Most of us, when we pick up a book, look on the back page for a short “blurb” – a couple of paragraphs or so that pitch the idea. How many of us stop to consider the impact of these words?

Sometimes it can only take a couple of words or so to prompt us to buy/borrow the book.

For those reading this article I thought I’d present a “checklist” of some of the excitement that waits in between the pages of The Secret on the Second Shelf:

• Scary villain
• Human-bird shifting creatures
• Time travel
• Fantasy adventure
• Gadgets that perform wonders
• Celebration of colour; bonfire night and fireworks
• Clues to the meaning of life
• A secret, waiting to be uncovered
• Classic struggle of good versus evil, where the stakes are high