Escape from the Child Snatchers

LoveReading4Kids Says

February 2026 Book of the Month

This wonderfully exciting story opens in Mumbai in 1865. Ranj shares a rat-infested hut with his four-year-old brother and his ma, who works for the saheb’s family, dusting and mopping. They’re all missing Ranj’s big brother Dani, who left India to travel to England as a lascar (seaman) to earn money the family desperately need, and hasn’t returned. Ranj decides to stowaway on a ship and follow Dani to find out what’s happened to him, and his best friend Usman goes too.

Their journey is eventful enough, but things get even more fast-paced when they arrive in London and encounter the ruthless child-snatcher, on the lookout for children from far away. The cat and mouse action continues until the boys finally fall into the child snatcher’s trap and are caught.

Thanks to new friends and their own quick thinking, they manage to escape and even secure the child snatcher a taste of his own medicine.

The story is a real page turner but also, without ever feeling like a history lesson, conveys a real sense of life during the Empire, both for families like Ranj’s and those of his new friends in London, revelaing the huge inequalities in class and colour. Ranj and his friends are vibrant, living characters and their adventures will stick in the mind long after the book is closed.

Reviewed by Andrea Reece
Andrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
More reviews by Andrea Reece

About Escape from the Child Snatchers

Early 1900s, Bombay, India. Humza and his friend Ranj are on a mission to bring back Dani, Humza's brother who went missing in London two years ago. But they're too young to work as lascars on the ships so they decide to stowaway.

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