Alexa, whose idea this book is, and who invented the plot, is a P5 pupil in primary school, coming up to ten years old, and with a little sister, just coming up to five. Alexa has been studying volcanoes at school, and knows a good deal more about them than does Grandma, also known as Margaret Silf, who helped her to put the words round the ideas. The idea for the book arose when we were talking about how we often suppress feelings that disturb us or that might disturb the peace, and push them deep down inside us where we think they can’t do any harm. But then something happens to trigger an outburst, and the whole inner volcano erupts, sometimes in an uncontrolled way. This is the thinking behind the book’s title. The heroine of the book, called Lora, leaves home in a huff one day, and sets off for foreign lands, where she eventually gets trapped inside an active volcano. Her experiences in this situation reveal that while the girl is inside the volcano, there is also a volcano inside the girl, and the connections between the volcanoes that exist in the natural world, and those that exist in our inner worlds become more and more clear as her adventures proceed. The journey into the heart of the volcano, which this book describes, opens up whole new fields of wisdom and understanding that our heroine could never have expected. When she returns home she brings gifts of self-knowledge that will make a difference to family life, just as, she hopes, they will make a difference in the wider world. The book is written for young people just beginning to explore their own inner lives, still open to the fascination of magic and mystery and still responsive to the call of risk and adventure. It is a story about learning to live in harmony, about friendship and loyalty, integrity, resilience and courage. It is for everyone who knows how to dream big dreams, and then work to make them real. Margaret Silf, Ayrshire, April 2018