CHOCOLATE CAKE by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Kevin Waldron. Review by Penny Dolan.

Hello! Like many, many people, I was happy to hear the good news that MICHAEL ROSEN - poet, writer, educator, former Children's Laureate and general Treasure - has left the intense Coronovirus Unit and is recovering safely and slowly with those he loves.

Good wishes to Michael Rosen and his family from both Awfully Big Adventure Blogs.

Here, through an updated review, is a a reminder of the enjoyment he brings to so many people:


Michael Rosen’s picture book, which was sent to me, is based on one of his most popular spoken poems, available on YouTube.

The subject - chocolate cake! - is one which most children will have strong feelings about, while my viewing of social media suggests that it is probably a favourite daydream for many adults too, especially teachers in need of comfort in the classroom. 

 (Update: And especially right now, as teachers and support staff continue to cope with the current impact of the virus on schools and pupils, with the current state of goverment planning, and all the "media messages".)

The book is already on the way to being a winning idea. 

(Update: It was - and here is a fantastic video of Michael sharing the poem with children in Scotland - a reminder of the joy of school author visits and a hope that one day such events will be possible again!  )

The lively page spreads amplify the narrative structure of the poem. Told in his well-known first person “child” voice, Rosen retells a half-familiar family anecdote: the story of a young boy sneaking downstairs at night while his parents are asleep in bed. The boy knows there is a chocolate cake waiting in the fridge and just wants to look at it. Inevitably, bit by bit, the young narrator nibbles, eats and then gobbles up the entire delicious cake. 

I recall a Naughty Little Sister story where the greedy dish was a birthday tea-party trifle, and this half-familiarity of the incident Rosen uses that gives the story universal appeal. 

Of course, as he goes back to bed, the boy suddenly realises he will be in big trouble. . He decides that the only way to stop his Mum finding out is to remove all the evidence so he spends the rest of the night cleaning away every crumb and clue. Except, of course, he doesn't quite succeed, but you’ll have to read the book or view the poem to find out quite what he's forgotten.

Kevin Waldron, who has been named one of BookTrust’s best new illustrators, brings a welcome child’s-eye view to the pages. His spreads and page-turns dramatise the action, adding to the suspense of the slightly naughty deed done at night in a dark house. 

Waldron uses interesting text layouts and speech bubbles to accentuate the poem’s lively use of sounds - Heh- heh! Gobble-Gulp! -  and all the muttered worries and "instructions to self" – Good thinking! All right, yeah! – so that it’s easy to imagine any young reader being encouraged to join in with the friendly telling. Waldron’s artwork isn’t of the “beautiful” kind but I really liked the way he has captured the young child’s world and viewpoint. 

The picture book format makes the reader – young or old -  both an observer and a sympathetic third party, feeling the tension between the child’s longing, the delicious naughtiness of the greedy theft and the knowledge that he is bound to be found out.

I did not see Rosen’s CHOCOLATE CAKE video beforehand as I wanted this picture book to be a fresh experience. Would it have been different if I’d seen it? I can’t tell. However, as an ex-teacher, I’m sure that the younger readers may well appreciate having both versions of the poem, and that one can help the other along.

Besides, CHOCOLATE CAKE might make a useful book for Key Stage Two classes to borrow. The format, demonstrating the steps of the "plot", could encourage children and teachers to explore their own anecdotal storytelling s, and I’ve also found, on school visits, that Rosen's poems, based on everyday family life, make very good immediate ways in to creative personal writing for KS2 children.

Unfortunately, I suspect that reading CHOCOLATE CAKE might make the whole class and teaching staff long for break time treats! 

Good wishes to all of you who have been keeping children happy in one way or another over these last desperate weeks!

Penny Dolan.

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HOPE AGAINST HOPE by Sheena Wilkinson. Review by Penny Dolan

This novel, HOPE AGAINST HOPE, is the third in a trilogy of YA historical novels by Sheena Wilkinson, an award-winning author and writing teacher who lives in County Down, Northern Ireland and who writes with a real sense of place.

NAME UPON NAME, her first historical novel, was set in 1916, during the Easter Rising with STAR UPON STAR, her second book, set during the General Election of 1918, when the women of Ireland could vote for the first time.

HOPE BY HOPE, published this month, is set in Belfast during 1921: the year when the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland was established.

Bright, impulsive, fifteen-year-old Polly is a girl with a love of reading and learning and a habit of speaking out when it might be better to stay quiet. 

Despite Polly’s spark, her life is not easy. She lives in fictional Mullankeen, a small rural town close to the new border and in what was a once-happier home.

Since Polly’s mother died in the Spanish flu epidemic, her widowed father has turned in on himself, giving all his attention to running his draper's shop. 

Meanwhile, Polly’s brother Leo, who had fought as a now-hated British soldier, disappears into drunken binges and bursts of violence and rage.

Then Polly hears that her cousin Catherine is going to Belfast, to study shorthand and typing at a commercial school and take up lodgings in a girl’s hostel. Polly longs to go too, but her father refuses to consider it, leaving Polly resentful of the limits put on her learning and her life. 

 

Polly stays on in Mullankeen, skivvying for her brother and father until a vicious incident provokes her into action. Polly runs to Belfast, where she feels overwhelmed by the noise and bustle. At last, Catherine arrives with Sandy, a young man who leads the girls through the troubled streets past lamposts adorned with flags and the shouts of turbulent louts. Polly’s impulsive response soon teaches her that Belfast is a more volatile place than rural Mullankeen.

Polly goes to the Helen’s Hope hostel where she in taken in, as long as she can prove her worth. The large house is a bold venture: a hostel set up for young women even when some believe females should live within their family home until they are married. More than that, the hostel has been established as firmly non-sectarian at a time when religious divisions are being exploited and strengthened.

Everyone who lives in the “Helen’s Hope” community helps to keep the hostel running, whether by working in the house, kitchen or garden, or sewing in the factory building, or by teaching or bringing in money from elsewhere. During the day the girls are busy while in the evenings they are free to entertain themselves within the house.

Despite the desperate situation, I rather felt that Polly’s stay at Hope House had some of the charm of an old-fashioned boarding school story – intense friendships, loyalty to the group, a mix of both admirable and awkward characters, a few misunderstandings and secrets, plus lone strangers, dangerous plots, night-time searches and so on, which all gave Polly's time there a welcome pace and interest.

However, at the same time, Sheena Wilkinson weaves in strong and gritty themes, revealing poverty, suspicion and the darker side of a sectarian city where the shipyards drove out Catholic labourers and poor, homeless girls had few choices.

There is anotherstrand in the storytelling that I particularly enjoyed. As Polly - and the reader - experience both clues and confusions within the story, Polly realises that she, herself, sometimes misunderstands situations and people and may need to set her own life straight again.

At a time when Irish history and the Northern Irish Border seems so relevant to the current political situation, HOPE BY HOPE – and all the books in Sheena Wilkinson’s trilogy – must be valuable additions for secondary school libraries across the UK.

Penny Dolan

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Welcome to 2020 - and THE BRITANNIA MYSTERIES by LYNNE BENTON: Review by Penny Dolan

HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2020 . . . and SALUTE!  

 

Yesterday I saw that an area of land beside Hadrian's Wall, containing a Roman site, had been donated by private landowners to English Heritage. 

Consequently, today feels like the right moment to update a past Awfully Big Reviews post, and show how a couple of historic titles had now grown into a complete Britannia Mysteries Trilogy.

A book arrrived through my letterbox a while ago. It was a copy of DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL by Lynne Benton, the second in her Britannia series; set in Roman Britain, these are exactly the kind of stories that many KS2 readers would enjoy.

The first, THE CENTURION’S SON, (set in 312 AD) takes place in Isca, in what’s now known as South Wales. 

Felix - the hero and twelve year-old son of the title – is anxious: Gaius the Senior Centurion, his trusted father, has been missing for days.

But Gaius has disappeared without telling Felix where he is going, or making any of his usual preparations for a journey, nor leaving any money for Felix to buy food while he was gone.

Felix had hoped that Commander Octavius had sent his father on a secret mission, but then soldiers arrive, claiming his father is a runaway traitor and Felix is thrown in prison himself.  Who will believe or help him? Even if he escapes, what can he do next? Fortunately, his long-time friend Catrin, a Silesian slave-girl with second sight, is ready to help. Despite ill-treatment, cruel treachery and life-threatening dangers, the two determined friends use their wits and their keen, watchful eyes to untangle the mystery.

In DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL, Lynne Benton’s second book,  Felix and Catrin have been now adopted by Commander Quintus Maximus and his wife Drusilla. When reports arrive of trouble with the Barbarians, the 2^nd Augustan Legion is ordered north to Hadrian’s Wall, Felix is left behind. Desperate to prove his own bravery, Felix hatches a plan that soon has Catrin, himself and others following the footsteps of the legion. The journey is long and hard.

Unfortunately, when the band of travellers finally reach the camp at Hadrian’s Wall, the Commander is not pleased. Felix and Catrin find there are worrying signs of treachery and suspicion around the camp too, and trouble with the local Caledonian tribes. 

In addition, not only does Catrin become annoyingly jealous of Mina, the new slave girl that Felix has befriended, but she has started dreaming of flames and danger.

Then, to Felix’s horror, Catrin disappears. How can he find what has happened? He will find her, he will and, luckily, the friendly soldier Tullio is there to help and guide him on his quest beyond the Wall . . .

The third book of the trilogy, THE LOST TREASURE OF AQUA SULIS is set in Bath. This novel continues the story of Felix and Catrin as they travel with Drusilla their foster mother to the great city. 

Drusilla is there to visit the magical healing waters and make offerings to the Goddess for the safety and health of her young child and her family. Soon enough, Felix and Catrin find themselves caught up in a mystery filled with stolen treasures, false accusations, crimes and secrets.  

At the same time, they are both concerned for themselves. Now that Quintus Maximus and Drusilla have a child of their own, what will happen to tCatrin and Felix, especially as they have such an awkward way of finding trouble wherever they go?


 
Lynne Benton’s writing reflects her knowledge of children, These books in this trilogy, at around a hundred and fifty pages, are not overlong and are easy and pleasing to read.. The short, neatly-plotted chapters make the books very suitable for 7 to 9 year old readers and the author adds just as much incidental historical information as the plots require. 

These books are a good choice for children who have Roman Britain as a topic on their school curriculum. 

Even though the plots and characters are fictional, the three historical settings - Carleon Roman Fortress in Wales, Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, and the reconstructed Bath House at Bath - are all there in the real world and available for interesting historical visits, with added inspiration from the BRITANNIA MYSTERIES inspiration.

All three books, published by Coppertree Press, are available through Amazon.

Penny Dolan.

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A BOOKWORM FOR NEW YEAR? by Penny Dolan

Hello and Happy New Year from Awfully Big Reviews too!

As the ABR review organiser, I'm really looking forward to all the books and ideas that the ABR authors will bring to this blog during 2019, starting tomorrow. I'm only here for today, but I do want to mention a book that gave me much delight and pleasure during a run of wakeful Christmas nights: BOOKWORM by Lucy Mangan. 

This account of and reflection on her own childhood reading grew from a column in the Guardian and was published early last year. Mangan was, and is, someone who is happiest when reading, and part of the delight of this book is that she writes from a personal rather than academic point of view. Chapter by chapter, Mangan moves through her own experience of children's books and what could be called "the reading environment", from the horrors of formal reading lessons through to children's need to re-read books as part of their learning process and, later, the pressure of the peer group.

Drawing on her memories of life as a dedicated reader in playgroups, nurseries, and classrooms, Mangan writes about hated and favourite early picture books, through to the illustrated world of Dogger, and series like Funnybones and her love for Gobbolino chapter books and, eventually, Blyton. We revisit the Borrowers and Narnia and What Katy Did and more.

Later, thinking back to her time as a teenager in an ordinary comprehensive school, she muses on jolly school stories, on all the pony books and then the American "teenage writers" such as the beloved Judy Blume, the rise of the teen apocalypse novels, the Sweet Valley High franchise where she learns to feign enthusiasm, and what was the Twilight phenomena.

You may not agree with all the books that Mangan chooses - she avoided fantasy, myths and legends, for example - or her view of different authors, but she gives a wonderfully nostalgic portrait of education, society and children's lives at the end of the last century, as well as revealing the security that the true bookworm, young or grown, gets from reading. 

Offering up her childhood, and the contrast between her parents, she shows that life as a true bookworm does bring and create its own problems. However, BOOKWORM is laced with a certain poignancy: as a mother, Mangan hopes that her six-year-old son will become as enthusiastic a reader as she is, but that his own practical nature - and maybe, I'd suggest, his own better sense of security - make it harder for him to be the kind of child who loses himself in a book.

Honesty, humour, nostalgia, darkness, delight, gentle social commentary and a glorious trawl through the many books of ones childhood - what more could one want? I was enchanted. A great start to 2019!

Penny Dolan




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THE CENTURION'S SON and DANGER AT HADRIAN'S WALL by Lynne Benton. Review by Penny Dolan.

I am a great fan of history, and of encouraging primary children to enjoy and imagine and learn their way into past historical times too, so I was pleased when a new book arrived through my door, coming from a friend who I know is as enthusiastic as I am. 

The book was a copy of DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL by Lynne Benton, the second in her Britannia series; set in Roman Britain, these are exactly the kind of stories that many KS2 readers would enjoy.

The first, THE CENTURION’S SON, (set in 312 AD) takes place in Isca, in what’s now known as South Wales. 

Felix - the hero and twelve year-old son of the title – is anxious: Gaius the Senior Centurion, his trusted father, has been missing for days.

But Gaius has disappeared without telling Felix where he is going, or making any of his usual preparations for a journey, nor leaving any money for Felix to buy food while he was gone.

Felix had hoped that Commander Octavius had sent his father on a secret mission, but then soldiers arrive, claiming his father is a runaway traitor and Felix is thrown in prison himself.  Who will believe or help him? Even if he escapes, what can he do next? Fortunately, his long-time friend Catrin, a Silesian slave-girl with second sight, is ready to help. Despite ill-treatment, cruel treachery and life-threatening dangers, the two determined friends use their wits and their keen, watchful eyes to untangle the mystery.

In Lynne Benton’s second book, DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL, Felix and Catrin have been now adopted by Commander Quintus Maximus and his wife Drusilla. When reports arrive of trouble with the Barbarians, the 2^nd Augustan Legion is ordered north to Hadrian’s Wall, Felix is left behind. Desperate to prove his own bravery, Felix hatches a plan that soon has Catrin, himself and others following the footsteps of the legion. The journey is long and hard.

Unfortunately, when the band of travellers finally reach the camp at Hadrian’s Wall, the Commander is not pleased. Felix and Catrin find there are worrying signs of treachery and suspicion around the camp too, and trouble with the local Caledonian tribes. 

In addition, not only does Catrin become annoyingly jealous of Mina, the new slave girl that Felix has befriended, but she has started dreaming of flames and danger.

Then, to Felix’s horror, Catrin disappears. How can he find what has happened? He will find her, he will and, luckily, the friendly soldier Tullio is there to help and guide him on his quest beyond the Wall . . .

Lynne Benton’s writing reflects her knowledge of children, These two books, at around a hundred and fifty pages, are not overlong and easy to read.. The short, neatly-plotted chapters make the books very suitable for 7 to 9 year old readers and she adds just as much incidental historical information as the plot require. The stories make good choices for children who have Roman Britain as a topic on their school curriculum.

Moreover, although both the plots, characters and young heroes are fictional, children and families can visit the real-world remains of the Carleon Roman Fortress and reconstructed Bath House, as well as the exhibitions and excavations at the more famous Hadrian’s Wall too, and enjoy some historical fact-finding and imagining themselves.

Both books are published by Coppertree Press, with THE LOST TREASURE, the third book in the series, ready to be published soon.

Penny Dolan.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR - with THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY. Review by Penny Dolan

Greetings and all good wishes for 2018!

Today's the day when Awfully Big Book Reviews re-opens for the year. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's chosen titles as the weeks go by. I really love the interests and enthusiasms among the team of Reviewers and that they will bring a greater diversity of titles than one person's reading list might offer.

Apologies, however, for the repeat of a review below,although I'm not saying sorry for the choice at all as a) the author is the other editor of the ABBA blog and b) the story is a bold, brave adventure mostly set somewhere warmer than here. 

Besides, the review, having been written a while back, will not be bringing you any of the coughs, sneezes, wheezes and bugs currently bothering me and my writing brain. The year, as they say, can only get better. (Achooooo!) Right, here we go . . .

Sometimes, as you start reading a new book, you forget that you know the writer personally, finding yourself instead in the grip of a wonderfully well-written story. Who is it by? you vaguely think. Who? . . . Oh! . . .Of course!  It’s So-and-so’s book! How nice! I’d forgotten that . . . What a pleasure!

Which is what happened as I read JACK FORTUNE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY, a novel for 8-12 year olds, written by Sue Purkiss, co-editor of the Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

Inspired by the lives of 18th century plant-hunters, Sue has written a fast-moving historical adventure story.  Jack Fortune, the young hero, is energetic and interestingly naughty. Bored and with no school to attend, he can’t resist devising tricks - ones that made me laugh - mostly on his stern widowed Aunt Constance and her guests. He is immediately likeable and trouble!

Jack accidentally causes real damage, so Constance summons her scholarly bachelor brother, Uncle Edmund, as it is his turn to take responsibility for his nephew. Uncle Edmund refuses.

 Not only is he unused to children, but he is about to set off on his first plant-hunting trip to India. Jack, hearing this exciting news, wants to go along with Uncle Edmund and Aunt Constance, unable to take any more, agrees.

 Jack and his uncle  – and the reader – experience a new life full of challenge and interesting people and places. They sail to Calcutta, cross the great plain and travel through the jungle before reaching a high mountain kingdom with a hidden valley. All the way, Jack and his uncle face setbacks and dangers: vagabonds, wild animals,  “mountain sickness” and, at last, reports of a huge, legendary being who attacks intruders to the Hidden Valley. Moreover, an unknown traitor is spoiling the expedition party’s food supplies and causing problems with local villagers.  Who wishes them ill? Is it Sonam, their guide or Thondup, the heir to the throne, whom Jack has begun to admire?

Sue Purkiss’s plot moves along with plenty of pace and action and just enough description to fix the story in its historical time and place, and without overloading her young reader’s enjoyment. She also touches lightly and skilfully on darker issues such as servants and colonisation, but lets the bold adventure end as happily as it should.

However, I felt the book was about more than the plant-hunting quest: Jack and Uncle Edmund make a wonderfully odd and warm partnership, and the hardships met on the expedition teach them more about the other. Bookish Uncle Edmund slowly reveals his bravely determined nature and his passion for plant-hunting - especially for the blue flower that will restore the family fame and fortune. Meanwhile, faced with real demands and responsibilities rather than tea-parties and polite manners, Jack becomes the boy hero he was meant to be and is even able to accept his own inherited artistic gifts.

I liked JACK FORTUNE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY very much because, despite the difficulties Jack and his Uncle face, the adventure is a positive and hopeful experience and one that might encourage children to look beyond everyday life and issues in school and out into a wider world.

Alma Books have also created some downloadable activities to support of this title:  http://almabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Jack-Fortune-Activity-Book.pdf

as well as an interview with the author Sue Purkiss: http://almabooks.com/interview-sue-purkiss-author-jack-fortune/                                                                          

Penny Dolan

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YOU CHOOSE IN SPACE, CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE MIX UP and HIDE AND SEEK. Review by Penny Dolan

I’ve always loved seeing small groups of children poring over favourite "sharing" books. I like the way they talk about the pictures and pages, pointing out characters and interesting things and making or retelling their own mini-stories. Sharing with friends or with grown-ups – especially those who enjoy the playfulness of the task and delight in funny choices - is a positive and friendly part of a child’s reading experience.

Today’s review includes three titles that fit into the “books for sharing” picture book category.

YOU CHOOSE IN SPACE, created by NICK SHARRATT and PIPPA GOODHART, is the latest title in the popular You Choose design formula, offering a tool-kit of “space” ideas to enjoy and bright, detailed spreads. The young readers are led through the spreads by two “human” characters ( a boy in a wheel-chair and a mixed-race girl) whose speech-bubble suggestions help the reader to create their own individual imaginary story. What job will you do on the space ship as you fly to Planet Pick and Mix? What clothes and shoes, friends and monsters and more will you choose? The spreads are full of ideas and visual jokes while across the end-papers, just inside the covers, are examples of wonderfully expanded adventures to guide the space journey.

CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE MIX-UP, my second “sharing book”, comes from HILARY ROBINSON. (Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, created by Hilary and Nick Sharratt, has been a favourite in schools for some years.) CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE MIX-UP, her newest title, is another in the hands-on, split-page, spiral-bound format, but this time illustrated by Jim Smith. Children can flip and re-arrange the flaps to create story variations involving characters like Santa Claus, Jack Frost, Cinderella, Snow White, Christmas Fairy and more. So, for example, the three flaps could create Little Red Riding Hood / went shopping for a special present for / the Big Bad Wolf or Santa Claus / got stuck in the chimney of the house belonging to / the Three Little Pigs  or several alternative combinations.

HIDE AND SEEK, the third picture book, is told in a much quieter and more thoughtful mode than the titles above. HIDE AND SEEK is by well-established illustrator ANTHONY BROWNE, with scenes that remind me of earlier books, especially his version of Hansel and Gretel.  Poppy and her bored, younger brother Cy are in the caravan, feeling sad because their puppy Goldie is missing. Poppy takes Cy outside and sends him off to hide in the wood outside their door. As Poppy seeks for Cy, and Cy waits to be found, the wood takes on a shadowy feel and strange, surreal things are glimpsed, half-hidden, within the spooky trees. What can you find? asks the book. I felt the items were very well hidden, but thankfully, there's a page at the back listing the eighteen hidden objects, and HIDE AND SEEK does have the hoped-for happy surprise ending. There's an anxious mood to the spreads which, combined with the lack of any parent roles around in the story, makes me feel that it would be good to have a book-sharing, talking adult by your side for comfort as much as for help with the seeking task. I felt HIDE AND SEEK is more suited to book-shelves and book-boxes of KS1 than to EYFS collections.

I wonder if you have any favourite sharing books?

Reviews by Penny Dolan

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JACK FORTUNE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY by Sue Purkiss, Review by Penny Dolan.

Sometimes, as you start reading a new book, you forget that you know the writer personally, finding yourself instead in the grip of a wonderfully well-written story. Who is it by? you vaguely think. Who? . . . Oh! . . .Of course!  It’s So-and-so’s book! How nice! I’d forgotten that . . . What a pleasure!

Which is what happened as I read JACK FORTUNE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY, a novel for 8-12 year olds, written by Sue Purkiss, co-editor of the Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

Inspired by the lives of 18th century plant-hunters, Sue has written a fast-moving historical adventure story.  Jack Fortune, the young hero, is energetic and interestingly naughty. Bored and with no school to attend, he can’t resist devising tricks - ones that made me laugh - mostly on his stern widowed Aunt Constance and her guests. He is immediately likeable and trouble!

Jack accidentally causes real damage, so Constance summons her scholarly bachelor brother, Uncle Edmund, as it is his turn to take responsibility for his nephew. Uncle Edmund refuses.

 Not only is he unused to children, but he is about to set off on his first plant-hunting trip to India. Jack, hearing this exciting news, wants to go along with Uncle Edmund and Aunt Constance, unable to take any more, agrees.

 Jack and his uncle  – and the reader – experience a new life full of challenge and interesting people and places. They sail to Calcutta, cross the great plain and travel through the jungle before reaching a high mountain kingdom with a hidden valley. All the way, Jack and his uncle face setbacks and dangers: vagabonds, wild animals,  “mountain sickness” and, at last, reports of a huge, legendary being who attacks intruders to the Hidden Valley. Moreover, an unknown traitor is spoiling the expedition party’s food supplies and causing problems with local villagers.  Who wishes them ill? Is it Sonam, their guide or Thondup, the heir to the throne, whom Jack has begun to admire?

Sue Purkiss’s plot moves along with plenty of pace and action and just enough description to fix the story in its historical time and place, and without overloading her young reader’s enjoyment. She also touches lightly and skilfully on darker issues such as servants and colonisation, but lets the bold adventure end as happily as it should.

However, I felt the book was about more than the plant-hunting quest: Jack and Uncle Edmund make a wonderfully odd and warm partnership, and the hardships met on the expedition teach them more about the other. Bookish Uncle Edmund slowly reveals his bravely determined nature and his passion for plant-hunting - especially for the blue flower that will restore the family fame and fortune. Meanwhile, faced with real demands and responsibilities rather than tea-parties and polite manners, Jack becomes the boy hero he was meant to be and is even able to accept his own inherited artistic gifts.

I liked JACK FORTUNE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN VALLEY very much because, despite the difficulties Jack and his Uncle face, the adventure is a positive and hopeful experience and one that might encourage children to look beyond everyday life and issues in school and out into a wider world.

Alma Books have also created some downloadable activities to support of this title:  http://almabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Jack-Fortune-Activity-Book.pdf

as well as an interview with the author Sue Purkiss: http://almabooks.com/interview-sue-purkiss-author-jack-fortune/                                                                          

Penny Dolan

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RADIOBOY by Christian O'Connell. Review by Penny Dolan.

Oh dear! I hesitated when this book came through my large letterbox, because RADIOBOY is a children’s novel by a celebrity, even if  - shhh! sorry! - Christian O’Connell isn’t someone I’d ever heard about.  He is, I’ve now discovered, a popular early-morning presenter on Absolute Radio - which may not reach the North . . .

Knowing O'Connell's background, it’s not a great surprise that the hero of this book, eleven-year-old Spike Hughes, has been presenting his own 6am radio show, The Wacky Kids Wonder Hour, as a volunteer at the local hospital radio station. However, when the book opens, Spike’s single, wonderful hour has been allocated to Graham’s Garden Gang. 

As Spike explains:

 I was being sacked and replaced by a show about allotments and hedges presented by a gnome.

“When’s my last show?” I asked, thinking at least I could have one big send off.

“You’ve just done it.”

And that’s how my career in radio ended.

I really warmed to young Spike as a character: he is a shy, timid boy who struggles to be heard and who feels that radio is his only one way of expressing himself.  He has two best friends, Arty and Holly, and these three make up the membership of St Brenda’s After-School AV Club, run by a sympathetic teacher, Mr Taggart.

At Taggart’s suggestion, the school Headmaster Mr Harris - aka Fishface  –  decides to have a radio station in school. Spike and his friends are overjoyed. Who else could run it but the AV Club? Arty is a music buff, know for his huge collection of old vinyl records, the super-organised Holly will be an excellent studio producer, and Spike already has the needed experience  . . .

Unbelievably, Mr Harris announces that his own son will present St Brenda’s “Merit Radio” show, a programme quickly revealed to be Mr Harris’s way of imposing his views on the school.  

“Each lunchtime, pupils who have achieved high grades will have their names readout on the air, as I believe you disc jockeys say.”

Mr Harris uses the radio station to publicise children he considers winners, as well as Grade One trumpeters and stamp collectors.

Spike is disgusted. A school radio station should be for everyone, and especially for those children who aren’t winners and who don’t get the best grades. Spike knows that the underdogs, the also-rans, the losers and the kids with difficulties are the children who need the fun!

Luckily, Spike’s father reveals his is on his side. He encourages Spike to set up a once-a-week radio studio within the overgrown shed at the end of the garden. Spike doesn’t want his over-worrying Mum to find out, so he names the internet radio show THE SECRET SHED SHOW and Art and Holly are there to be part of the team.

As an adult reader, I did enjoy and appreciates Spike’s dad’s secret help as a re-assertion of his own youthful dreams.

At first, the school programme goes brilliantly. Spike, using a voice-distorter as a disguisee, becomes the funny, rebellious Radioboy. Soon word spreads at school about the Secret Shed Show and there’s a growing audience of kids listening and emailing in to the station.

However, as Spike feels the power of his RadioBoy persona, he pushes things too far. His joke “interviews” with Mr Harris and his comments on life within St Brenda’s school start to bother Art and Holly. They ask Spike to hold back but, carried away by his new fame, he ignores them.

The furious Mr Hughes imposes additional homework on everyone so Radioboy - without checking with his team or thinking things through - calls pupils out on a sit-down strike on the school playground. Art and Holly, furious at being ignored, walk away from the studio.

Stunned, Spike realises he’s in the wrong. How can he sort things out? How can he hold on to the show’s fans? And how can Radioboy survive Fishface’s cunning scheme?  

The sneaky Mr Harris comes up with a cunning challenge: whoever reveals Radioboy’s identity will have no homework for the rest of the school year. Who will be able to resist that? Someone is bound to reveal the truth, maybe even Art or Holly. Time is definitely running out for Spike and THE SECRET SHED SHOW!

Because this is an amiable story, the reader senses that everything will work out alright for Spike although it is difficult to see how. Things soon escalate into, what Spike says, are the

         “barely believable events of the weirdest day of my life.”

I really liked the surprises and complications in the well-developed ending, and how problems aren’t solved easily or quickly.

Although RADIOBOY is written in the first person (echoing the popular Wimpy Kid or Tom Gates type series) I felt that the story is a stronger and more substantial novel than it first appears.  I wasn’t absolutely sure that younger KS2 readers would follow Spike’s long and slightly off-plot riffs on parents, neighbours and school life – especially the hugely overblown Mr Harris and his jumbo sausage rolls – but these moments certainly added to the slightly anarchic mood of comedy within of the book.

Besides, there’s definitely a love of language partying away in O’Connell’s writing, for example: in the way that Arty’s cake-factory-owning father calls his home Chateaux Gateaux, or in Lionel Vinyl, the second-hand record store where Arty gets his LP’s, and so on, and I must mention the quiet humour hidden within Rob Biddulph’s black and white illustrations.

A particular thing I did welcome about the RADIOBOY book was the friendly feeling of an everyday family, living within an urban community in Britain now. It felt like a place where, while the grown-ups might display quirks and odd preoccupations, they were mostly on your side.

So, all in all, RADIOBOY, for me, was a book with a good heart, if that makes sense. Along with the planted stink-bombs and flights of wacky comedy, the book shares wise lessons about the mixed roles of media, the dangers of anonymous messages and makes the point that radio (and therefore other) shows are a team effort, not just a single star performer.

I read RADIOBOY myself first - after that initial grumble mentioned earlier - and then, warmed by the story and character more than I expected, decided to road-test it on a Year 6  friend in the evenings. An able reader, he often feels overdosed by school online comprehension tests and reading reports.   

Well, we read chapters of RADIOBOY together and then I left him to read on – and  then one night he read right through to the end while I was still busy downstairs. Bah! It was good to see him reminded that books can still be fun.

Thanks for that, Christian O’Connell!

Penny Dolan

                      

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THE TEENAGE GUIDE TO FRIENDS by NICOLA MORGAN. Reviewed by Penny Dolan.

“This book is for anyone who wants to know how friendships work and what to do when they don’t,” says the blurb.

 And who wouldn’t want to know about all that?

Few things are as important as friends and friendship groups to teenager, or as complicated. Beyond one’s own family circle, how does one learn about the art of friendship? I feel that the media isn’t always helpful. Films and tv series show idealised - if not ideal - social groups where, for obvious storytelling reasons, episodes must be full of heightened interactions and continually “dramatic” relationships. Real life is more boring and more complicated.

This book, THE TEENAGE GUIDE TO FRIENDS by Nicola Morgan, is a welcome guide, containing a wide range of clearly explained information as well as plenty of those simple “get to know yourself” quizzes beloved by many readers.

The author, Nicola Morgan, is already well known for self-help books for young people: see other titles below. Conversations with pupils and staff in those many schools must surely have led to this latest publication.  

In THE TEENAGE GUIDE TO FRIENDS, she suggests there are many different types of friends. Rather than focusing on the wish for “one best friend”, she looks at the range of opportunities for friendship existing within one’s social groups and beyond. 

Chapters introduce the importance of empathy, the psychology of personality types, as well as peer pressure, group behaviour and the effect of family position. Nicola Morgan writes about the problems that come from the need for friends including the impact of “negative” friendships to managing friends online. She introduces the differing needs of introverts and extroverts, whether in school or out in the wider world, and talks about the management of stress and anxiety.

Wisely, Nicola Morgan suggest that friendships can change, encouraging the young reader to consider friendship as a range of relationships, not always of the same intensity or serving the same purpose or lasting for ever. 

Over the chapters, she points out that friendship asks for understanding and that sometimes one needs to say sorry, or not to take things too personally or seriously. I also liked how, in one chapter, she promotes the value of just being friendly by acting inclusively towards outsiders within social situations and lunch-breaks: an outward looking view of friendship, not just a focus on "me."

Nicola Morgan’s tone is warm and straightforward; she makes it clear that this is a book of general advice and information, and frequently tells troubled readers to talk to trusted friends or adults. The last section, which supplies plenty of helpful addresses, includes warnings about the dangers of misleading articles, unofficial blogs and web-sites.

Best of all, I felt, was the way that Nicola Morgan tries to give her teenage readers more confidence in managing their social circles and that intention, in particular, makes her book, THE TEENAGE GUIDE TO FRIENDS, a useful and an easy read. I’d say that this title would be a welcome addition to secondary schools self-help collections, in the library or wherever such books can be quietly and easily reached by those who need them.

Penny Dolan.

Ps. Just to avoid misunderstandings, Nicola Morgan does visit schools frequently and is an established writer of fiction and non-fiction books. 

She is not Nicky Morgan, the past Secretary of State for Education.

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A STERKARM TRYST by Susan Price, reviewed by Penny Dolan

Susan Price’s long-awaited YA novel A STERKARM TRYST has now been published. 

So, because I loved the world of the 16^th Century Border Reivers that was brilliantly evoked in the two earlier titles - THE STERKARM HANDSHAKE and A STERKARM KISS - I bought a copy of this third novel, and was not disappointed. 

Earlier events and confrontations are woven lightly into the plot, allowing new readers and re-readers slip easily into this particular storyline. This is science fiction with excellent time-travelling!

The trilogy has an interesting premise: James Windsor, a late 21^st Century entrepreneur, intended to use his company’s Time Tube to colonise and exploit the unspoilt lands of the past. 

Windsor thought his men would easily secure such a backward territory - and then they met the Sterkarms. Of all the feuding families in the Debatable Lands, the Sterkarms are the most treacherous: everyone knows that a Sterkarm handshake might promise friendship with the right hand while the left hand carries a blade to slide between your ribs. 

At first, the Sterkarms treat the 21^st century intruders with wary respect, deciding these strangers must be Elves. After all, they can appear and disappear, dress in unknown materials, and carry magic pills that take away pain. And from these "Elvenkind" springs the relationship that stands at the heart of the novels.

Andrea Mitchell, a 21st Century anthropologist, finds the love of her life in Per Sterkarm, the family heir, and at the start of THE STERKARM TRYST, she has come through time to her lover again, though uncertain of any welcome.

Known as his "Entraya", his Elf-May, she has a hard task. She has to warn Per and the Sterkarm family that a deadly new enemy has entered their lands. Windsor has time-travelled a group of Sterkarms from an almost parallel time dimension into this one. These are warriors who know this wild landscape as they do, and who fight with matching ferocity and who look just as they do. They will know all the Sterkarm tricks, and Windsor is behind them.

How can Andrea even explain this phenomenon? 

How can a Sterkarm attack another to whom - it seems - they owe loyalty? 

And how, I wondered, can a writer manage two almost-identical casts?

Susan Price does. Carefully, scene by scene, she moves the action forward, resolving what the reader wants resolved, and ending with treachery getting what it deserves. The headings keep the story straight and satisfying in its conclusions.

However, I must say that the plot was not the only thing that made A STERKARM TRYST a compelling experience for me. Within the storytelling, I heard rich echoes of the traditions, superstitions and legends of the Border Ballads, as well as the languages and voices of the region and its past. Humour is there too, within the pages, as well as moments when the differences between the present and the past are suddenly very evident.

Moreover, the dramatic landscape of the book is recognisably that of the Borders, an area of wild uplands and uncertain weather, a place where cattle-raids were then part of the culture, and where hunger was a constant threat.

I enjoyed being within that way of life, following the descriptions of an active community and culture, along with glimpses of cooking methods, housekeeping and textiles, herbal lore, fear and superstition. Captured in the writing too, was the importance of respectful behaviour and right words and acting according to your status: the sense of a time and place where any perceived insult might mean death.

A STERKARM TRYST feels a very physical story. It moves through camps and hovels and crowded stone towers, past the stink of unwashed clothes and the gutting of meat and the hard lives and gory deaths of men and women: this is not a benign or moral fairy-tale. Besides, survival depends on a reputation for cunning and treachery, especially when there are two lots of Sterkarms riding out, as well as Windsor’s thugs and their 21st Century weapons.

Yet, reading the book from the comfort of home - and despite all the violence - it is hard not to admire the warmth and energy and the bonds of family loyalty and protection within the Sterkarm clan. Like Andrea/Entraya, I found the Sterkarms beguiling, and welcomed the many characters that Susan Price has created – Toorkild, Lady Isobel, Sweet Milk, Gobby, Mistress Crosar, Joan Grannam, Davy, Cho and more - each one entirely convincing, for all their faults.

Especially that blue-eyed, fair-haired hero, Per May Sterkarm. And Cuddy. I have to mention them. Read the book and you’ll discover why.

Penny Dolan.

All three titles, including THE STERKARM TRYST, are published by OpenPress in a handsomely-matching set of covers or as e-books. 

 

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