2007 is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade and this fascinating novel paints a vivid picture of what slavery actually means.

Abena is a West African girl, captured by fellow Africans and sold to an English slave ship. Mungo is an orphaned English boy, tricked and captured in a seaside town and sold into white slavery.

The pair meet up on a Jamaican sugar plantation. Although Mungo has a much easier life than the Africans, he is horrified by the mindless cruelty he sees around him. Together with Abena and an elderly African man, Kwasi, he manages to escape to a rebel camp in the mountains.

Riordan skilfully switches from English to African viewpoint and back again, and the story is full of tension and exciting twists. There's a lot of information about African culture and vivid scenes depict the brutality of the slave masters who were prepared to torture, maim and murder their charges for even accidental misdemeanours. Squeamish youngsters might be put off by this, but otherwise it's an essential and perversely entertaining read for anyone who wants to know what slavery was really about. (Age 9-13)