The Clockwork Crow

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Young orphan Seren (it’s Welsh for star) is travelling alone through a winter’s night to her godfather and his family. The message of individual responsibility to keep trying to be and do better shines through the book. When Seren Rhys is given a newspaper parcel by a stranger late at night in an empty train station, she has no idea what trouble it contains. The trilogy is a mix of magic and folklore, set in Victorian Wales, telling the story of the orphan Seren Rhys and herb adventures with the tetchy, brilliant and powerful Clockwork Crow. They don’t like to talk about it, but eventually Seren discerns that the parents are traveling because it’s been almost a year since their son Tomos disappeared.

Together, they set off to solve the riddle of Plas-y-Fran, facing many perils and challenges as they go. Catherine was Wales’ first Young People's Laureate (2011-2013) and has won a number of awards for her work. She’s strong and curious, but we don’t know enough about her motivations or even why she didn’t go to this godparent instead of the orphanage etc. I also liked him because he reminded me of a grumpy old man especially when he was really ungrateful.

Growing up as an orphan has made her humble and grateful, not luckily not overly so that she doesn't dare speak her mind if something isn't to her liking. I would have loved to read this as a child and would recommend it to anyone who loves fairy folklore, Victorian tales and mysteries to be solved in large, near-empty houses.

She has worked in education and archaeology and as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. Yesterday a parent came over to tell me how impressed she was by the book fair and that you did a fabulous job of selling the books to the children first.This short chapter book has an interesting plot with a clockwork crow who was a school teacher before magic changed him! Characterisation – From the first introduction to Seren, I knew there was something special about her. Her futuristic novel Incarceron was published to widespread praise in 2007, winning the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award and selected by The Times as its Children's Book of the Year. I kept thinking to myself while I was reading it aloud that there are so many wonderful good stories out there that I wasn't sure if we were wasting our time with this one.