The Song of Seven

An exciting new stand-alone adventure by the internationally bestselling author of The Letter for the King.

Deep in the woods, in a crooked house full of stairs, a young boy is kept prisoner by his uncle. He cannot meet other children, or have any friends. He holds the key to a secret.

Meanwhile, in a quiet village, Frans the schoolteacher invents incredible stories of perilous deeds, shipwrecks, desert islands, and haunted castles to entertain his pupils, in which he is the hero. Then one stormy evening, a mysterious letter blows onto his doormat, summoning him to a meeting.

Suddenly, Frans is on a real-life mission, one in which he will encounter magicians, secret passages, conspiracies, hidden treasure, a black cat with green eyes and a sealed parchment which predicts the future.

He will learn the secret of the Seven Ways. He will find seven allies. And he will make a fearsome enemy. The adventure has begun...

'A magical, strange, gripping tale' Spectator

'A cracking adventure... so nail-biting you'll need to wear protective gloves' The Times

Deep in the woods, a young boy is kept prisoner by his uncle. He sees no other children, and has no friends. But he does hold the key to a secret.

Meanwhile, in a nearby village, schoolteacher Frans invents stories of perilous deeds, shipwrecks, and haunted castles to entertain his pupils. Then one stormy evening, he is summoned to a clandestine meeting, and sent on a real-life quest - to free the boy in the woods. His adventure will involve hidden treasure, magicians and a prophecy. He will learn the secret of the Seven Ways. He will find seven allies. And he will make a fearsome enemy.

But will he accomplish his mission?

Part of the new Pushkin Children's Classics series of thrilling, magical and inspiring stories from around the world, which young readers will return to time and again.

Translated by Laura Watkinson.

Tonke Dragt was born in Jakarta in 1930 and spent most of her childhood in Indonesia. Her family moved to the Netherlands after the war and, after studying at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Dragt became an art teacher. She published her first book in 1961, followed a year later by The Letter for the King, which won the Children's Book of the Year award and has been translated into sixteen languages. Dragt was awarded the State Prize for Youth Literature in 1976 and was knighted in 2001. She died in 2024.

Laura Watkinson is a full-time translator from Dutch, Italian and German. She has translated many titles for Pushkin Children's Books, including Jan Terlouw's Winter in Wartime, Tonke Dragt's The Letter for the King and Annet Schaap's Lampie. She lives in Amsterdam.

• | Author: Tonke Dragt, Laura Watkinson
• | Publisher: Pushkin Press
• | Publication Date: Nov 20, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781782695042
• | ISBN-10: 1782695044