Fly By Night

"I nearly chose The Lie Tree . But Faith is not fierce and she didn’t sit as comfortably amongst the other girls I’ve chosen. But I needed to have a Frances Hardinge book – I think it gets harder to find, as you get older, books to fall in love with. Like it gets harder to make friends. Discovering Frances Hardinge was a really exciting moment for me. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter There is a nice line drawn between Matilda and Mosca Mye because their powers are that they can read. Unlike Matilda, where the words go inside her and strengthen her core and the power that comes out is from her mind, with Mosca the words themselves are her weapons. She wields them in such a fantastic way. The celebration of swearing for example, when Eponymous Clent and Mosca first have a big argument. They go at each other with all the crudest words they know and this ends with more refined swearing. The sheer luxuriating in words for the fun of it. “There is a nice line drawn between Matilda and Mosca Mye because their powers are that they can read” My choices are very much for people like me, people who are already in love with words. I hope people wouldn’t be put off by this, because this is an amazing book. Mosca Mye can use words fiercely and she can effect change by using her words. She also has a goose called “Saracen” which is brilliant. This book says, ‘Look how powerful words are and how dangerous it can be when they fall into the wrong hands. And how wonderful they can be when they are liberated.’ I learned a load of new words too!"