Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Little Darlings by Sam Llewellyn
"Every now and then, a children%u2019s book comes along that is completely different. Little Darlings is one of these..." NICOLETTE JONES
Reviews: March 2004 Archives
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Clone alone
Jan Mark on Unique by Alison Allen-Grey, an absorbing and timely novel for teenagers that develops from cautionary cloning tale into a full-blown thriller ...
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: Midwinter Nightingale by Joan Aiken
"Midwinter Nightingale is the latest but not the last in the series of books that began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase..."
Philip Ardagh is impressed with the inventive energy displayed by Joan Aiken in one of her final books (The Witch of Clattering Shaws is due next year).
A review of a new biography of Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty:
Anna Sewell wrote her first and only book when she was 57. An obscure, pious spinster and chronic invalid, she did not look set for bestsellerdom, and London booksellers bought just 100 copies on publication. But the book was Black Beauty...
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Holly, lolly and searching for Saint Maureen
Adele Geras reviews Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
%u2019The Story of Little Black Sambo%u2019 and Other Children%u2019s Books
A page of reviews from the New York Times includes a favourable review of a controversial new edition of The Story of Little Black Sambo and one of Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza.
Education news & resources at the Times Educational Supplement
Jan Mark thinks that publishers and booksellers are doing themselves, new authors and readers a disservice by overpromoting the novels of teenage 'prodigies'.
"Fledg[l]ing writers necessarily recycle their own reading in their apprentice pieces; this is the way we all learn how to do it. But these experiments ought to be carried out in decent privacy, not marketed as the masterworks of infant prodigies," she says in a review of Eragon by Christopher Paolini and The Prophecy of the Gems by Falvia Bujor in last week's TES (March 5th), now online.
EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | Critics' choice
Lindsey Fraser's book selection in today's Guardian is
Boy 2 Girl by Terence Blacker
"an optimistic, openhearted look at the challenges of the teenage years..." LINDSEY FRASER
In the Telegraph yesterday, Andrew Martin reviewed Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman and, within a word-count roughly half the length of a Guardian Review piece, found space to justify certain observations about Blackman's style:
"It must be said that nobody would buy Noughts And Crosses or Knife Edge for the charming idiosyncrasy of the language. Sephy, cast adrift from her family, is 'so poor that she doesn't have a pot to pee in'; attempting to communicate with the mother of her late lover, she is 'tip-toeing on eggshells'; later, in a strange refinement of the cliche, she is tiptoeing around her 'on crisp packets'. "
Martin found the redeeming strength of Blackman's book was 'its moral heft'.
Judith Hawley reviewed Stripes Of The Sidestep Wolf by Sonya Hartnett. More precis than review, Hawley threw some comfort to blurb writers with her parting shot, calling the book 'a finely poised, deeply engaging book.'
A Malaysian review of Melvin Burgess's Doing It.
The UK paperback (cover below) is due for publication in May.
[pre-order]
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
The Gift Boat by Peter Dickinson
"...a skilled and remarkable story with an optimistic conclusion, about a youngster facing grown-up challenges and learning to live with limitations." NICOLETTE JONES
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | The irascible dragon
Diana Wynne Jones begins her broadly encouraging and welcoming review of Eragon by Christopher Paolini with an entertainingly wicked sendup of high fantasy, and ends her piece:
"...this tired old genre is going to be given a new, youthful boost. What a pity, never mind."
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Why I love the Little Mole
"The Little Mole is the best crap book your kids will ever read..."
The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business
Entertainment News - Penelope Todd: Watermark
"Watermark is a great suspense novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. It is sure to appeal to teenage girls and is a finalist in the Young Adult Fiction section of the New Zealand Post Book Awards..."
The New Zealand Herald
