Billy’s mum is poorly and as a result he is staying at his grandma’s house. Billy’s gran makes dresses on her old sewing machine and paints fairies which Billy swears make faces at him from the walls. His gran just smiles mysteriously and tells him it is the ‘magic paint’. She also tells him stories about her life in Ireland growing up and specifically about a Healing Well with magical properties.

As his mum is so ill, Billy thinks that the water from the well could help her, so armed with just his Gran’s prize cream pot, he sets off to find it-little does he know the amazing adventure he is about to embark on.

I read this to my Year 6 class as we were going to write our own adventure stories. At the start of a unit of work, I try to immerse them in lots of different stories which suit the genre, this gives them an opportunity to magpie ideas and begin to build their own writing plan. They enjoyed the main character and-without giving too much away-his travel companion, Patsy.

Burke has used great description to draw the reader in and created a wonderful children’s tale about love,loyalty and hope! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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