INVASION and THE QUEEN'S MAID - two short historicals by June Crebbin. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

These two illustrated stories are each less than 100 pages long, and both bring well-known historical events to life for readers of around 7+.  Invasion appears to be currently out of print but, if so, let's hope that Walker Books plan to reissue it. These are engaging, beautifully-written stories.

INVASION by June Crebbin, illustrated by Tony Ross. Walker Books, 2008.

Invasion is a story of the Battle of Hastings. Unusually, it's told from the Norman point of view, and our hero, young Rollo, is a page who serves Duke William. Harold Godwinson is therefore seen as a usurper, and Hereward the Wake as a cunning enemy - his assassination attempt on William foiled by the quick-witted Rollo.

Rollo has a special love of horses and helps care for them when the Norman army sets off across the Channel to invade England. He is constantly at his lord's side and always on hand when danger threatens - as it frequently does.

I particularly liked this story because it's always interesting to see familiar events from a different point of view.

There are delightfully witty illustrations by Tony Ross throughout.


THE QUEEN'S MAID by June Crebbin, illustrated by James de la Rue. Walker Books, 2012.

This story is set in 1588 when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. The heroine, young Lady Jane, is a lively, intelligent girl who loves riding, writes poems and longs to perform in a play.

As a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, Jane is involved in a series of exciting adventures. When the Armada is sighted at Plymouth, Jane is there. Later she witnesses the fireships being sent amongst the Spanish fleet, and rides to London to take the news to the queen. She is at Tilbury when the queen makes her famous speech, and the story ends with Jane reciting her own poem The Scattering of the Armada.

The illustrations by James de la Rue are fine line drawings with lots of detail and expressive faces. I especially liked the picture of the queen and Jane, both wide-eyed and gossiping, watched by a line of snooty-looking maids of honour.

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TEN LITTLE PIRATES by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty

Author: Mike Brownlow
Illustrator: Simon Rickerty
Publisher: Orchard/Hachette
Publication:   Hardback, July 2013. Paperback, Fenryary 2014



Mike Brownlow usually illustrates his own books but here he teams up with Simon Rickerty to produce a gem that I'm sure is destined to become as much a modern classic as Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury's We're Going On A Bear Hunt.

TEN LITTLE PIRATES is one of those perfect picture books you wish you'd written yourself.   The idea is simplicity istelf.  Taking the rhyme Ten Green Bottles [Sitting on A Wall...you know the one], it tells of ten little pirates who embark on a nautical adventure only to encounter mishap one by one and get separated from their crew.

The text, told in jaunty rhyme, uses lots of sound words and propels the simple plot along at the rate of knots.   Rickerty's primary-coloured illustrations make it very obvious that we are in the land of 'let's pretend', making each buccaneer look like a kid dressed up to play.  There are monsters too, including a shark and a giant squid.  They look scary and cute at the same time.

It's a backward-counting counting books, it's a rhyme, it's an adventure story with lots of scope for joining.  And needless to say, it's got a happy ending, on a deserted treasure island topped with coconut trees.   No home or library should be without this one!   But be warned, your children will be going "Arrr," way way way past their bedtime.

Ten little pirates sailing out to sea,

Looking for adventure, happy as can be.

Are they hunting treasure? Are they going far?

Ten little pirates all say, "Arrrrrr!"

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Buffalo Soldier, by Tanya Landman: review by Sue Purkiss

Buffalo Soldier begins in Gone With The Wind territory – on a cotton plantation in the deep south, just before the beginning of the American Civil War. But this story is not told from the point of view of the owners, but by one of the slaves.

So far, so interesting. However, this is not about the Civil War itself. It’s about the aftermath. Charlotte, a slave, and her surrogate parents, Cookie and Amos, expect that when the Yankees march in, a new world of freedom and happiness will be theirs. They soon find out their mistake. Forced to follow the Yankee column after the soldiers have razed the great house and destroyed everything which might have been used for food, they eventually escape; but they have no means of providing for themselves. Worse, hostility and prejudice are apparent on every side. In an almost post-apocalyptic landscape, everyone turns with a will to persecuting the former slaves, and when Charlotte does the simplest thing – staying on a pavement instead of stepping off to give way to approaching white people – she, and more especially, Cookie and Amos, pay for her temerity dearly.

Alone now, Charley decides that safety dictates she must pass for a boy. And then a passing stranger suggests she should join the army. She finds herself in a black regiment – the Buffalo Soldiers. Their captain is a kind, enlightened man, and she makes good friends; she has found a kind of home. But eventually, after the training, the real work begins, and it involves the persecution of the Indians. Charley’s innocence is gradually lost as she begins to see clearly just what they’re doing: but what choice has she but to carry on – not only witnessing, but also eventually perpetrating horrors? What can she do but follow orders – where else can she go, how can she survive?

This is a difficult read: Tanya Landman doesn’t spare us the grim details of what the Indians and the Army did to each other, or of the compromises necessary to stay alive. There is a redemption of sorts, but it’s partial – how could it be anything else, when we all know how long it was before the black people of America really gained their freedom, and what the fate of the native Americans was to be?

But we’re carried through by the voice of Charley, who is courageous and caring and just keeps going. It’s an astonishingly consistent voice; it never slips, from the first few lines: ‘I guess Ma died. Or she was sold. I don’t know which… All I got from her was a name. Charlotte. Darned fool fancy thing for a slave girl. Didn’t no-one never call me that.’ We’re inside her head, and with her, we journey through a tragic landscape because there’s nothing else we can do.

It’s a remarkable book, and I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t win prizes - and lots of readers.

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VERDIGRIS DEEP by Frances Hardinge: reviewed by Gillian Philip

So Frances Hardinge has the coolest style, especially when it comes to hats and gorgeous long coats. I was at the Fantasy WorldCon in Brighton last year when I met her. The convention happened to take place over the Halloween weekend, and Frances was laughing when she turned up one evening, because someone on the street had congratulated her on her Halloween costume. When she wasn't actually wearing one.

Hmm. I don't know; I think there's some kind of sorcery on the simmer here. Verdigris Deep was her second novel, and I picked it almost at random from her Amazon page because I was intrigued by the blurb: One evening, Ryan and his friends steal some coins from a well... Then the well witch appears, with her fountains for eyes and gargled demands. From now on the children must serve her – and the wishes rotting at the bottom of her well.

If you think it sounds as much like horror as fantasy, you'd be right, and yet there are moments of sinister comedy. Who'd have thought shopping trolleys could be sentient creatures of dread and terror? I was completely convinced, and I'll never pass the Tesco trolley stacks again without looking at them askance and wondering if they're watching me.

The witch at the bottom of the well is herself an extraordinary creation, seen initially in Ryan's visions after the three children steal her coins to pay for bus fare. She is introduced stealthily but horrifically: via Ryan's reflection in his own bathroom mirror, or in the eyes of a smiling model on an advertising hoarding. When the witch's true nature is at last revealed, there's something tragic about it despite the horror. She's doing what she was always meant to do, after all; but three twenty-first century children can't possibly have known just how deep a simple wish can go.

Ryan is the terrified, ultimately brave young hero, but his friends Josh and Chelle are if anything even more complex and engaging. All of them go through more changes than the reader expects, and they do so through challenges that are far deeper, darker and more twisted than they (or the reader) could foresee. Their happy expectations of being wish-granting Angels are gradually destroyed by the true natures of the wishes and the people who make them – and, of course, their own. Their peril lies as much within themselves as in the supernatural forces around them.

I never felt confident of a fully happy ending, and I feared most of all for Josh, who begins the story as the arrogant, charismatic leader of their small gang but falls apart, morally and psychologically, with every chapter. That genuine uncertainty is not too common in children's fiction, and it kept me reading into the small hours. (And no, I'm not going to tell you.)

It's a dark, intricate tale of fantastical but convincing danger, and it's written with stylish beauty, too. It's mysterious magic, is what it is.


Verdigris Deep by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children's Books, 2007), £6.99

www.gillianphilip.com




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The House in the Floods by Norah Pulling, review by Lynda Waterhouse

I have been familiar with this novel all my life. Until a few weeks ago it lived on a bookshelf in Oldham next to The Girls of Gwynfa, Keeper of the Bees and Dimsie. They are part of a collection of Mum’s Sunday School prize books. The House in the Floods is one of her favourite books.

I hadn’t read it for at least thirty years but was drawn to it again as the storms and heavy rain hit Britain. The story is about three schoolgirls who get trapped in a flooded house on the River Thames. Joan, Rosemary and Dinah are left behind in quarantine when their boarding school breaks up for Christmas. At the last minute they are allowed home and are given telegrams to post to inform their parents.

They don’t send the telegrams and decide to go and look at the flood. Dinah’s school hat blows into the river and Joan decides that ‘this is a chance that only comes once in a lifetime’ and they borrow a boat and set out on an adventure. The boat sinks and they have to use Joan’s penknife to break into a house. They search the house to find food and warm clothes. Joan justifies this by saying, ‘We can’t stop to think too much about everything being other people’s possessions, it seems to me. It’s a case of our being in a hole; and necessity like ours excuses almost anything.’

As a child reading this story I particularly loved the sections where they search the house and hunker down. The girls are brave and practical. They find a tin of cake and some apples in the attic and rescue a kitten from drowning. There are, of course, no adults. As an adult I found this section about children trying to define their world the most satisfying.

Joan mentions her father once as she recalls how he as a young man ‘had often to get up in the middle of the night and do things in the Great War, in the most uncomfortable circumstances… Youth and not having a light were neither of them excuses for being unenterprising.’

They are joined by two other schoolgirls, Isobel and Anne (from the rival boarding school), and they have to decide who will be in charge and maintain order and they all learn to trust each other and become friends.

Yesterday I looked again at the dedication and the date inside the book - 2^nd January 1943. Mum was 10 years old at this point and living through a war when she first encountered and became so attached to this story. She had not been evacuated and was living in a part of Manchester that was being bombed.

I began to see more clearly why this story might have been both a welcome escape into a world of controlled danger (the floods are never made to feel life threatening) and also to reflect the experience of food shortages, make-do-and-mend and the loss of homes and possessions. Does anyone have any information about the author, Norah Pulling? I would love to know more about her.

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DEAR THING by Julie Cohen, Reviewed by Tamsyn Murray

Claire and Ben and Romily have known each other since university. Claire and Ben are married, Romily and Ben are best friends, and Romily and Claire - well, they tolerate each other for the sake of Ben. Things might have gone on that way forever if Ben and Claire hadn't been desperate to have a baby and Romily hadn't offered to give them one...

On the surface, Dear Thing is about motherhood; one woman's need to have a baby of her own and another's well-intentioned offer to help, no matter what the personal cost. And certainly the subject of pregnancy is an integral part of the story: surrogacy, hormones, societal norms, stretch marks and ultrasounds all feature. But don't be fooled, this book is about so much more than that. It's about fatherhood, too, and marriage and family, about the secrets we keep and the lies we tell ourselves. It's about growing up and letting go and understanding our own parents better, about protecting ourselves and accepting failure. And most of all, Dear Thing is a book about love.

Every character is perfect and complete, from the protagonists down to Max, a boy in Claire's music class who engages her professional and maternal instincts. The details of Romily's work as an entomologist fit beautifully with her metamorphosis from Ben's friend into the mother of his child, a change that ripples out into every area of all their lives. And all the way through the story, we are subtly reminded that it isn't simply the act of giving birth that makes a woman a mother.

I knew that Dear Thing would make me cry, but it wasn't the most obvious places that moved me - Claire's despair at her body's failure or Romily's anguish as she battles her own demons - it was this paragraph, where Claire is at a concert, listening to some music:

When the mother theme came at last, she recognized it: slow and soft, warm and sweet, full of the smell of a baby's head, a cheek tilted against hers, the brush of eyelashes. The papery skin of her mother's hand, which had once been the most beautiful hand she had known.

Julie Cohen effortlessly captures the hardest part of parenthood; how we love and cherish and ultimately let our children go, just as our own parents did before us. It made me think when I read that last line, reminding me of my own children growing up now and of my mother, whose hand and face really were beautiful to me. In fact, I am still thinking about them now and I have a lump in my throat.

Dear Thing is more than a book about motherhood - I challenge you to read it and find out what it means to you.

Published by Black Swan, out in paperback 8th May 2014.

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Wild Wood by Jan Needle illustrated by Willie Rushton reviewed by Julia Jones

And so a gallant band was formed to bring about the downfall of the rich uncaring few. They were the Wild Wood volunteers and theirs is a saga of poverty and desperation, loyalty and treachery, strange love and great despair.
This is a new edition of a novel first published in 1981. Jan Needle states that he was "in a dosshouse in Dewsbury" talking about Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, when the idea for Wild Wood first came to him. Leaving aside (for the moment) the question what sort of person spends his time in a dosshouse talking about Ratty and Mole and their furry chums, one can't help wondering what sort of book will have emerged from this unlikely spot.
"It occurred to me," continues Needle, "that Mr Toad and his chums from the River Bank didn't know that they were born. Mr Toad lived in a glorious mansion from which he bought and abandoned executive toys on the merest whim. The servants who existed to service his desires were not even mentioned. They were invisible, taken for granted, as indeed were Mr Rat's." So would this new, alternative version be an angry, revolutionary book or a heart rending lament for the dispossessed? By 1981 Needle had already written Albeson and the Germans (abuse and vandalism), My Mate Shofiq (racism) A Fine Boy for the Killing (a lower deck subversion of the Hornblower tradition) and he would soon be writing scripts for the TV series Grange Hill -- epitome of mid-80s gritty.

Wild Wood works well as political satire -- there's anger at the exploitation and betrayal of the working classes in their attempt to overthrow "the biggest Banker of them all", as Needle describes the plutocrat Toad. Revolution is tried -- and fails.  "There was peace all right but there was something else too. Regret's the nearest to it I can think of.." The mood at the end of the story is melancholic. Yet the words that sprang most regularly from earlier reviewers' pens were words like "joyful",  "exuberant", "truly comic". Wild Wood was published as children's fiction.

It's easy to find exuberance in the language. Here is the hero, Baxter Ferret, starting his employer's lorry, the mighty Throgmorton Squeezer. So I advanced the ignition, wiggled the toggle springs -- wound the handle.  Retarded the ignition, jiggled the priming sleeve -- wound the handle. Lifted the bonnet scowled at the little grinning face on the bleeder nipple, thought better of it and chucked it under the chin -- wound the handle. Billy Bingo! She caught with a hiss and a roar. The whole Throgmorton jounced and shook on its bright yellow, solid-tyred, wooden-spoked wheels.

Baxter is the oldest of six young ferrets and the sole support of his family and their widowed mother. He is conscientious and anxious: his life is hard but once a year comes Brewday when his mother makes her famous barley wine. Then there is joyfulness in the Wild Wood when long pink tongues are submerged, lips are smacked and the country band strikes up. Dour Harrison Ferret, for example, changes completely when he puts his penny whistle between his lips "His scowly face cleared like a summer sky after a shower, his shoulders swayed from side to side and his tail switched like a metronome." Kenneth Grahame's characters take a backseat in Wild Wood -- they are, after all, the Enemy. Instead Needle offers a wonderfully individualised array of proletarians -- from the grim revolutionary Boddington Stoat to the champagne socialist O.B. Weasel.

The outstanding creation -- and the source of the true comedy of Wild Wood is its protagonist, Baxter Ferret. Baxter, in his mother's words is "as dim as a dirty lampwick". He's humble, credulous, good-hearted, hard-working and a budding craftsman. Baxter, in his innocence, makes the book accessible for child readers and he may lead adults  to wonder whether this story was finally comedy or tragedy. Despite improved material conditions at the end of the story, Baxter is haunted by his memories of Toad and his uneasy feeling that there was something not quite right about the last days of Brotherhood Hall. "Regret's the nearest I can think of but I'm probably wrong. I never did understand it all. Not so's you'd notice."

Despite its oppositional politics and perception of social injustice, Wild Wood doesn't spoil Wind in the Willows. It's not a pastiche, it's a commentary, it's affectionate and respectful. After all, if Wind in the Willows was capable of enlivening a doss house in Dewsbury, Wild Wood can quite safely be enjoyed thoughout the length and breadth of Middle England.

Much of the comedy in Wild Wood
derives from Baxter's youthful earnestness,
perfectly captured in Willie Rushton's
exquisitely intense illustrations.

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ZERAFFA GIRAFFA by Diane Hofmeyr illustrated by Jane Ray. Reviewed by Adèle Geras

First of all, the usual disclaimer: I  know both the writer and the illustrator of this book. As I've explained before, I've been around for a lot longer than I care to think about and know a great many of the creators of the books I review. You will have to take my word for it that I would only  review books that I genuinely believe readers of this blog would enjoy reading.

This book also confirms a  strongly - held opinion of mine which run counter to the prevailing thought among many publishers. For many the received wisdom is that texts have to be ultra short.  Frances Lincoln, happily,  don't agree. They  publish, for example,  the beautiful books produced by Jackie Morris which I reviewed here last time,  and are not afraid of text. By this I mean: they are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the parent of the child whose book it is  (yes, I'm happy to read  a slightly longer story at bedtime) and also to the child (yes, I can sit quiet and listen for more than two minutes at a time if the story is interesting enough).

This tale is a true story. It's about the bringing of a very young giraffe from Africa to Paris and the effect this has both on the giraffe and the people who catch sight of her on her way over the sea and the desert and the countryside to her home in the Jardin des Plantes.

Hofmeyr has a very beautiful, poetic and evocative way of putting things, but the lyricism is never overdone and it's always in words that the youngest child can understand. The last page reads: "Then they stood in silence and looked out over the lights of Paris. And on those evenings, when the air was particularly balmy, all three turned their faces southwards and on the warm air they felt the kiss of Africa."
This is quite a complicated thought, but one that's easily explained. The reader has seen and experienced Zeraffa's journey and can see that she might miss Africa and that  the wind coming from the South reminds both the giraffe and her owner that the South was where they came from; where their journey began.

The story is exciting, too. Zeraffa becomes a sensation. Women style their hair to copy the animal; and everyone comes out to see her in her enclosure, La Rotonde. Atir, who brought her on her journey was still with her when she died, many years later and the whole tale is a touching demonstration of love and devotion and care.

The illustrations are typical of Jane Ray's work. Richly coloured, humorously detailed (Zerafa's orange cloak is lovely!) and laid out on the page in a way that brings out what Hofmeyr is saying, they are very beautiful. As a reader, you turn each page expecting another  sumptuous surprise and every time, your heart lifts to see that Ray has done it again. The spread which recounts how Paris fell in love with Zeraffa is very funny too. Those giraffe-shaped biscuits, especially, look delicious. I learned from Twitter that there were giraffe-shaped biscuits at the launch of the book, which I believe the author baked herself.  

All in all, this is another delightful book from this publisher. Maybe Hofmeyr and Ray can come together again. They are a very good combination. I'm sure this will be a very popular book and one that teachers and parents will be happy to read aloud over and over again.

Title: ZERAFFA GIRAFFA
Written by: Diane Hofmeyr
Illustrated by: Jane Ray
Publisher: Frances Lincoln hbk: £11.99
ISBN: 9781847803443



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‘Penguins Stopped Play’ by Harry Thompson

Reviewed by Pauline Chandler

I love penguins, they always bring a smile to my face, so, naturally, when I was browsing through the books for sale at my local library and spotted a book with penguins on the cover, I took a closer look. 

Adult non-fiction? A book about men playing cricket? Even with penguins, it wasn't an obvious choice for me.

According to the blurb, the book was a ‘hilarious odyssey in which an amateurish bunch of English eccentrics play cricket across the globe’.  I’m a great fan of tv’s ‘Have I Got News For You’, so once I realised that the author, Harry Thompson, was the show's creator, and that Ian Hislop, one of the show's regulars, was also one of the‘eccentrics’, I thought I'd give it a try.

‘Penguins Stopped Play’ documents the quest of a group of failed cricket players to take a team round the world and play cricket on seven continents. They call themselves the Captain Scott XI, their aim being to lose every game. Any batsman who starts to take winning seriously, is deliberately run out. The target is to be out as soon as possible and retire to the pub.

For a number of years, the team plays on a UK circuit, against village teams, losing handsomely, before the author comes up with a more ambitious plan: to complete a world tour. His efforts to bring this had me laughing out loud. I loved the jokes and japes, the Blandings-style fixes the team gets into, and I loved the factual stuff, sometimes quite detailed, about  the geography and history of the places visited.

This book is about blokes at play, blokes with enough leisure time and financial means to go off around the world playing cricket for several weeks, with not a woman in sight. I could easily have missed it and I'm so glad I didn't! I loved it and recommend it as a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Pauline Chandler

www.paulinechandler.com        

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The Hobbit - by J R R Tolkein

Reviewed by Jackie Marchant

I re-read this wonderful book recently, and not for the first time.  I think that was when I was about 10 – the first re-read I mean.  I don’t remember my first read, only that it’s a book I love reading and will probably do so many more times. 

It’s been described as the gateway to fantasy.  I couldn’t agree more – partly because it’s the gateway to another, bigger fantasy, which has become mother to them all, but it’s also the first book I read that made me think this is a fantasy.  It’s what the fantasy genre is all about – and I don’t mean strange worlds with strange creatures.  

This is a different world, but it’s realised so perfectly you accept it without issue; its peoples and beings are not of our own world, but belong so easily here that you don’t question them.  The characters and the adventures they have belong utterly in that world – yet they are perfectly easy to relate to.  We live in the story as we live in the world of Middle Earth.

I have to admit that the reason I chose to read it again, was because of the films.  When the first one came out I kept thinking – was that in the book?  Will this really last another two films? 

Three long films from one book – impossible.  Yet, reading the book, there is so much packed into Bilbo’s adventures, it’s easy to see how Peter Jackson was tempted to spin out the action.  And, for reasons of political correctness, I might be able to forgive him for inventing a kick-ass female elf – although I could have done without the attraction between her and the dwarf. 

The films are highly entertaining with special effects begging for 3D.  But, despite being prequels to Lord of the Rings, I couldn’t help feeling that these were sequels – the sorts that have numbers 4, 5 and 6 after them, ie more of the same, but not as good.  These films fell far short of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Why?  In short, because they put too much in that was not in the original.

But back to the book.  If you’ve not read it and are relying on the films, then I urge you to visit this wonderful book.  It needs no 3D embellishments to make it stand out – just a great story, brilliantly realised setting, breathtaking adventure and good writing. It’s stood the test of time, as is evident by the myriad editions I could have chosen to illustrate this review – I’ve only managed a few of them.

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The Crocodile Who didn't Like Water, by Gemma Merino, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This is one of those very rare perfect picture books that makes you laugh, moves you, and leaves you thinking about  it for a long time after closing the book.  It is simple and fun at the same time as exploring a problem that almost anybody, big or small, can relate to; the problem of being the odd one out.

The little 'crocodile' of the title doesn't like water as his siblings do.  The bliss and excitement on those siblings' faces as they play water volleyball, jumping off trees into the water, and even synchronised swimming is in wonderful contrast to the terror and loneliness and determination of our little crocodile protagonist.  He does his very best to join in, being brave, and saving his pocket money to buy a rubber ring, but it doesn't work.  He just gets cold and miserable ... and that cold leads to a magnificent sneeze of fire that proves that he isn't actually a crocodile after all; he's a dragon!  Now that he knows what he is, he's happy.  He takes his siblings ballooning and flying on his back, but there's more.  The opening and closing images of this book are wordless but tell so much.  The opening image is of a basket of white eggs and one blue one.  The last image is of a nest made from the rubber ring, and inside that nest are lots of blue eggs ... and one white one.  The odd one out problem moves on a generation!

Gemma Merino has been very clever with this book, playing with different layouts on each spread to pace the story and milk the drama and humour.  Amazingly, this is her first ever book, developed from work done on an Anglia Ruskin MA course in children's book illustration.  This book is, deservedly, winning prizes, and I can't wait to see more from this Spanish architect turned children's book creator.

NB  This book is a very good example of the way that stories about anthropomorphic characters can often more pleasingly and more deeply (therefore more effectively) address problems that children might have in being included than human characters can.  I discussed that question in this blog http://picturebookden.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/can-you-see-me-now-by-pippa-goodhart.html

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CRACKS by Caroline Green, reviewed by Cecilia Busby

I thoroughly enjoyed Cracks, although it's not the best of titles for a sentence like that - actually, it's hard to think of a sentence with the title in that wouldn't draw a snigger from several of the teenage protagonists of this book. That aside, it's a rip-roaring adventure that will appeal to many of the readers who devoured The Hunger Games, and reminded me of some of the futuristic thrillers I read as a child by Peter Dickinson, John Christopher, or Robert Westall. Essentially, it's the revolutionary underground against the evil system, but there is scope in that general area for all sorts of interesting things to happen, and Green adds her own inventive take, with some memorable characters and a good deal of exactly the right kind of nail-biting tension and multiplication of layers of plot which need to be uncovered.

In the first part of the book, we meet Cal, who appears to be an average teenage boy, stuck with a rather nasty stepfather and older stepbrother and a mother who's turning a blind eye to the bullying going on in the family. But from the first sentence we are aware that all is not as it seems: Cal sees a crack running across the ceiling of the school toilet which, when he runs and calls for help, has disappeared. More cracks appear and disappear, he hears strange voices, saying things like, "He's waking up. We need to increased the dose", and sudden stoppages or slippages in time. Despite these clues, it's actually quite a shock when Cal "wakes up" and we discover where he really is.

I don't want to give too much away, because one of the joys of this book is that, along with Cal himself, you have to piece together what's going on from little bits of information or disinformation, and often Cal is forced to reassess things he'd previously thought he had nailed. But essentially, from the point he wakes up, Cal is fighting to find and regain his lost identity, as well as to avoid the establishment scientists who took it away in the first place. Along the way he makes contact with some other lost souls, and meets a girl, Kyla.

The future as painted by Green is recognisably extrapolated from our present - more terrorism, more control, more marginalisation of the poor or non-white. It therefore asks teenage readers to think quite hard about the possible end results of the casual racism, anti-immigration and fears of terrorism we are constantly showered with by the current government and press. White teenager Cal, by way of contrast, associates his warmest memories with an Asian family who ran the local shop in his home-town, and the girl he falls for, Kyla, is black - his growing feelings for her are tenderly drawn, as is his friendship with her best mate, also black, Jax.

I read the book in a little under a day, and it was perfect for that fast-paced, can't put it down, plot-driven story that is sometimes just exactly what you want. Green has recently published a sequel to Cracks, which continues the story, but focuses on Kyla, called  Fragments - I will definitely be looking out for that one, too!


Cecilia Busby writes as C.J. Busby, and writes funny, adventure-filled fantasy for readers 7+

Website: www.cjbusby.co.uk
Twitter: @ceciliabusby



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TWO FUNNY BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

Here are two new books for the 7-10 age-group - both by writers who have more books in the same series.

THE DRAGONSITTER TAKES OFF by Josh Lacey, illustrated by Garry Parsons.

"Dear Uncle Morton,
I know you don't want to be disturbed, but I have to tell you some very bad news.
Ziggy has disappeared.
Mum says he was asleep on the carpet when she went to bed, but this morning he was nowhere to be seen."

Uncle Morton is staying at an ashram for a week in the hope of finding inner peace. He has left his pet dragon, Ziggy, with Eddie and his mum. This unsettles both the dragon and Eddie's long-suffering mum, and sets in train a series of hilarious problems which an increasingly concerned Eddie relates to his uncle by email - along with requests for help.

This book was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, and is indeed very funny. It's also very well written and tells a good story at just the right pace. Lively illustrations on almost every page add to the pleasure. I especially liked the one of Mum and Ziggy bonding over tea and biscuits.

Publisher: Andersen Press, 2013.


SIR LANCE A-LITTLE by Chris Inns and Dave Woods

Young Sir Lance A-Little is leading a quest, accompanied by the Cowardly Knights of Camelot - Sir Render, Sir Hugo First, Sir Cumference, etc. - plus a minstrel to make songs about their exploits:

"I'm Quaver the Minstrel
And we're on a brave quest.
I'm wearing clean pants
And I've tucked in my vest!"

With a short text, lots of pictures and captions, and a constant stream of verbal jokes, this book had me laughing straight away. There's a cookery-loving wizard who says things like "Abra-Kebabra" and "Hey, Pesto!", an "All Knight Diner", and the "Joust-a-Minute Jousting Tournament - sponsored by Shield and Armour Insurance." Our heroes' final task is to "slay a beast that rhymes with flagon." Now what could that be?

Glorious fun for a wide age-range.

Publisher: Orchard, 2014.


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BEAR'S BEST FRIEND, by Lucy Coats and Sarah Dyer. Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

Bears have always been a mainstay of picture books. But they became even more so when the book industry went global and foreign co-editions became a make-or-break component of the book contract.  Bears look the same in and to every culture and and making them the star of your book often means you do away with the many niggly details that illustrations of children do.  Authors, however, nearly always use them as children-in-bear-clothing and write them into stories dealing with human issues.

The gorgeous bear in Lucy Coats and Sarah Dyer's story is blessed with many friends but not a 'best friend'.  He longs for that special someone he can share special moments with and the thought of not having one fills him with sadness.  

To while away the lonely hours Bear makes tree-pictures of all his woodland friends. He's got a real talent for trimming topiary and one day someone turns up to admire the pictures....might that someone be looking for a best friend too.....?

Lucy's witty text is a perfect foil for the childlike illustrations, full of muted colour. A winner of a book that could become many a child's best friend. 

Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

www.spirotta.com
facebook: spirotta
follow me on twitter @spirotta



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WHERE THE POPPIES NOW GROW by Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey. Review by Penny Dolan.

This year we are, in a variety of ways, commemorating the outbreak of the 1914-18 Great War.  

It is a topic that has led to reports of spats between historians and Michael Gove, as well as Jeremy Paxman’s comments about young people being taught about the war only through the poetry of the period, which seem to have annoyed both English and history 

teachers.

Although Odeon Cinemas are offering the Morpurgo’s “Warhorse” ntlive production, and the novel has shot to fame and film, teachers involved with the Key Stage One “picture book” age may also want to be involved in the significant year. 

Where can they find a book to fit this sombre anniversary? Maybe with this title?

Schools – and possibly families - will surely welcome “Where the Poppies Now Grow”, a book inspired by the family histories of both writer and illustrator.

 This rhyming text has been written by Hilary Robinson. Hilary uses the familiar “This is the house that Jack built” pattern, which makes the text simple enough for use in school or similar assemblies:

“This is Ben and his best friend Ray 

Who are two of the children that like to play

Out in the field where the poppies now grow.”

As the rhyme grows,  the book tells how the two childhood friends, Ben and Ray are eventually forced to join up and share the terrible experiences of the trenches together. It is clear from the mood and detail of the pictures that this is a terrible event, even though the two pals do at last return home.

The text is sympathetically developed through Martin Impey’s powerful illustrations of both friendship and war, using a colour palette that is totally fitting for its sombre purpose.

 

“Where the Poppies Now Grow” is published by Strauss House Productions.

Penny Dolan

www.pennydolan,com

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THE SILK SISTERS: PINK CHAMELEON by Fiona Dunbar; reviewed by Gillian Philip

There's something especially exciting about diving into a book when you really don't have a clue what awaits. I knew that Fiona Dunbar's Silk Sisters trilogy had a fashion element and that it was futuristic, but that was pretty much it. I was expecting quite a 'girly' story, what with the pink cover and the fashion theme, but what I got was something else entirely. The running girls are more of a clue, because this is a fast-paced adventure that never entirely lets up.

Rorie is a wonderful heroine. She and her little sister Elsie (who is something of a loose cannon, but a very entertaining one) have a near-ideal life until one day, their inventor parents vanish on the way to a business meeting. Taken in by their foul uncle and aunt – who make the Dursleys of Privet Drive look like models of foster parenting – they have to survive the boarding school rigours of the horribly named Poker Bute Hall, escape their relatives' dastardly clutches (for Uncle Harris and Aunt Irmine have Ulterior Motives), and discover the truth about their mother and father. And since it's a trilogy, that's never all going to happen in the first book.

What I love about the futuristic aspect of this story is the assumption that the reader is in on the details. This isn't a story full of spaceships and aliens - it's a future world you can imagine happening tomorrow, with digitalised clothing, intelligent SatNavs, 'shels' (the new cellphones) and 'slants' - the new and better version of jeans that were developed for use in mines on Mars. It all seems so very close and next-week-real, and if anything it makes the story seem more contemporary than sci-fi. That leaves the reader free to enjoy the ride as Rorie and Elsie make their escape attempts, and to wonder and fret about the awful hidden secrets of Poker Bute Hall. Because it seems there is something very, very dark going on, something that's even worse than the strict regimen of housework, cataloguing classes and hammerball...

The good news is, the Silk sisters have allies, too, very appealing characters in their own right. And the good guys' chances look up when there's an accident involving a chameleon and a lightning bolt....

There are two more books in the trilogy, Blue Gene Baby and Tiger Lily Gold, and I really am waiting with bated breath to read them. Pink Chameleon has everything a 9-12 year old reader could want – adventure, danger, technology and super powers – and please, if you know a boy who likes any of those, just wrap the book in blue paper and persuade him to read it. This is not a book the girls should be allowed to keep for themselves.


PINK CHAMELEON (The Silk Sisters Trilogy) by Fiona Dunbar (Orchard Books 2007)

www.gillianphilip.com





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The Buccaneering Book of Pirates - Written by Saviour Pirotta, Illustrated by Mark Robertson, Reviewed by Damian Harvey

Most young boys (and lots of girls too of course) love pirates... I know I certainly did. When I was at Primary School I would have loved to have had this book on my shelf.

This is more than just a book though - it's a real treasure chest of delights. On opening the sturdy hardback cover we are presented with two choices. On the left, a pirate chest with a warning - Beware: Buccaneer Aboard, and the storybook itself - The Buccaneering Book of Pirates.



I couldn't resist opening the chest first to see what lay inside... I wasn't disappointed - Contained within the is a fold out, pop-up poster of a pirate that stands over 4 foot high. Perfect for hanging on your bedroom door or classroom wall.

The pirate poster is nicely labelled, pointing out familiar pirate iconography such as 'an eyepatch, a compass, a gold medallion, a wooden leg' etc etc each one accompanied by a brief explanation of their importance to a pirate.

I'm not allowed to hang the poster on our bedroom door so I reluctantly refold him, pop him back into his chest, and turn to the storybook.

My reluctance is soon dispelled by the stories within. Saviour Pirotta is a master at retelling old stories, breathing new life into them and making them easily accessible to young readers.

The book contains retellings of 6 pirate stories - some which will be more familiar than others - Treasure Island, The Corsair Captain, The Captain's Secret, Davy Jones' Locker, The Pirate Queen, and A Royal Pardon (a tale of the fearsome Blackbeard).

With only 2 double pages per story, Saviour has done an excellent job - retelling the tales and bringing them to life with action and adventure. Not only are the stories a delight to read to yourself but they also read aloud well too - making them perfect to share with a class.

The Buccaneering Book or Pirates is published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books ISBN 978-1-84780-483-9

Damian Harvey
www.damainharvey.co.uk



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Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll, Reviewed by Tamsyn Murray

As anyone who has read my Afterlife series will know, I'm a sucker for a ghost story. I have a particular soft spot for Victorian ghost stories (M R James, Edgar Allen Poe and Wilkie Collins are favourites). So when I heard about Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll, it ticked all my Fabulous Gothic Read boxes.

When Tilly Higgins and Will Potter sneak into the grounds of the forbidding Frost Hollow Hall to skate on the frozen lake, they have no idea what misery they are about to unleash. Frost Hollow Hall hasn't been a cheery place since the death of young Kit Barrington, ten years earlier, and after Tilly encounters a mysterious golden-haired boy at the lake, things at the hall get worse. China dishes leap from the kitchen tables, the servants are twitchy and some of them are too terrified to sleep. Desperate to find out more about the stranger she met, Tilly takes a job at the hall and soon finds herself embroiled in a nightmarish mystery. Why must the fire in the front bedroom always be kept lit? Whose are the footsteps that haunt the attic rooms in the night? And what is the secret hidden within the housekeeper's notebooks?

I adored this book from start to finish. Tilly was a very well-drawn character who I sympathised with immediately and I really felt for her as the outsider in her family. Will Potter, Tilly's partner in crime, was equally likeable. But it's when Tilly goes to Frost Hollow Hall that the story really get into its stride and the ghostly goings on had me gripped. I found it to be a very quick read but that's partly because I was loathe to put it down and really wanted to know what happened next. The setting of the hall and surrounding village is deliciously spooky and was the perfect backdrop the creepiness of the plot. This book has everything - an action-filled story, excellent gutsy protagonists and a brilliant supporting cast of bereaved parents, a sinister gamekeeper and a cold, distant housekeeper. As Rhian Ivory said on Twitter, the BBC needs to hurry up and adapt this one, because I can totally see it on TV at Christmas.

I did have some trouble deciding on an age range for this book - I initially thought it was for 9-12s but my opinion changed as I read and I decided Frost Hollow Hall would suit the lower end of YA best - 12-15, probably. It's a romping, squeak-inducing ride with what is easily one of my favourite covers of the year and I heartily recommend it to everyone.

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Deep Amber by C.J. Busby

Reviewed by Julia Jones

Deep Amber has pace, humour and inventiveness. It's the first volume of a trilogy aimed at 8 – 11 year olds and is also a thoroughly relaxing and pleasurable read for an adult. Things begin to go wrong in Roland Castle when first a pair of swimming goggles, then a camera and finally a scarlet DS arrive unexpectedly. The knights and ladies, servants, squires and student witches are baffled by these unfamiliar objects. Only the Druid in the cellar recognises that they are arrivals from another world and knows that urgent action must be taken. Apprentice witch Dora and kitchen-boy Jem are despatched into the Great Forest to seek advice from the sinister Lord Ravenglass. Meanwhile Simon and Cat living in their great-aunt Irene's house in a gently 21^st century world (with plumbing) begin to notice that things are going missing.

What I love about this book is that it never takes itself too seriously. Yes, there are quests to be undertaken and evil to be defeated but there is nothing portentous or sub-Pullman about the rifts between the worlds. The first Forest Agent that we meet is not a giant spider or a High Elf but a bright blue flying caterpillar called Caractacus.  This is an adventure, the writer seems to say: here are runes and swords and incredibly stupid knights in armour – enjoy! When the bold Sir Bedwyr arrives in Sunset Court Home for the Elderly the first resident he meets is already under the impression that she's Queen Elizabeth I. The rest of the octogenarians take the view that it's "a lot more exciting to prepare for battle than for hot milk and biscuits before bed". They cut the phone wires and lock up the management team with enthusiasm. 

Deep Amber is not all farce: Lord Ravenglass is ambitious and unscrupulous and his agents, Mr Smith and Mr Jones, are dangerously creepy. The child characters are attractive (especially the dopey but talented Dora Puddlefoot) and the adults are variously eccentric, benevolent, protective and fallible. There's a crackle of magic in the atmosphere and a rapidly thickening plot which promises well for the subsequent volumes. I look forward to them.

Deep Amber is published by Templar Publishing at £6.99, currently in paperback only

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TWO BEAUTIFUL BOOKS BY JACKIE MORRIS. Reviewed by Adèle Geras

 I am going to review two books written and illustrated by an artist (and writer) who's very well-known but who somehow, in spite of her talents and productivity, seems to me to be not as much appreciated as she ought to be.

Jackie Morris is on Twitter, where she frequently posts lovely 'work in progress' which delights her many followers and I do urge any of my readers who tweets to follow her. She lives in Wales with many animals and it's perhaps as an artist who both loves and properly sees animals that she's at her best. The first book I'm going to talk about is called I AM CAT and it's not much bigger than an iPhone. While watching her ginger cat, Pixie, sleeping ("curled in warm places, ammonite-tight") Morris was inspired to think of what her pet might be dreaming about. The answer is: other cats. Every kind of feline appears in the unscrolling dreams: cheetah, puma, snow leopard and many others.

Morris paints each creature in delicate colours that sing to us from the page. Even though the scale of the book is small, she manages to convey the grandeur and beauty of every single cat she describes. And she accompanies each spread with her own words which are both simple and poetic. Here is an example, describing the tiger: "s...bright, flame cat of the forest, striped like the shadows, sun-scorched." I can't think of a better way to spend a fiver.  Frances Lincoln have published it most beautifully. This is a gem of a book.

The second book is SONG OF THE GOLDEN HARE, also published by the admirable Frances Lincoln. It's a much grander production, and it tells a mysterious, entrancing story of a boy and his sister. They come from a family who protect the Golden Hare, because there  are others who would hunt and kill it. The story unfolds with all the mystery and suspense you could wish for. The children find the Golden Hare and in the end, the creature is safe for who knows how long on a special magical island, to which it has been carried by an army of obliging seals. It's a lovely tale and again, told in Morris's poetic style, but the art is the real glory of this book. The Golden Hare itself is a wonderful creation, but greyhounds and people and birds and butterflies, not to mention the detailed landscapes, fill every corner of every spread. The colours are glorious and you can spend hours just admiring them and marvelling at the skill of the artist and wishing you could frame certain images and put them up on a wall.  As it is, you'll have to be content with turning the pages, preferably with someone young on your lap, listening as you read aloud the story of the mysterious Golden Hare and the lucky children who are called to care for it.

I AM CAT
Written and illustrated by Jackie Morris
pub Frances Lincoln hbk £4.99
ISBN: 9781847805072

SONG OF THE GOLDEN HARE
Written and illustrated by Jackie Morris
pub. Frances Lincoln hbk £12.99
ISBN: 9781847804501



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