As a child two of Mike’s favourite books were Alice in Wonderland and
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The reason? Both allowed the reader to be transported into a fantasy
world of magic and wonder. It’s not rocket science – just pure escapism.
   
As he grew older he also grew bolder. He wanted something with more
meat on the bones. Instead of talking lions and rabbits with pocket watches
he wanted sci-fi and spaceships. What he really wanted,  he
recalls, was Alice in Wonderland with cohones. He got it
by graduating to the adventures of Professor James and
the Zoromes by Neil R. Jones.
   
Anyway, enough of Mike already – let’s look at Don Mason’s book
The Metal Forest and Beyond.     

The bottom line is that Mike wished Mason’s book had been around when
he was a lad. It would have fulfilled all his literary needs in one.
    
Without spoiling the plot, we can tell you that the heroine of the story, Amy,
visits a war museum and somehow gets lost.  With every corner she turns
she finds herself slipping – almost unconsciously at first – into a bizarre
world filled with weird and threatening creatures. Eventually she meets up
with Little Joe who is trying to rescue his brother Lee from the Greys.
The problem is that the Generals have other ideas, along with the
Potato Headed Scraggle Thing and the evil, bouncing Light Ball.
   
Pure, delicious escapism. From the outset Mike was reading The Metal
Forest and Beyond because because he runs his own media business and
part of his work involves reviewing books. By page three  he was
hooked and was reading it because he couldn’t put it down.
    
If you buy Mason’s book for kids, best get a second copy for yourself.