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The Way Back HomeOliver Jeffers
The Way Back Home
by Oliver Jeffers
A boy finds an aeroplane in his cupboard, flies it until the fuel runs out, and is stranded on the moon with a Martian who has also broken down.
A story about children and magical creatures, gentle and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 3–6, and at a reading age of about 5 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
A boy finds an aeroplane in his cupboard, takes it up for a flight, runs out of fuel and is stranded on the moon — where he meets a Martian who has crash-landed too, and the two frightened, marooned strangers, unable to speak each other's language, work out together how to get everyone home. Oliver Jeffers pairs his spare, funny text with wide, quiet spreads of space, and the whole thing is really about the comfort of finding someone else in a lonely place. It is gentle and slightly melancholy rather than exciting, with no genuine peril — even stuck on the moon, nobody is truly in danger — and the friendship across a language gap is drawn with real tenderness. For a three- to six-year-old it is a lovely bedtime read about being lost and helped, and about a kindness that reaches across an enormous distance to find you.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
How to Catch a StarOliver Jeffers
BeeguAlexis Deacon
Biscuit BearMini Grey
Lost and FoundOliver Jeffers
Orion and the DarkEmma Yarlett
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.