13 HOURS – by Narinder Dhami

Reviewed by Jackie Marchant

Anni is a twelve year old carer.  After spending every day at school worrying, she rushes home, desperate to be there for her mother, who will go frantic if Anni is more than a second late.  As well as debilitating injuries following an old accident and a terror of going beyond the dilapidated front door, Anni’s mother is convinced that every sound she hears comes from intruders who are out to get her.  It is Anni’s job to scour the big old tumbledown house to convince her mother that no one is there.

But one day there is . . .

Four people in balaclavas have broken in.  It’s obvious they haven’t come to steal – there is nothing worth stealing in the house – they are on a mission.  Anni soon realises that their mission has something to do with the fact that the Prime Minister will be driven right by the house in thirteen hours’ time.  That means the intruders have thirteen hours to prepare and the last thing they want is a terrified mother and her twelve year old daughter in the house they’d assumed was deserted. 

As the thirteen hours unravel, so does Anni’s life – the intruders aren’t what they seem, her mother has secrets and hidden depths she didn’t know about, Anni finds strength she didn’t know she had and she also begins to question her way of life.

The young carer/mother situation is beautifully handled.  There is a real conflict between sheer frustration at how a mother could expect so much from her child, Anni’s desperate willingness to keep things as they are or lose her mother, her mother’s guilt – and finally, the real reason behind it all, which also neatly ties in with what the intruders are doing.  Very clever.

As you can imagine, by the title and the plotline, this is very much a page-turner.  But there are real issues here as well – the motives of the intruders, the issue of young carers and the devastating consequences agoraphobia.

  

There are notes at the back of the book about agoraphobia and information for young carers – many of whom, as comes across in the book, don’t realise that is what they are.

Definitely worth a read.

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I AM DAVID by Anne Holm (transalted from the Danish by L.W.Kingsland): Review by Pauline Francis

I’ve been flirting with lots of fun end-of-summer books to use for this review, but as the constant images of mass migrations caught and held my attention, I was desperate to re-read this wonderful and compassionate modern classic, which has been one of my favourite children’s books for years – and one of the novels that made me want to become a writer.

Although this novel was first published in England in translation, in 1965, it has never been out of print and is widely used by Years 6 & 7 in schools.

I am David tells the fictitious story of a young boy, aged nine or ten, who escapes from a concentration camp somewhere in Eastern Europe to find his way back to his family in Denmark. He travels alone, with a bundle of possessions: a pocket knife, a compass, a bottle of water, a large loaf of bread and a box of matches.

Having known no other life but the camp, David knows nothing of the world outside its wire fence. He must learn about good and evil. He must learn about trust. David’s instinct for survival so far has provided him with one rule he must always obey if he’s to survive: he must not think. “Don’t think, don’t think! David clenched his hands, gripping a tuft of grass. He mustn’t think at all, for if he did, there was only one thing to think about – that he would not be able to run any further.”

As in the camp, he can look and listen, and use that information to help him; but those thoughts must go no further. David sticks to this rule throughout his journey, which I think has a devastating effect on the reader. I almost know this story by heart, but I still think for David, and warn him of the possible dangers. Such is the power of this little book (182 pages)!

David sneaks into the back of a van, hides in the hold of ship sailing to Italy, walks, runs and climbs – and even lives with family for some time; but all the time he’s afraid of being captured again, fearing that they will force him back to the camp.

How many times have we seen this played out on our various screens these last weeks?

For me, the most heart-breaking fact in the novel is that David doesn’t know how to smile. This worries the mother of the family who takes him in – she doesn’t want her innocent children to be corrupted by the evil he must have experienced. After over-hearing this, David finds an old mirror and practices smiling, although he isn’t very good at it. He can’t smile with his eyes. When he leaves, he writes a poignant farewell letter to the mother to tell her that children must be taught about good and evil if they’re to find their way through life.

David’s experiences have made him wise beyond his years!

I have no political agenda here; but if you don’t know this little gem, please read it if you can. I guarantee that, whatever your view, you will never regret looking into the heart of one child refugee: David.

Pauline Francis www.paulinefrancis.co.uk

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MOUSE IN THE HOUSE by Gillian McClure reviewed by Adèle Geras

I was lucky enough to see MOUSE IN THE HOUSE 
ahead of its publication  this month,  and it's a perfect
 example of the kind of book which gets overlooked very
 often in review roundups and the like.

It's exactly what very, very young children need. You 
can't start reading books of this kind to a baby too early.
 It's true that at first,  (maybe  at six months or so) the
subtlety and real meaning of the story will be lost on the
infant, but what the child will pick up on is the rhythm
 of the reader's voice, their encircling arms, and the parade
of lovely colours as the pages are turned. Parents ought to be
encouraged to read to children practically from birth, so that this pleasure is absorbed as one of the Good Things, like milk
 and food.

This  book is perfect for such early reading. McClure 
has used her own grandchild's cuddly mouse toy as
an inspiration. She's located the story in his house, which
 has a squirrel in a tree outside, just like the squirrel in
the story. Not every child has a writer/illustrator as
a granny, but parents and grandparents everywhere will
seize on this delightful tale and make it part of their
  repertoire.

The story explores all the senses. The bird on the tree
 sees the mouse. The squirrel hears the mouse. The dog
 smells the mouse and the cat touches the mouse. The
baby, of course, simply loves the mouse. It's  very simple
 and effective. The pictures are pastel crayon, I think,
 that gives the book a wonderfully intimate feel.
 The colours and lines of the pictures are perfect:
 bright but not garish: ever so slightly blurry.
I particularly like the 'mouse' endpapers.
It's a very welcoming story and  would make a wonderful
 present to take as a present for new parents.

It's published by:
Plaister Press Ltd
9 Trafalgar Street,
Cambridge
CB4 1T
 www.plaisterpress.com

ISBN 978-09565108-6-0

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ALL MINE! by Zehra Hicks, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

  

Having recently had a Cornish holiday during which large eager seagulls were very keen to share our lunch pasties, bright bold picture book ‘All Mine!’ caught my eye. 

I think this is a wonderful book.  The story is short and simple, but the pictures fizz with characterful energy, movement and humour. 

Mouse is about to tuck into his sandwich lunch when – woosh! – the greedy seagull swoops down to steal it and claim that it’s ‘All mine!’  Seagull gets ticked off by mouse who tells him that it’s rude to snatch.  We then get a wonderful comic- strip episode of the mouse trying to find more lunch, but stalked by the ‘gull who steals it all, even when he’s clearly told that if only he was polite Mouse would share with him.  Seagull doesn’t learn from being told.  It’s only a good scare that finally sees him off … leaving Mouse to share his huge cake with his politer, mousey, friends.

This is a story about learning to share; something very pertinent to young children, but served-up in a way that is anything but preachy.  They will recognise the truths in the story, and come to their own conclusions about any rights and wrongs it shows.

So, this is a fun picture book for all, particularly for summertime.  But it also offers an opportunity for teachers or parents to discuss issues of sharing and bullying with children, and demonstrates interesting and easily doable ways to combine media to make your own pictures.  I now want to get some thick poster paint to ‘ice’ a photograph of a cake, and sprinkle hundreds and thousands to stick into that paint icing!  Maybe make my own simple shape-on-a-stick fox mask too?  Come to think of it, I could see this making a relatively simple, funny and telling little play for any primary school class tasked with putting on an assembly soon after the summer holidays.

Pippa Goodhart

www.pippagoodhart.co.uk                                        

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WHEN A WRITER ISN'T WRITING by JENNY ALEXANDER: Review by Penny Dolan

Jenny Alexander’s first book about the creative life and writing was Writing In The House of Dreams, and you’ll find an interesting analysis of that title here, on Susan Price's Nennius Blog.  First of all, before we begin, I am a real fan of books that are a pleasure to hold and read. Both Jenny Alexander’s books have beautiful covers, as well spaced text and font and  a visual appeal that gives you confidence in the contents. To my mind, this attention shows that the author cares as much (or more) about the experience of her readers as about the matter of “getting the book buzzing out there”: a reflection, I believe, of Jenny’s own writing values.  

  

Jenny's second book - almost a companion title - has a rather different focus: “When A Writer Isn’t Writing” makes clear its intentions in the strapline: How to Beat Your Blocks, Be Published and Find Your Flow.

 This small volume offers an unusual and personal approach. While there are many books offering weighty information on the craft of writing or the production of blockbusters and “brands”, this book focuses on the inner processes of writing and the problems that arise when the writer and their writing practice aren't quite in balance. In addition, throughout the book, Jenny offers a range of helpful writing or practical activities from her popular creative writing workshops and courses.

Jenny writes in such an easy, friendly and re-assuring style that it’s tempting, if you are a galumphing reader like me, to speed through the pages. I’d advise reading this book with a pencil in hand, underlining sentences that resonate, and suggestions that require deeper pondering. My personal copy now has several such passages. Jenny's chapters and advice are reinforced by the thoughts of established writers such as Linda Newbery, Adele Geras, Michelle Lovric and more.

The book has a straightforward structure: the first four chapters cover topics such as When You Can’t Get Started, When You Can’t Keep Going and When You Get Completely Stuck. Jenny addresses these topics in a sympathetic, instructive and thoughtful way. She suggests ways of developing confidence through regular writing practice, examines the different fears that hold back the blocked writer and considers the relationships between writing goals and personal values. 

 Jenny Alexander is a great advocate of patience with the ebbs and flows of one’s writing energies - the seasons of inspiration, productivity and also the fallow time. As she explains, “Creativity is a natural process, a breathing in and out, a rhythm of receptive and productive time, of surrender and control.”

The next three chapters look at insistent insecurities about the work itself, the blocks that sometimes halt work while it's in progress:  When you’re Putting Off Redrafting stresses the need to be patient with the process and pattern of writing; When You’re Tempted to Skip Micro-Editing encourages the reader to pay the right level of attention to their detail of their work – i.e. don’t skip! - while When You’re Pondering Publication is a firm, level-headed section on the current state of publishing, including the pitfalls and the benefits of independent publishing.

The final section - When you Find Your Flow – looks at the balance between the personal and the craft, and at what is required to work resiliently as a writer.  I feel this book may be especially useful to anyone unable to find a local writer’s group or attend a creative writing course, as there are suggestions of websites, blogs and useful books for writers. 

The book is based on Jenny’s own extensive studies in psychology . psychotherapy and creative work, and as she says “Writing isn’t just about words on the page – it’s a different way of being. It changes your experience of the world and it deepens your experience of yourself.”  If you can relate to those words, and you're in difficulties, When A Writer Isn’t Writing may be for you. 

Jenny Alexander's blog can be found here.

 

Reviewer: Penny Dolan

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THE SHIVER STONE by Sharon Tregenza. Reviewed by Saviour Pirotta

Title: THE SHIVER STONE
Author: Sharon Tregenza
Publisher: Firefly Press
Publication date:
Paperpack

I was seduced into buying Sharon Tregenza's The Shiver Stone by its bold blue cover. I'm a sucker for beach scenes on book covers. They remind of my own childhood visits to the sea, and of my favourite Enid Blyton adventures, especially The Secret Island and Five on a Treasure Island.

The Shiver Stone has the same breathless, exciting pacing as Blyton's best. But whereas Blyton's characters tend to be smug and middle-class, here is a cast that reads true to modern life and that young 21st century readers will empathise with.

Set in a fictional Welsh coast town, the story is part mystery, part social comment. Carys is furious with her mum and dad who have split up, with mum jetting off abroad to help patients with HIV and Dad falling in love with a new woman. When she tries to uncover the identity of an artist who is creating secret beach art, Carys sets off a chain of events that not only leads to a humdinger of an adventure but also to big time changes for all the members of the family. And an adorable dog!

Tregenza has an easy, punchy writing style that makes this book a perfect read summer or winter. Grab a copy!

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Website http://www.spirotta.com

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The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew reviewed by Rhian Ivory

 

 

The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew

Synopsis

“I am a good girl. It is my most defining feature. And that’s the truth.”

What if the Nazis had won WWII? What if one girl could win it back? If only for herself…

Buckinghamshire 2014. Jessika Keller is one of the Third Reich’s shining lights. She is an exemplary member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, a future figure skating champion and the apple of her father’s eye. But when her neighbour and lifelong friend Clementine challenges the regime, Jessika begins to understand the frightening reality of the society in which she lives.

The Big Lie is an alt-history thriller which asks readers to examine their own attitudes to feminism, sexuality and revolution.

 

Review

One of the central themes in The Big Lie is of course the concept of lying and the lies we all tell, big and small, black or white. Mayhew repeatedly plays with the notion of lying by drawing characters who ‘leave out something that they didn’t realise was really very crucial to everyone else. That isn’t a lie. But it can be as bad as telling a lie.’

The protagonist Jessika Keller is a good girl who is driven by a desperate desire to please. Jess feels a huge responsibility to please her father and the patriarchy that dominates her world. When Jess’s feelings for her female friends start to change she knows this is something that must be kept from her father, she tries to reassure herself that this isn’t a lie, it is just leaving out something.

‘A very small victory. I knew something he didn’t.’

And these feelings are universal to all readers and ones we can identify with, that sensation of power, of knowledge and having secrets from your parents. Even though she has secrets Jess tries very hard to be outwardly normal, obeying the rules and making sure that those around her do the same, no matter what the cost to her friendship with Clementine.

‘Then Clementine said: ‘It’s hard for you…But at least I know what I am.’

Although Jess is living in what most readers would view as a nightmare scenario, to her it is normal life. Maintaining a sense of normality, being the very model of a perfect girl drives Jess on even when she knows that the biggest lie of all is the one she’s telling herself.

‘I had proved that I was normal, and special…I mustn’t let people get close to me. Only bad came of it.’

And there is no room in Jess’s life for questions about sexuality, feelings and desires because that’s not what she’s there for, her purpose and role have been clearly defined since birth. Jess knows how a good girl should think and speak and act because she’s been told so by the people in charge, the men who run The Bund Deutscher Mädel the organization set up to recruit teenage girls to adore and obey Hitler. Jess and the other recruits are shaped and molded into the future baby makers of Nazi Germany. Because of her upbringing Jess knows exactly the path she should take but when her best friend Clementine starts steering her off course Jess finds herself questioning not just her desires but her whole world.

Is it possible that everything she knows has been built on one big lie? Clementine’s revolution pushes Jess into a dark corner and the only way out is to accept that she can’t trust anyone’s truth because ultimately everyone lies.

‘In stronger moments, when I can be honest with myself, I know it can’t be true.’

This deeply intelligent and gripping novel poses one of the biggest and most frightening 'What If?' questions ever and examines through a microscopic lens feminism, sexuality and gender using the power of fiction to hold a mirror up to our own society. Mayhew sensitively analyses everything that determines who we are, our place in the world and allows the reader to consider what lies in the spaces between the past, the present and the future.

‘The moral was always implied and understood. It lived there in the Zwischenraum – that space between.’

 

 

About the author

Julie is an actress turned writer who still acts but mostly writes. 

She is an alumna of the Arvon/Jerwood Mentoring Scheme where she was tutored by Maria McCann.

Julie’s debut novel, Red Ink, was published by Hot Key Books in 2013, and was nominated for the 2014 CILIP Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2014. Her second YA/Adult Crossover title, The Big Lie, will be published in August 2015.For radio, Julie has written three plays, including A Shoebox Of Snow which was nominated for Best Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2012 and shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award 2010 as a work in progress.

Julie is currently attached to Headlong theatre company as part of their first, invitational Writers’ Group.

 

About the reviewer

Rhian was born in Swansea but hasn't stayed put anywhere for very long. She trained as a Drama and English teacher and wrote her first novel during her first few years in teaching.

She got her first publishing deal at 26 and went on to write three more novels for Bloomsbury.
The Boy who drew the Future is her fifth novel and she’s recently finished writing her sixth.  

 She is a National Trust writer in residence, a WoMentoring mentor and a Patron of Reading.

You can follow Rhian on Twitter and on Facebook.

 

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Katy's Pony Challenge, by Victoria Eveleigh

I'm not a natural target for a book for children/young teens about pony-riding. There's the obvious quibble about it being rather more than a year or two since I was in hailing distance of childhood; but quite apart from that, I know very little about horse-riding. I did have a bout of enthusiasm when I was about twelve. This entailed reading Black Beauty and books by Jill Pullein-Thompson, and avidly studying instructions in comics about how to harness/groom/get onto a pony. Eventually I saved my pocket money and went for a lesson. I knew how to mount - of course I did. I'd read all about it. So how come I ended up facing the pony's tail?

It all went downhill from there. Instead of galloping across the moors (which would have been tricky in the South Derbyshire coal fields even if I knew how to gallop), the pony and I plodded unenthusiastically along the road for half an hour, then came back to the stable and said our farewells. Both of us knew this relationship was going nowhere.

Despite this unpromising back-story, I really enjoyed reading Katy's Pony Challenge. It helps that it's set on Exmoor, an area that I'm familiar with and that Victoria Eveleigh knows very well, as she lives and farms there. Reading the book was rather like having a mini holiday there - little details place you firmly in the landscape: Crystals of crunchy snow lingered among the gnarled, charred heather... At the top of the ridge they stopped to let Jacko get his breath back. Sweat had turned his dusty winter coat into slick, feathery curls, and he stood steaming in the ice-cool breeze.

It's a story about friendship, and about finding the things you're good at. Katy's friend Alice has been given an expensive new competition pony, and there's an expectation that she will become a successful and very competitive show jumper. Katy is pleased for her - and perhaps just a touch envious - but she soon begins to notice that Alice does not seem quite as enthralled as she should be.

Katy is also concerned about her Exmoor pony, Trifle, who has recently had a foal. Katy had found Trifle on the moor in a sorry state, and convinced her father to take the pony in. This means that there are now three ponies for Katy to look after - too many; Trifle needs more exercise than Katy has time to give her, and the foal, Tinks, needs to be trained. Then a newcomer to the area, Olivia, asks if her autistic son, James, can spend some time with Katy and the ponies - he's naturally drawn to horses, she says. He and Trifle quickly develop a bond. But for Katy, he's yet another responsibility.

But then she comes across a new way of schooling horses. It's called horse agility, and it requires a very different way of relating to them. James turns out to be remarkably good at it, and Alice is very drawn to it as well. Perhaps this will be the means by which they will find a solution for all their problems...

Any young person who's keen on horses will love this book - I know my daughter would have devoured it when she was younger. Just a word of warning; it's the fourth in a series. It's fine to read by itself, but you might want to buy all four!


For more book reviews, see my blog, A Fool On A Hill






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FOXCRAFT: The Taken, by Inbali Iserles; reviewed by Gillian Philip (plus giveaway!)

“It was always hardest for Fox.” Siffrin, emissary of the fox Elders, tells us so in this enchanting, gripping animal fantasy by Inbali Iserles, the first of a series. “To live free among the furless?” he goes on. “To hunt our prey without being seen? To elude our enemies as they circled us? It is Foxcraft that saved us.”  

Inbali Iserles (one of the Erin Hunter team who writes Survivors) has created a stunning animal world that ranges from the Snowlands to the Wildlands to the Greylands and beyond; it’s one that we see in all its beauty, grimness and terror through the eyes of young Isla, a not-quite-full-grown cub who is torn from her family as the story begins. Or rather, her family – Fa, Ma, Greatma and brother Pirie - is wrenched from her, in an act of terrible violence. By chance, Isla herself escapes, but she sees enough to know that the vicious attackers who destroy her world are foxes, too. The mystery is why they would do such a thing; and Iserles is skilful in giving Isla (and the reader) sinister glimpses of the answer. The hints at a dark-hearted Mage and a secret society of Elder foxes made me hungry to know more.

Of course Isla sets out to find her lost family; and her quest through the dirty, menacing streets of the Greylands – the ‘Great Snarl’, the city of the furless – is one that will call on all her courage, cunning and determination.

Luckily for a young and inexperienced fox, those are not all she has going for her. Siffrin is an enigmatic young stranger who claims to be a friend – but has he come to help her or betray her? Perhaps he simply doesn’t care, because Isla is no more than a means to an end… But what Siffrin does give the frightened youngster is a lesson in foxcraft: an ancient magic that feels profoundly real, and rooted deep in the natural world. If you’ve ever caught a glimpse of a fox, urban or rural, only to blink as it apparently vanishes in shadow, you’ll find foxcraft an all-too-believable kind of magic. 

Iserles has mined a rich vein of folklore to bring us foxes that can blend into thin air, that can mimic the calls of other creatures, that can even shapeshift. There may be other sons and daughters of Canista – dogs that are slaves to the furless humans, and savage wolves that howl and hunt in packs – but foxes are the most enigmatic: wise in foxlore, answering to no creature, standing alone, yet fiercely loyal to family.

The close fox’s-eye view of the narrative brings the reader right into Isla’s skin, feeling her joys as well as her fears. She’s an instantly engaging narrator, and her terror in the city is lightened by her flashbacks to a more innocent, happy cubhood. The supporting cast, from loving brother to vicious assassin, from empty-eyed hench-fox to a terrifyingly cynical and cold-eyed wolf, are drawn with the keen and perceptive eye of a true animal lover. The eponymous Taken – foxes who have had their will stolen by the mysterious Mage – are an enemy to chill the spine, but they can still prick your sympathy gland. Handsome Siffrin became an instant favourite of mine: he’s a combination of arrogance, charisma and clouded motivations who reminded me of Haku in the Hayao Miyazaki movie Spirited Away.

Clearly Inbali Iserles is absurdly talented, because the delightful drawings at each chapter head are her own. She has created haunting characters, a thoroughly exciting quest story and an enticing mystery. And she has combined those with descriptive writing that can raise the hairs on the back of your neck – whether you’re walking with Isla through the fresh wildness of parks, slinking down the city’s gritty, stinking alleys, or dashing with her, panicked, across its mangler-infested deathways.

“Dreams are the beginning,” Isla reminds us, as this part of the story ends. I am delighted that’s as far as they take us. I’m looking forward very much to whatever those dreams are going to bring us next. 

Thanks to the generosity of Scholastic, Awfully Big Reviews has three advance proof copies to give away! Just comment below, and three winners will be chosen at random. Results to be announced here on 1st September.

FOXCRAFT: The Taken by Inbali Iserles 

To be published by Scholastic on 1st October 2015; £5.99

www.gillianphilip.com

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The King of Space by Jonny Duddle - reviewed by Damian Harvey

The King of Space, written and illustrated by Jonny Duddle, has been around for a little while now but it's a book that I missed - and perhaps you did too. Whilst visiting libraries to help promote the Summer Reading Challenge - as well as talking about my own books I also spent time with children to help them choose other books that they might enjoy reading. The King of Space caught my eye and proved to be a very popular choice with readers that were looking for something fun to read but felt reluctant to jump into a bigger book.
 

The King of Space was a perfect choice - especially boys who loved the story, artwork and the format of the book itself. The only thing that might have put them off is that that i found the book placed amongst all of the other picture books so it tends to get missed. While King of Space is a picture book - for me it is one of those real gems... a picture book for older readers.

 

Rex isn't really a naughty boy. He's just a normal boy with big ideas who is tired of living a boring life on Mum and Dad's Moog farm. While all of the other children/aliens at school have little ideas about what they want to be when they grow up, Rex bravely declares that he wants to be the 'KING OF SPACE!' Naturally, all of his classmates laugh at him but Rex is determined to see his plan through.

 

With the help of his mechanically minded friend, Blip, Rex builds a huge 'WARBOT' that will enable him to achieve his goal. Then one night whilst Mum and Dad think Rex is having a sleepover at his friends house, Rex and his Warbot 'crush all resistance in the Western Spiral' and Rex declares himself King of Space. And just to be 'on the safe side' he kidnaps Emperor Bob's daughter.

 

As you can well imagine, the Emperor and the Intergalactic Alliance aren't happy with Rex's behaviour - he's been a very naughty boy - so a huge fleet of spaceships converge on Rex's house. Rex does the only thing he can an rushes in to tell Mum and Dad what he's done and that he doesn't want to play anymore. It is, of course, all left to Mum to sort out the trouble. But is this an end to Rex's plans???

The picture book/comic book style of this works very well and it certainly has plenty of appeal for older readers. There is lots of humour that will appeal to the older readers too, whilst also striking a very familiar chord with adults.

The King of Space is lots of fun and it's a book I will be recommending again.

You can visit Jonny Duddle's website www.jonny-duddle.com/

Damian Harvey can be found at www.damianharvey.co.uk
Twitter @damianjharvey
 

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The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman reviewed by Lynda Waterhouse

I have been spending a lot of time looking at pictorial representations of mazes and labyrinths and so it was the title of this novel that first caught my eye when I was making one of my many trips to Foyles.

The first sentence drew me in,

Sophie Martineau looked out of the window of her mother’s 1954 Ford station wagon and watched her life slide behind her into the past.

From that moment I was transfixed by the story of thirteen year old Sophie Martineau’s summer in Louisiana in the 1960s. Her parents have just divorced and her mother is trying to earn a living and study to become an accountant in the evenings. So Sophie has to stay with her grandmother and her aunt on the dilapidated former sugar plantation.

America in the 1960s is beautifully and uncompromisingly evoked in the novel. Sophia’s beautiful mother has been brought up as a southern belle and who has told Sophie to, ‘never under any circumstances speak to any Negro man she didn’t already know.’

Sophie spends her time reading and sunbathing until an encounter with a mysterious creature in the overgrown maze offers her an opportunity to have the adventure that she craves as well as an escape from the painful feelings she has towards her mother and her father, who has suddenly remarried. Sophie finds herself transported through time to the planation as it was in 1860.

The experience is nothing like the bookish Sophie imagines it is going to be like. Her own ancestors mistake her for a slave and she is made to work in various roles on the plantation.  She slowly begins to realise that she may not be able to return home. There is real jeopardy and pain as Sophie grows and matures and helps others to escape to a freedom that may be denied her.

This is a beautifully written book that took Delia Sherman eighteen years and twenty seven drafts to perfect. It is a master - or should I say mistress - class in how to write a coming of age, a timeslip and a historical novel which highlights race and gender issues that sadly still resonate. Today.

ISBN978-1-4721-1752-6 published by Corsair

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Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee - review by Dawn Finch

From the jacket.....

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. 

The publication of this book (and the controversy surrounding both it and Lee's life) can't have escaped anyone's notice. Written in the 1950s, Lee says that she always saw Go Set A Watchman as a companion book to To Kill A Mockingbird. In fact she wrote them both at roughly the same time, but actually submitted Go Set A Watchman to her publishers first. Somehow the manuscript was lost and it was not re-discovered until late 2014 when publication was initiated. The book has been packaged as an adult book but, with To Kill A Mockingbird still firmly on the National Curriculum, I can see how Go Set A Watchman could neatly fit into the shelf of books that are recommended to young adult readers in their later teens. I think they should read it, not because they should study it, but because they should simply read it and make their own decisions.

The language is often shocking (and there is frequent use of the N word) and the issues covered are powerful and controversial (including incest, murder, extreme racism, and gender subjugation) and so I'd recommend that parents and teachers read it first before recommending to younger teens. Over-study can ruin a book, but this could easily be offered to young adults who enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird and want to know what happened next. I was one of those young readers who was forced to analyse every tiny detail of To Kill A Mockingbird in school, and therefore I had a somewhat jaded image of Lee's writing and I wasn't going to be influenced by the hype and buzz surrounding the publication of Go Set A Watchman. In fact I wasn't prepared to enjoy it, but I did.

The book is actually quite beautiful, but in a deeply sombre way. Jean Louise's story is enigmatically portrayed and the prose draws you in from the start. None of your rigid "show, don't tell" here as we are told of Jean Louise's world and we accompany her on her journey back to her childhood home via highly descriptive flashbacks. Atticus as an old man is not the person we think we knew when we met him back in To Kill A Mockingbird, but it turns out that we only knew him through the eyes of an eight year old. Scout is grown up and now we meet her as Jean Louise, and the rosy-glow of her remembered childhood gets grubbier and more brutal page by page.

She arrives in her home town to visit her elderly father two years on from the death of her brother, and now sees everything through the filter of her adult eyes and perceptions. The truths she uncovers are far from new to a reader with any knowledge of the period and location, and one does wonder how a well educated young woman like Jean Louise has been able to ignore the glaringly obvious up till now. How Jean Louise reacts to these revelations about her home town creates a deeply sad reminder of how we should never go back, and of the dark shadows that can lurk in our history.

There are some passages that feel rather tiresome and over-explanatory, and in places the book does feel like it needs a good broom-sweeping editor. I'm not convinced that most readers will enjoy some of the longer chunks of scene-setting explanations about how Alabama and its overlapping families fitted into the Civil Rights Movement. It seems that Jean Louise does need these things pointed out to her (in fact the men around her take a lot of time to patronise her and to point out that she knows nothing). It is possible that teen readers (who may not yet have studied the background of the American Civil Rights Movement and the NAACP) will find these passages more interesting and enlightening, but to me these sections feel as if they hinder the smooth flow of the story. I would have liked the history to trickle out via the plot, and not by long wordy explanations.

All in all I felt drawn in to Jean Louise's world and I wanted to return not to her adulthood, but to her childhood naivety. I suspect we have all had those moments in our lives when we are hit with the reality of something we never noticed before, or perhaps a truth that we never wanted to admit. Even though the experiences that she has are (thankfully) a world away from those most of us will go through, the melancholy remembrance of lost halcyon days is perhaps something we all share.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee is published by William Heinemann (isbn 9781785150289)
Publication date 14 July 2015


Review by Dawn Finch
Vice President CILIP
CWIG Committee Member
Children's author and librarian
www.dawnfinch.com



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LEIF FROND by JOAN LENNON. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

LEIF FROND AND QUICKFINGERS

LEIF FROND AND THE VIKING GAMES


"My name is Frond. Leif Frond."

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

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

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

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

Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.   www.annturnbull.com

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THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS by JOHN BOYNE, revisited and reviewed by Pauline Francis

 

I went to hear John Boyne speak at this year’s Hay Festival because it was a special occasion, chaired by festival director Peter Florence himself, to re-visit this novel on its tenth birthday.

I love this book and I decided that I’d like to re-visit it with them.

The idea came to John one Tuesday and he wrote without stopping for four days and nights – kept awake by coffee - until he was forced out with friends to celebrate his birthday. Those four days gave him the essence of the novel, which he wrote and re-wrote over the next nine months with few changes to the story itself.

He felt that he’d written something very special, which is a wonderful feeling and doesn’t happen with every book, as authors know to their cost.

I didn’t know this, but the first review said that it was a novel of breath-taking vulgarity!

This comment took my breath away. John said he was crushed by it and began to doubt his work.

Usually a book reviewer will sum up the story. I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m quoting the dust jacket on the first hardback copies: “The story is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think that it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year old boy called Bruno. And sooner or later, you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.”

I know that much of the criticism came from the book’s apparent concentration on a young, blond German boy, who seems to be more important than the thousands of Jews who died in the holocaust.

But I think that this is missing the point. So I’m going to applaud the book jacket again. It ends: “Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence.”

Brilliant!

This book’s importance is in no doubt. At the end of the session, Peter Florence presented John with a special award: the novel has sold one million copies in the UK.

Well done, John Boyne. Your novel is on its way to becoming a classic in a world where fences such as the one that Bruno met are still being built, rather than being torn down.

Let us hope that if it is being read in a hundred years time – as a true classic – that readers will shake their heads in disbelief that such fences ever existed.

That is the true legacy of this wonderful book.

Pauline Francis

www.paulinefrancis.co.uk

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