posted on 14 Sep 2023

The Weather Well by Vashti Hardy

This is the final instalment in Vashti Hardy’s delightful Griffin Gate series – and you’ll find reviews of two of the others, The Griffin Gate here and The Puffin Portal here. Although the book is the finale of a series, all of the individual titles can also be read as stand-alone stories: but, you might be already asking yourself, what on Earth is ‘the Griffin Gate’?

Well, helpfully Vashti Hardy has anticipated you and close to the beginning of this adventure she brings the reader up to speed:

“Great Grandma Griffin was the inventor of the famous Griffin map. It had teleporting technology and was used when the people of Moreland sent calls for help. When a call came in, one of the map’s many electrical gates would flash. The Griffin family, who were the wardens of the map, could then teleport into the map and travel anywhere in Moreland to assist.”

As the story opens, we join the Griffin family, their mechanical raven, Watson, and fellow warden Tom Eeely sweltering in the summer heat. They are busy inventing – a pair of heated gloves and a sticky web blaster – when a call comes in for help from Oakwell. Tom and Grace (with Watson) volunteer to transport there and investigate what problems they might be able to help with – and hopefully spend some time in the famous summer market. 

Expecting to arrive in the midsummer heat, the wardens are shocked to discover that Oakwell seems to be in the grip of deep winter and the snow is thick on the ground. Making their way into the centre of town, they arrived at Samuel’s Snowglobes – a shop that specialises in remarkable self-perpetuating snowglobes:

“..these were no ordinary snowglobes, because the weather inside seemed to be alive. The globes didn’t need to be shaken for the snow to fall. In these globes, the snow fell onto the scene from tiny clouds inside, as if it was real.”

Does the technology that makes the snowglobes possible have something to do with the strange weather anomaly currently engulfing Oakwell? And how could it be that the origins of the bad weather seems to be centred on the town’s well? And why is that well spitting out huge ice cubes shaped like lightening-bolts?

Maybe Samuel’s daughter, Riley can cast some light on what’s been going on in the well………….?

Of course, I’m not going to tell you anything else about how the story develops because you’ll want to read it for yourself.

The book comes from Barrington Stoke and is available this month. If your local independent bookshop doesn’t have a copy on their shelves, they’ll be happy to order it for you.

Terry Potter

September 2023