Blog Tour.