Casander Darkbloom and the Threads of Power
P.A. Staff, illustrated by Nathan Collins
Walker Books

P.A. Staff certainly had me enmeshed in her authorial threads of power from the book’s opening chapters.
When first we meet him, Casander wakes every morning outside Crane’s Curiosities shop in London. He has no memory and like the author, experiences random surges of uncontrollable energy in his limbs (a movement condition known as Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Choreoathetosis.) Nobody takes much notice of him until one rainy morning he’s invited into the shop where unaccountably, he brings a stuffed raven to life.

Almost the next thing he knows, Casander is running for his life along with the girl from the shop; her name is Warrior. She leads Casander into the Balance Lands – a world that mirrors the normal one – and to Wayward School, the place that Warrior calls home. Once safely inside away from the Heretics, she takes him to one, Dr Bane, and informs him that Cas is “The One we’ve been looking for.” In short he’s the Foretold, who it’s prophesised will defeat the malevolent Master of All.

Under the school’s protection, where for the first time, Cas feels a sense of belonging, he must learn to master his magical abilities. However it’s not long before he discovers that not all may be quite as it seems. Indeed the boy will need to take control of his destiny if he’s to find the strength to fight and overcome the powers of evil. In so doing he has an ally in Mrs Crane, the librarian and makes some wonderful friends in the Abnormies. As well as Warrior: there’s Paws who uses a wheelchair, Fenix, and a few others who accept him for who he is and are willing to help him learn about this new world

This is an enormously exciting, wonderfully imagined fantasy that celebrates difference, be that a physical disability, neurodivergence or whatever, showing how what makes each person unique is their greatest strength. With its brilliant final twist, readers will be left eagerly awaiting what comes next for Cas et al.