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The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day
by Christopher Edge
Maisie wakes on her birthday to a house where everything beyond the front door has become darkness, and physics is the only way out.
A story about children and families, thoughtful and spooky in tone. We would put it with children of 9–12, and at a reading age of about 10 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Frightening scenes
- A death or grief
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
On her birthday Maisie, a maths and physics prodigy, wakes to find the world beyond her front door has dissolved into a spreading darkness, and the only way to understand what is happening — and to get back to her family — is through the science she loves, as the book cuts between two versions of the same day. Christopher Edge specialises in stories that run on real physics, and this one uses cosmology and the nature of reality to build something that is part mind-bending adventure, part something much more emotional, as the true meaning of the two timelines becomes clear. It has frightening scenes and, at its heart, a bereavement that gives the whole puzzle its weight, so it suits a thoughtful reader ready for real feeling. For a nine- to twelve-year-old who likes big ideas, it is a short, clever, genuinely affecting book that treats grief and the universe with equal seriousness.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
The Many Worlds of Albie BrightChristopher Edge
A Pinch of MagicMichelle Harrison
Charlotte SometimesPenelope Farmer
Children of the QuicksandsEfua Traoré
CosmicFrank Cottrell-Boyce
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.