Life for the family is confronting, their new hotel needs a large amount of work, with the owners e involved in wildlife poaching. The narrative begins with Ruby’s story, leaving Australia and starting a new life with her dad and grandma in India.

Ruby and her family soon settle into life on the mountain; Ruby meets Parveen, a local boy and the pair form an instant friendship. I cried more than once reading this, and I could barely put it down during the time I spent with it as I just had to learn the fate of the characters as soon as possible.Except something’s not quite right: her dad’s hiding things, the hotel owners are super shifty, and there are rumours the mountain is cursed. This one is a children's book set in India and is a fantastic introduction to Indian culture for anyone wanting to learn more about it. This is a really great book for middle-grade readers, and I actually think it’s a lot stronger than her debut.

This was a beautiful story about grieving and discovering your parents aren't gid but loving them anyway. The loose ends were tied up a bit too easily - especially how the ownership of the hotel worked out, that seemed… convenient. There are moments of fun and laughter, the colourful Holi festival, caring for Joey, watching Bollywood films, making friends with Praveen and dancing to Bollywood music with Dad and Nan.Not only is it a way of highlighting a vitally important issue or a message but it is also about reliving the magic of moments that have become memories, of which I think your grandmother would be immensely proud, Jess. This gives a strong message to readers that it’s okay to be scared of things and that facing your fears isn’t always as simple as it sounds. Jess Butterworth drew inspiration for ‘When the Mountains Roared’ from her own family stories, her grandparents’ travels to India in the 1960s and her own childhood experiences living with them at the foot of the Himalayas. There's some horrifying descriptions of poaching, but that's something we should be horrified about.

This is a beautiful tale of family, love and loss, but also of conservation and the love for our natural surroundings and wildlife that inhabit them. That being said, I know I'm definitely not the target age group for this, and my standards are definitely higher than your average 9-12 year olds'.They do face some disagreements in their friendship and it was interesting to see how they approached and worked through these. This is fantastic for a children’s novel, because the last thing kids want is to feel like they’re *learning* when reading a fictional novel.

If you’re not already a huge fan of Jess and her books, then I can guarantee that you certainly will be after this one! When they arrive at the hotel they realise what a job they have in front of them to get it up and running and ready to welcome their first guests. The locals have stories about the mountain and they believe that some of the unpleasant events occurring in their village are the wrath of the Goddess Durga because there are people living on the mountain again.Her grief is very carefully woven into the story: there are flashbacks to the event that killed her mother, and frequent references to things that remind Ruby of her. Together with Praveen, a local boy, and an entire menagerie of animals including a baby kangaroo, Ruby sets out to save the elusive and beautiful leopards who inhabit the mountain.