Please join me on the blog tour for The Rock by Ann Bryant and illustrated by Josephine Birch, published by Graffeg Publishing on the 23rd February 2024.

Blurb 

The first in a series about twins Zane and Finola’s adventure to reunite their family.

After being forced to flee from their home planet, twins Zane and Finola find themselves on Earth. Dad is lost and Mum is no longer able to teleport, meaning that it is up to the twins to reunite their family. With such a large prize on offer for whoever is able to find the ‘aliens’, Zane and Finola can’t trust anyone and must make sure that they never break cover on their tour of planet Earth.

My stop on the tour takes the form of a book review.

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Title: The Rock

Written by: Ann Bryant

Illustrated by: Josephine Birch

Published by: Graffeg Publishing

Perfect for independent readers between the ages of 7-11, The Rock is a highly original middle grade adventure. I rarely see children’s books featuring aliens that are stranded on Earth from the alien’s point of view. I enjoyed learning about the differences between the two planets and wish there was a bit more comparing of the differences between the two worlds. The key themes are diversity and cultural awareness, empathy, family, green travel and teamwork.

The reflection on human nature was believable and realistic. There was only one thing that niggled me we know the mother and children are there to find their dad but we are not told why the dad came to Earth in the first place.

I liked the fact they could communicate telepathically and also teleport themselves by thinking of an image of a place. The teleporting symbol added each time they did this throughout the book was a nice touch. The way they tried to solve the picture image clues that had been transferred into their minds by their dad added mystery and suspense that kept me turning the pages. Although, the story did not end and left a lot of unanswered questions to be continued in the sequel.

On the whole, an exciting middle grade adventure with a unique mystery that will intrigue science fiction fans.

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About the Author

Ann Bryant trained at the Royal College of Music and began her writing career when her daughters were little. She has published around 125 books, roughly 75% children’s fiction including many series, the rest, music resources for primary school teachers. Ann narrated her latest picture book Peter and the Timber Wolf at 48 concerts in 2019 whilst Kidenza orchestra played the famous Peter and the Wolf music.

Reading from her book Code Breaker at the Gibraltar literary festival in November 2022, a year 6 class was inspired to take it on as their class reader. Ann regularly gives author presentations in international schools as well as the UK, and also leads music workshops for teachers.

She says:

“I’m often asked what you need to be an author – well, I think it boils down to imagination and discipline, or put another way, a telescope and a microscope, OR a heart and a head.”

You can purchase a copy of The Rock by Ann Bryant from Amazon.

To follow the rest of the tour please take a look at the schedule below:

I would like to thank Kelly from Love Book Tours for inviting me on this tour. Thank you.