Whenever they stayed at their grandfather’s house, twins Rose and Arthur would play a game they invented called Roar, which began by them crawling into a folding bed and a new world. Now aged eleven the twins are once again staying with their grandfather and helping him clean out the loft when they come across the bed. This is proof, not that it’s needed, that Jenny McLachlan is a writer of enormous heart and versatility. I’m a really big fan’ Phil Earle, award-winning author of Being Billy and co-author of Get Me Out of Here! with Andy McNab

Year 5/6/7: Whole Class Reading - Land of Roar - 20 LESSONS/ COMPLETE UNIT - SATS summary/retrieval/inference teaching/activitiesRose ist auf jeden Fall dieser Meinung, aber Arthur, er hat Arro noch nicht ganz vergessen. Und da wäre noch der Opa der beiden, auch er hat sich seine Phantasie erhalten und glaubt noch an Magie. Was auch eine ganz tolle Botschaft in dem Buch ist. Egal wie alt du bist, erhalte dir deinen glauben an Magie. Du bist nie zu Alt für ein bisschen Drachenfeuer und Einhörner. When Arthur and Rose were little, they were heroes in the Land of Roar, an imaginary world that they found by climbing through the folding bed in their grandad’s attic. Roar was filled with things they loved – dragons, mermaids, ninja wizards and adventure – as well as things that scared them (including a very creepy scarecrow…) Now they are 11, Rose spends hours on her phone and worries about fitting in and Arthur, despite the scar on his wrist where he was bitten by a dragon, has almost forgotten about Roar. But then a mysterious figure appears at the attic window, an old map turns up, and Grandad vanishes...

This turned out to be a fun story, an homage to imagination. It’s a portal fantasy featuring a world completely invented by imagination. It has a mermaid-witch (“Mitch”) and a wizard-ninja (“Win”). Ha. The villain is a scarecrow-crow, hard to visualize but thankfully some detailed illustrations bring him to life. I have always loved reading and I studied English at university just so that I could read a bit more. Next I found my way into secondary teaching and discovered that I loved it too: I got to read more books, show off and hang out with very funny teenagers. What a great job!Jenny McLachlan is the author of several acclaimed teen novels including Flirty Dancing, Stargazing for Beginners and Truly, Wildly, Deeply. Before Jenny became a writer, she was Head of English in a secondary school; she now loves visiting schools as an author and delivering funny and inspiring talks and workshops. When Jenny isn’t thinking about stories or writing stories, she enjoys living by the seaside, cycling and running over the South Downs. The Land of Roar is Jenny’s middle-grade debut.