"This exuberant quest-to-return-home adventure reels with riddles and larger-than-life characters."
A joy to read aloud, with a droll, knowing voice that invites dramatic delivery, Mark Forsyth’s A Riddle for a King is a fabulously quirky treat for readers who relish the razzle of brain-bending riddles and the fizz of quest-driven adventures.
Philo lives with his punctuality-obsessed aunt and uncle and is going about his ordinary day when something quite extraordinary happens: “It’s not every day that a little creature looks out of a grandfather clock and asks you whether you’re the king”.
Looking “a bit like a giraffe, and a little like a human, and rather like an elephant, and almost exactly like a monkey, and very like a rabbit”, the besuited creature goes by the name of Mr Spronkel and has a confusing habit of speaking in Alice in Wonderland-esque absurdities.
In the weird world beyond the grandfather clock, Philo finds himself having to locate the Penguin Gate to reach the King in his Flying Castle if he’s to return home. Faced with countless conundrums, and encountering a giant named Og, the Bridge-Riddler and the Midnight Witch along his puzzling path, A Riddle for a King is riotously good fun, and thrilling to boot.
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This book is fantastic and had me hooked from start to finish. Very clever and great fun to read.
This book is fantastic and had me hooked from starts to finish. It's very cleverly done and just a great read. I love books that have riddles and couldn't put this one down. The chapters are short so was great for quick read before bed.... Read Full Review
