book cover

The House of Clouds

by Lisa Thompson, illustrated by Alice McKinley

Interest age: 11 to 13
Reading age: 10+

Published by Barrington Stoke, 2020

  • Short stories

About this book

Everything is feeling very upside-down in Tabby’s life right now. Not only has her best friend gone off and found another entirely different best friend, but since her grandad moved in, all her mum’s time seems to be occupied with looking after him. Plus Tabby finds her grandad and his strange stories quite irritating – she’s not a little child anymore, after all. But when one of her beach walks with grandad’s smelly dog Buster leads Tabby to investigate a seemingly abandoned house on the cliff-top, where she sees something quite strange, she begins to wonder whether the story grandad tells her about the ‘House of Clouds’ could possibly be true?

Investigating the House of Clouds further, to try and figure out any truths behind grandad’s stories, Tabby starts looking at the world in a different way, begins to understand her grandad a little better, and learns to navigate her changing friendships (as well as developing important new friendships).

This is a lovely, gentle story about friendship, family and grief, written and printed in a dyslexia friendly format. There is much here for readers to relate to while the ‘cloud-sculpting’ storyline offers a slightly fantastical twist and a touch of mystery.

About the author

Lisa Thompson is a children’s novelist and the author of the best-selling The Goldfish Boy and The Light Jar. The Goldfish Boy was a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. She lives in Suffolk with her family.

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