DOTTY and the Calendar House Key

Award-winning middle grade fiction from Emma Warner-Reed.


Dotty Parsons is just an ordinary nine and a half year old girl living on an unassuming suburban street in Cardiff - or so she thinks.


After a tragic firework accident at her home kills both Dotty's parents and the family pets all in one go, Dotty is forced to leave her beloved Cardiff and her best friend, Sylv, and to move 'up North', to Yorkshire. There, she is to live with a great uncle she never knew she had in a creepy old house in the country. But, as if this isn't enough to deal with, it seems that things are far from what they seem in her new home.


As Dotty is constantly disturbed by noises coming from the chimneys, she soon suspects that everything is not as it seems at the Calendar House. The old cook tells Dotty that the noises come from jackdaws nesting in the chimneys, but Dotty struggles to believe her story.


So just what IS going on in the chimneys of the Calendar House, and what is the big secret that lies just the other side of Great Uncle Winchester's study window?


Follow Dotty on a voyage of magical discovery as she journeys into 'deepest, darkest Yorkshire'. Join the feisty little Welsh girl as she unearths the secrets of The Calendar House: her mother's mysterious family home; laugh at the antics of the eccentric but kindly housekeeper, Mrs Gobbins; watch her as she meets new friends and allies Pip and Geoff the dog and cheer them on as they defeat a plethora of unsavoury and frightening characters. From evil sweep traders Porguss and Poachling, to Strake, Great Uncle Winchester's odiously creepy private secretary; be prepared for an 'edge of your seat' ride from beginning to end.


This spellbinding fantasy adventure is a must-read for 8-12 year olds. DOTTY and the Calendar House Key has been described as 'Secret Garden meets Diagon Alley'. Children who enjoy magical fantasy adventures will love this book. Deals with universal themes of childhood loneliness, loss, family, friendships, justice and triumph of good over evil - all handled with a delightful lightness of touch that gives the book an almost bygone era feel. Laced with just the right amount of gentle humour.


DOTTY and the Calendar House Key is the first book in the DOTTY series. For more news, information and excerpts from The DOTTY Series, go to: www.thedottyseries.com