Welcome readers! My name is Piers. I am so thrilled to be this month’s Guest Editor for LoveReading4Kids, because not only is it a brilliant resource for finding that next book in your life (I visit it most weeks), but it’s so appropriate, because I have loved reading since I was a kid.
Books are such an important part of my life, and have been since before I can remember, crawling around in the children’s bookshop I was lucky enough to grow up in. They have been friends when I needed them, offered advice I didn’t know I needed, and expanded every horizon, as I discovered new stories, worlds and ways of being through their pages.
And that’s exactly what you can do here - discover a book for every age, every interest, every genre, whether you want to be swept away on a new fantasy adventure or learn more about your favourite subject. That’s why I always come here for birthday presents, to find books by topic - so helpful.
You’ll also learn about my newest book series, Midnight Treasure, and just why I wanted to write a story about vampires and werewolves. (Well, it is Halloween after all!) Speaking of book recommendations, if you read on, you can also learn more about my suitably spooky choice for Book of the Month, and five other most excellent titles you can read now or any time of the year. Enjoy, and keep reading!
Q. Midnight Treasure is your first foray into fantasy - tell us why you were tempted to this new genre.
A. I had long wanted to write an epic fantasy series looking at what really makes someone good or bad in the world, because I feel we increasingly judge people on what they are rather than who they are and what they do.
But I didn’t have a story. Until one day, in lockdown, doing some sorting out, I discovered a mysterious, long-forgotten map by my Dad of a fantasy land called ‘The Land of Ar.’ He must have drawn it for a story to entertain me and my brother many years ago.
The map had mysterious mountains, monsters and castles. It got me thinking about a very real land that only existed in fantasy for me - Transylvania (now part of modern-day Romania). Famously, it’s also where the Dracula story by Bram Stoker is set, but less famously, where my Dad’s paternal family originally came from.
As Jews, they had fled persecution at the start of the Second World War. But my relatives never talked about their past; it was too traumatic. Now I wanted to find out. So after lockdown, I took the train - like Jonathan Harker, the main character in Dracula - to Transylvania. I discovered a beautiful country as rich in beauty and friendship as it was in Gothic folklore.
This was exactly the tension between what people think and the truth that I wanted to explore in fantasy. On the way back, in my mind, Dad’s made-up map merged with my real-life experiences of Transylvania, and a new fictional place was born.
Princeland! Land of the “vampirs” - and a young orphaned “werwolf” called Tibor, searching for a magic treasure with his best friend Roza. A treasure that might answer one simple question for them: where do they really come from?
Q. Midnight Treasure combines magical and mythical creatures in a gothic fantasy of good vs evil. It is certainly an exciting book to read, with thrilling plot twists that keep the reader hooked. Was it just as exciting to write, and are you a fan of gothic thrillers yourself?
A. It was huge fun to write because I completely immersed myself in Transylvanian folklore, learning so much about an incredibly rich tradition of storytelling, custom and superstition that not only put me in touch with a family heritage I’d lost touch with, but just kept on sparking so many ideas. Vampires that disguise themselves as panes of glass! Dragons that live under lakes! A spell to turn yourself into a dust devil!
It was thrilling to be writing about a whole new world, consulting so many sources to create my own parallel version of beautiful Transylvania, from the food to the clothes to the sensational wild landscape, and of course, the monsters. It felt so real as I was writing it…it felt like coming home.
Q. The sequel to Midnight Treasure, Wolf Crown, is published this month - what can we expect?
A. It was such a joy to return to this world, and many characters return, Tibor and Roza, their friends, the Feather warriors and Agnes the water buffalo, not to mention Grimoire, the talking spell book.
But this time they are in an even tighter race against time to find a long-buried, cursed crown that might be their one last chance to stop the vampirs reigning for eternity.
There will be more monsters, evil spirits…and there might even be dragons. As well as stacks of hope, love and courage to get us all through the long nights ahead.
Q. Your debut novel, published in 2013, The Last Wild, was a huge success, with eco-themes that continue to resonate even louder today. What inspired you to write The Last Wild trilogy (and the prequel The Wild Before), and how did you come up with the character of Kester Jaynes, a twelve-year-old boy with a rare gift for understanding animals?
A. I feel so lucky to have grown up in rural Northumberland in the late 70s, early 80s, surrounded by green space and so much wildlife - from badgers to owls, toads to adders, red squirrels, foxes… but as I got older, it felt like I was seeing fewer and fewer wild creatures…which I put down to my imagination. Until I read a UN report confirming that we had lost over 60% of wildlife globally since I was born.
I am not a scientist or conservationist, but I was determined to do something. A story about saving the last animals left, animals that humans have ignored. What kind of hero would they need? Perhaps a young boy, also ignored by humans, but with a very special gift…
Q. The world in The Last Wild, where animals and nature have all but been destroyed, feels both fantastical but also sadly real. Was it inspired by any real-world events or places?
A. In 2001, there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK, which can be lethal to young livestock.
Way before Covid, it was the first lockdown in the UK to stop a virus, with infected farms quarantined, movement of animals and people banned in certain areas, and soldiers called in to cull over six million farm animals, shooting and then burning them in huge piles.
The red-eye in The Last Wild, the Quarantine Zone, cullers, was all part inspired by this tragedy. Whatever other challenges we face in the future, I hope Kester’s determination to find a cure for the animals might inspire others to do the same.
Q. In 2022, you published The Wild Before, a prequel to The Last Wild trilogy, but have you ever considered returning to continue the story?
A. I’m so honoured and touched by the idea, but this world no longer belongs to me; it’s been out in the world for readers for so long now, The Last Wild is even about to become a play with the Unicorn and National Theatres - where a whole new set of actors and audiences will make it their own.
So I couldn’t go back and recapture that private magic dreamland in your head that makes people want to write stories. But do I have plenty more stories I want to write about children talking to animals, saving animals and saving the world? You bet!
Q. Which of your books has been the most challenging to write, and why?
A. There May Be a Castle is perhaps the book that was the most challenging to write, because it’s about some of the most challenging subjects we can write about for children - death, loss and grief.
And I wrote it at a time when I was processing the grief of losing my father, so it felt oddly personal in a way I’d never felt before.
But writing the book also sustained and comforted me during a sad time, and realising that helped it end up being about the enduring power of the imagination and stories to console us through the darkest of times - it’s the book I’m most proud of too.
Q. How do you balance adventure and entertainment, with deeper messages in your stories?
A. I want my books to be gripping to read, with cliffhangers and set-piece action, because I know young readers have so many demands on their time and attention; books have to match some of the immersive entertainment experiences also on offer elsewhere.
What I passionately believe books can do best, though, is to put readers right into people’s minds as all this action is going on, and explore exactly what is going through their heads to try and make sense of it all. Perhaps less delivering a message, more asking a question - what would you do?
Q. You have a background in theatre and TV - do you think this experience has influenced how you write and plan your stories?
A. It was a huge privilege to spend the first decade or so of my career programming and producing other people’s stories on stage and on screen. I learned so much about storytelling from other people until I was finally ready to have a go at telling my own. Their lasting influence is that I always write very visually, and always in scenes.
Q. What advice would you give to young writers who want to write adventure or fantasy stories?
A. Write the stories you would love to read. Write the stories only you can, the weirder and more imaginative the better. Read as much as you can, of every genre. Write a little every day. Always finish what you started, even if it’s really short. If you don’t know how to do something, find a good example in a book you love, and work out how that author did it. And never, ever give up on a story, because a story will never give up on you.
Q. And finally, what animal would you most like to be able to talk to, like Kester does in The Last Wild trilogy?
A. I would love to be able to dive deep down into the dark water, and talk to a great blue whale, and say what have you seen, what do you know, what did you hear and where do we go? They are the wise ones, and it’s time for them to tell us what to do.
LR4K Guest Editor Book of the Month
My Book of the Month for this Halloween season is the terrific Dracula & Daughters by Emma Carroll. Many of you will know Emma as the author of gripping historical adventures such as Frost Hollow Hall or Letters from the Lighthouse. And whilst this new book also has a period setting, it is very firmly a fantasy - and a wonderful one to boot.
I was immediately hooked when I learned that Emma, with her phenomenal ability to pack so much research and history into a story, was planning a fresh take on the Dracula myth. Like her, I’m fascinated by vampires and creatures of the night, but also keen to bring them into the light of the 21st century, which is exactly what she’s done with this story.
In a very Victorian, Gothic and shadowy place called Temstown, rumours abound that vampires are back and responsible for all manner of problems. They must be destroyed!
But three extraordinary and brave cousins - Mina, Buffy and Bella - are not out to put stakes through the hearts of vampires - the opposite. Because what if, rather than killing vampires…it was possible to cure them? Welcome to the world’s first-ever vampire healing company!
A story that hooks you from the first line, fast-paced, funny and packed with Gothic chills… can’t wait for the rest of the series!
LR4K Guest Editor Book Recommendations
Dracula - a retelling by Tanya Landman - The original vampire bestseller enthrallingly retold for younger readers in an accessible and dyslexia friendly version by Carnegie winner Tanya Landman.
Kevin the Vampire by Matt Brown - Never let anyone tell you that very scary things can’t be very funny too, as shown in this fang-tastic series about 11-year-old Kevin and his struggle to turn into a bat.
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively - one of the greatest ghost stories for children ever written. After James and his family move into a new village, a mysterious poltergeist strikes…
October, October by Katya Balen - there is of course so much more to October than Halloween, as this beautiful, lyrical tale by another Carnegie winner, Katya Balen, shows in a story about the wild inside all of us.
Fear Files: Hide and Seek by Christopher Edge - if you love Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, you will be hooked by this nerve-shredding and nail-biting horror about a camping trip gone wrong…
With thanks to Piers Torday - our Guest Editor of the Month, October 2025 - we are delighted to get a chance to peek inside your bookish world.
Find more books by Piers below including his astounding debut The Last Wild.
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