This book has a really cracking opening paragraph:
My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The fThis book has a really cracking opening paragraph:
My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn't been for his 'time machine'..."
And it pretty much carries on in the same vein.
It's the story of Al Chaudhury, a twelve year old mixed-race boy from North East England, who discovers his dead father's time machine (a laptop and a zinc bathtub) and sets off on a mission to prevent his dad having the accident that led to his death. Only, altering time is not a simple matter. You make a small mistake and everything goes haywire. Al makes more than one mistake.
Very funny and hugely readable with a likeable central character and a plot full of twists and turns Time Travelling With A Hamster is a terrific piece of storytelling and a very impressive debut. And it's great to see a mixed-race Indian heritage boy at the centre of the action. I loved this. ...more
Set in the fourth century AD, Frontier Wolf is the story of Alexios, a young, well-connected centurion, dismissed from his first command in Germany foSet in the fourth century AD, Frontier Wolf is the story of Alexios, a young, well-connected centurion, dismissed from his first command in Germany for a decision to abandon his besieged fort - he lost many men in the retreat and though he couldn't have known it, the relief force was only hours away.
As punishment, Alexios is shunted off to Britain to take charge of the Frontier Wolves, a unit of the Roman army based north of Hadrian's Wall and largely made up of indigenous tribesmen. Twelve months after his posting the brutality of a visiting Roman dignitary provokes a huge rebellion by the local Celtic tribes who are joined by Picts and Irish raiders. Alexios finds himself facing the same grim choice that confronted him in Germany: should he hold on and be gradually overwhelmed, or should he abandon his position and retreat across enemy-held territory?
It's not the kind of children's book that gets written nowadays. There are no female characters, the writing is dense, and the setting presupposes considerable historical knowledge. Nevertheless, there's much that is fine about this novel. In particular, as always with Sutcliff, the natural world is keenly observed:
"A puddling of snow still lingered in the hollows; and far off, the higher hills of the Frontier country were still maned and crested with white; but nearer moors showed the sodden darkness of last year's heather, and the wind that always harped along the Wall had gone round to the west, and the green plover were calling."
What really makes this book reading, however, is the insight it provides into the vanished world of Roman Britain. Yes, Sutcliff is not always historically reliable, sometimes allowing herself flights of fancy, as in The Eagle Of The Ninth, but she's a novelist first and a historian second. Nevertheless, she's wonderful at creating empathy, and the conflicts of loyalty with which her characters struggle are as vivid and intense as in any contemporary thriller. ...more
Once upon a time in Frances Hardinge's Fractured Realm there was a king who spent a lot of time devising beautiful gardens but who ruled very badly. SOnce upon a time in Frances Hardinge's Fractured Realm there was a king who spent a lot of time devising beautiful gardens but who ruled very badly. So in the end the people cut off his head. After that Parliament argued for decades about who should rule in his stead. In the meantime power fell into the hands of the Guilds: the Locksmiths who could enter any building with their keys, the Stationers who alone could decide what books to ban and what to approve, and the Watermen who policed the rivers.
The people of the fractured realm carried on with their daily lives and especially with worshipping the scores of gods whom they called the Beloveds. At one end of the scale there were important ones like Beamabeth, the god of the sun, and at the other end were minor ones like Palpitattle whose sole function was to keep the flies out of the jam. All had their supporters.
Then came the Birdcatchers, a terrifying sect of zealots who spent their time staring into the White Heart of Consequence and who put their enemies to death by the thousand until they were finally driven out by the people and the realm returned to its uncertain equanimity.
That's the background. Now into the story comes Mosca, the feisty twelve year old daughter of a radical writer, accompanied everywhere by her even feistier goose, Saracen. When Mosca runs away from her damp and dreary village and throws in her lot with a wandering confidence trickster whom she has freed from the stocks, she inadvertently becomes involved in a Byzantine plot by the beautiful but ruthless Duchess of Mandelion to seize control of the realm.
Hardinge's voice is entirely distinctive. Her novel teems with invention and she has a remarkable way with words, often finding images that both surprise, and amuse.
"Chough could be found by straying as far as possible from anywhere comfortable or significant, and following the smell of damp."
"It is a very terrible thing to be far smaller than one's rage."
"Mosca and Clent were led to an unsmiling little man of fifty with a gnawed, yellow look like an apple core."
"Fear made everyone look very alive in a strange and fragile way, like the last flare of a candle before it dies."
She is undoubtedly a writer of enormous potential. Nevertheless, I found this novel difficult to read and not particularly enjoyable. The plot is over elaborate and while the writing is often delightful, there's a degree of self-consciousness about it that, for my money, interferes with the storytelling. More importantly, it strikes me as the kind of novel that librarians will love but few children will read. ...more
Teenage Lucien is seriously ill. Chemotherapy has left him too weak to do anything but lie in bed and dream. But everything changes when an antique noTeenage Lucien is seriously ill. Chemotherapy has left him too weak to do anything but lie in bed and dream. But everything changes when an antique notebook he is given by his father transports him to sixteenth century Belezzza, an alternative Venice in another dimension.
Here his illness is left behind and he becomes involved with Arianna, an impulsive teenage girl with a burning ambition to become a mandolier, the Belezzan equivalent to a gondolier. It's a profession only open to young men but Arianna isn't prepared to let that stand in her way. She disguises herself as a boy and arrives at the island's school for mandoliers on the day when new recruits are chosen. To her disgust, however, it's Lucien who is chosen, not her.
Arianna is furious with Lucien and their short-lived friendship seems at an end. But fate thrusts them together once more when they are unwittingly ensnared in a plot by the powerful Di Chimici family to to wrest control of Belezza from its rightful ruler, the Duchessa Silvia.
Full of atmosphere and vibrant with colour, City of Masks is a welcome alternative to the many formulaic fantasies on offer for this age range and its powerful climax, which shows that Mary Hoffman is not afraid to kill off her characters when the story demands it, really took me by surprise...more
Ben Harvester is sketching in Highgate Cemetery when he sees an old man apparently in difficulty. Good-natured Ben naturally goes to help. But the feeBen Harvester is sketching in Highgate Cemetery when he sees an old man apparently in difficulty. Good-natured Ben naturally goes to help. But the feeble old man is much more than he seems. Before he knows what's happening Ben finds himself recruited into the Ministry of Pandemonium, an organisation that exists to help the dead pass on to their next stage and to keep them out of the clutches of demons on the hunt for lost souls.
The style is accessible, there's plenty of humour and there are some ingenious ideas in this story. Nevertheless, I didn't find it entirely satisfying. Westwood relies too much on street names for his description of place, there's a tendency towards cartoon and a lack of depth to the writing.
It's a good read and I think a lot of young readers would enjoy it. There are some splendidly gruesome moments, including a chase in a morgue. But it could have been more atmospheric and powerful. At no point did it capture my imagination entirely in he way that really good fiction invariably does....more
Written in deceptively simple prose, Holes is a carefully-plotted, quirkily funny tale of an innocent who triumphs over tyranny and corruption.
StanleWritten in deceptively simple prose, Holes is a carefully-plotted, quirkily funny tale of an innocent who triumphs over tyranny and corruption.
Stanley Yelnats, accused and found guilty of a crime he did not commit, is sent to Camp Greenlake, a detention centre built on a dried up lake in the middle of nowhere. Every day the inmates have to dig holes under the blistering sun. They don't know it, but they are part of the warden's life-long search for treasure buried by a famous female outlaw.
Stanley forms a friendship with a boy nicknamed Zero, whom, he agrees to teach to read and write. When Zero cracks and flees from the camp, Stanley decides to go after him. Nobody bothers to pursue them because there's no water for miles in all directions. At least that's what everyone believes.
Stanley's experience, as an inmate, as a fugitive, and above all, as a friend, transforms his life and at the same time lifts a curse that has dogged his family for generations.
Lots of people whose opinions I respect consider this to be one of the best children's books they have read. I didn't find it that engaging. It's funny, clever and there's a kind of understated existentialism about the writing that I liked. Nevertheless, it didn't completely grip me. Perhaps because it is too much like a fable for my taste. ...more
A Stitch In Time, which won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 1976, is a short children’s novel about an impressionable eleven year old called MaA Stitch In Time, which won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 1976, is a short children’s novel about an impressionable eleven year old called Maria who goes on holiday with her parents to Lyme Regis, on Dorset’s famous Jurassic Coast. Here she becomes greatly affected by a minor tragedy that happened a hundred years earlier in which a land slip on the coastal path resulted in death. Maria feels these past events impinging upon her present, to such an extent that she begins to identify with Harriet, the girl of her own age who was involved in the incident.
An only child, Maria is quiet, thoughtful and shy. Next door the Lucases, a large noisy, boisterous family are also holidaying, and when Martin Lucas, a boy of Maria’s age, strays into her garden, they quickly become friends. Soon the two families are getting involved in each other’s holiday plans and Maria is surprised to find herself enjoying the chaos that life with the Lucases brings. But at the same time her sense of the tragedy that haunts this place is growing. It all comes to a head in a joint family picnic at an isolated beach.
Like much of Penelope Lively’s writing, plot is considerably less important than character in this novel. She is concerned in particular, what goes on in the protagonist’s mind and her struggle to separate reality from imagination. It’s a novel about time, mutability, identity and memory, laced through with a gentle and appealing humour. ...more
'The House in Norham Garden was published in 1974 and in many ways it now seems very dated, set as it is in an educational landscape of O Levels, and 'The House in Norham Garden was published in 1974 and in many ways it now seems very dated, set as it is in an educational landscape of O Levels, and Latin translations and taking place against a backdrop in which black people are still something of a novelty in British society.
Its central character, fourteen year old Clare, lives in a huge, rambling old Victorian house in North Oxford with her two great aunts who were, in their time a pair of blue-stockings and who now live as much in the past as in the present. Their father, Clare's great-grandfather, was a Victorian anthropologist and the attic is filled with objects he collected during a trip to New Guinea, including a beautifully decorated shield known as a tamburan, which fulfilled a ritual function in the tribe from whom it was taken, connecting them with the spirits of their ancestors.
Clare becomes pre-occupied with the tamburan which seems to draw her back to the life of the village in which it was created. In emotionally charged dreams, which begin to intrude more and more upon her waking life, she struggles to return the shield to its rightful owners. She is only released from her obsession when she comes to accept the impossibility of preserving the past, except in memory.
It’s a beautifully written and extremely subtle book, full of meditations upon the subject of time, history, change and death but the sensibility is very adult and I feel it is much more likely to be appreciated by adults looking back upon their childhoods than by contemporary juvenile readers. ...more
The ancestor of all children's adventure stories, Treasure Island is an action-packed tale of blood-thirsty pirates and buried treasure. It begins wheThe ancestor of all children's adventure stories, Treasure Island is an action-packed tale of blood-thirsty pirates and buried treasure. It begins when Billy Bones, an anti-social old sailor, comes to stay at The Admiral Benbow, the inn run by Jim Hawkins' parents. It becomes clear that Billy Bones is in hiding when he takes Jim into his confidence and asks him to look out for a one-legged man. In fact, it's a blind man who is his undoing, visiting the inn and serving Billy with the Black Spot, a ritual summons to meet his fellow-buccaneers for a reckoning. The summons is too much for Billy who has a stroke and dies.
Among his belongings Jim finds a map that clearly shows the location of buried treasure. When he shows the map to the local squire, Mr Trelawney, the squire decides to equip a boat and set out to find that treasure and Jim agrees to come along. Trelawney sets out to employ a crew, without much success until he settles on a man called Long John Silver for cook. Silver appears knowledgeable, friendly and cooperative and even offers to recruit the rest of the crew on the squire's behalf. Unfortunately,Silver is really a notorious pirate and the very man from whom Billy Bones had been hiding; and as they draw near to the end of their voyage Silver leads a mutiny in which Jim Hawkins and his friends look very likely to lose their lives.
Treasure Island bursts into action from the opening chapter and thereafter follows a series of cliff-hangers, twists and nail-biting escapes. It may have been written a long time ago but it's as good as any Hollywood action-movie. Once I started it, I just couldn't put it down. ...more
The Double Life Of Cora Parry is another title in the Gothic revival that continues to flourish in publishing for young people. It’s the story of an eThe Double Life Of Cora Parry is another title in the Gothic revival that continues to flourish in publishing for young people. It’s the story of an eleven-year-old girl rescued in infancy from the workhouse by a benevolent sailor, only to be turned out penniless once more when he dies.
Adrift in the merciless welter that is nineteenth century London, Cora fights a losing battle to preserve her sense of right and wrong. Forced to resort to a life of crime, she develops an alter ego, whom she calls Carrie. At first it’s a great success: Carrie commits the crimes and Cora avoids the guilt. But soon Carrie takes on a life of her own and Cora finds herself haunted by the doppelganger she has created.
Angela McAllister’s descriptive writing is a delight. With a keen eye for salient detail, she paints a vivid and compelling portrait of Victorian England with all its colour, excitement, hypocrisy and squalor. Here she is describing a coach on a rainy night: “Outside a carriage waited in the rain, hunched like a monstrous black beetle; the coachman’s wet leathers shone in the lamplight”
I was less impressed with the architecture of the plot. Half the novel is spent building up the fascinating and complex character who inducts Cora into the subterranean world of the capital. Fletch is a girl who dresses as a boy, a master-thief who carries a blade and has no scruples about using it, but who faithfully feeds and supports a cellar full of hapless beggars and misfits. But when Fletch is caught by the police Angela McAllister abandons her completely and the second half of the book feels smaller as a consequence.
The ending in which Cora is saved at the last minute from the consequences of her actions and given a second chance also seemed to me both a little hurried and a little too convenient. Nevertheless, with its strong female characters, its ever-present sense of menace and its darkly enticing evocation of the Victorian underworld The Double Life Of Cora Parry is a gripping read.
**spoiler alert** Another of Rosemary Sutcliff's novels set in Roman Britain, though not part of the Eagle Of The Ninth series, Outcast is the story o**spoiler alert** Another of Rosemary Sutcliff's novels set in Roman Britain, though not part of the Eagle Of The Ninth series, Outcast is the story of Beric, washed up on the shores of Britain as a baby after his parents were drowned when their ship foundered off the coast of south-western England.
Although Beric's parents were clearly Roman, he is adopted by British parents whose own infant has died some months earlier. The adoption is resisted by some elements in their tribe who feel that to take in the child of the hated Romans is an insult to the gods. But the childless couple are determined.
However, resentment still simmers in some quarters and when fifteen years later bad harvests followed by plague threaten the life of the tribe, Beric is made a scapegoat and cast out of the tribe. Rejected by his adopted people, he decides to seek out those whom he now thinks of as his true people, the Romans, and heads for the nearest Roman fort determined to volunteer for the Roman legion. An innocent abroad, he quickly falls into the hands of Greek slave-merchants and for the next four years his life is a daily round of toil, misfortune and bitterness from which he is only rescued by his own dogged refusal to die and a piece of remarkable good fortune.
With her characteristic sense of location, her keen observation of nature and her unblinking focus on the struggle of the individual caught up in the tide of history, Rosemary Sutcliff holds up a mirror that shows us both sides of the Roman world: the magnificently efficient military machine that transformed the world around it, and the inhuman disregard for the suffering of those unfortunate enough to be ground beneath its wheels. ...more
The Silver Branch is the second book in the sequence that begins with The Eagle Of The Ninth. It's the story of two cousins in the Roman army who get The Silver Branch is the second book in the sequence that begins with The Eagle Of The Ninth. It's the story of two cousins in the Roman army who get caught up in the intrigue surrounding the assassination of Carausius, self-styled emperor of Britain in the last decade of the third century.
Strong characters, a compelling plot and intelligent use of period detail superbly summon up the word of Roman-Britain, whether in the chaotic bustle of the long straggling series of towns that thrive beside Hadrian's Wall or in the prosperous dignity of Romano-British cities in the south.
All of the themes familiar to readers of Rosemary Sutcliff's work are represented here: courage and friendship, civilization and barbarity, honour and duty, the ties of family and of landscape. But above all, this is an adventure story in the old-fashioned sense: two young men overcoming apparently unsurmountable odds for the sake of a cause that they believe in. A tremendous read....more
Dawn Wind is the fifth in the sequence of historical novels dealing with the collapse of Roman-Britain that began with The Eagle Of The Ninth. Set in Dawn Wind is the fifth in the sequence of historical novels dealing with the collapse of Roman-Britain that began with The Eagle Of The Ninth. Set in the sixth century it tells the story of Owain, the sole British survivor of a battle near Bath and his struggle to come to terms with the complete destruction of his culture.
As usual with Rosemary Sutcliff, there's a powerful sense of place, and of the changing face of the natural world. The writing is compact and masterful in its use of salient detail to evoke a vanished world. The central characters of Owain and Regina, the girl he befriends in the ruins of the once-proud city of Viroconium, are strongly drawn and the reader cannot help but be drawn into this compelling story of individual lives caught up in a great historical tide.
This is historical fiction at its very best....more
The third in the sequence of loosely-related books that began with The Eagle Of The Ninth, The Lantern Bearers, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1959, The third in the sequence of loosely-related books that began with The Eagle Of The Ninth, The Lantern Bearers, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1959, is a more sophisticated, more adult book than its predecessors.
Set in the fifth century AD, amid the chaos that followed upon the departure of the Roman legions from Britain, it tells the story of the impact of the Saxon invasion on one Romano-British family, and in particular on one of its members, Aquila, descendant of Marcus, the hero of The Eagle Of The Ninth.
As always, Sutcliff's writing is dense and richly detailed, particularly her keenly-observed and evocative descriptions of nature. Nevertheless, descriptive passages are never simply indulged in for their own sake but only as an essential part of the narrative.
Out of such fragments of history and legend as have come down to us from this obscure period, the author has created a powerful and emotional story of divided loyalties, conflicting aspirations and hope nourished against all the odds.
It's a remarkable flight of imaginative reconstruction and a wonderful piece of story-telling. I feel quite certain that the images with which it ends will remain with me for a very long time....more
First published in 1954, The Eagle Of The Ninth was once to be found in every children's library in the UK. For the last fifteen or twenty years, howeFirst published in 1954, The Eagle Of The Ninth was once to be found in every children's library in the UK. For the last fifteen or twenty years, however, Rosemary Sutcliff' has been somewhat forgotten as the solid, carefully written style of her books has given way to fiction that thrusts itself more brazenly upon its readers.
Hearing that there was a film coming out in 2011, I thought I would renew my acquaintance and I am very glad that I did. Based upon the mystery of the fate of the Ninth Legion which marched from its station in what is now York some time around AD 117 and was never seen again, this is the story of a young Roman soldier, the son of a centurion of that ill-fated legion, who sets out some eight years later to discover his father's fate, it is a terrific read.
Rosemary Sutcliff makes the world of Roman Britain as vivid and real as if it were still standing to this day. Her characters are strongly drawn and her observation of nature is wonderfully well conveyed in tightly-written prose. This is a delight to read and a timeless classic....more
Percy Jackson has been kicked out of umpteen schools because he's got ADHD, he's dyslexic, he just doesn't fit in. What's more all his life weird thinPercy Jackson has been kicked out of umpteen schools because he's got ADHD, he's dyslexic, he just doesn't fit in. What's more all his life weird things have been happening to him, things that just don't make sense until one day he learns the truth. Though his mother is a down-to-earth, sweet as apple-pie American, his father is the sea-god, Poseidon. What follows from this discovery is a high-speed, full-on action adventure story.
This is a very clever, very commercial book. I loved the idea that because the centre of Western culture has moved to America so have the gods of Olympus. I admired the ease with which Rick Riordan blended stories from Greek mythology with modern teenage culture and I was impressed by the way he'd learned from J K Rowling all the elements that make a best-selling book for young people.
But my heart wasn't completely in this. It's a little bit too cartoon-like in places and a little bit too predicatable for me to give it five stars. Nevertheless, I'm certain it's target audience will love it and I think Rick Riordan has done a great job making the culture of Ancient Greece accessible to the modern pre-teen and teenage world....more
Inkheart is both a well-written and enthralling children's fantasy and, at the same time, a remarkably intelligent commentary on the nature of narratiInkheart is both a well-written and enthralling children's fantasy and, at the same time, a remarkably intelligent commentary on the nature of narrative. Laden with intertextuality, it is a splendid example of 'intrusion fantasy' - a work that examines the relationship between its own characters and characters designated within the book as fictional.
It's a tale about a book-loving child called Meggie, her father - a repairer of old books - and her misanthropic but equally bibliophile aunt, all of whose worlds are turned upside down because the villain of a novel that Meggie's father once read aloud has emerged from the story as a living, breathing and utterly terrifying individual. It's the ultimate writer's joke for this is a book in which the characters really do develop a life of their own.
Cornelia Funke's style is relaxed, accomplished and in many ways quite old-fashioned. She takes the time to build the story slowly, carefully incorporating imagery into her description in such a way as to build atmosphere and simultaneously to strengthen the thematic structure of her work. In the process she creates a host of memorable characters and a story that is a real page-turner. ...more
The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a living boy brought up by the dead to protect him from a conspiracy that is as old as history itselfThe Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a living boy brought up by the dead to protect him from a conspiracy that is as old as history itself. Despite being aimed at children, it is uncompromising in its portrayal of evil while remaining an entirely optimistic and life-affirming story.
I found the writing enthralling. From its opening sentence, 'There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife', it gripped my attention with its mixture of the terrifying and the playful. It was as though I had stumbled upon a lost folk tale that had somehow miraculously been transcribed for the modern age.
Neil Gaiman displays a confidence and an originality in his story-telling that I find quite breath-taking. No-one since Ray Bradbury has displayed such mastery of the modern Gothic style. ...more
This book is action packed from the very first page and the author displays an extraordinary inventiveness in cramming his plot with a host of colourfThis book is action packed from the very first page and the author displays an extraordinary inventiveness in cramming his plot with a host of colourful characters taken and adapted from mythologies and folklore all over the world. The target audience will probably love it and the fact that it's already won a number of awards testifies to this.
However, I thought it was badly written. It's repetitive. The emotional narrative is all tell and no show. It's littered with lengthy passages of exposition and the characterisation strikes me as cartoon-like. I found reading it a chore.
Robert Muchamore's cherub books have sold in vast numbers and I'm told that a film is in the offing. So I had to read one to see how he does it. The aRobert Muchamore's cherub books have sold in vast numbers and I'm told that a film is in the offing. So I had to read one to see how he does it. The answer is plot, plot and more plot. Setting and characterisation are kept to a minimum. Instead the book explodes off the first page into a firework display of action-packed, pre-teen wish-fulfilment.
The Recruit is the first in the series. It's the story of James, an eleven year old boy recruited into Cherub, a branch of the British Secret Service that utilises child agents. James goes through an intensely macho basic training and comes out able to out-fight boys twice his age, speaking a foreign language, and fully conversant with bomb-making and other hi-tech terrorist gimmickry.
Then he is given his first mission - to infiltrate a hippy commune where it's believed eco-terrorists are hatching a plot to blow up a forthcoming conference of foreign ministers and oil executives. Despite a brush with anthrax, James completes his first mission with glowing colours and earns the coveted navy blue t-shirt only awarded to an outstanding agent.
I found it a very engaging read at first but the lack of texture and depth meant it soon lost its grip on me . But then I'm not the target audience. It's aimed at pre-teen boys who would absolutely love it.