Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
The Sprog Owner's Manual by Babette Cole
"Illustrated with Cole's typically energetic caricatures and full of cheekiness, invention and hilarity, not to mention poo, worms and smelly feet, this book is an exhilarating romp in which children can identify their own characteristics, both naughty and nice." NICOLETTE JONES
Unfortunately, Jill Slotover's reviews in the Financial Times can no longer be read online, except by the FT website's paying subscribers, so I can do no more than alert people to them.
In today's FTmagazine, Slotover commends the following:
Stripes Of The Sidestep Wolf by Sonya Hartnett
"Hartnett is an elelgant, eloquent writer and her laser-sharp observations of internal personal battles and the claustrophobic life of a small town are astute, atmospheric and deeply moving."
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
"Boyce has a rare gift for sophisticated comedy..."
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman
"Compelling, shocking and utterly chilling..."
Unique by Alison Allen-Gray
"Allen-Gray writes in an easy, readable style, raises stimulating questions, and offers a plot that keeps you hooked throughout."
Desire Lines by Jack Gantos
"A short, deceptively simple novel that gets into the heart of a vulnerable teenager and highlights the evils of withc-hunts."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Letters: Feb 28
Oo-er, seventeen authors, no less, line up to defend The Guardian against what they see as my unfounded criticism of peer reviewing.
When I got wind, a little over ten days ago, that this mini petition was being prepared, I could scarcely believe it. It does reveal, I think, the inherent insecurity of children's authors. It is very hard to imagine, for example, that had my letter referred to adult book reviews it would have generated the formation of a cabal.
It is perplexing to me that novelists whose craft involves the daily analysis of human sensibilities should apparently dismiss my reservations about peer reviewing so straightforwardly. I was not implying that critical peer reviews are necessarily motivated by envy or grudge (though it is naive in the extreme to suggest that children's authors are above such things); I did mean to imply - more articulately in my ACHUKACHAT clarification than in the letter, to be fair - that the subjects of critical reviews, or even of harsh critical comments within broadly positive reviews, may well impute such motives and therefore complicate the professional relationship between themselves and the reviewer.
I've just read Darren Shan's contribution to the Peer Reviews discussion thread on ACHUKACHAT and recommend it.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | A galloping romp
Diane Samules reviews Blood Red Horse by K. M. Grant:
"a soundly researched, well-structured story with a western liberal outlook, which serves in a rather prosaic fashion to remind the reader that the current tensions between west and near east go back a very long way indeed" DIANE SAMUELS
EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | The lessons of war
"Pupils with a growing appreciation of literature's vast horizons will fall on these anthologies, and they'll be equally valuable in developing approaches to creative writing." LINDSEY FRASER
Fear And Trembling ed. Kate Agnew intro. Kevin Crossley-Holland
Love And Longing ed. Kate Agnew intro. Jacqueline Wilson
[previous ACHUKA Choice title]
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
Last Train From Kummersdorf by Leslie Wilson
"...a tale about Germany%u2019s resistance to Hitler, of kindness amid horrors, of a fantasy coming miraculously true, and of growing tenderness between the two teenagers.... NICOLETTE JONES
The Times - Mad magician in search of rain
The toughness and realism underlying all Fisher's fantasies is what makes them believable as well as wholly absorbing and aesthetically pleasing, says Amanda Craig
The Archon by Catherine Fisher
I can remember once saying something rather unflattering about a piece of Amanda Craig's journalism, but as The Times reviewer of children's literature she is becoming increasingly worth reading. This is an excellent 4-column, single-title review with a read-on panel clearly researched by Craig herself.
Recommended
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Children's fiction: Feb 21
Julia Eccleshare reviews Lily Quench and the Dragon of Ashby | Sideways Stories from Wayside School | Agent Z Meets the Masked Crusader
Lily Quench and the Dragon of Ashby by Natlie Jane Prior
"...knockabout and unstartling, but it offers countless opportunities for being bold and taking on new challenges. There is much charm in the stories, which are effortlessly readable."
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
"...Each story is refreshingly different, some more moralising than others, but all predicated on a benign view of pupils, teachers and their foibles...."
Agent Z Meets The Masked Crusader by Mark Haddon
"...a welcome reissue of an earlier series for young readers."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Someone to watch over me
Philip Ardagh reviews Graham Marks's How It Works in Guardian Review.
EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | On your marks...
Dyslexia by Althea Braithwaite
"In Dyslexia, six children explain the different implications of the condition, including the dismissive and thoughtless labelling that has preceded their diagnosis. " LINDSEY FRASER
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman
"...although there is much that is brutal here, it is really a cautionary tale about choice and the danger of nursing anger. This makes it a humane story that will help the cause of tolerance." NICOLETTE JONES
ACHUKA's Malorie Blackman interview update, in which she speaks about the writing of Knife Edge, will be online tomorrow, Monday Feb 16th.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: The Cup of the World by John Dickinson
In Guardian Review Jan Mark reviews
The Cup of the World by John Dickinson
"The whole book is a luminous animation of those misleadingly termed Flemish Primitives: detailed, glowing rich and unforgettable." JAN MARK
The Review also publishes a letter from me [scroll down ot 'It's not child's play'] concerning the recent spate of negative reviews by peer group authors. It's an unsatisfactory letter, foolishly submitted late at night, and fails completely to make the point that prompted me to write - namely a concern that encouraging a critical fray amongst authors in a community as intimate as that of children's books in the UK, whilst being diverting for mediawatchers such as ACHUKA, might not be such a good idea for the general health of children's publishing.
EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | Critics' choice
Lindsey Fraser's selection in Guardian Education (scroll down the webpage) is Avenger by Pete Johnson:
"Gareth's narrative voice lends a credibility where the plot might have felt weakened. He is a most convincing character, his struggles plain to see. Ignore the misleading jacket image - this is a much more subtle thriller than it suggests."
JuneauEmpire.com: Books: In the Stacks: 8 books for young minds 02/08/04
"Young Adult novels and stories generally have plots aimed at mature teens and readers in their 20s, though other age groups enjoy them, too!"
Reviews of 8 YA novels.
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen Listing at Box Office Prophets
Confessions of a
Teenage Drama Queen
US Release Date: February 20, 2004
The film is based on the popular young adult novel of the same name by Dylan Sheldon.
The Observer | Review | Teenage fiction: Feb 8
Kit Spring's excellent roundup of recent teenage fiction is accompanied in the Observer Children's Special by:
Stephanie Merritt on books for toddlers
Kate Kellaway on junior fiction
Kim Bunce on audiobooks
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
Another thumbs-up for Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce [see, also, below]
"Written with charm and humour, this is a touching, absorbing oddity of a book about love, grief, avarice and generosity." NICOLETTE JONES
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
"Millions is fresh, funny, touching and wise in its portrayal of hope and human frailty. " AMANDA CRAIG The Times
see also the Times feature about the author
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Skin deep
The Guardian evidently considers the best people to review children's fiction are fellow authors. As has been seen recently in reviews by Eleanor Updale and Keith Gray, authors can be surprisingly gleeeful in sticking the knife into their peers. Nicola Morgan, reviewing Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman, whilst applauding Blackman's narrative drive, jibes at her style. What I object to in a review are offhand complaints about 'trite sentences' and 'naive rhetoric' with no supporting examples.
"The power is not in the use of language, which sometimes lacks grace and Blackman too often relies on trite sentences or naive rhetoric to make a point...
... as for the ending, all I can say is that Malorie Blackman is a cruel woman. It is devastatingly powerful and I have not yet recovered."
%u2019The Animal Hedge%u2019 and Other Children%u2019s Books
New York Times book reviews, including one of The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud...
"Potteresque plot elements are spun into surprisingly colorful cloth in this tale of an 11-year-old magician's apprentice..."
Shorter reviews on this page include one of Pirates! by Celia Rees ("well researched").
EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | Passport to the world
Lindsey Fraser's Guardian Education selection is The Ultimate Book Guide edited by Daniel Hahn and Leonie Flynn
"This is an ambitious project - annotated recommendations of over 600 books for readers aged eight to 12. Each book is recommended by a named individual, many of them well-known writers in their own right. And each recommendation is accompanied by a series of related recommendations." LINDSEY FRASER
I haven't looked carefully enough at this book to give a considered view yet, but first impressions are that the huge number of contributors (mostly well-known authors and leading names in the children's books world) produce entries that vary enormously in their usefulness.
The entry (by one of the chief editors) for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is particularly vacuous: "... is a famous story... Oh, I didn't mention that besides being a very famous, classic story, it's also a pretty old story, written (and set) in the nineteenth century... this old, famous, classic book is also really, really good! Tom is a great hero... and Mark Twain is a very funny, lively writer..."
The tone of this suggests that the editors seriously imagine their primary audience is aged about 8 years old, whereas if there is any audience at all for a book of this kind it will be found amongst parents, teachers, librarians - all of whom are likely to find its exclamatory tone (about half the entries end with a shriek mark) annoyingly ingratiating.
I'm going to show it to my Book Group (7-11 yr olds) and will see what they think.
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
"As an alternative to aggressive computer games that entail killing at the simple push of a button, this succinct and warm-hearted parable could not be bettered." NICOLETTE JONES
