Ella Jones vs The Sun Stealer
For ages 9+
An epic, exciting modern day fantasy race-against-time adventure with a brave and inspiring blind protagonist.
This is a middle-grade book I’ve been wholeheartedly recommending at my Happy Reading Children’s Bookshop, and including in school surprise book orders. More than once, I’ve pulled it from my tote bag to show Head Teachers - who are instantly intrigued!
‘Ella Jones vs The Sun Stealer’ by Lucy Edwards, written in collaboration with bestselling Children’s author Katy Birchall, published by Scholastic, and is a brilliant brand new contemporary fantasy adventure series for children aged 9+. It’s available in multiple formats: paperback, e-book, audiobook, and for the first time I’ve come across - in Braille free of charge for members of the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind)… there’s also some Braille on the brilliant front cover, designed by Two Dots… and if you look closely at the dog in the artwork you’ll see it is wearing the trademark harness of a guide dog.
Yes!! You’ve got it, our protagonist is blind!! As a specialist Children’s bookseller, and one who does outreach in schools, this is VERY exciting!! Author Lucy Edwards is herself an RTS [Royal Television Society] award-winning blind broadcaster, content creator and disability activist who is usually accompanied by her guide dog Molly. Lucy lost her sight at 17 due to Incontinentia Pigmenti and is committing to sharing her experience and raising awareness about living with a disability. She’s now an Ambassador for Pantene and for Mattel’s recent far-reaching Blind Barbie press launch. If you’ve managed to catch her on her many social media platforms (she’s got a following of almost 3 million!) you’ll have immediately felt her bubbly personality and openness. Lucy’s an ‘influencer’ for all the right reasons - diversity, equality and inclusion. I’m so on board!!
What’s the colourful pixelated icon on the front/back/spine of the book you might wonder… I hadn’t ever seen this before either. It’s for NaviLens, which according to the book…“is an accessibility app specifically designed to help blind and partially sighted users explore independently around cities and their environment… You can use the NaviLens app on the cover to hear about the author, what the book is about and hear descriptions of the cover and pictures.” Find out more about NaviLens here .
There are also fantastic illustrations in black-and-white throughout the book, sometime double spread illustrations (what a treat), by illustrator Caroline Garcia. I found these a wonderful addition to the storytelling, especially for readers like myself who haven’t any first-hand or relatable experience with being visually impaired or blind. To see our cast of characters including the guide dog mid-quest at various points in the adventure really brought home the reality of the predicament they were in and how brave our heroine is.
And so to the story…
As you may have gleaned already, ‘Ella Jones vs The Sun Stealer’ is an epic, exciting modern day fantasy adventure! What’s more, the story, based in London, is an ode to children everywhere who have been blind since birth, or who have had to come to terms with sight loss, turn their life around (with a focus on the impact on life at school, in the home and outside) and adapt. Readers are drawn into blind protagonist schoolgirl, twelve year old Ella’s world - her unbreakable bond with her guide dog Maisie, her use of Braille labels on her toiletries, her clothes hangers being labelled with her PenFriend device so she knows what outfits are hanging on them, her feeling for a cone beneath the box at crossings to know when to cross (when it’s spinning) if there’s no audible signal, and so much more that is unknown to so many of us about the world of people who are visually impaired.
From time-to-time, readers uncomfortably witness Ella having to navigate ignorance, lack of patience and rudeness from the public, and understandably Ella has moments of despair and frustration. Who can blame her!
““Sometimes I wish people knew how it feels to face challenges like this every day, what it’s like to feel powerless and troublesome through no fault of my own. Sometimes I wish that everything would suddenly become shrouded in darkness for them, just for a moment, so that they might understand. Maybe they’d realise then how the smallest adjustments to their world can make the biggest differences in mine.” ”
What would happen if Ella’s wish were to come true?
Throughout the story the reader feels for Ella when the world around her feels hostile to her disability. She’s kind, thoughtful, brave, clever and determined. She’s also incredibly optimistic. There is also a lot descriptive text with in the narrative than you might ordinarily find in a book - smells, touch, intuition, atmosphere. I found this refreshing and important to the experience of being able to step into Ella’s sneakers.
A school trip to the city’s Mythos Library for a tour of some ancient artefacts is way more exciting for Finn than for Ella, and definitely not exciting at all for Poppy who’d rather be somewhere else. Finn is in his element and his excitement jumps off the page. He’s a super caring best friend to Ella, he is hyper aware of her needs and knows when to back off when she’s able to be in control herself with the support of Maisie.
Ella became blind when she was ten and lives at home with her mum and dad and older sister Poppy, and her guide dog Maisie, a golden retriever. Her best friend is Finn - bookish, and obsessed with mythology and they’ve been friends since before Ella lost her sight. A Celtic display featuring a book of ancient Druid spells and a spear crafted by and belonging to the god of the sun, light and justice - Lugh catches Finn’s eye in particular. Lugh has been banished for centuries, and by all accounts is a powerful deity that you don’t want to mess with! Soon after, while Ella is on a trip out at the SouthBank on the Thames in central London with her family and Finn, there is an almighty storm, and all light suddenly disappears - natural and artificial. It’s chaos, the world is plunged into darkness. Who, or what could have caused this and why?
Ella, Maisie, Finn and Poppy must go on a dangerous quest to save the world before it’s too late. The only way to defeat Lugh is by completing a sequence of sacred Druid spells - but every step is fraught with danger: mythical monsters, escaped zoo animals, and, most terrifying of all, Finn and Poppy are now unable to see. Their survival depends entirely on Ella and Maisie.
This is a book where disability is front of stage. It’s high quality text, flows brilliantly, features plenty of nail-biting moments, familiar London landmarks, bags of bravery and daring problem-solving to save the world in a race against time - all the ingredients for fans of ‘Artezans’ by LD Lapinski, ‘Impossible Creatures’ by Katherine Rundell, ‘Hunt for the Golden Scarab’ by MG Leonard, ‘The Clockwork Conspiracy’ by Sam Sedgman. I can’t wait for book 2!
