The Grimstones aren’t your average family: Grandpa Grimstone runs his own magical apothecary, Mama Grimstone shuts herself away to make dresses and weep rivers of tears for her departed husband, and young Martha Grimstone is left alone to explore her sprawling Gothic home. This usually means teaching her quails tricks and inventing bread hats to attract crows. Life is fine for Martha (apart from the boring Latin lessons Aunt Gertrude teaches her), but she can’t help noticing how sad her mama is. Is there some way Martha can help cheer her up?

Based on the successful puppet show by Asphyxia, Hatched is a wonderfully quirky book full of memorable characters. Colour photographs of the puppets illustrate a charming story of a girl whose family may seem odd to others, but is perfectly normal to her.

Holly Harper is a children’s bookseller at Readings Carlton where she organises the kids and Young Adult e-newsletters. She also writes books for younger readers under the name H.J. Harper. Find out more about her Star League series and other books here and follow her on twitter - @hj_harper.