Age 8-12

Abbot Dagger’s is a school “for the Errant Children of the Absent”, most of whom are strange or stupid. It has an eccentric headmaster, threatened by a monstrous colleague who believes in discipline and tests and wants to take over the school – and then the world. It falls to three pupils to help the head and save mankind: Onyx, a girl who speaks 28 languages and whose salient characteristic is “awful, dreadful, maddening keenness”; autistic Owen, a genius who doesn’t do emotions; and cool rebellious Rosetti, who can communicate with animals and objects. We’ve had a story before about children in a boarding school whose allegiance to an odd head teacher has implications for humanity, but Llewellyn’s book is different. His wordplay is ingenious and the episodic plot, about a school cup that is also the Holy Grail, takes the children back in time to crises in history. This is a smart, funny book for smart, funny readers.

ABBOT DAGGER’S ACADEMY AND THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL by Sam Llewellyn
(Puffin £5.99)

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