Every night, eleven-year-old Bailey Hart shrinks to the size of a thumb.
Her guinea pig, Pumpernickel, grows as big as a pony, and even better, he can talk. Together they gallop through a glowing hole behind her bookcase into the Thimblewild: a secret world where everything lost in ours ends up. Odd socks. Buttons. Marbles. Hair bobbles. Teacups big enough to live in.
There, Bailey dances with the elves of Tumblewick Hollow until dawn pulls her home. It's the one place she feels big. Real life is hard. She's just started secondary school, her best friend has moved to Glasgow, and nobody seems to notice she's there.
Then one night, the Hollow is silent.
The elves are gone. They have been taken by the Wizard Grimwold, who is sealing friendly creatures inside jam jars and building an army of walking dust. Worse, the elves' singing is what keeps Bailey's door open. When the Hunter's Moon rises in seven nights, Grimwold will close it forever.
Bailey sets out to bring her friends home with a pompous, cucumber-loving guinea pig, a grumpy hedgehog with a secret past, a sprite who can't glow, a dragonling who sneezes bubbles instead of fire, and a boastful barbarian boy who makes her ears go pink. Along the way she'll answer a riddle from a talking tree, win a loaf from a deaf old dragon, and fly north on the backs of giant owls. She'll also fall out with her friends over something tiny, and learn that sorry is a small word that can fill a very big hole.
At the end of her journey is the biggest surprise of all: a secret her own grandad has kept for sixty years.
Funny, warm and full of heart, Bailey and the Thimblewild is a magical adventure about friendship, falling out and making up, and finding the courage to speak up. The smallest person in the room can still be the bravest.
Perfect for readers aged 8-12, and a wonderful class read-aloud.
Book One of The Adventures of Bailey Hart.
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