Polly Ho-Yen’s story presents readers with big questions about life and what’s really important to us. Mae suffers from severe asthma and often needs to make frightening dashes to the hospital with her parents. It’s on one of these occasions that she notices a strange black hole opening – it leads to a parallel universe, one where she doesn’t have asthma. That’s not the only thing that’s different however, and Mae has a decision to make about whether being asthma free is worth the other things that would change. In the new Bloomsbury Readers series, this story is written specifically for children growing reading confidence and understanding, with short chapters and frequent illustrations. The telling is simple, effective and guaranteed to catch and hold children’s attention, while the issues the story raises are complex and important, certain to prompt discussion (and there’s a list of questions to put to children at the end to help with this).
Thought-provoking contemporary fantasy from best-selling author Polly Ho-Yen.
Mae spends a lot of time in hospitals. She's had asthma since she was little and sometimes she just can't breathe. She was in hospital the very first time she saw the hole - a tear in the universe which seems to appear only to her. Before she knows it she is drawn into a parallel world, where things aren't quite the same...
This powerful fantasy story is full of big ideas and a great way to talk about chronic illness with children. It has beautiful black-and-white illustrations from Patricia Hu throughout, and is ideal for children who are developing as readers.
Thought-provoking and original [...] Another elegantly told story that will give readers lots to think about. - Books for Keeps
Author
About Polly Ho-Yen
Polly Ho-Yen used to be a primary school teacher in London and while she was teaching there she would get up very early in the morning to write stories. The first of those stories became her critically acclaimed debut novel Boy in the Tower, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and FCBG Children’s Book Award. All four of her middle-grade novels – including Fly Me Home, Where Monster’s Lie and How I Saved the World in a Week – have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Polly’s previous younger fiction novel, The Boy Who Grew a Tree was shortlisted for the Teach Primary 2022 book awards, and featured in the 2023 Read for Empathy collection (primary). The book is also currently shortlisted for the inaugural The Week Junior Book Awards, in the Younger Fiction category.
She lives in Bristol with her husband and daughter.
