Finding Hope

A warmhearted hug of a book.

Finding Hope is the story of ten year old Ava who heads to Whistledown Farm so that her aunt and uncle can care for her whilst her parents are away in America for their work.

On arrival, Ava finds it hard to settle in, she misses her parents and doesn't feel as though she quite fits in to life on the farm. She is out of her depth with the jobs that she is given and her cousin, Tom, seems to hate her although she has no idea why.

After a calamitous start, things go from bad to worse and yet in amongst the feelings of isolation and inadequacy, Ava finds, both emotionally and literally, Hope. Her relationship with the orphaned lamb gives her strength in some dark times and the passion that she starts to develop for Whistledown drives her to take risks in order to try to save the farm from a sinister threat.

Ava must race to find Hope, and in the process, she might just find herself.

This book has real heart and the underlying themes of loneliness, jealousy and belonging are gently explored in an age appropriate way.

A lovely mystery for lower KS2 readers with a love of Dick King Smith and Daisy Meadows who are ready for the next challenge but not yet mature enough for the content of some upper KS2 middle grade reads.

We read this book with children age 7-9.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

I really enjoyed reading this book and the companionship between Ava and Hope. I look forward to reading this again with my 6 year old niece who I know is instantly going to live it. Took me back to my animal ark days! Thank you Nicola Baker and I can’t wait to read more in the future.

This book was really good and my favourite bit was when Hope got out of the dog pen and and left a few little gifts for the family, that bit made me laugh. There were a no errors in the book and I really enjoyed Finding Hope.
I think that this book could be made a little longer.