Walking Mountain, by Joan Lennon - reviewed by Sue Purkiss

People often ask where writers get their ideas from - and it's a question I find quite easy to answer. I don't have that many ideas, but the ones I do have really grip me, and I always know just where they came from.

But with a book like this, I really do want to ask exactly that same question - because it's so full of inventiveness and imagination. The characters, concepts and landscapes come fresh-minted: they feel absolutely new - a bit like Philip Reeve's, I suppose; but I can't think of many other books they remind me of. It's fantasy, yes, and there are lots of other fantasy books, but they often follow recognisable pathways - they're sword-and-sandal epics, for instance, or paranormal romances, or urban dystopias. I suppose there's a touch of the dystopias about this, but the feel of it is much warmer and more magical than that genre usually is.

It begins with a group of Drivers - sort of celestial shepherds - who's job is to herd meteors. But one day, they have a party, as you do, and when they check the herd afterwards, they realise that one meteor is missing. Three of the Drivers volunteer to go in search of it and retrieve it before it can do any harm. But they're too late. They can only watch as it hurtles into a blue-green planet, which disappears under a coat of grey ash from a hundred volcanoes. Life on this planet will be changed, changed utterly, and all the three drivers can do is try to ameliorate the damage that has been done.

Fast-forward several aeons, and we meet Pema and Singay, a boy and girl who live near the Walking Mountain. This mountain has hitherto regularly moved, revealing in its wake an area of fertile ground which enables the people to live. But lately, the mountain has been behaving out of character. Singay has been having strange dreams of catastrophic rock falls and earthquakes - and then the two children hear, impossibly, the sound of crying from inside the mountain...

What follows is a quest to save the earth from destruction, and a journey which tests Pema and Singay to the utmost. Warning - it's really, really sad at the end, but then Joan Lennon whisks up a heart-warming resolution, just when you think she can't possibly.

It's beautifully written. It's warm, funny, sad, happy - and did I mention that it's incredibly inventive? Do read it. You won't regret it.

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LEIF FROND by JOAN LENNON. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

LEIF FROND AND QUICKFINGERS

LEIF FROND AND THE VIKING GAMES


"My name is Frond. Leif Frond."

Leif is the youngest and smallest member of a large family of Viking farmers. His ambition is to be a hero - an aim constantly thwarted by others, in particular his elder sister Thorhalla who always needs help with the laundry just when he wants to do something exciting. Leif would much rather spend time with Queue the Artificer, the clan's inventor. And in Quickfingers Leif and the inventor help to outwit and capture a thief and solve a mystery - in a story with a surprisingly complex plot that keeps you guessing right to the end.

In The Viking Games Harald Blogfeld arrives in a longboat with his band of Viking raiders to take part in the Midsummer Games. Harald is looking for a replacement crew member, and all the young men of Frondfell are keen to show off their strength - including Leif. Also on the lookout for a replacement - a husband, in this case - is the formidable Widow Brownhilde, who has her sights on Leif's father. Can Leif see off the widow and win at the Games?

I'd never read one of Joan Lennon's books before, but I always enjoy her blogs and other writings, so when I came across Leif Frond and Quickfingers in my local library I immediately grabbed it. I was not disappointed. These short books are a lot of fun, with nods to James Bond and chapter titles like "Woad Rage". Tucked in amongst the mayhem is quite a lot about life as most Vikings lived it - not longboats and raids, but farming and storytelling and mixing dye. The combination of adventure and word-play will entertain older readers as well as the youngest. And with so many promising characters bumping into each other at every turn, a series must surely be in the offing? Let's hope so.

Illustrated in black and white by Brendan Kearney.
Publisher: A & C Black, 2014.  92pp.
ISBNs:   978-1-4729-0453-9      Quickfingers
               978-1-4729-0462-1      The Viking Games

Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.   www.annturnbull.com

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Silver Skin, by Joan Lennon - reviewed by Sue Purkiss

This isn't just a GOOD book - it's a VERY GOOD book. I'm quite certain of this, because I've read it twice. I read it when I first got it, but stupidly didn't write the review of it then; so today I had to remind myself of it - and was soon engrossed, and read it the whole way through again.

The novel concerns a time-traveller, Rab. He is from the future - a future where space is at a premium, but people live contentedly together; in part because something is put in the water to depress their sexual and other urges. They are protected against the harsher realities of life; they feel no pain, for instance, because each person has a sort of technological guardian called a Com, which protects them and sorts out any problems or glitches.

Rab's mother gives him the latest gadget - a Silver Skin - which will enable him to travel into the past and get lots of useful information for his research project. He decides on the 19th century, but a violent storm interferes with navigation, and he finds himself much, much further back - in Skara Brae, at the point where the Stone Age gives way to the Bronze Age.

The story is briefly, but cleverly framed in the 19th century, but the heart of it is in the Stone Age, and in the relationships between Rab, a girl called Cait, and a formidable wise woman called Voy. All these characters are beautifully drawn. Rab and Cait are both, in a sense, outsiders. They are drawn to each other, but - given the circumstances - things are not easy between them. Voy is easy to dislike, but we are shown what her life has been, and how much she misses her man, Gairstay, and so we begin to understand her. The book is suffused with a sense of the place in which it is set; the villagers think that Rab is a selkie, half-man, half-seal, and the sea is a constant presence.

The writing is lovely. Here's one little example. This is the 19th century; there is a storm, and Mrs Trevelyan is unable to sleep: "She watched the little flame thrashing on the candle wick and waited for the morning." Thrashing is not a word I would have thought of using, yet it paints the picture of the flickering flame far more effectively than guttering, or indeed flickering - both of which would have been more obvious choices. And the sentence is just beautifully balanced; it works so well.

The earth is entering a cooler phase, and the people are afraid. Without the sun, they cannot perform the ceremonies that enable the dead to depart in peace; they are aware that things are changing, and that the future may be worse than the present - which, of course, has resonances for us. Is the solution which has enabled humanity to survive into Rab's age a viable one for us - would we be prepared to accept the sacrifices it entails?

This really is a book which satisfies on a great many levels. It would be great to study in class - if the curriculum allows!

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THREE CITIES AND A CASTLE? by Penny Dolan.

The Case of the London Dragonfish and The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul, both by Joan Lennon.

Castle of Shadows  and City of Thieves, both by Ellen Renner.

During the last month I’ve enjoyed two books by two children’s authors and I’m going to be greedy by mentioning all here. Although both authors both give a sense of the past, they offer two very different reading experiences. Books for different moods, in fact, and maybe for different ages and personalities.

The first two books, THE CASE OF THE LONDON DRAGONFISH and THE CASE OF THE GLASGOW GHOUL begin Joan Lennon’s lively “Slightly Jones” series, set in definitely Victorian times.

Slightly – “skinny and freckly and small, with hateful red hair and a pointy face like an inquisitive ferret” – is a girl who longs to be a detective like the great Sherlock Holmes and lives happily with her eccentric Granny Tonic and assorted lodgers at Limpopo House. Slightly’s curiosity sets her off on bold adventures with Granny and, occasionally and reluctantly, a young pickpocket named Matthew Bone.

In the first book, The Case of the London Dragonfish, an important new fossil in the Natural History Museum, disappears shortly before a Royal Private View and nice Mr Thurgood, one of Granny’s lodgers is wrongfully arrested. Slightly is very suspicious of Professor Octavian Snit of the Spirit House, the wonderfully creepy man in charge of the pale specimens preserved and pickled behind glass in a separate building. The entertaining plot twists and turns in a half-scary, half-rollicking way, and is laced with riddles, false clues and night-time adventures and more.

Cleverly, the ending leads directly into the plot of The Case of Glasgow Ghoul.

In this book,Slightly and Granny travel by train from London to Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum to investigate a strange collection of robberies, further complicated by rumours of ghosts among the tombs and mausoleums of the old burial ground. 

Of course, Slightly can’t help investigating just where she shouldn’t . . .

Written in a light, pacey style, these books are enjoyable, escapist adventures but each plot introduces aspects of Victorian history to the young reader, with relevant Fascinating Facts and links to Slightly Jones own website: http://www.slightlyjones.co.uk/  at the back of the book. I suspect I might be introducing Slightly to a young history-mad relative before too long.  

The next book in this series, THE CASE OF THE CAMBRIDGE MUMMY, is due out now..

My second two books are the powerful CASTLE OF SHADOWS and CITY OF THIEVES by Ellen Renner and these should definitely be read as a pair.

They are set in Quale, an eerie gothic kingdom, in an almost recognisable past. In Castle of Shadows, we meet Charlie, a young, half-starved princess whose runs riot through the dilapidated castle, Her mother, both scientist and Queen of Quale, has mysteriously disappeared. The whole castle is ruled over by the violent Mrs O’Dair, a housekeeper from nightmare. Charlie’s father, the King, has withdrawn from his duties and from Charlie. Instead he spends his hours building tall towers of cards even as, Charlie sooon discovers, the kingdom fills with rebellion. Impatient, prickly and proud, Charlie is determined to find out where her mother disappeared to and why, even though this means she has to ask for help from the gardener’s boy and one-time thief and lock-picker Tobias and brave the very rebels out to destroy the kingdom as she knows it. 

Once you have read Castle of Shadows, it is essential to read City of Thieves which is as much a strong companion piece as a sequel. Tobias Petch, the gardener’s boy, becomes the central character. He becomes, to his horror, implicated in the escape of the ex-Prime Minister Alistair Windlass – who Tobias has recently discovered to be his true father-  just before his hanging. To make things worse, when Tobias tries to hide in the crowded city, he is caught and reclaimed by his brutish Uncle Zebediah Petch and gang and forced to become an apprentice lock-picker. There seems to be no way out of this new life. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Charlie is more and more puzzled by what exactly the Dowager is planning, until the two young heroes meet again in spectacular fashion.

Wonderfully written and full of many interestingly dangerous and mysteriously kindly characters, shades of Aiken, Peake and even Lewis Carroll haunt Castle and City.

So, to conclude: three cities and a castle for you to enjoy.

Penny Dolan
A BOY CALLED M.O.U.S.E (Bloomsbury)

www.pennydolan.com

The Case of the London Dragonfish ISBN 978-1-84647-098-1

The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul ISBN 978-1-84647-114-8

Both by Joan Lennon. Published by Catnip

Castle of Shadows ISBN 978-1-40830-445-7

City of Thieves ISBN 978-1-40830-446-4

Both by Ellen Renner. Published by Orchard Books 2010

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