Beyond a Large Steep Hill by Leigh Belrose was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a joy to read. On the cover it says ‘An Adventure Story - Beyond your Wildest Dreams’ and this really is what it is in a nutshell. It's very cleverly written and I love the adventures the main character found himself on.
The book is about a boy named Everett, when playing a game of Blind Man's Buff, falls down a large steep hill. He falls for a very long time, and then the story unfolds into a weird and wonderful adventure. Everett travels from place to place: from waking up lying on his back floating on the river, and wearing an angry beaver's hat, to turning into Goldilocks and running away from The Three Bears after eating their porridge, and even finding himself in space talking to a comet!
Every time Everett finds himself lost or is sent away by the characters, he is in a different place, in a different adventure with different characters. All the adventures the author took me on while reading were great. I loved the way it was written, as there were a lot of (brackets), which felt like the author was talking to the reader to explain the plot or that certain adventure further, which I thought developed the whole book as it involved the reader which I loved.
I also loved the fact that a lot of the adventures Everett found himself on, were based on nursery rhymes. Characters often were saying nursery rhymes throughout the book, which was clever as each nursery rhyme being said, related to the adventure Everett was on at that time.
Overall, it was an exciting adventure book! So many different language techniques were used and it triggered many emotions: sometimes it was funny, other times it was sad or happy. The book gripped me and I completed it in one sitting. A children’s novel which I highly recommend to ages 8-12, but I think older age groups will also enjoy reading it too.
Buy it:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Large-Steep-Leigh-Belrose/dp/0646972790/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501701084&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+a+large+steep+hill
