This is a cheerful fantasy romp that starts and ends in an Australian suburb, and spends most of its time in a playfully imagined land…beyond the Knock Knock door. The children involved are triplets, though of three different characters, and are not entirely sure that they like each other or want to work together despite being catapulted into hair raising adventures.
This is not classical fantasy. Monk sets up a mechanism in which one triplet is a pirate, one is a knight and one is a space ranger. A little like the old “Vikings” game that started Blizzard on its journey, each has to use the power of their costumes to solve different challenges along the way. They travel to a land where fish swim in the air and islands float as well… but it turns out the people are not what they seem either. Much more would be a spoiler.
I did not find myself really warming to this yarn. There is no real effort to justify the strange sights or physics of the land, so it is a “what if” land rather than a carefully created world. It is a story where the children have to look beyond appearances to work out what is right and wrong. Though the children are described in an enthusiastic and animated style, there was little subtlety or development.
I am more than happy to have the book on the shelves… it will make a thrilling if quirky read for a middle school student.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
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