With staycations on the cards and rainclouds in the forecast, books will hopefully be playing a big part in the summer holidays. What better way to escape when you can’t escape? You can travel to South America with Eva Ibbotson (Journey to the River Sea) or to the Australian outback with Geraldine McCaughrean (The Middle of Nowhere) or even into space with Frank Cottrell Boyce (Cosmic).
You don’t even have to set foot outside. Many wonderful stories unfold inside the front door, using familiar household contents, e.g.
- A wardrobe (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis)
- A painting (The Dawn Treader, also CS Lewis)
- A carpet (The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett)
- A parcel in the post (The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster)
- Potions around the house (Geroge’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl)
- A bed (Bedknobs and Broomsticks based on books by Mary Norton)
So why not invent your own inside adventure, starting with: a pen that writes its own stories … a fridge that’s scared of cheese … a spoon that does maths … a washing machine that turns socks into snakes … a toilet flush that insults guests … or even a seafaring sieve? https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54364/the-jumblies