The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters received a whopping three reviews in The Guardian at the weekend.
Linda Buckley-Archer reviewed it as the Children’s Book of the Week:
“There’s something timeless about Helen Peters’s accomplished and hugely engaging debut… Drawn with humour and affection, Hannah’s world is utterly convincing.”
And both former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo and current Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson nominated it for the Summer Reading Challenge.
Morpurgo writes:
“Life on the rundown farm is wonderfully described – you can almost smell the pigs and hear the lambs bleating. Full of action, with a happy ending, this is a book I didn’t want to finish.”
And Donaldson said:
“As a child I loved The Swish of the Curtain, and The Secret Hen House Theatre is another engaging book about threatened amateur dramatics.”
