Vivian French deftly uses elements of fairy-tale and myth to create the setting of The Snarling of Wolves; so, for instance, we find a (Less) Enchanted Forest, three Ancient Crones (who, like the Greek Fates, weave a magical web), more princes and princesses than you can shake a broomstick at, werewolves, zombies, a faithful troll - and an intelligence network of bats, whose leader, Marlon, wisecracks away like a character from Raymond Chandler.

The heroine, Gracie Gillypot, is a Trueheart, someone who brings out the good in people. The hero is Prince Marcus, who, unlike most of the other Royals in the Five Kingdoms, is brave, bright and adventurous. Gracie lives outside the Five Kingdoms (which are quite small, as Marcus realises when he looks down on them from the top of a tower), in the Less Enchanted Forest with the afore-mentioned Ancient Crones. The Crones are also responsible for keeping Foyce Undershaft safely away from the public. Foyce is half girl, half werewolf - and all bad. She hates Gracie, whom she blames for her captivity, and concocts a cunning plan to get her own back on the other girl and her beloved Marcus. Her hatred is the engine that sets the plot in motion.

The story moves at a swift pace and is liberally sprinkled with funny dialogue and great characters, as well as a generous scattering of fairy dust. I particularly liked the Ancient Crones (like calling to like, no doubt...) and the less ancient but still pretty elderly Queen Bluebell - but was also strangely drawn to the splendidly wicked Foyce and the conflicted but ultimately principled werewolves. All these are brought visually to life by Ross Collins' splendid illustrations. I wish I could show you some; you can get the idea from the cover with its magnificent werewolf, but you really need to see the full-page line drawings too. The artist clearly had a lot of fun, and he adds greatly to the reader's enjoyment of the book and understanding of the characters and their environment.

All these elements are very fine, but the absolute tour-de-force is the ending. All the characters, and all the different strands of the story, are brought together (by means of exceptionally skillful plotting) in a stunning set piece, where the good triumph, the wicked are overthrown, the fairly average change for the better, the misunderstood receive a sympathetic hearing, and the onlookers - and - readers can only cheer in admiration and delight. I can't tell you any more about it because it would spoil it - but no word of a lie, I haven't admired an ending as much since I read John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.

This is the sixth in the Tales from the Five Kingdoms series, which began with The Robe of Skulls. You could read it as a standalone, but why would you? Better by far to read the whole series. And if anyone from Dreamworks or Disney is reading this (and why wouldn't they be?) - please note that this series would make an amazing animation. Oh, what you couldn't do with the path-with-a-mind-of-its-own, the troll who regularly loses his head, the silly princesses and the sinister Foyce!

I'd say the core audience would be 9-12 year olds. But as with so many children's books, you really don't have to be a child to enjoy it.

(This review first appeared on my own review site, A fool on a hill.)





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Doughnuts for a Dragon - by Adam & Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Lee Wildish - reviewed by Damian Harvey

George, the brave young explorer from 'Marshmallows for Martians' and 'Spaghetti with the Yeti' makes a welcome return in Adam and Charlotte Guillain's latest picture book - 'Doughnuts for a Dragon'.
To prove that he is fearless and bold, George sets out on a time travelling adventure and goes in search of a dragon. After building himself a time machine, young George packs a bag...

"With some snacks that a hero might eat.

There were cakes, pies and buns, and a bottle of fizz,

And doughnuts - the ultimate treat."

 

Adam and Charlotte's delightful rhyming is full of fun and it takes us along on George's adventure as he comes across a Princess, an Ogre, a Witch and more - passing each one with help from his bag of tasty treats. To find out what happens when he finally confronts the fearsome dragon you will have to read on for yourself.

 

Lee Wildish's excellent, artwork is full of character, detail and motion, and he really brings the story to life. Readers will have lots to look at and discover as they revisit this book again and again. Sure to be a big favourite on anyone's bookshelf.

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Mariella Mystery investigates…The Spaghetti Yeti by Kate Pankhurst reviewed by Lynda Waterhouse

This is the fifth book in the series featuring the sparky nine and bit year old girl detective called Mariella Mystery created by Kate Pankhurst. The book is written in the form of Mariella’s super sleuth journal which allows for lots of fun with the page layout and for the use of lots of Kate’s lively illustrations.

In this adventure Mariella is on a camping holiday with her family and fellow Mystery Girls, Poppy Holmes and Violet Maple. Also coming along for the holiday is The Peanut aka Pippa Patterson best friend of Mariella’s annoying younger brother, Arthur. They pitch up at Limpet Rocks campsite and begin to sweep the campsite for ‘mysterious avenues.’ Salty Bay is a place where ‘The shops are all really old and the shopkeepers seem totally bored.’ Just when it seems that nothing is going happen a mysterious creature appears and makes off with the spaghetti pan! Is there really a spaghetti loving yeti hiding in the woods?

What made this story stand out for me was the quality of the writing. I have read so many book aimed at this age group that uses limited vocabulary, tries to be too jokey or too reliant on the illustrations to carry the plotline.

There are some great characters in this story too. I loved Olga De Bouffet and Mr Roads. Kate Pankhurst also beautifully portrayed the tensions of a seaside town when a new business sets up. A funny and warm story.

A Mariella Mystery story would make a great Christmas present.

Published by Orion books

ISBN 978-1-4440-1230-9

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THE SALT STAINED BOOK by Julia Jones, read by Anna Bentink. Review by Penny Dolan.

As a definite land-lubber, I am starting to mess about in books on boats and sailing, ready for next year’s work in progress. So it was a pleasure to be sent an audio-book of Julia Jones’ THE SALT STAINED BOOK recently. 

 

As the current owner of the real “Peter Duck”, Julia is a woman who knows her sailing stuff.  So it was no great surprise to discover this novel draws heavily on the world of Arthur Ransome, “Swallows and Amazons” and sailing on the River Orwell in Suffolk. There are references to Hiawatha and Treasure Island within the mix as well.

 

Although the book is intended for older middle grade and young teens, it seemed perfect “escapist” listening for a winter afternoon when you have some mind-numbing tasks to do.

THE SALT STAINED BOOK is definitely a ripping-yarn type of adventure but one brought into modern times: it has a contemporary setting and modern believable child characters, facing current problems. The likeable main character, Donny is almost fourteen, is used to helping his reclusive Granny care for his beloved mother Sky, who is deaf, dyslexic and scared of strangers.

When Granny dies, Sky and Donny leave Leeds in Granny’s old holiday campervan. They drive south to the Suffolk coast, ready to meet Great Aunt Ellen, their unknown yet only living relative, as directed by a mysterious telegram.

Donny and Sky fulfill Granny’s last wish - to buy him a copy of “Swallows and Amazons” - but after they leave the bookshop, Sky wedges the van in a car-park exit and gets in a panic. Suddenly, life gets much worse.  A nasty version of Social Services intervenes, rule-bound and unwilling to listen to what Donny is trying to tell them. Sky ends up in a secure hospital and Donny, not knowing where she is, is in a foster home.

I must say that the reader, Anna Bentink, really does enjoy voicing her baddies: the sweetly two-faced social worker Denise “Toxic” Tune, the bullying, racist policeman Jake Flint and the worryingly awful foster team: unctuous Vicar Wendy and Gregory, her weak, veg-peeling husband.  The double-tongued “languages” of care, health and safety, social systems, school and more made me squirm with a sort of  recognition. Julia Jones was, I felt, clearly making pointed observations here. I rather wondered if any young listeners should know that at least two of these nasty characters are revealed as “real” villains later on?

However, the quartet of young characters really makes this story. Donny - slow and lacking in confidence - falls in love with sailing from the moment he sees dinghies bobbing on the reservoir near his new school.  He is still determined to meet Great Aunt Ellen at Shotley.

Then at the Vicarage, Donny makes friends with Anna, a cunning looked-after child who knows how to work the system to her own advantage. 

(The scene where Anna makes sure she and Donny are allowed out is a comic delight.  She may be small but she has such wit!)

On the school bus, Donny and Anna meet the privileged Ribiero sisters:, admirable loud-mouthed Xanthe and her kind, observant little sis, Maggie. Daughters of a black magistrate and a doctor, these new “Amazons” have learned to stand up for what they believe in. So, when they eventually hear about Donny’s love of the water and his need to meet up with his lost relative – as well as being attacked by a bully in a boat - what can they do but help him?

The long and complex plot of the “SALT STAINED BOOK” offered me plenty of exciting moments (and an enigmatic back-story), moments of sadness and joy on Donny’s behalf, and a rather wonderful meeting near the end. Perfect for a grey day, I felt.  The paper version of this book is the first in Julia's "Strong Winds" trilogy which seems, for keen readers, a good thing. How can an old Chinese junk be otherwise?

Although, amazingly, Donny starts learns to sail by studying his battered copy of “Swallows and Amazons”, Ransome’s inspirational stories never quite made me into a sailor. But, for a while, I certainly longed to be one and  -  though a duffer* - did enjoy re-living those young sea-dreams through Julia Jones Salt Stained Book adventure.

Have you listened to any good audio-books lately?

Review by Penny Dolan

Ps At another level entirely, I found the chapters being read didn’t correspond to the chapters indicated on my Ipod display, but that is a technical niggle, and may well be at Apple’s audio end rather than a Golden Egg production problem.

*“Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won’t drown” is the permission given for the children to sail to the island in Swallows and Amazons.

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WRITING IN THE HOUSE OF DREAMS by JENNY ALEXANDER. Review by Penny Dolan

Writing books seem to divide into two categories.. Both kinds, at different times, are valuable. There are books that look outward, offering advice about how to do it – create the characters, build a plot, write a breakthrough novel, get your work published and so on – and the kind of book that looks inwards, into the writer and the imagination and the creative act of writing.

Jenny Alexander’s book, Writing in the House of Dreams: Creative Adventures For Dreamers & Writers, is very much about the workings of that inner writer. Jenny carefully weaves the threads of her own life in Shetland and in Cornwall with her knowledge of psychology, anthropology myths and therapy, and builds a fascinating book for dreamers and for writers.

She traces her own growth in understanding and experience, from early struggles and difficult dreams through to her work now as a writer, anti-bullying expert, writing tutor and as a leader of dream-work courses and workshops. 

Each chapter starts with a brief introduction to a new stage in the dreamer’s journey, a section of Jenny’s personal memoir and an activity.

Jenny’s book moves away from “analysing dreams through universal symbols” style. Instead, she believes in the personal meaning of each “dream story” for that individual. What I found most valuable was that, throughout the pages, Jenny sees the similarity between the dreamer dreaming stories and the writer in their “trance”, dreaming up stories. She describes how “the coming and going between the worlds has a transformative effect.”

Although Writing in the House of Dreams explains the practice of daily dream journaling and the control of worrying dreams, there are many simpler practical exercises too.

Having attended a couple of Jenny’s collage workshops, I know these activities can free up the mind, even if you, too, are not a frequent dreamer.

Independently published through Five Lanes Press – that story is within these pages too - this book speaks in a calm and reassuring voice. Writing in the House of Dreams is clearly a work of love and deep thought and, as Jenny herself would say, “a book of the heart”.

Jenny also runs a “Writing in the House of Dreams” blog and her companion volume, “When a Writer Isn’t Writing: How to Beat Your Blocks and Find Your Flow”, is published in 2015.

Penny Dolan

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The Last Of The Spirits by Chris Priestley - Review by Dawn Finch

First the blurb....

London is in the icy grip of winter. Sam is freezing and hungry. When he asks a wealthy man, Ebeneezer Scrooge, for money he is rudely refused. Sam is filled with violent rage and vows to kills this selfish man. Later, huddled in a graveyard for warmth, Sam sees the wraithlike figure of a man approaching. The man warns Sam about the terrible future which awaits him if he chooses the path of murder...

Chris Priestley has enviable talent as a writer of Gothic tales and, in November 2014, adds The Last of the Spirits to his growing bookshelf of titles. 'Tis the season of ghosts and icy nights, and so this is a fitting time to bring out this companion to Dickens' Christmas Carol. Companion is exactly what this book is, those expecting a simple retelling will be in for a pleasant surprise as this tale stands solidly beside Christmas Carol, but this is no retelling.

Last of the Spirits follows the misfortune of two homeless children on the icy streets of 19th Century London. The two children, siblings Sam and Lizzie, are caught up in the spectral visitations that plague Scrooge through his tormented Christmas Eve. They are not part of Ebeneezer's story yet, they have their own tale to tell first.

Many writers have tried to snack at the groaning table of Dickens' remarkable works, but Priestley brings something new and satisfying to the feast. In a time of over-long tomes filled with wasted words, this book is refreshingly bright and to the point. No wasted words here. Priestley writes with blade-sharp clarity and this story is completely new, whilst also having a reassuringly familiar quality. It is rather like finding out something new and fascinating about an old family member. Priestley has turned the camera-eye around on the classic tale, thus allowing us to see what else might have been happening at the same time. The story has lots of chilling moments, plenty of ghosts, and you can really feel the deep icy cold of the season as you read it. I recommend a nice cosy room when you read this!

One thing that really jumped out at me (including the startling spirits!) was how well this book reads aloud. Even the best of books sometimes fall down when it comes to reading them aloud, but Last of the Spirits would make an excellent book to share aloud with others. Dickens regularly read Christmas Carol out loud and did so for decades after publication. Some books are written to be heard as well as read, and I can see this taking its place as one of those books brought out every year to share again.

Review by Dawn Finch (author of Brotherhood of Shades. www.dawnfinch.com)

Last of the Spirits by Chris Priestley

Suggested reading age - 9-11

Pub - Bloomsbury

06 November 2014

ISBN - 9781408854136

Cover price - £10.99

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The Firebird Trilogy by Nick Green reviewed by Julia Jones

I've just read the three parts of Nick Green's Firebird Trilogy as one big book. It's been a terrific experience and I'd happily go back to the beginning and start again.

Leo Lloyd Jones is a teenage joy-rider from Salford who is picked – accidentally, he assumes – to be part of an elite group of youngsters who might be required to rehabilitate the world in the case of cosmic catastrophe. This is Project Firebird. Now I don't normally do much in the way of cosmic catastrophe and my appetite for dystopias is distinctly limited. But I love adventure and stroppy teenagers and their capacity for moral decisions and courage and emotion and idealism and that's what Project Firebird gave me.

Leo's quality is leadership, the indefinable sort which is something quite different from ambition or the desire for power. Most of the time he's completely unaware of it but when push comes to shove he's usually able to make the right choices and find the words to inspire others. On his first day at Project Firebird he is sitting next to fourteen year old Rhys Carnavon, the fit, good-looking ' natural leader' who has just trekked back from Antarctica after witnessing the death of his scientist father. The shifting relationship between Leo and Rhys is a main plot strand running throughout the trilogy. It's complex, does not allow for second guessing and has a resonance beyond the individual characters. It's one of the reasons I'd like to read the trilogy again.

Plotting is excellent throughout. For me the books really began to sing at the shift between volumes one and two, Project Firebird to Firebird Dawn. The shock at the beginning of the second volume was, I thought, brilliantly managed – especially when an unexpected twist and additional layer of complexity was revealed later in the book. Another welcome moment was the emergence into the open air. Nick Green seems to be particularly good at evoking effects of light on landscape and glistening natural beauty. Not that the post-disaster countryside is uniformly lovely: there are methane flares from pockets of rotting garbage and a glimpse of a survivor spending his (short) life melting down abandoned plastic. One imaginative insight I especially enjoyed was Leo's occasional sense of his 'own' landscape – Salford, Manchester, the M6 motorway – buried a thousand years below the landscape on which he and his friends are struggling to survive.

There's cruelty and loss in this second volume but I feel somehow that it's the most human of the three. That's a descriptive not an evaluative point. The mainly female Blackwater village, the ruthless Dustral raids are small scale in comparison with the brutalities and stark struggles for existence in the final volume Firebird Radiant. That's fine. I think trilogies should work rather like symphonies with themes introduced, developed and brought to some resounding climax. AS such, however there the obvious danger or predictability and one of Nick Green's clevernesses in his third volume is to counterpoint the megalomaniac’s bid for global domination with the intimate domesticities of broken nights and nappy changing.

There are thrilling action sequences, delicate moments of relationship and some extraordinarily fine descriptive writing throughout the trilogy. There's also plenty of intellectual content and much to reflect on and discuss in our management of the natural world. I rather hope that we are sufficiently co-operative to establish a Global Seed bank to preserve crop varieties – currently I hear more about fragmentation and restrictive patenting. These books could be offered to consumers of The Hunger Games or Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses. Instead each volume is available for £1.85 on Kindle. I don't think this is ideological statement: I think this is 21st century publishing's failure.

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Class Six and the Nits of Doom by Sally Prue. ...reviewed by Adèle Geras

I know I am always doing it: the very opposite of what you're supposed to do.  The etiquette is: you don't puff the work of your friends. Indeed, you go to great lengths to avoid mentioning it, lest you be accused of bias.

I'm quite happy to be accused of bias. I am biased in favour of those of my acquaintance who just happen to be good writers. Because I'm a writer, I have a lot of friends like this...and Sally Prue is one of them. I make a point of bringing their latest work to the attention of the wider world and I don't feel in the least guilty about it. I have, I promise you, a HUGE pile of stuff by people I know which I have no intention of reviewing. 

Sally Prue's little book needs  critical attention for two reasons. First, because it's good but more importantly, it's one of a specific kind of book which never gets noticed at all.  This is the small, not very flashy narrative for younger readers: the kind of thing you'd find in a classroom but not on the pages of the Sunday Times. 

These are often the books to which children have most access. They are short, which means that they're accessible at a time when readers need good meaty stuff to move them on to really demanding books. They must be simple without being stupid. This is not as easy to achieve as it looks.  It helps when there's an occasional line drawing to pull the child through the  story.  It helps greatly if they're funny. And if they're written by someone who takes as much care with every sentence as Prue does, then the readers are in luck and this slim volume will be excellent exercise for those parts of the brain that are needed to turn children into enthusiastic lovers of every kind of book.

 Class Six and the Nits of Doom.... an immediately interesting title...poses a what if which has probably often crossed the mind of disgruntled pupils: what if Miss is actually a witch? 
I'm not giving too much away when I tell you that this year,  in Class Six, Miss is not only a bona fide witch, but also one who doesn't limit herself to the more fluffy and child - friendly enchantments. On the contrary, these spells can be properly nasty and the way Class Six copes with them strikes me as admirably stoical. Not only that: whenever someone suggests getting adult help of some kind, his or her fellows say, to all intents and purposes, "Naah, don't bother, they won't believe us. "

So the pupils deals with this predicament as best they can. The dénouement, when it comes, is exactly right. But along the way there are the incidental delights of Prue's writing, which is both hilarious and quite sharp.  

Also, the fact that Class Six can be going through what it is going through while the rest of the school goes on around it unawares, says something quite profound about the way we deal with problems affecting our close neighbours but not ourselves ....this is something to go on thinking about when the fun and games are over. 

Whatever its deeper significance,  Prue has written a jolly good romp which moves at a cracking pace and those who've just begun to read fluently will love it.



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TAKING FLIGHT - By Sheena Wilkinson

Reviewed by Jackie Marchant

This is a book of contrasts – about two cousins living near each other, yet in completely different worlds.  Declan is the son of a single alcoholic mother living on a rough estate, attending a rough school, someone with no ambition other than to finish school as soon as possible.  At the start of the book he is in trouble again, for lashing out at his former mate, who describes his mother as a slag because she’s having an affair with his father.  His punishment is suspension, but it’s the letter of apology that Declan finds hardest to deal with.

When his mother tries to kill herself, Declan has to go and stay with his cousin Vicky.  Vicky lives with her divorced mother Colleen and pays regular visits to her wealthy father and new wife, the main purpose of which seems to be to demand more money for riding lessons and more support with her flashy new showjumper, Flight.  Hers is a world of private school, horses, giggly friends and shopping – and absolute horror that her mother used to live on the same estate as Declan.

The story is told from these two viewpoints, Declan struggling with what life has thrown at him, while Vicky struggles not to let him near her friends.  The one thing that could bring them together is the one thing that drives them further apart – horses.  Declan has never been near a horse before, is reluctant to be dragged off to watch ‘princess Vicky’ riding Flight – and completely astonished with how much he immediately takes to them.  The more his affinity with the animals comes out, the more Vicky is determined to keep him away.  But, as Declan’s situation spirals ever downwards, it is Vicky who holds the key to his redemption – if only she can find it within herself to overcome her bitterness and jealousy.

The two viewpoints are handled deftly, although it’s Declan who has the reader’s sympathy, despite his flaws.  Coming from her privileged background, it can be harder to empathise with Vicky, although Declan can be pretty cruel to her.  Ultimately, this book is about accepting people for who they are, rather than their situation.  Winner of the CBI Book of the Year Award, this is a great, page-turning read.  

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No Going Back by Alex Gutteridge, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

   

 Alex Gutteridge is brilliant at writing stories that feel light and easy to read, and yet carry a depth of wise consideration of life and love and loss and families and friends that keeps you thinking about the story long after the reading of it has finished. 

It took me a long time to become a real reader as a child.  I struggled with learning to read, so didn't see it as something to do by choice for fun for a long time.  My breakthrough book was 'Flambards' by K M Peyton, and I mention that because it was the same qualities of light first romance in a novel, together with moral dilemmas for characters I cared about, that I recognise in Alex Gutteridge's 'No Going Back' and her earlier 'Last Chance Angel'.  I think this will be a book that entices reluctant young (mostly female) readers of about twelve to fourteen into reading a story that will move them to laugh, cry and think. 

Described as 'contemporary paranormal', this is the story of fourteen year old Laura who has had to leave the London home she and her mum have shared since the accidental death of her father ten years before.  Now they must move to Derbyshire to live with ailing grumpy Gran.  But they aren't the only ones to move into Gran's house.  Suddenly the ghost of Dad is there too, well meaning but annoying in just the way that all dads are to their teenage offspring!  There are secrets from the past to be revealed, family misunderstandings to be sorted, and a kitten and boy to be flirted with and finally won. 

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A Breath of Fresh Air! Three Picture Books about Playing Outside reviewed by Pauline Chandler

Choosing bedtime stories for my grandson recently, I was struck by how many picture books are full of rampaging dinosaurs, wild-eyed dragons, monsters and superheroes, all in dazzling primary colours. Very exciting, but not quite conducive to a calm ‘time for bed’!  I’ve noticed, too, that young mums and dads are now thinking that it’s best not to overstimulate little ones, with every bright toy or storybook that comes along.     

May I suggest play in the great outdoors? Soft nature colours, wonderful weather, textures, scents, sounds, fresh air freedom! What could be better for the kids than time free from the adult’s all seeing-eye (or when they think they’re free!), freedom to learn by making their own decisions and solve their own problems. Are there any stories to encourage this? Yes there are!

I had to search hard for them, those outside books, with the kind of soothing ambience that says what a wonderful world it is, stories that celebrate simple pleasures, such playing in a field of dandelions, or collecting eggs from the hens, or messing about in the garden.  

Sandra Horn’s book ‘The Dandelion Wish’ tells just such a gentle story, beautifully illustrated by Louise Warwick.  Out in the fields, Jo and Sam watch the wind blow the dandelion seeds high into the air and when Sam suggests blowing seeds to make a wish, Jo joins him, with magical results. Yes, there’s a dinosaur, pirates and fireworks, but they’re all part of the Dandelion Fair, which arrives and departs like a dream. In the end, ‘Only the night heard a home-going rabbit whistle a rock-a-bye tune.’

This is a lovely story that celebrates outdoor play and the power of a child’s wishing and dreaming.

Kim Lewis’s picture books about country life on the farm, are some of the best.

In ‘Friends’, Sam and Alice go off, on their own, to collect a new-laid egg, but on the way back home, they quarrel and the egg is broken. Both children are deeply upset and think they can’t be friends any more, but when the hen lays another egg, they make up, finding a way to do this by themselves, with children’s innate awareness of what’s fair. Then they find the fresh egg and take it home together.  What lovely pictures illustrate this charming story! Kim Lewis treats us to detailed and realistic images of life on the farm. 

My final choice is ‘The King of Tiny Things’ by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Gwen Millward.

This delightful tale, with more enchanting pictures of the countryside at night, takes us with Chrissy and the narrator on a summer time visit to their grandparent’s house. When the girls camp out in a tent in the garden, they meet all sorts of little creatures on a night-time adventure. There’s so much to enjoy in this story of magic in the dark, with friendly bugs and caterpillars, and the king of tiny things. Children on their own, free, outside and doing stuff! Wonderful!

All three picture books are highly recommended for children aged 5-7.

Pauline Chandler 2014

www.paulinechandler.com

              

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The Blade Itself, reviewed by C.J. Busby

The Blade Itself is written for adults, but it's a book that might also be enjoyed by older teenage readers, especially any who are fans of G.R.R. Martin. I picked it up almost by accident from my sister's shelf while visiting this summer. She is an extremely discerning reader of fantasy and sicfi and I always trust her judgement, so I knew it would be good. But I wasn't prepared for just how good.

The Blade Itself is the first book of a trilogy set in an alternative world but one that is reminiscent of medieval Europe, albeit with a very different history. There are no maps, so my sense that I almost recognised the topography and names (Angland? Midderland? The southern, oriental-type empire called Ghurkul?) added a certain resonance, but also left it all nicely vague. The world is one that has a recognisable kinship with G.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire - swords, men at arms, politicking, and scepticism about the apparent reappearance of old magic. But it's not derivative - for all the inevitable resonances any epic fantasy has to other epic fantasies all the way back to The Lord of the Rings, Abercrombie's world is original enough to really engage the reader, and what's more important, his writing is cracking.

The story is told from the viewpoint of a number of different characters, and I loved all of them - whether it was bitter, twisted torturer Sand dan Glokta, vain, lazy, aristocratic Lieutenant Jezal dan Luthar, the tough northern barbarian fighter Logan Nine-fingers (also known as the Bloody Nine), the seasoned northern scout, Dogman, or the long-suffering army stalwart, Major West. Each has a distinct voice, and although the threads intertwine, each also has a distinctly interesting journey and their own sub-plots to follow, so I greeted each change of chapter/voice with the sense of excitement of catching up with a really interesting old friend.

But it's not just the characters - Abercrombie's writing is sharp, clever and above all funny. I like my fantasy laced with a decent amount of self-deprecation and deadpan humour, so for me this was the best aspect of the book. Despite some very dark moments, gritty realism and a lot of blood, it also had me laughing out loud in parts. Sand dan Glokta has a nice line in bitter sarcastic humour, while Luthar is unwittingly funny just because he's totally lacking in self-insight. Nine-fingers, as well as having the ability to eviscerate an opponent on autopilot, is master of the one-line put down. There are also some nice moments where Abercrombie subverts the usual fantasy fare - the powerful wizard who's drawn Logan down south turns out not to be the white-beaded old sage standing by the front door, but the person Logan barely glanced at - the stocky butcher with blood half-way up his arms, dissecting an animal in the yard below.

The plot follows a lot of disparate strands, all, like the characters, with their own fascination, and there's an underlying sense that all of them are going to turn out to be interrelated. There is an empire on the move in an unholy alliance with dark magical forces, a conspiracy needing investigation at the heart of the corrupt, class-ridden central Union, a wizard who apparently still lives hundreds of years after he first made an appearance in the Union's mythology, and some violent orc-like creatures overrunning the Union's northern borders. It's a full-scale adventure, and one that's very hard to put down. I had to stop after book two of the trilogy because I had my own pressing writing deadline to make, but as soon as I'm done I'll be diving into the last book.

The Blade Itself is gritty, bloody, and there's a lot of politics to keep up with, so I wouldn't recommend it to those under 16, but there's nothing that would worry the older teenager. There is a lot of swearing. But you probably hear worse on an average secondary school bus...

So, in return for all the great reads we adults have had from YA fiction, here's one that crosses over in the other direction: older teenagers (and adults), I give you Joe Abercrombie. Enjoy!



C. J. Busby writes fantasy for 7-12. Her latest book, Dragon Amber, is out with Templar: the first in the series, Deep Amber, was published in March and has been shortlisted for the Stockton Book Award..

"A rift hopping romp with great charm wit and pace" Frances Hardinge on Deep Amber

www.cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

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ROBIN HOOD by David Calcutt and Grahame Baker-Smith. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

"Robin was out hunting in the forest. It was a morning early in the year, cold and still, with frost on the ground and a freezing mist in the air. He was wearing a thick woollen cloak wrapped tightly around his body, its hood pulled down low over his face. The branches were bare and last year's leaves lay thick and deep on the forest floor. They crackled softly beneath his feet as he made his way through the trees."

The first thing to say about this book is that it's a work of art - beautifully written by David Calcutt, and decorated on almost every page with stylish, dramatic illustrations by Grahame Baker-Smith. As well as some terrific double-spread battle scenes (my favourite is the one of Robin Hood and Little John fighting on a bridge) there are decorative borders and leafy overlays and small pictures of woodland animals on nearly every page.

Author David Calcutt's greenwood was inspired by the forests near his home in the West Midlands, and there is a strong sense of place and weather throughout that adds realism and strength to the stories. From the many ballads of Robin Hood he has drawn a selection that makes up a narrative of the outlaw's adventures and life in the greenwood. Each chapter tells a different story and each begins with verses from a traditional ballad. The stories are told simply and the characters use modern speech. There is plenty of action, and a lot of killing of both men and deer. This is true to the original tales, and Robin comes across as a typical folk-hero - bold, boastful and ready for anything, but always on the side of the underdog. All the familiar characters are there: Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian and, of course, Robin's arch-enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham.

In the last chapter, Robin is allowed to disappear into the greenwood, and into legend, keeping the mystery of his end uncertain - though the author hints at a few different versions of his death.

This book is available in paperback and also in a hardback edition. I have not seen the hardback but it is apparently larger and no doubt even more desirable. Either would make a lovely gift for a wide age-range - I'd say around 7-13.

Barefoot Books, 2012.
Paperback ISBN 978-1846867989
Hardback ISBN 978-1846863578





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My Ocean, by Enrique Perez Diaz. Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

Title: My Ocean
Author Enrique Perez Diaz
Translator: Trudy Balch
Publisher Groundwood Books, October 2008

Enrqiue Perez Diaz is an award-winning Cuban author whose work, sadly, seems to be mosly unkown on our side of the pond.

His books include The Golden Age, New Pines, Ismaelillo and 

My Ocean was published in 2008. It is a long, introspective and semi-autobiographical letter to the sea that surrounds Perez Diaz's native island. Growing up in a time when everyone around him - friends, family, neighbours - seems to be emigrating illegally to El Norte, the US, Enrique seems to be left alone to make his was in a fast-chaning world.  And this world is not changing only because of the political situation in Cuba but also because Enrique is growing up. He is altering from a boy to a man and this forces him to change his perspective on life.

In this world of turmoil, but also of triumphs and hope, Enrique returns continually to the sea, to talk to it and listen out for its answers.  The sea is his sanctuary, reassuringly unchanging, the magic mirror that reflcts back only the truth.

The vignettes that spark the conversations with the sea are beautifully drawn: a terrifying encounter with sharks; a first date; an invitation to become a 'pioneer', a young communist; realistation that he can never read the letters from his unpatriotic grandparents now propsering in the US.

The book was originally written in Spanish and the translation does sometimes feel a bit stilted. Nevertheless this is a book I would recommend highly, if only for its insight into life for teenagers in Cuba.

Saviour Pirotta

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Website http://www.spirotta.com











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Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Quest for the Magic Porcupine, written by John Dougherty and illustrated by David Tazzyman: published by OUP

First of all, I have a complaint to make. This is the second book in the Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face series, and the next one isn't out till JANUARY! My grandson whisked the first one away before I got chance to review it. Now we’ve just read this one together – but we’ve got MONTHS to wait before the next. John Dougherty, I hope you’re hard at work on the fourth. And fifth, and sixth…

I had actually read the first one, Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers, before it disappeared, but that was several months ago and I've read a lot of books since and, in all honesty, I couldn’t remember all that much about it. But there was no need to worry. Oskar had loved it, and he remembered everything. So here goes. 

SB and his little sister KF live on the Isle of Kerfuffle, along with King Toothbrush Weasel and his army, which consists of Malcolm the Cat, and various other eccentric characters. (Their parents conveniently disappear when there’s a story going on.) If you noted the title, you will realise that the villains of the first book are a troop of exceedingly bad badgers. SB and KF triumph over them and they are cast into jail – but at the beginning of the second book, whilst playing Monopoly, the badgers discover a 'Get Out Of Jail' card, which they promptly use – so horrors! Once again, they are free to plan evil and wicked things, to do EVILLY and WICKEDLY.

SB and KF soon realise what has happened and determine that once again, they must defend Kerfuffle against the badgers. Fortunately, they meet a whole bunch of characters, brilliantly illustrated by David Tazzyman, who help them in their task. My favourite is the amazing Ninja Librarian, who has magic powers and also a very sharp sword, which she threatens to use to chop the heads off anyone who misbehaves in her library. She helps SB and KF to research what they must do to defeat the badgers: it involves catching a number 36 bus (which has an amiably dim – but very jolly – driver called Mr Jolly) which will take them on their quest to find the Magic Porcupine.

The story rollicks along – you never have a clue what’s going to happen next. But the best thing about it is that it’s so funny: Oskar was chortling out loud on every page. There are quirky, anarchic characters and excellent baddies. But there’s something else interesting going on: John Dougherty plays about with the conventions of a book. He does interesting things with typefaces. He tells you that SB and KF will have to wait till page 55 to find out what their quest will be – and then has the characters whiling away the time and the pages till they get there. He subverts expectations – notably with the arrival on the scene at the end of a chapter of a fearsome shark - who actually turns out to be a great help. And he reminds you all the time that this isn't real life, but a book. I’m sure there’s a proper term for this (meta-something?) but I don’t know what it is. I thought it might be a bit of a problem for a young reader, but far from it – Oskar was intrigued by and really enjoyed this aspect of the book.

So, a great hit. Right up at the top of Oskar’s personal chart, in fact. We can’t wait for the next one!

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The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling - reviewed by Tamsyn Murray

Rémy Brunel is a bird of paradise, flying on a trapeze above the ring in Le Cirque de la Lune in an exquisite pink and black feathered costume. That's her day job. She's also a jewel thief, one of the best in the business, and the circus gives her the perfect cover, taking her orders from Gustave, the circus owner. Rémy doesn't plan to be a thief forever, just long enough to get herself and her best friend Claudette enough money to make a life for themselves away from the circus. Gustave has other ideas...


When the circus arrives in London, it's not long before Gustave has his eye on a glittering prize - the Darya-ye Noor diamond - the Ocean of Light - which is on display at the Tower of London. He sends Rémy to steal it but things don't go to plan, especially when she encounters the determined and conscientious Thaddeus Rec, the only policeman to suspect her. At the end of the night, the diamond is in Rémy's hands but nothing is what it seems and she is forced to go on the run in fear of her life and her future.

Featuring a cast of fabulous characters, confounding contraptions and a rip-roaring ride of an adventure that leads us deep under London's Victorian streets, The Diamond Thief is a highly enjoyable, action-packed story. Rémy and Thaddeus in particular stand out  - Rémy shines like the jewels she steals and she is exactly the kind of character I wish I had written. I feared for Thaddeus at first because of his principals but he falls just the right side of immovable and makes the right choices when it comes down to it. I couldn't wait to get back to this book and yet didn't want it to end - thankfully, there's a sequel, The Ruby Airship, so I get to find out what Rémy gets up to next.

I recommend this book for aged 12+ - a great Steampunk adventure with a romantic heart and plenty of thrills and spills along the way.

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Corpse Talk Season 1 by Adam Murphy

Fans of Horrible Histories will love the first volume of Corpse Talk, a dead funny comic strip that first appeared in the pages of The Phoenix. 

The concept is deceptively simple, freakishly funny and wonderfully ghoulish. An interviewer – artist and writer Adam Murphy – digs up the bodies of famous folk from the past, and then quizzes them about their lives, and in many cases, how they shuffled off this mortal coil. 

Kids with a love of the macabre will be suitably grossed out by the historical figures' gaunt mummified looks, while Murphy expertly condenses the main events of 33 notable lives into single or double page strips. 

The author's dry wit transforms potentially dry facts into full-on belly laughs that educate as they entertain. You'll certainly never look at the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst, Dick Turpin and Jane Austin the same way again, while familiar faces like the many wives of Henry VIII, Mahatma Ghandi or Charles Dickens get a fresh approach (well, as fresh as a mouldering cadaver gets anyway).

One to file under 'why has no-one ever done this before' Corpse Talk Season 1 proves that history - and the dead for that matter - needn't be stiff and starchy.

Reviewed by Cavan Scott

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The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones & Ursula Jones; reviewed by Gillian Philip

We’ll never know how it should have ended. At least, we’ll never know how it would have ended, had Diana Wynne Jones not died before completing her last novel. We don’t even know where she stopped writing, because the book doesn’t tell us; we only know that somewhere along the journey, Diana’s sister Ursula took over the story and completed it. When she first read to the end of the existing manuscript: “It was a shock,” says Ursula Jones in her Afterword. “It was like being woken from sleepwalking or nearly running off the edge of a cliff.” But taking as her launch point a clue she spotted in the manuscript, and with her understanding of her sister’s style and writing process, Ursula caught the apprentice Wise Woman Aileen and her friends before they fell, and carried them along to the end of their adventure.

When we meet Aileen, it’s the morning after her abject failure in her initiation as a Wise Woman, and she’s being comforted by her Aunt Beck, a full-fledged Wise Woman (and one Scots would call a nippy sweetie). She’s not unkind, though (well, not deliberately), and her no-nonsense attitude chivvies Aileen along into both adventure and a discovery of her true abilities.

I have no idea, and neither does anyone other reviewer I’ve read, where Ursula Jones took over the story. To me it was a seamless adventure with everything a reader could wish for in a fantasy: quests, danger, transformations and impossible obstacles; quirky friends and loathsome enemies and plenty of human frailty in between. As Aileen travels from her home in Skarr to the isolated kingdom of Logra - via the islands of Bernica and Gallis - she accumulates the kind of friends that every fantasy heroine should have, not all of them human (the best of them is the magically elusive cat, Plug-Ugly). And of course, just as it should be, the stern wisdom and acerbic guidance of Aunt Beck is lost to Aileen through a wicked spell; it’s down to the failed young Wise Woman to save the day and break the spells that bind not only her aunt, but the whole kingdom of Logra.

It’s never openly stated but the four islands are very much inspired by the four nations of the British Isles, with Skarr loosely based on Scotland, Bernica on Ireland, Gallis on Wales, and Logra on England. The languages, the peoples and even the living emblems of each island are reminiscent of the respective countries; it’s a rather lovely concept in the islands' links that might soon have an elegiac tone.

Even as you read, there’s a sense of sadness that this was Diana Wynne Jones’s last book. But it’s a lovely coda to a wonderful body of work. I’m just glad Ursula Jones seems to have shared such a telepathic empathy with her sister.

The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones (completed by Ursula Jones) (Harper Collins, £12.99 hb)

www.gillianphilip.com

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Captain Beastlie's Pirate Party by Lucy Coats and Chris Mould - reviewed by Damian Harvey

Captain Beastlie is a dirty, smelly pirate but his ship is smart and his crew are clean. The filthy captain shouts and bellows, stamps and stomps around his ship as he counts down the days left until his birthday - just in case his crew should have forgotten.

Children will delight in Beastlie's dirty habits - 'picking a bogey out of his nose and licking it', then 'rootling a glob of peanut butter out of his ear', and much more besides. They will also love seeing his crew as they busily prepare a birthday surprise for their bellowing captain. But what is it they are preparing?

Lucy's text is a joy to read with its rhythms, pirate language and expressive dialogue. A great book to share and a real must to read aloud to a bunch of lily-livered limpets ahar! But please beware! It's impossible to read in anything other than a traditional pirate voice... And quite right too.

Chris Mould's artwork is always a joy to see and here he brings Lucy's characters to life with lots of fun and added detail in his own inimitable style giving the readers so much to look at.

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Skim words by Mariko Tamaki drawings by Jillian Tamaki review by Lynda Waterhouse

This is a graphic novel based around the diary of sixteen year old goth girl and trainee witch Kimberley Kaiko Cameron aka Skim. At the beginning of the story she has broken her arm. She tells her best friend that she broke it falling off her bike but in reality she ‘tripped on altar getting out of bed and fell on Mum’s candelabra.’

Her parents’ marriage has broken down and her friendship with Lisa is becoming fractured. Popular girl Katie Matthew’s is dumped by her boyfriend and appears with a black broken heart drawn on her hands. There is a hilarious scene in the book where Lisa and Skim attend a coven which turns out to be an AA meeting.

Then Katie’s ex –boyfriend commits suicide and this changes everything at school. Skim is targeted by Miss Hornet, the school counsellor who says ‘students who are members of the ‘’gothic’’ culture are very fragile,’ yet it is Katie who falls off a roof and breaks both her arms.

At the same moment as the suicide Skim falls in love with her drama teacher. Her friendship with Lisa breaks down. Skim is in emotional freefall with no one to talk to. A friendship from an unexpected source brings her joy. There is only one drawing of Skim laughing which is a powerful contrast to how she is portrayed in the rest of the novel.

This novel captures the humour and intensity of Skim’s life and how it is possible to turn a corner in life.

Published by Walker Books

ISBN 978-1-4063-2136-4

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