When 
we received our copy of The Dream Snatcher, the debut novel of Abi Elphinstone it was with my daughter in mind, but it was my 8 year old son (this book is aimed at age 9+ but as a huge reader I thought he could handle it) who claimed first dibs on it. Here’s a little look at what he made of it.
James is a huge Skullduggery Pleasant f
an so the promise of dark magic and the mention of Oracle Bones had him hooked.
After a false start where he said he found the book a bit confusing (big sis pointed out he hadn’t read the prologue which explained a lot!) he was off and running.
The Dreamsnatcher moves at a fast pace through the adventures of Moll and her Wildcat companion Gryff (James loved Gryff and now wants to upgrade our poor housecat Thomas to a wilder more Gryff-like version). Moll a twelve year old girl is led by her nightmares to face the evil Dreamsnatcher who is out to take much more than just her dreams, she has a lot to face and discover on her adventures to beat the Dreamsnatcher. The combination of dark magic, prophecies and the threat of an evil doer out to take a life will appeal to most children brought up on Harry Potter but this book has a lot more, the scenes James described were vivid and he seemed to take the characters to heart, he felt for Moll who seems to be an outsider and his anger at Skull was genuine when he discovered the secret about why Moll and Gryff are so close. His only complaint? He can’t wait to find out what happens next!
About the Author – This is Abi Elphinstones first novel, she grew up in Scotland (maybe another reason why the scenery was so appealing to James) and is a fellow blogger, here she answers some questions about The Dreamsnatcher
The Dreamsnatcher is for sale now on Amazon and at other book stores.
Not In The Parenting Manual 