'All In One Piece' by Jill Murphy, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

Today my youngest child is twenty-one.  It seems a good moment to look back on childhood, so I put Susie on the spot, asking her to name a favourite childhood book. 

“That elephant one where the mum gets paint on her bottom,” she said. 

I knew exactly what that was; All In One Piece by Jill Murphy, first published in 1987 and still very much in print and selling well.  It’s lasted the test of time for very good reason.  Both text and pictures are absolutely wonderful.

 

                                                                                       

Jill Murphy knows real families, and her observational humour is spot-on, albeit that the family happen to be elephants leading human lives.  The drama here is on a domestic level, but none the less exciting or funny for that.  Mrs Large has been looking forward to the annual dinner dance all year, and she wants to look nice for it.  Granny is coming to babysit, and she gives the four children painting to do so that Mr and Mrs Large can get ready in peace.  But of course that’s now how it works out.  Luke wants to play with Mr Large’s shaving cream.  The baby plays with Mrs Large’s make-up, and Mrs Large doesn’t notice ‘until it was too late’.  (We, of course, have, noticed what Baby was up to because we can see in the pictures what’s happening the other side of Mrs Large’s mirror).  Laura is clomping about in her mum’s shoes, and Lester and Luke are seeing how many toys they can stuff into mum’s tights.  And suddenly it’s all too much for Mrs Large.

“Downstairs at once!” bellowed Mrs Large.  “Can’t I have just one night in the whole year to myself?  One night when I am not covered in jam and poster-paint?  One night when I can put on my new dress and walk through the front door all in one piece?”  And, oh, we can see in the picture how very sorry the four little elephants are!  But then Mrs Large does sort herself out, and goes off with Mr Large being told that she looks ‘like a film star’.  Mr Large gallantly tells her that she’d look wonderful to him, even if she was covered with paint.  ‘Which was perfectly true, and just as well really’ … because we can see that she’s sat on the paintbox and the bum area of the back of her dress is a patchwork of paint colours!

One Amazon reviewer feels that Mrs Large telling off her children is a terrible message about squashing children’s creativity.  Not a bit of it!  It is recognising, and smiling at, the real dramas and tensions in real families, where love is never in doubt even when people get, understandably, cross.  It is a funny book that gives the child audience the upper hand in knowing what’s really going on.  And I think it’s a romantic book that celebrates parental love for each other in midst of family chaos.    

It’s also a book that for us will be forever associated with repeated holidays in a particularly lovely spot of the Lake District, where that book lived and was brought out at bedtime many many times.  Place and people associated with books has a strong influence on how fondly they are remembered. 

Happy birthday, Susie! 

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Two Perfect Picture Books: ‘Snowy’ by Berlie Doherty and ‘Lord of the Forest’ by Caroline Pitcher, reviewed by Pauline Chandler

I love picture books, but there are so many these days that it is hard to choose which to add to my collection. The two I've chosen here are superlative examples, very different from each other, but both sharing that loving attention to the needs of children, which the best children's writers share. 

Both books are out in new editions for 2014: ‘Snowy’ is out now and ‘Lord of the Forest will be available in a mini version, from August 7^th.  

‘Snowy’  by Berlie Doherty, illustrated by Keith Bowen

Rachel lives with her mum and dad on a narrowboat, on the canal. She loves living on the boat, but what Rachel loves most is Snowy, the boat horse. When her teacher invites the children to take their pets to school, Rachel is distraught when Mum says no, she may not take Snowy. Snowy has to work, pulling the barge along the canal. Rachel is miserable when she tries to tell her classmates about Snowy. They laugh at her descriptions and don’t believe in her beautiful pet.

In a happy turnabout, Rachel’s teacher organises a school visit to the canal, where the children can see Rachel’s home, the narrowboat, and meet Snowy for themselves.

There is so much to enjoy in this outstanding picture book. First, it’s a story about real children, delightfully observed, who might wobble a loose tooth or poke a finger through a button hole, and sometimes cruelly tease a classmate, whom they think is telling a tall tale. As you might expect from Berlie Doherty, a supreme storyteller, the text is made to work hard, painting the rich details of barge life, in clear but lyrical language, and not shying away from the challenge of some hard words, the boat’s name for instance, Betelgeuse, with the pronunciation kindly explained as Beetle Juice, or ‘swingle tree’, the name for the stick used to attach the horse to the long barge rope.

This is a gem of a picture book, though, because of the story. It has all the elements of the best stories: a hero wronged, who is finally redeemed and justified, an unusual  setting, full of interest, and characters who behave as real people do. Writing a picture book of this quality is difficult. It’s a pleasure to see it so perfectly realised. 

Highly recommended for children aged 6+

‘Lord of the Forest’ by Caroline Pitcher, illustrated by Jackie Morris

Tiger has his eyes tight shut when he’s just born, but he can hear all the sounds of the forest: the slither of snakes and the whooping of monkeys. His mother says, ‘When you can’t hear the sounds, be ready. The Lord of the Forest is on his way.’

As Tiger grows up, he plays and explores, and still hears every sound: the creep of crabs, the flip of fish: then as an adult, seeing everything, his eyes are ‘worlds of wildness’.

Still he waits for the Lord of the Forest to come. Peacock, Rhino and Elephant all make their claim, but Tiger knows it is none of them.

When he meets his mate and raises his own cubs, he climbs to the highest ridge and roars his name across the forest: TIGER!  And finally he hears – SILENCE.

It’s his mate who shows him the truth, by inviting him to look at his reflection in the lake: ‘The Lord of the Forest is here.’  

As we’ve come to expect from Caroline Pitcher’s magical picture books, this is a superlative story, beautifully unfolded, at a pace that suits young children. ‘Lord of the Forest’ is a feast for the ears and eyes, and could be described as a poem in honour of tigers, with a wonderfully spare and lyrical text, powerfully illustrated by Jackie Morris.

Highly recommended for children aged 6+  

Pauline Chandler 

www.paulinechandler.com       

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THE TRIBUTE BRIDE by THERESA TOMLINSON. Reviewed by Penny Dolan.

This fascinating historical novel, by a twice Carnegie-nominated author,  allowed me to spend my weekend back in seventh century Britain. I loved the experience, even though it made me appreciate my own life and freedoms.

THE TRIBUTE BRIDE could be a book for older teens who love history, for young adults interested in the role of women in past and present societies, and is also a fine read for grownups. This is a novel about power and resilience, courage and survival, and about the possibilities of friendship.

I am slightly biased, as the story is set in the north of Britain, among landscapes I love, so there was a pleasure in matching the journeys and places against modern maps. 

The book had clearly been well researched; every page offers glimpses of everyday life: the cycle of the months and years, the power and role of dress and ornament, the importance of the rituals of court feasts and religious rites as well as the dangers of battle, the fear of famine and the anxiety of childbirth.

More than that, THE TRIBUTE BRIDE is a dramatic story. When Aelle’s kingdom of Deira is devasted by floods , he has no grain to pay his tribute to Athelfrid, the powerful war-lord of Bernicia. So King Aelle sends his sixteen year old daughter north, hoping she will be accepted as tribute instead, and be a peace-weaver bride between the kingdoms.

Acha, young enough at sixteen to give the warrior Athelfrid the sons he wants, is accepted, although she too must accept being in second place. Athelfrid already has a wife, the beautiful Queen Bebba.

For a short while, Acha is won over by her husband’s charm and glamour, but soon his attention shifts back to battles and to Bebba. Acha soon learns how true he is to his nickname and his personal god: the Trickster Loki, when without asking he takes back his wedding gift of brood-mares for his own warriors. Left with only a few colts, Acha must recognise that Athelfrid acts as lord and owner of everything and everyone.

 

Fortunately, helped by her wise old servant Megan, Acha’s attractive and generous spirit guides her to act in ways that brings her firm friends. Eventually, she even finds a sister and fellow-mother in the Pictish Queen Bebba, and it seems her life as a princess is settled. However, all is not over. During what should be Acha’s moment of greatest happiness, she discovers that Athelfrid has, been playing a long and treacherous game, and that she and those she loves are caught up in it.

Reviewed by Penny Dolan

The Tribute Bride by Theresa Tomlinson.

Published by Acorn Digital Press.

ISBN 978-1-909122-63-5 £7.99.

Available on kindle too.

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The Echorium Sequence., by Katherine Roberts, reviewed by Cecilia Busby

Katherine Roberts' Song Quest, originally published in 2000, was reissued by Catnip in 2012. Recently Roberts has added the two sequels, Crystal Mask and Dark Quetzal, to the growing numbers of her back catalogue which have been reissued as e-books. I became a fan of Roberts' writing after coming across an early, book, Spellfall, in my local library. My daughter and I both loved it, and kept an eye out for her other books, subsequently devouring the whole Echorium Sequence, as well as the later Seven Ancient Wonders series (also now reissued as e-books and highly recommended!) I thought it might be time for a review of the Echorium books which are particular favourites of mine.

Song Quest opens on the Isle of Echoes, where apprentice Singers are trained in the songs of power. These are songs that can be used to bring healing, songs for laughter, sadness, death, fear - in essence this is the form magic takes in this world. Not all apprentices go on to become fully-fledged Singers - some lose their voice at adolescence and have to take menial jobs as orderlies - but the main protagonist of the story, Rialle, is a particularly gifted apprentice, and one who, unusually, finds she can communicate with the Merlee, the fish-people. All is not right in the world the Singers inhabit. Merlee are being killed and their eggs stolen - and it is Rialle, together with her best friend Frenn, one of those apprentices who have been demoted, who ultimately have to find out what is wrong and try to remedy it. At the same time, Rialle's great rival, Kherron, finds himself on the other side, working for the Karcholders who appear to be responsible for the Merlee killings. The story is told alternatively from Rialle's and Kherron's point of view, and while Rialle is an easy heroine to like and sympathise with, Kherron is an altogether more divided and difficult character. Is he on Rialle's side or not? Will he help or hinder Rialle and Renn in their quest to help the Merlee and stop the Karholders?

Song Quest reminded me of Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books, and I loved the originality of the idea that magic here was done through song. Rialle, Renn and Kherron are strong protagonists, and the Khiz priest, Frazhin, who is ultimately responsible for all the evil going on, is suitably creepy. Its a great read, deservedly winning the Branford Boas Award the year it came out - and it's a world you really want to return to at the end. Which brings me on to...

... The Crystal Mask, the second Echorium book. This is set twenty years after Song Quest, and features Renn, Rialle's son, as well as a half-wild girl called Shaiala, who arrives on the Isle of Echoes with half memories of centaurs, and of a sinister crystal mask. The mask is made of the khiz crystal used by Frazhin in the previous book to manipulate people's thoughts, and the suspicion begins to rise that the evil Frazhin might not, after all, be dead.

In the final book of the sequence, we get to hear more about the mysterious bird-people, the Quetzal, and we see Frazhin once more trying to use khiz to destroy the Echorium. Dark Quetzal is set eleven years after The Crystal Mask, and features a grown-up Renn, older Rialle, and promising novice Kyarra, the daughter of Frazhin, brought up from a baby on the Isle of Echoes. The story is as complex and spell-binding as the previous two, and we grow to love the new characters while also enjoying meeting old friends again - especially Shaiala. All the books have a fabulous assortment of half-creatures - the Merlee, the Quetzal, the centaurs - and Roberts does a great job of making them both familiar and alien, fully imagined and intriguing non-human characters. And Frazhin, the twisted and bitter source of all the nastiness in the sequence, is a great invention, who sends shivers up your spine.

All in all, it's a great trilogy, and I thoroughly recommend it to any fantasy fans out there who haven't yet read it!



Cecilia Busby writes as C.J. Busby. Her new book, DEEP AMBER, is a multiple worlds adventure aimed at age 8-10, which was published by Templar in March

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

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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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