You are here: Home / Author / Shelley E Parker / Return To Allapatria

Return To Allapatria by Shelley E Parker

8.5-stars

Rate and review Return To Allapatria! | What does everyone else think?

Summary Strong characters, humour and real page turning excitement.

Return To Allapatria tells the story of Daniel, an ordinary 12 year old at the start of his school holidays. With his father away on business, as usual, and his mum’s attention fully on the local gardening competition, Daniel has nothing but good weather and his computer game to look forward to filling his days; just the way he likes it. His neighbour is a boy of the same age called Barnaby who seems a little ‘odd’ as far as Daniel is concerned and as such Daniel tries to ignore him as much as possible. Daniel’s plans for a relaxed six weeks is shattered when strange things start to happen with his fish tank, he gets dragged along on a day out he doesn’t want to go on and a rather strange creature appears in his bedroom!

The beginning of the story starts on the very first day of the summer holiday break and explains all about Daniel, his parents and his seemingly strange neighbours. Very soon, however, the relaxed tempo of the book is upped as Daniel is cast headlong into one strange incident after another, with hardly enough time for Daniel or the reader to catch their breath. Daniel soon finds himself in another world, together with Barnaby and Peekin, a Defardian Elf who has appeared to Daniel in his bedroom via the ley-line that runs through Daniel’s fish tank! Once safely ensconced in Damson Cottage, the most wonderful place that seems to have endless rooms inside, in spite of looking tiny from outside, and offers up the most wonderful feasts at every mealtime thanks to Peekin’s elf friends Mimosa, Clementine and Dick. Daniel learns that he is now in Allapatria, a strange and increasingly dangerous land. Daniel learns he has been selected by a dream to fight a mighty battle and has just three days to become a master swordsman and defeat the deadly Shadow who has so far defeated everyone, including Allapatria’s champion, Paris. But all is not as it seems and what appears to be an impossible task is just about to get a lot more complicated. With the dark and treacherous Nuttall providing the chills and the wonderfully funny, if unintentionally so, Pixie proving the laughs, Return to Allapatria offers something for everyone.

Parker has a relaxed and very visual writing style that children will find most engaging. Never more so than in the chapters containing the feasts laid on at Damson Cottage, I would suggest having some nibbles close at hand for those! Return to Allapatria is a thoroughly enjoyable children’s book that offers an original story line, strong characters, humour and real page turning excitement. The author has also added a page at the back asking the reader for feed back, a nice touch. I personally enjoyed reading this book immensely and would definitely recommend it for the above age groups. I hope that there will be other books set in Allapatria, as there is certainly scope for a very exciting series.

Return to Allapatria (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Shelley E Parker
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 395
Publication date: 2005-06-13
Publisher: Accent Press Ltd

RRP: ~~£5.99~~
Lowest new price: £0.18
Lowest used price: £0.01

Return to Allapatria (Amazon.com)

Author: Parker
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 395
Publication date: 2008-11-25
Publisher: Accent Press, Ltd.

RRP: ~~$12.95~~
Lowest new price: $2.59
Lowest used price: $0.46

This is a stunning debut children's book for readers aged 8+. It features a widespread media campaign; and POS is also available. Daniel's school holidays are interrupted when, via a ley-line that passes through the goldfish tank in his bedroom, he is transported to a parallel world - in which he has been chosen to fight a battle on behalf of Good against the forces of Evil! Reluctant isn't the word...
Product Description

Catherine from Preston
"Excellent book. Hope there is a follow up to this."

Submit your own mini-review

Let people know what you think about Return To Allapatria. You can write your own mini-review and give the book the rating that you think it deserves. Your reviews will go towards giving Return To Allapatria its overall rating that will decide where Return To Allapatria finishes in the top 100 fantasy books of all time.

Books you may also enjoy...

The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43 by Harriet Goodwin

For a millionth of a second the car grazed the drenched moorland. If it had come down on any other patch of ground Finn would simply have been another statistic. Death by dangerous driving. But the car hit the surface of the Earth at Exit 43. It slid through the membrane like a hot knife through butter, plunging into the darkness and catapulting Finn from its shattered windscreen as it fell. ... read the full review

Summary: A heart-warming fantasy tale with some beautiful touches.

Reader reviews | Write review

Also in this sub-genre...

Book of the Month

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

Previous winners of Book of the Month

Latest interviews

Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.

Must-reads

The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.

Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

Lewis Carroll on Fantasy Book Review