Tashi and the Forbidden Room

Tashi #12

by Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg, Kim Gamble (Illustrator)

Young readers will cheer Tashi along as he uses his quick wit and keen bravery to drive the villainous monster Bluebeard from the castle and save the village once again.

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Adventure

60 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Anna Fienberg grew up in a house filled with books. Her mother was a teacher librarian who relished stories as much as chocolates. 'On Sunday mornings we'd all lie in bed with our books, lost in magical wardrobes, witches’ spells, genies’ magic… What we were going to read next was just as important in our family as what was for lunch!' says Anna.

Anna started writing stories when she was eight, but never imagined being an author. She studied psychology, fascinated by the dark world of dreams. She gave up counseling after an unfortunate incident with an enraged man and a chair (he missed!), began writing and scored the best job in the world. 'Working for School Magazine was a treat,' Anna says. 'I couldn't believe you could get paid for sitting back comfortably in your chair, cappuccino in hand, reading over a thousand books a year. Heaven!' Of course, as an editor she also had to write reviews and articles, stories and plays. One of those stories for School Magazine later became her first book.

Reviews

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one from the memories

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Number 12 in the Tashi series. I've read the first book a few years ago with my son, who was 6 or 7 at the time. I know lots of kids just love this series, but it wasn't for him. I don't remember a lot of it, just that Tashi was the make believe friend of a young boy called Jack, and between them they tell some rather fantastic tales. I read this book after recently reading Perrault's original tale of Bluebeard (which is essentially a fairy tale about a serial killer), and this book also recounts a Bluebeard tale. In the original, Bluebeard forbids his new wife from entering a certain room in the castle, while giving her the key for the room at the same time. Of course she goes in and makes a very grisly discovery. Here, Bluebeard is considerably lightened for the modern child reader. Yes Bluebeard has a castle, with a forbidden room, he also has a number of wives. Whilst he is mean and nasty here, he isn't the serial killer of old. Still, the fable of Bluebeard is kept going for a new generation. The titular forbidden room is only part of the first story of the two in this book. Midway through there is a confusing change of pace to another completely different story. At least I found it confusing, perhaps child fans who have read the whole series don't. The second story is about a baron in Tashi's land who thinks his dog Pongo has killed his new peacock.

[Brooke E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book it had to be one of my favourites. It was the first tashi book I read. At first I wasn’t really shore if I would of liked it or not but once I read the book I couldn’t stop reading the series I loved it. So tashi has a lot of siblings and through out the series you will read about a lot about his family. This book is very interesting you keep asking your self what is going to happen next .this book is a fantasy book so if you don’t like fantasy well I wouldn’t recommend this. On the other hand if u like dragons and pheonix’s or mixed animals in fantasy I 100% recommend this book

[Pratyush · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a scary book but it was nice. I enjoyed it

[Mikayla B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very good book for 7-11 yrs and takes you on an amazing and breathtaking adventure.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tashi found girls hanging by their wrists and when the bad thing knows about it he trys to.....

[Shefali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books as a kid and i still adore Tashi and his adventures

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the adventure

[Gabrielle.woodlands · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT