A cracking fantasy adventure about a family that flew away, deceitful adults, and a clever escape.
Author: Tomi Kontio
Finnish original: Keväällä isä sai siivet | Austraasia #1
Publisher: Tammi, 2000
Genre: children’s novels
Number of pages: c. 264 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample, English synopsis
Twins Tomi and Timo Kokko live in quiet Thrushridge. One May morning, their lives are suddenly turned upside down: the earth starts to shake, the sky turns red, and their Dad grows a pair of enormous wings. After announcing he is leaving for Austra-Asia, their Dad vanishes into a hole that opens in the garden and closes up behind him.
When the boys’ mother and sister also disappear mysteriously, Timo and Tomi end up in Loveless, a prison-like institution run with an iron fist by the stern Raakel Sneery. They discover all the children and adolescents being held at Loveless have strange abilities or experiences and realize this is the reason they are being held captive too.
The only solution is to break out. But no one has ever escaped from Loveless over the walls – and how can they even reach Austra-Asia, when their Dad needed wings to get there?
Wings to the Other Side of the World is a warm, funny, fastpaced children’s adventure that champions children’s freedom and individuality. Upon publication, it won Finland’s most prestigious children’s book award, the Finlandia Junior Prize.
Also available:
My Dad Is a Hipster (2022)
A Dog Called Cat (2015)
A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat (2019)
A Dog Called Cat Looking for Home (2020)
A Dog Called Cat and the Wonder of Christmas (2021)
About the author:
Tomi Kontio