The House at the Edge of the World by Nadine Aisha Jassat illustrated by

"A memory knocks on the door of my own chest

the leaves outside the library on our last day.

The one I'd held in my hand

as I wished for hope. ...

Did I call Hope House to us? ...

Or did the house call us to it?"

Amal and her sister Sara have been forced to leave their home which was in a small-town library run by their parents. Just as it seems the family of four will have nowhere to live a letter arrives telling them they have inherited a house.

This house is, as you would guess from the title of this book, quite spooking looking. Turn the cover upside down to see the house itself. The people from the nearby town of Middle Morrow do not hold back telling the family all the legendary ghost and horror stories they associate with this house over its century long history. 

None of this adds up though because the house itself seems so welcoming of the new family. They awake to find the kettle has been boiled and the fire is lit. Over their first few days the walls appear freshly painted and somehow the ragged curtains are repaired. 

Then two very shady people arrive and tell the family that they will be evicted because they have no claim to this house - they are not related to the late owner who died ten years ago. Now the race is on. The family, and especially Amal and Sara, have thirty days to solve this mystery and prove that they should be able to stay in this house which now feels like home.

I have had this book on loan from the library where I work as a volunteer for over two months. I keep renewing the loan and then not getting on to reading it.

Today I started this 306 page book (it is a verse novel of sorts) and I finished it this afternoon. If I still worked in my school library this is a book I would heartily recommend for readers aged 10+. Kids love to look like they are reading 'long' books and at 300+ pages this book look impressive but because of the verse-novel style setting out it is a very quick read. This book is called a verse novel and that is the format but really it felt more like a regular narrative with short lines - that's not a criticism just an observation.  You can see more books by Nadine Aisha Jassat here. 

The story is presented in a verse format with eye catching ‘chapter’ headings. This creates an impression of immediacy, of easy access to reading and would indeed attract many. However, much of the verse narrative could be presented in the more conventional prose format creating a more familiar flow without losing any momentum. Books for Keeps

This book also contains (and I am happy to say all of this feels very natural) a blended family. Mum is Muslim dad is Christian. Amal grapples with fairly serious mental health issues - she has the awful anxiety messages in her mind of 'what if' which always extrapolates to bad outcomes but she also has some terrific coping strategies. I should also mention Amal's sister Sara. I have read way too many books where teenage sisters treat their younger sisters so badly. It was so wonderful to read the opposite in this book. Sara is so kind and supportive of Amal and she understands her anxiety at a deeply intuitive level. This makes a natural partnership of the two sisters as they work together to solve the issue of who should own this special house. I also love their little dog called Po Tato.

Publisher blurb: When Amal and her family unexpectedly inherit the enchanted clifftop home, they can't believe their luck. But their joy is short-lived when a mysterious couple arrives, claiming the house is theirs and giving Amal's family just thirty days to pack up their stuff and leave before they demolish it completely. The clock is ticking, and Amal is determined to save Hope House from destruction. How will she unravel the secrets of the house and its mysterious benefactor in time to save it?

Companion books:

Out of the wild Night

The Swallowtail Legacy

The Parker Inheritance