NEW YEAR NEWS!
From the start of January 2021, Awfully Big Reviews
will become part of the Awfully Big Blog Adventure blog itself,
and appear within the posts there.
This linked blog will remain as the
AWFULLY BIG REVIEWS ARCHIVE
and can be searched for past titles and recommendations.
Many thanks to all who have contributed
to ABR in the past
- and wishing you all plenty of good books and reading times
for the future!
Penny Dolan, ABR Admin.
@pennydolan1
When I was growing up, I was among the first generation of Indians learning about computers. I loved playing computer games and trying to get hold of gameboys and other gadgets which we couldn't afford. Often borrowed or just watching others do it, it was one of those things that I've always been in the peripherals are. I'm also a child of comic books - India is big on comics and most of the epics I learnt about - more than the stories told at home, I was reading them as comics.
As a writer visiting schools, I often create workshops around games and stories - where characters can enter the realm of games or into the world of their favourite TV programmes to enthuse those kids who are more into gaming than into reading.
So when I picked up Aisha Bushby's A Pocketful of Stars, I was so happy to read about the contemporary setup of games and animation stories and the friendship (and rivalries) of girls. But this story took me by surprise - the layers of emotions added into it. From a divorce of parents, to blended heritages, to theatre and drama, the story threads through difficult subjects in realistic and yet magical ways.
Then the magic - the way the game and the reality blends, and how the analogy of the relationship plays out in this game and in real life - this was beautifully done, no doubt, painstakingly crafted.
The book's emotional punches are never pulled right until the end and when I was reading the last few chapters on a train, I found myself crying on the tube perhaps adding to the myth of "emotional immigrant". I was so gutted by the end and yet so happy to have read the story and gone on this journey.
The book is great to read as a class or by children on their own - but beyond the magic and games, the story will offer discussions, perhaps will open pathways of dialogue between friends, between parents and children - about relationships, guilts and our identities.
If you have not read this book yet, what are you waiting for?
Listen to Aisha Bushby read a little from this book here.
‘The colours are bright, bright as ever.
The red is strong, the blue is true.
Some things last a long time.
Some things last a lifetime.
I had seen Daniel Johnson perform
at the Union Chapel; taken there by a good friend. A few years later, just like
Wolf, my friend had disappeared from our lives.
So, this is how the story goes:
Fox and his old friend Wolf spend a perfect day together at
their favourite spot by the lake. They talk and laugh and swim together in the
bright sunshine. Towards the end of this perfect day, Wolf places a big, grey
paw on Fox’s shoulder and says, ‘Tomorrow
I will be starlight.’
The next day Wolf is nowhere to be found. Fox searches
everywhere and still she waits for Wolf.
‘He said he was going
to be starlight,
So maybe he’s up there
in the sky.’
As night falls Fox heads up the mountains that surround the
lake and calls out for Wolf. She is in search of the brightest star. She pulls
the ‘shining star blanket’ around her
and cries in the darkness. This is the moment that she knows that Wolf is never
coming back. Through her tears she recalls Wolf’s words; ‘Life really is beautiful.’ From that moment ‘all the things they had done together came flooding back in bright
colours.’ Fox now understands that
Wolf is gone but all their happy memories would be with her always. She is able
to carry on.
The world is surrounded by swirly, jagged mountains that we
first meet in a cool green on the endpapers. There is also a bird that will
appear throughout the story to support Fox. By the end of the story the landscape
is flooded by light and sunshine. The illustrations reveal the emotional journey.
The image of Fox wrapped in the velvety star blanket is heart wrenching but is
followed by an image of a little red paw in the sunshine which moves us beyond the
grief and sadness. Fox is not alone. There is the little bird and also a mouse
for friendship and support, and of course there are happy memories.
The impact of this story lasts a long time.
ISBN 978-1-444-94659
Hodder Children’s Books
www.hachettechildrens.co.uk
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THE ISLAND THAT DIDN'T EXIST by Joe Wilson
This book is a gripping story for Middle Grade readers. A fast-paced mix of mystery, humour and adventure with a thrilling denouement. I highly recommend it.
Ran is a teenage girl in Viking Norway. Her family live by fishing and the few animals they keep. They have no slaves and only one servant. Ran has an uneasy relationship with her widowed mother, though she loves her grandmother, Amma.
The story begins when a stranger comes to their home. Vigut is handsome, strong and assertive. Ran discovers later that he is a man from her mother's past. Her mother had wanted to marry him, but he was poor, and the marriage was not allowed by her family. Right from the start, the mood of the story is ominous. Ran notices that Vigut's horse is not well cared for and shows marks of beating. This man is trouble.
Vigut travels with Ran and her mother to distant Sessing for the seasonal sacrifice to Odin. It soon becomes clear that Vigut plans to seize Sessing from its owner Finnulf. On the long cold journey the travellers are attacked by wolves, and Ran's mother is mortally wounded. She dies soon after they arrive, leaving Ran in danger, both from Vigut and from the terrifying wise-woman Gullveig. But it's also at Sessing that Ran meets Toki, the man she will come to love, and with whom she will travel to a new life and new adventures.
Although only 150 pages long, this is an epic story, full of action. It deserves to be read both for its historical drama and for the convincing portrayal of family relationships and of a young girl's troubled emotions. It has certainly made me want to seek out Henrietta Branford's other books.
First published by Hodder in 1996. Now available second-hand from Amazon.
Suitable for ages 12+
This is one of those books of simple brilliance that makes you think, why didn't I think of that?! With the flap-opening and animal appeal of classic Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell, Where's Baby Elephant poses its one question, and lets the child unfold again and again until Baby Elephant is found.
Each big spread made of card shows some animals ... then opens to almost magically transform into other animals ... then opens again to perform the same pleasing trick. See how it works -
This is another wonderful, and different, book from Tiny Owl publishers. Do click through to visit their website full of interest and teaching ideas. And, if you are able to contribute, Tiny Owl are crowdfunding for their survival, having not been given the government grant they applied for.
