Finders of Silverthorn Forest: The Lost Treasures
Rachel Chivers Khoo, illustrated by Laura Catalán
Walker Books

As the story opens we meet almost simultaneously the two protagonists: a small boy, Max, and the more diminutive Tuft, who wears odd shoes. It’s partly on account of this footwear that the two meet. Tuft (a Finder) is looking for treasure and Max is a passenger in his mum’s car that almost crashes into what Max mistakes for a tea towel.

Back at Grandma’s, Max continues his mission- to help her find the time capsule she buried almost seventy years ago, before she has to move out of her home. The problem is Grandma can’t remember where she buried it; maybe it was in her garden, or perhaps in the surrounding woods, or even in a treehouse in an ancient oak tree. Off goes Max in an old faux-fur coat of Grandma’s to search the treehouse but is surprised to discover it’s occupied.

Occupied by Finder, Tuftorius Snook, the very creature that Max mistook for a tea towel. Finders are woodland creatures that ‘scavenge lost objects’ that their whiskers help them find and treat them as treasure, even keeping an inventory. “Finders keepers’ is their rule. The two start chatting over tea and a friendship begins. Suddenly a lot more Finders turn up including Tuft’s grandfather, Old Grey.

Tuft persuades his grandfather that Max means no harm and on the way back through the woods, he tells Max that the next day is Domesday. When they arrive at Grandmas’s cottage Max asks Tuft for his help and a plan is formed.

The following morning Mr Pellington, the new owner of Grandma’s cottage arrives telling her that diggers are a coming and she must be out by noon. When they discover his real reason for buying the cottage, Max becomes desperate to see Tuft despite their having said their goodbyes to each other. Can they still do something to stop the entire wood being demolished and most importantly save the oak tree with that treehouse?

Another entrancing story from Rachel (I’ve loved both her previous books) with detailed illustrations by Laura Catalán adding to the pleasure at almost every turn of the page. Woven into the tale is a vital theme about tree preservation.