Tally and Squill written by Abie Longstaff, illustrated by James Brown, reviewed by Dawn Finch

First the blurb...

Ten-year-old Tally is a servant girl at Mollett Manor. She sleeps in the scullery sink, and spends her days scrubbing, polishing and ironing (when she's not secretly reading books). Then Tally and her squirrel friend, Squill, find a secret library hidden under the manor - a magical library where the books come to life! When Mollett Manor is burgled, can Tally use the knowledge she finds in the books to catch the criminals? Can they even help her solve the mystery of her missing mother?



Tally and Squill in a Sticky Situation is the first in a new series of books from Abie Longstaff. Abie is perhaps best known for her Fairytale Hairdresser books for younger readers, and her charming writing style is easily recognised in this new series.

Tally lives a hard life scrubbing and cleaning for her guardians at Mollett Manor. A foundling child raised by the servants of the house, Tally knows that she once had a mother (she can remember little bits about her) but somehow she was lost and then found by the servants and raised by them. She is also very very smart. Tally knows the power of books and libraries and she knows that any time she gets in trouble, a book will be there to help her, especially the books of the Secret Library.

The story takes us along with Tally on an adventure where she captures burglars, solves crimes and tunnels into a mystery - oh, and meets a very special friend; a clever and cheeky little red squirrel that she names Squill.

Wonderful descriptive passages to read aloud

This is a very enjoyable book, and one that packs a lot of punch for its size. The book is ostensibly short, but it is linguistically challenging and perfect for a developing reader. There are lots of gorgeous new words that a freshly independent reader might not otherwise have come across, all embedded in a beautifully illustrated book allowing for supported contextualisation.The book also makes great use of more complex literary elements such as footnotes, and it also manages to include many positive references to the use of non-fiction material for both enjoyment and to solve problems. The positive message about enjoying non-fiction, and using libraries is very satisfying in a book for children who are just beginning to expand their reading skills and establish a reading habit.

Ok, so that's the boring educational bit.... but the big thing is that Tally and Squill are a delight! The story is fun and adventurous and Tally is brave and smart and inspirational. When the going gets tough...it's feisty Tally right up there in front - and who doesn't love a red squirrel? The text is harmoniously coupled with the illustrations of James Brown (illustrator of the Elspeth Hart series). The illustrations are filled with life and movement and they work particularly well with Longstaff's lively text.

All in all, this is a book to read with a child, help them chew on the delicious new words, let them guess at the meanings and use the excellent illustrations to work out the puzzles. Read along, share, and enjoy the adventure with them. I was reading it on a plane and the little girl behind me was leaning over my shoulder to get a better look. When I finished it I asked her father if I could give his daughter the book as a gift. He said "well, thanks but she's not much of a reader." His daughter frowned at him and said, "that's not true, I just haven't found one I like yet." Wise words.

She took the book with a big grin and, stuffing her ipad in the seat pocket, she spent the rest of the journey with Tally and Squill. At the end of the flight I felt a little tug at my sleeve and looked down to see the little girl still clutching the book.
 "I really like squirrels," she said, "and this little girl is very clever so I like her."
"I like her too," I said. "I like her a lot."

Tally and Squill in a Sticky Situation is written by Abie Longstaff, illustrated by James Brown
Published by Little Brown, July 2016

Review by Dawn Finch
Children's writer and librarian
President, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
CWIG Committee Member
www.dawnfinch.com
www.dawnfinch.co.uk
@dawnafinch 



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The Fairytale Hairdresser and Father Christmas, by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard. Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

TITLE: THE FAIRYTALE HAIRDRESSER AND FATHER CHRISTMAS
by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard
Published by Picture Corgi
Publication date: 24 September 2014
Paperback

Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard's Fairytale Hairdresser series continues with a seasonal instalment that pits Kittie the hairdresser against the infamous Snow Queen.

It's the season to be jolly and Kittie is worked off her feet coiffuring various celebrity customers.  But when she clocks in at Santa's workshop to see to the elves' hair, she discovers that someone has stolen the presents meant for the inhabitants in fairyland.   Who could the culprit be and why would they seek to ruin everyone's Christmas?

Longstaff's adventure moves at a cracking pace, seamlessly binding new plot and fairy tale elements. The story begs to be read again and again while Beard's illustrations yields extra gems. As in the previous books featuring Kittie, there are a lot of visual puns.  The spreads showing Santa's workshops and the ice-skating ring at the end are especially delightful.

A grand pantomime of a book, not to be missed.

Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

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THE FAIRYTALE HAIRDRESSER AND SLEEPING BEAUTY, by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard

Modern takes on classic folk and fairytales are very in at the moment, with big budget reboots of Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Jack And The Beanstalk all hitting the silver screen in the last couple of years.  Now Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard bring the concept to the 3-6 year reading group with their hilarious series about Kittie Lacey, hairdresser to the celebs of Fairytale Land.

In THE FAIRYTALE HAIRDRESSER AND SLEEPING BEAUTY, Kittie feels ashamed that her once-trendy looking garden is now all overgrown and unkept.  But someone she knows has an even bigger problem, something not even a good shampoo and set can solve.  Princess Rose from the nearby castle has fallen asleep and not even her godparents, the fairies, seem able to wake her up.  Can Prince Florian, hired to tidy up Kittie's garden strim his way through the thick hedge around the castle and wake up the princess?

Longstaff's text romps cheekily through this fast paced fairytale, making it an enjoyable and effortless read.  There are lots of in-jokes for those that know the original story well and the children I read the book to appreciated every single one of them.  Lauren Beard's illustrations are bright and blocky. They had the readers in my group reaching for their colouring pencils trying to emulate them.  A very enjoyable romp!

Saviour Pirotta
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The Fairytale Hairdresser And Cinderella by Abie Longstaff, illustrated by Lauren Beard, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

The great classic fairytales belong to us all; there to be told or sung or drawn or danced or written or thought in whatever way suits us and/or our audience at any particular moment in history or in our individual personal lives.  There is room for the sinister, the funny, the cute, the simple, the analytical, or the provocative angles to be taken on all the great tales.  No single version is the best version for us all, all of the time.  It’s that adaptability that makes them such rich material, and has let them last over the centuries. 

Abie Longstaff’s second Fairytale Hairdresser book is based on the story of Cinderella, but it also enjoys visual references to lots of other tales and nursery rhymes.  Can you spot the Pied Piper, the Three Little Pigs, White Rabbit, Bo Peep, the Cat and the Fiddle, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and his Cow, the Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe, Aladdin, Jack and Jill, the Princess and the Frog, Kittens in Mittens, the Princess and the Pea, Pinochio, three Blind Mice, Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, and many more, all busily living in this fairytale town?   This version of the Cinderella story is predominantly pink in its looks, and it has tactile sparkly bits on the cover.  That is going to attract a certain kind of reader, mainly small girls.  And why not?  Small girls’ preferences are as valid as the dull academic who wants obscure historical text only.  As valid as the boys who want snot and underpant versions of their tales, or earnest parents who want wholesomeness at the expense of fun, or those who want to riff with the wording and enjoy a particular aural quality over story sense.  Fairytales should NOT be fossilised in any one form.  They should be lived in ways relevant to their readers, and this author and illustrator team have achieved that brilliantly well for an audience of modern children. 

            When a royal ball is announced Kitty the hairdresser knows that her services are going to be in demand, so she takes on a new Saturday Girl – Cinderella.  Cinderella is good at doing all the menial jobs, of course, and soon learns how to cope with dwarf beards, wolf stubble and lambs in need of bows.  Her hard work is rewarded with a twinkly glass hairclip.  When rushing around the palace to get the Queen’s hair into a right royal ‘do’ for the ball, that hairclip gets dropped, and picked-up by ….Prince Charming.  The twist here is that the prince falls for Cinderella when she is just her ordinary self in a ragged skirt, rather than the magically enhanced ball beauty of the traditional tale.  Good old Kitty helps Cinderella to find a fancier outfit before the ball (children are going to enjoy the very different fashion possibilities played with before a decision is made!).  The Prince and Cinderella manage to miss each other at the ball, until a glint on that glass hair slide catches his eye, and the swooningly romantic sepia image of the rest of the ball falling away as the spotlight literally falls on the couple, leading over the page to the ultimate tactile sparkly flowery heart-shaped butterfly fluttering setting for the bride and groom who will of course live Happily Ever After … because the Prince now helps Cinderella out in her work at the hair salon, and we leave him sweeping up hair from the floor.  This story is great fun, but it also raises interesting questions for young minds to ponder.

            If you’d like to see the thought-processes that went into creating this story, do click through to read Abie’s blog on the Picture Book Den where she charts the whole process.

http://picturebookden.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Abie%20Longstaff

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