In a strange little village called Witchetty Hollow, eleven-year-old Florizel is the first to run into the curious visitors who've come to open a brand new Daydream Delicatessen and sack-baby factory.
At first, it seems the daydream confection and cheap sack children are the best things that could have happened to the poor folk of the Hollow - after all, who has the money to rent their child from Storkhouse Services these days? But after a few weeks, Florizel starts to notice something odd happening to the adults of the town. First, they seem dreamy, then they lose all interest in their jobs and families. Soon they're trading all their worldly goods in the newly-opened Pawnshop for money to buy daydreams. With no money for rent payments, the children of Witchetty Hollow are being reclaimed by Storkhouse Services at an alarming rate. Florizel needs to act.
Book source ~ TWR Tour
11 May 2023
MG | Fantasy
214 Pages
My Rating ~ 4 bites
Witchetty Hollow. How cool of a name is that for a small weird village in the middle of pretty much nothing? Well, there are other weird little villages around, but this story takes place in Witchetty Hollow. Because that is where 11-yr-old Florizel lives with her gammer. She’s not really Florizel’s grandma though. The children in Witchetty Hollow are rented from Storkhouse Services. When the grown ups can’t pay the rent the children get reclaimed. Yikes. Anyway, at the start of the tale there’s a new store in town, the Daydream Delicatessen and it’s soon followed by the Pawnshop. But also, a sack-baby factory has opened. Things are about to get weirder in Witchetty Hollow. I just like saying Witchetty Hollow. Can you tell?
What a strange and wonderful story this is! Adults get all whackadoodle and a kid has to save the day. The world is super creative, the plot fantastical (well, it is a middle grade fantasy after all), and you can’t help but root for Flori to win the day and save everyone, including her new friend, the sack-child named Burble. Sack-baby, sack-child, rented kids. What the heckin? LOL This is some imaginative stuff and a highly enjoyable read.
If you’ve ever read Lemony Snicket or The Beast and the Bethany then this book is right up your middle grade fantasy alley.
Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.
Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.
Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.
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