SuitabookThe Devil's Paintbox
Victoria McKernan
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside your child and pausing after particularly perilous episodes. This leaves room to check how they are responding without assuming which parts they will find difficult.
- Themes
- Survival on the journey: Aidan and Maddy travel with a wagon train through hazards including animal attacks, river crossings and smallpox, hoping for a new life. The journey is presented as dangerous, while hope for a better life remains part of the stated premise.
- Siblings facing upheaval: Orphaned siblings Aidan and Maddy leave their drought-stricken farm and undertake the journey together. Their shared circumstances make their relationship central to the premise, but the way they relate is not described.
- Worth knowing
- The journey includes stated threats of animal attacks, dangerous river crossings and smallpox. These perilous situations could feel intense; how they are depicted in the story is not established.