Winnie at Twenty Five: Review by Penny Dolan

Yes, it’s a special year for a famous lady who’s been around, comparatively, for a while. She’s keen on parties and celebrations and has a way of making other lives feel a bit brighter. Many children recognise her face and would love to meet her. 

No, not the Queen.

 I’m talking about the famous Winnie the Witch, who is 25 this year. 

Winnie is the star of a very popular picture book for young children, illustrated in exuberant style by illustrator Korky Paul. Some might say that her put-upon cat Wilbur is just as much an eternal  hero. The big Winnie picture books are often found in libraries and schools and homes.

However, having smaller people around me again, I came across a paperback series about Winnie, all written by Laura Owen. Keen to investigate this newer incarnation, I bought “Winnie Goes Batty” (2008) and “Mini Winnie” (2010) both published by OUP at £4.99

I was not disappointed. If you are used to long fiction for middle grade readers and upwards, these four-story books might seem very slight, but they felt perfect for the six to seven or even eight year old reader who needs a bright interesting story quickly and boldly told.

Winnie is a wacky modern miss, an eternal optimist whose attempts are often thwarted by accidents, events or her own kind-heartedness. The story concepts are clear to the young reader. 

In “Winnie Goes Batty”, the exuberant witch attempts to be a tightrope walker, to cope with a snoring cat, to dig for old treasure for a museum and to impress her aunt with a bat feast. 

“Minnie Winnie” brings a visit from a bossy aunt, becoming a school cleaner for a day, a tv poetry competition and a shrinking. All involve immediate disaster and all end happily.

 

The books bring a pleasure beyond the plots. The pages often offer opportunities to make odd noises, while Winnie’s choice of diet brings a shivery touch of Dahlese gruesomeness that children, especially boys, would wallow in.

 I liked the subtle cleverness within the writing. This is a writer who enjoys fun with words for their own sake. Here’s a short example:

 

Glug-glug-slurp. “Nice fizzy froggle-pop!” said Winnie. “The trouble is that it blooming well bubbles up like frogspawn when I dance.” Burp!

Scrunch-munch-gulp. “ Meeew”, nodded Wilbur, scoffing crispy mouse tails as he waggled his hips and bopped along to the very loud Hobgoblins of Sound booming from Winnie’s MP13 player.

It was a good party, even if it was just for the two of them.

 

I felt these are very much books to read along with a child, letting them join in with the sounds as well as being books that would help an uncertain young reader gain confidence while they have fun on the wacky adventures.

 The books are illiustrated in black and white. However, these are not ordinary illustrations. These are illustrations by the very man who, visually, created Winnie the Witch all those years ago. 

  

The popular illustrator and cartoonist Korky Paul has filled the pages with images of his Winnie, almost as if each story could be a picture book of its own. Winnie - and her adventures - almost jump out of the pages at you, making these books feel “louder” and much more involving than many books with small drawings aimed at this age.  

  I really liked the way that the pictures are definitely “drawings”, too: energetic, involving, and just untidy. enough to seem as if they are saying “Children, you can draw too. All you need is a pen or pencil!" Even the page numbers have their own little beastie drawn around them.

  

Having read these tales, I'd say that the lively Winnie, 25 years old in July, seems unwilling to grow up, older or any wiser at all. That must be her own particular magic.  

Happy Birthday, Winnie, and Party On!

,

 Penny Dolan

.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

The No.1 Car Spotter, by Atinuke - reviewed by John Dougherty

Most of the books I read when I was a child were about middle-class English children. When a child from another culture appeared it was generally their otherness rather than their childness that was the issue - except, of course when they were notionally children from another culture but behaved pretty much like middle-class English children with funny names. Similarly, those other cultures - when they appeared - were normally reduced to their differences from British culture.

That’s just one reason to celebrate Atinuke, who in Oluwase Babatunde Benson (better known as No. 1, the No.1 car spotter in the village) has created a character who is very much a real boy first and foremost, but who is also an authentic African child, living in a modern African village, and is therefore - to the best of my knowledge - pretty much unique in children’s literature.

The young European reader will be intrigued by some of the facts of life which No.1 takes for granted. Whilst he and his mother and sister and grandmother live together in the village, “my father, of course, lives in the city” like all the other men of working age. When Grandmother falls ill, she needs money before the doctor will see her. The entire village travels to market together to sell their home-grown produce.

Yet what makes this lovely little book really special is not the insight into life in semi-rural Africa, but No.1 himself. He’s enthusiastic, affectionate, creative, independent, dependable - the sort of child everyone would like to have as a friend - and readers will identify with him at least as much as they’ll be intrigued by his lifestyle.

The book is made up of 4 short stories about No.1’s life and family. In the first, the village cart breaks just as it’s due to be loaded for market, and only No.1’s quick thinking saves the day. In the second, Auntie Fine-Fine puts No.1 in an embarrassing position when she sends him to buy lipstick for her. The third story tells of how No.1 almost loses his prized nickname when greed for his friend Coca-Cola’s mother’s cooking leads him to desert his chores; whilst the fourth poses an interesting moral dilemma for No.1 when a way of finding the money for the doctor presents itself.

These are great little stories, told in a distinctive voice, perfect for reading aloud or alone. Yes, they’re educational, insofar as they’ll challenge the reader to think beyond his or her own culture and living conditions, but most importantly, they’re a lot of fun. And from the look of this video of Atinuke reading from the book, so is their author. It's thoroughly recommended, and I'm hoping there'll be more to follow this and its recently-published sequel, The No.1 Car Spotter and the Firebird.



Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

TITANIC – DEATH ON THE WATER By Tom and Tony Bradman. Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

Today Awfully Big Reviews welcomes author Saviour Pirotta as a Reviewer. Saviour is known for his own storytelling in schools and for his host of retellings of folk and fairy tales. His recent titles include The Firebird, a picture book beautifully illustrated by Catherine Hyde (Templar) and a series of Grimm's Fairy Tales (Orchard) illustrated by Cecilia Johannson. Saviour reviews a book about a real event that has almost become a legend in itself. Welcome to Awfully Big Reviews, Saviour!

Ever since those distress rockets went up over the Atlantic in the early hours of the 15^th April 1912, the world has been gripped by the story of the ill-fated Titanic. The event needs no introduction. Billed as unsinkable, the luxury liner left Southampton under the glare of the world’s media on the 10^th of April, only to graze against an iceberg four days into its crossing and sink.  The loss of life was catastrophic, the outrage around the world unprecedented.

Within a month, a French film starring one of the survivors, Dorothy Gibson, opened to packed audiences.  It was followed by no less than 28 other big screen and television productions, ranging from serious documentaries shown in IMAX to frothy musicals.  There are also more than a thousand books dedicated to the  subject, as well as countless magazine articles, short stories, songs, video games, artworks and plays. 

It’s easy to see why the story has taken a firm hold on our collective consciousness.  It has all the ingredients of a first-class soap opera.  The hubris of calling a liner unsinkable!  The exotic setting aboard a world-class luxury liner on its maiden voyage! A cast of interesting characters ranging from famous toffs dripping in jewellery to Liverpudlian workmen and penniless immigrants packed like sardines in the lower decks.

This year, of course, is the centenary of the catastrophe, and to mark the event, A&C Black have published TITANIC: DEATH ON THE WATER.  It’s written by the father and son team of Tom and Tony Bradman, and they have come up with a fast-paced, brilliant read that kids will lap up.

August Blom’s 1913 film, Atlantis, was the first to feature fictitious characters interacting with real-life ones who perished on the Titanic.  Its main characters were a couple embarking on a doomed love affair.  That leitmotif has been used many times now, most famously in James Cameron’s epic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. 

 The Bradmans’ book focuses on the children on the ill-fated liner, namely two boys who are employed as bellboys by the White Star Line Company. 

Billy Fleming has just lost his father to an accident in the shipyard where the Titanic is being built.  Convinced he’s too cowardly to survive in the macho atmosphere of the docks, he enlists on the Titanic in search of a cushier life as a bellhop.  There he runs into, and up against, George Anderson, a bully who is out to humiliate him.  The pair clashes in no uncertain terms. But when the Titanic hits the iceberg, they have more than each other to deal with, and both learn something about themselves that will have a major effect on the rest of their lives.

True-life stories usually need a lot of setting up but Tom and Tony Bradman waste no time before launching into this well-paced, well constructed adventure.  The first chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book, introducing us to a fast-moving plot as well as Billy, his family and life in the early twentieth century.   

The seamless blend of factual detail and action means we get a clear picture of what happened without wasting time, and word-count, on historical data and technical jargon.   The Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, the decks of the Titanic and the freezing Atlantic are all brought to life with the vividness of a cinema screen. Billy, his mates and the crew and passengers on the liner ring so true, it’s difficult to tell who was a real person and who is just a creation of the Bradmans'.

This is quite a short novel, so it’s perfect for reluctant readers as well as more book-friendly kids who like an exciting adventure.  It should win awards!    

http://www.spirotta.com 

http://pirottablog.com      

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

FORSAKEN by Katherine Langrish. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull

At about the age of seven I discovered Matthew Arnold's poem The Forsaken Merman.

It's a romantic poem based on a Scandinavian legend about a merman who married a human woman and took her to his home beneath the waves.  They had children, and were happy - until one day the woman heard the church bells calling people to prayer, and she began to fear that she would lose her immortal soul.  She left her family for a visit to her old home - and never returned.  Day after day the merman and his children rose in the waves and called to her.  The merman even went to the churchyard and looked into the church and called again.  But she did not respond.  They had lost her.

I loved the rhythms and sounds of Arnold's poem, and the whole idea of mermaids and their undersea world - and most of all I loved the sadness of this story.

So when I heard that Katherine Langrish had written a story imagining what might have happened if one of the merman's children had gone to try and fetch her mother back, my first thought was that I wanted to read it, and my second was to wonder whether I could cope with a happy ending.  I'm glad to report that I could.

I loved this book, which is very short but by no means a simple read.  The writing is beautiful.  It's full of the same kind of romance as Arnold's poem, but Katherine Langrish imagines the life of the mer-folk in far more intimate detail; and her focus on one child allows the reader to feel the intensity of their grief and loss.  This story in fact packs a much stronger emotional punch - so it's just as well it ends happily.  Any other ending would be too awful to contemplate after we have struggled with Mara, the desperate eldest daughter, as she leaves her natural habitat and drags herself in agony along the stony road.

Mara has spent time pondering her mother's soul.  She doesn't know what a soul is, and feels no need of one herself, but she understands how important it is to her mother.  By the time she reaches the church where her mother is at prayer, she knows she cannot live much longer out of her element, and with her last strength she enters the building.  What happens next is terrifying and heartbreaking.  But love wins through and brings the story to a perfect end.

Published by Franklin Watts (Rivets), 2011.
Paperback: ISBN 978 14451 05574
e-book: ISBN 978 1 4551 1073 8

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

There’s No Such Thing As Dragons by Philip Reeve: Penny Dolan

Opening a book by a favourite author is a mixed moment. Will it be as good as other titles or differently good – or just that tiny bit disappointing?

           

This book doesn’t at first suggest a brave new idea.  It is set in a kind of classic mid-European past and its hero is Ansel, a mute unwanted ten-year old boy bought as a servant by Brock the Dragon-Slayer, a man with a touch of faded glamour about him.

           

As gentle, likeable Ansel follows Brock, he discovers that Brock hides a supposed “dragon skull” in his baggage. He is confidence trickster who has never yet seen a dragon and now he is off to fleece those who live in the villages below the legendary Drachenberg mountain.

Reeve’s adults are not entirely nice people. The village already has a “saviour” in the form of Father Flegel of the red leather boots, who claims to keep the dragon away by the power of his prayers although the villagers have also made their own plans.

As Brock and Ansel set off on their climb, accompanied by the unwilling Flegel, the mountain and the quest reveal their treacherous nature – and of course there is a dragon.

The story is told in smooth, secure prose that supports the young reader even as it offers plenty of excitement, danger and a magnificently described trek across icy summits.

But what makes Reeve’s book so very satisfying to read – and why I am recommending it - is the way that at almost every point of the plot, he turns the traditional moments of quest and heroism kindly but wittily from dull expectation to sharp comment on the diffrence between dream and reality.

“Here Lies Arthur,” was Reeve’s novel for young adults about heroism but “There’s No Such Thing as Dragons” examines the same matter delightfully for the 9-12 year old child. It’s a tale that’s well worth reading and would be good for reading aloud. The illustrations are by the author too.

I read this novel without the slightest sense of disappointment and am very, very glad of that. Hope you enjoy it too!

 

Penny Dolan

www.pennydolan.com

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

LOB by Linda Newbery, reviewed by Ann Turnbull

This lovely, poetic story for younger children has a classic feel to it.

Lucy's grandfather tells her about Lob, who helps him in his garden.  No-one else in the family can see Lob, but Grandpa Will knows he is there.  "Lob-work" is what he does: filling the watering-cans, sweeping up the leaves, cleaning the tools and hanging them neatly in the tool-shed.  Only certain people can see Lob.  Lucy longs to be one of them, and is thrilled when at last she catches a glimpse of him.

So far, so idyllic.  But change comes, and it's sudden and brutal.  Lucy must cope with loss and with an undermining of her belief.  And Lob must set off in search of a new home. As Lucy, in south London, longs for Lob to come to her, so Lob, walking the roads, feels a pull towards the south and follows it, despite setbacks and danger.

Walking is slow.  During the year that Lucy waits for Lob, she learns to adapt to her changed life, to resist the taunts of others and hold fast to her beliefs, and - above all - to have patience as the seasons come and go.  And in the end, all is well.

This is a story that celebrates the life-force, the earth itself, and all green, growing things.  It's about the joy of gardening, the neighbourliness of allotments, the cycle of life and age-old beliefs in the Green Man.  It's also about the stranger in our midst who may be in need of kindness.  Lob - a tired little old man on the road, and yet the one who will bring new life to all growing things - is a powerful image.

The black and white illustrations by Pam Smy perfectly complement the story.  They are subtle, with a secretive feel to them.  And here and there, if you look closely, you may see Lob.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

My Secret Unicorn by Linda Chapman Reviewed by Emma Barnes

My Secret Unicorn, a series by Linda Chapman, is hugely appealing to many young girls. The first story, The Magic Spell, winningly combines several favourite themes: moving to the country, getting a pony of your own, and discovering you have special powers. In this case, those special powers allow the heroine, Lauren, with the help of a mysterious old lady and a spell book, to turn her new pony, Twilight, back into a unicorn. He can talk, too. And Lauren discovers that she is a “unicorn friend”.

These are children’s books that are not aimed at adults, but at newly independent young readers, mostly six to nine. Having read the ubiquitous “Rainbow Fairies”, they are now looking for something a little meatier – and yet with the same attractive themes of friendship and magic. Most importantly, there is a sympathetic heroine of their own age.

Series fiction for this age-group does not win much serious attention, still less praise, from adults. But it’s not easy to produce a pacy, adventurous, exciting (but not too scary) story that hooks young readers, still less a whole series of them. Linda Chapman is a prolific author for this audience, and she knows exactly what she is doing! The covers look girly, but her heroines are bold and resourceful. Her books are addictive – and at a time when young readers need to be sucked into the reading habit, if they are to become fluent, enthusiastic book-lovers.

Published by Puffin 2002

• ISBN-10: 0141313412
• ISBN-13: 978-0141313412

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

I Don’t Believe It Archie, by Andrew Norriss. Reviewed by John Dougherty

One of my favourite comic literary ideas is Douglas Adams’s Infinite Improbability Drive, which enables a spaceship to travel infinitely improbable distances by generating a field within which the infinitely improbable can, and does, occur. It’s a notion of genius, because (at least within the context of the story) it provides a plausible mechanism whereby absolutely anything can happen.

In I Don’t Believe It, Archie, Andrew Norriss has come up with an equally clever idea. Archie is a child to whom unusual things happen just about every day, simply because - well, because they just do. After all, there are plenty of people to whom nothing unusual ever happens; and somebody must be at the other end of the spectrum, mustn’t they?

It’s reasonable, uncomplicated, and - in Norriss’s hands - makes for a very entertaining book. It would be easy, given the premise, for the author to go completely overboard and introduce aliens, magic, and zombies; but he takes the sensible course of sticking to the believable but highly unlikely - so, for instance, Archie finds himself stuck in a house with an escaped leopard, or mistaken for a kidnap victim, or accidentally glued to the library doors by an inept protestor. The story is episodic, each chapter taking place on a single day in the same week, though young readers will love how the final chapter neatly ties all the others together.

Archie himself is an endearing hero, resilient yet resigned - to the facts both that all these strange things keep happening to him, and that the grown-ups he meets just won’t believe his account of things. In fact, it’s easy to see Archie’s adventures as a metaphor for childhood - a time of life when much of what happens is unexpected, and when the grown-ups around you insist on imposing their own interpretations on events. Fortunately, in the first chapter he meets Cyd, a girl with a huge amount of common sense and the ability to remain calm in the face of strangeness. Both children are very believable and immensely sympathetic, and appealingly drawn by our own Hannah Shaw; and their developing friendship through the story is really quite touching.

My own children loved the story - at the start of the summer I received a big box of books for review purposes, and this was one of their absolute favourites. I loved it too - it's funny, clever, and well-written - and one of the many things I love about the concept is that it leaves room for an unlimited number of sequels. I’m hoping that I Still Don’t Believe It, Archie is already in production.

I Don't Believe It, Archie  by Andrew Norriss, illustrated by Hannah Shaw.
Published August 2011 by David Fickling Books. Hardcover price £10.99.
ISBN 978-0857560100

Reviewed by John Dougherty - www.visitingauthor.com

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

BESIDE THE SEASIDE: OPERATION EIFFEL TOWER by Elen Caldecott. Review by Penny Dolan

 

I once went to a weekend wedding where the bride, groom and a few of the guests played Crazy Golf on the Hastings seafront. Not surprisingly, that setting popped into my head as I read the opening to Operation Eiffel Tower.

Gentle teenage Jack works at a William’s World of Wonders Golf Tour on the seafront, a crumbling novelty golf-course studded with battered examples of famous architecture.

The story opens as Jack hits his golf ball triumphantly into the final 18^th hole, right between the feet of the Statue of Liberty.  Older sister Lauren sits nearby, engrossed in Teen Thing magazine, while little sister Ruby wants Jack to help her have a go too.

For a short while, Operation Eiffel Tower seems a likeable, lightly amusing tale of a family with little money to spare. The three siblings go on to the laundrette where Mum works to find baby Billy asleep in his pushchair and Mum already saying goodbye to Aunty Joyce. 

Suddenly, the slightly uneasy feeling is confirmed by the almost throwaway line. 
“Her shift was officially over. She smiled and waved at Jack and Ruby. Now they could all go home. Jack felt his heart sink.”

 

There are many quiet, well written moments like this that help you feel the quiet emotional punches that Jack sustains. Because, although the book cover suggests a sunny sea-and-sand image and Elen Caldecott’s writing seems  as light as everyday speech, Operation Eiffel Tower quickly turns into a believable pattern of family tension as the parents marriage smashes down affecting all the children, even Paul, Jack’s older brother, already away as a new army recruit.

Jack urges Lauren into deciding to save the relationship. They will get enough money to send their parents on a romantic weekend in Paris. They want Mum and Dad to remember all the reasons why they fell in love in the first place. They want their parents to stay together and their home to be happy again.

Their desperate money-raising schemes, though amusing, don’t go well. Ruby learns she can’t sell new baby Billy, Lauren and Jack can’t be living statues on the prom and all sorts of go awry.

Even when Jack wins the Crazy Golf Championship cash prize swelling the secret Paris fund by £50.00, it happens on the day when Dad moves out to a grotty B&B  which their Mum forbids them to visit.

Caldecott captures the small painful incidents of such breakdowns, scuh as Lauren almost cruelly puts the phone down before Jack can speak to his father, the awkwardness Jack feels when he visits his Dad not at home, Lauren’s drift into anger and waywardness and the confusion of everyone involved.

Despite moments of fun and humour, the story darkens as the parents become absorbed in their battles. Nevertheless, Jack’s hopefulness, bravery and determination to succeed kept me reading. Eventually, despite a change of plan, the book arrives at the best ending possible.

Operation Eiffel Tower borrows a Bookseller quote for the cover strapline, saying it is “perfect for Jacqueline Wilson fans”.  True, but I feel it should also say “A fresh, wise and original voice”. 

And I’ll now make time to read Elen Caldecott’s two earlier books – How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant and How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini -  too.

Penny Dolan

Operation Eiffel Tower by Elen Caldecott. Bloomsbury 2011. ISBN 9781408805732   £5.99.

Thanks for reading my first two reviews. There'll be anothe one along in a couuple of days, when the whole Awfully Big Review Team start posting up their thoughts and recommendations.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE