WHERE ARROWS FLY: The Barn Chronicles II

Rosie Boom

HSM Publishing

The ordinary wraps itself in shimmering enchantment on the Boom’s farm in the far north of New Zealand. This real-life story is alight with a captivating glow. The land of Narnia seems to have mysteriously broken through from another dimension and, like one of the Celtic otherworldly ‘thin places’, touched the Boom’s fields and home with a bright, majestic dreaming.

In Where Lions Roar at Night, the first book in the Barn Chronicles, Milly comes to live in a ninety-year old barn with her parents, brothers and sisters. In the middle of the night, savage roars echo over the hill. So begins a time of settling into a farm where adventures are just waiting to happen.

A pervasive effervescent delight bubbles through both books, creating an atmosphere where simple pleasures become learning adventures and where accidents and disappointments are dealt with so sensitively that they have an air of mere light and momentary troubles.

Where Lions Roar at Night and Where Arrows Fly have been compared to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic Little House on the Prairie but that is to underestimate their sparkle, vivacity and contemporary relevance.

The first book in The Barn Chronicles—Where Lions Roar at Night—was deservedly the winner of the Children’s Section of the inaugural CALEB Prize for faith-inspired writing. The Barn Chronicles leave a lingering taste of heaven on your senses and, like the Chronicles of Narnia which inspire many of the chapters, an insistent longing for more.