Book Review – ‘Rebecca’s World’ by Terry Nation

When I was in year 5 at primary school, my teacher spent a week or so reading the class a couple of pages a day, her favourite childhood story. Rebecca’s World.
I remember most of the other kids in class, would switch off and not take much notice. But this book really stood out to me.
I was amazed by it.
Even though the book is old, I could read it a million times, and still be interested by it.
The engaging characters are all unique, and the story has a plot which makes you want to keep reading on and on, fixating you to it.
It’s extremely hard to put this book down, once you start reading.
Even though this is a children’s book, and Rebecca, (who is the main character) is only 8. She seems so confident and grown up; which is why this book is suitable for adults aswell, as you don’t feel like you are reading a children’s story.

The plot..
It’s about a young girl, who is bored. She goes up to a room, which her father has told her not to go into, as he keeps expensive equipment in there; and she finds a telescope in there, much bigger than herself, and she peers through it.
She ends up focusing on one star in particular and before she knows it, she is transported out of the room, and into a fantasy land.
She finds herself in a lab with a scientist who is very angry.
He tells Rebecca that he is unable to send her home, to which she cries.
This makes him crosser, and he sends her out of the lab until he can find a way to send her back home.
She meets several characters throughout the book. One being a character called Grisby; (who we remember for having extremely painful feet).Another named Captain K (an unprepossessing superhero) and the last named Kovak (a spy with a thousand faces, all shamefully similar)
The planet that they are all on, once was a beautiful forest, but is now a glittering glass city, due to the Glister family destroying the forest.
What they didn’t realise was that, the scent from the trees in the forest, repelled ghosts. Ghosts are scary monsters which kidnap people, and turn them into ghosts too.
The Glister family, tore down every last tree, and built wooden ghost shelters, so when the ghosts attack, people can enter the ghost shelters. They charged a fee for people to enter, and double for them to leave.
Captain K is the only other person to own part of the wood, which he uses as a stick.
What Rebecca found out from an old story is that there is one last living tree left on a mysterious island.
She convinces her three new friends to go there with her to find the ghost tree. But first she must steal the map with the trees location from the Glisters home.

Sounds exciting right?
This book was my childhood. I loved it and would keep asking my teacher to borrow it for the weekend.
When I left primary school, I searched high and low for a copy but could never find it.
When I met my boyfriend several years ago I explained the story to him, and my love for this book, and he managed to track one down and buy it for me.
I am now a proud owner of this book, and plan to pass it down the family.
If you haven’t read this book, I would definitely recommend it!