The Observer | Review | Teenage fiction: Mar 27
There were roundups of both Teenage Fiction and Picture Books in yesterday's Observer.
The Teenage link is above - here's the link to Kate Kellaway's picture book reviews and to her review of the latest Jacqueline Wilson novel, Clean Break....
Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Traction Man Is Here by Mini Grey
Grey has produced a splendidly tongue-in-cheek picturebook about a little boy’s commando doll... NICOLETTE JONES
Scotsman.com News - News Archive - An explosion of words
My latest Teeen/YA recommendations are published in The Scotsman today. They end with a timely mention of Thirteen, the story collection edited by John McClay, whose own contribution is a touching tale about a boy’s embarrassment at revealing his Doctor Who obsession. If there is a seed of autobiography in that story, the author will be looking forward to 7pm this evening, and the return of Doctor Who on BBC TV.
[You have to be registered, but it's free.]
Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Nicolette Jones, unlike Amanda Craig [see below], likes Silverfin by Charlie Higson:
What is unexpected about this James Bond prequel is that its hero is so ordinary. Fast Show comedian Higson has also written a surprisingly straight-faced adventure, with few in-jokes... ... NICOLETTE JONES
See also
this article about the book by The Observer's Arts & Media correspondent, who tells us that the book is already doing better than the early sales of Harry Potter or Northern Lights, which sounds good to those who don't know that both HP and Northern Lights (particularly the Pullman) were rather slow burners.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | When Amy met Stanley
Adele Geras on Love, Fifteeen, Ros Asqwuith's breezy novel about teenage pregnancy:
Asquith is light where other writers would be heavy, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care. There's real emotion here and a lot about love in all its forms, and some of the scenes that could be presented as tragedy she delivers as farce. The moral of the book is: if you're going to sleep with your boyfriend, be very careful and more than careful, and if you do get pregnant, there are options and it's not the end of the world....
Children's books - Books - Times Online
Amanda Craig finds Charlie Higson's Young Bond outclassed by the latest Alex Rider and is impressed by the 'brilliantly nauseating' Hellbent by Anthony McGowan, in her latest Times children's ficitoin review:
Hellbent isn?t a spy story but a brilliantly nauseating thriller about a cocky 16-year- old boy who dies and goes to Hell...
Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones
This is the first novel for 20 years in Wynne Jones?s Chrestomanci series. Chrestomanci is a nine-lived enchanter who moves between many parallel worlds. In this story, he is a teenager in an eclectic world in which England never separated from Europe and where magical powers are everyday... NICOLETTE JONES
The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > Children's Books: Bookshelf
Page of brief NYT reviews.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: The Wish House by Celia Rees
Diane Samuels gives Celie Rees a review to smile over, in contrast to the thumbs-down The Wish House received from Amanda Craig last weekend:
The Wish House could have been just another story about the hot summer when a boy got laid and had his heart broken. In Rees's hands, though, it is more sensitive than that, more intriguing, never calculating, almost obvious but not quite and, by the end, genuinely moving.
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Me And My Mammoth by Joel Stewart
This funny book celebrates the pleasure of making things and carries the reassuring message that it doesn't matter if the finished creation doesn't end up quite as planned. Drawn with a relaxed ink line, scribbly shading and a mix of watercolour and gouache, the book has the slightly muted and nostalgic tones of early comics and dated toy packaging. NICOLETTE JONES
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | James Bond's schooldays
Philip Ardagh says, "Nice one, Charlie" - apropos the new book about Bond's schooldays, Silverfin by Charlie Higson:
This is a most enjoyable, well-written book which is well worth a read even if you're not a James Bond fan. There are a few in-jokes (the "female interest", Wilder Lawless, has a horse called Martini, for example), but Higson is sparing with these and very skilfully melds the known elements of Bond's childhood with those of his own invention. In SilverFin, Higson gives us that little extra something ... in much the same way that, say, a bay leaf does to a bolognese sauce. Nice one, Charlie.
