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The Uninvited by Ross MacKenzie invites readers into a world filled with the unimaginable while simultaneously reflecting things readers will find extremely familiar. It is a powerful novel entwined with MacKenzie’s enticing magic and will certainly make readers of all ages think. It would be a worthwhile consideration for Key Stage 3 and perhaps into Key Stage 4.

Ross has very kindly answered some questions about The Uninvited…

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Q1: How would you describe The Uninvited in three words?

Magical. Daring. Adventurous.

Q2: What was the initial inspiration for The Uninvited?

We’ve all seen the increasingly common, heartbreaking news reports of people fleeing terrible circumstances in their home countries and looking for help. This made me think: What might happen if lots and lots of people came to us not just from another country, but another world? How might we react to that? How would we treat them? What might their new lives be like here in the non-magical world?… And that was really the spark that lit the fire beneath the story.

Q3: The novel includes themes of immigration and colonisation, is it daunting tackling these themes in children’s fiction?

No, because, while many of the themes are important – and it’s important to talk about them – the book is a fantasy. Fiction has always been a way for us to sort of hold a mirror up to the world and look at things in different ways. I never worry too much about the themes, and I deliberately don’t hit people over the head with those themes – I would never presume to do that. I think it’s up to the reader to take what they want out of a story.

Q4: Why do you think it’s important to discuss these issues in fiction?

Because fiction is very often a way to help make sense of what’s happening in the real world. And fiction is a safe space in which to explore and discover difficult issues. Fiction can help us see through the eyes of someone else, and anything that does that, anything that makes us consider other points of views and experiences, is important.

Q5: Your novels are always filled with magical elements, where do you start when creating a mythical world or being?

I always begin by deciding what the magic CAN’T do. Think of it like this: If you create a world in which magic is powerful enough to solve any problem, then you won’t really have a story, because any time anything bad happens, a character can just wave a magic wand and everything is good again. If magic has limits, then you can put your characters in situations where waving the magic wand won’t help them, and they have to be resourceful and creative to overcome the odds.

Q6: What do you hope children take away from this novel?

I hope whatever they need to. A novel is a very personal thing, and I always think that what you take away from a book depends upon lots of things: How you are feeling when you read it, what’s going on in your life, what your worries and concerns and hopes are at that time. So it’s different for everyone.