A curious, immersive fantasy with complex world-building, engaging characters and quirky creatures. Ideal for readers who enjoy an exciting adventure with added depth and intensity. Since I woke up after my brain injury 20 years ago, it's been really encouraging to see what progress has been made on more forms of disability being positively represented in books. Then I pressed “skip” one more time, and that’s when it happened – the most surreal moment of my life. A song I had somehow not heard in all that time, The Whole of the Moon by the Waterboys, began to play, and I was transported. Inspired by his own experience of memory loss after a brain injury, author Thomas Leeds introduces us to Jayben, a boy who can’t remember anything before the age of six. Leeds layers his young protagonist with his lived experience. It’s also refreshing to see a character who lives with seizures. This fantastic representation is extremely significant for kids and readers who might identify with Jayben so that they might see themselves as the hero of their story.

Jayben and the Golden Torch - Hachette Childrens UK Jayben and the Golden Torch - Hachette Childrens UK

When twelve-year-old Jayben finds himself in a fantastical new world, he wonders what it all means: Jayben has blanks in his memory due to his epileptic seizures as a result of brain injury. At the same time, I got to know a boy who was also living with epilepsy, caused by cerebral palsy. Like me, he was a big fan of wild adventure stories, and he shared my hope of one day seeing a brave hero living with seizures. 'If something is not impossible, then you can do it' The thing about waking up with no memories is that you don’t realise what you’ve lost until people start telling you who you are meant to be. That’s where my journey began, 20 years ago. Then I was told that it was possible that my memories might not actually be gone, they were just hard to reach. Maybe something from my past could jog them. My hopes ballooned. I just needed to find a key, and so my search began.I loved this book - a triumphant and richly imagined fantasy as well as a compelling insight into life with seizures and memory loss. I can't wait to see where this story goes!' - Lee Newbery, author of The Last Firefox

Home | Thomas Leeds

Is the Land of Roar real or imaginary? You’ll have to make up your own mind in this exciting and tense coming-of-age adventure that has echoes of Jumanji and Peter Pan. Waking up in a strange land, Ben finds he has no memories at all. Not even of his own name. But someone seems to think he is a long-awaited saviour for a world being consumed by greed and evil. I hope that children living with brain injuries and epilepsy will feel encouraged by Jayben, the hero I've longed to see for many years. But I believe that his story, the first in a series for ages 9+, is for everyone, and its message of courage and hope will appeal to readers of all abilities.

So often seizures in fiction are depicted as the end or a sign of someone worsening, we so rarely get to see people living with seizures and living through them. There are so many people, especially kids, dealing with this right now who need a hero like Jayben, to see themselves. Jayben discovers that many moons ago, a giant put a dark spell on the golden torch, and the elves forgot everything that had come before. Now they hang precious memories in jars on trees, just to try to remember. But a new darkness grows among them. An evil villain called Null is burning down the forests, hellbent on finding the torch and becoming the most powerful being ever to live. If Jayben can find his own magic and ignite the torch with its fierce violet flame, his power will be unstoppable ...