includes a review of Linda Newbery's Lost Boy
Reviews: March 2008 Archives
inadvertently missed at weekend...
apologies to Nicolette (Jones) and you
Times Book review by Amanda Craig
At 104 pages long, Once Upon a Time in the North is both a compelling adventure and the kind of philosophical game familiar from the author's shorter novels (I Was A Rat!, Count Karlstein and Clockwork). There are bills of lading, extracts from Lee's half-destroyed book on The Elements of Aerial Navigation, a fallacious newspaper report and a board game at the back about getting your balloon as close to the Pole without being "sucked into a terrible and certain death in the Polar Maelstrom". Compared with the epic Miltonic grandeur of His Dark Materials we get more of a Blake poem... ...
NY Times review of Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Smash! Crash! by Jon Scieszka
A warmly intelligent and appreciative review from Chris Riddell of The Art Of William Steig
The huge success of the Shrek movies has, perhaps, obscured the reputation of the man who created the cheerfully repulsive ogre.With the slick, knowing movies in mind, it is refreshing to thumb through the pages of The Art of William Steig and appreciate the wit, freshness and breadth of his work...
Easter Roundup by Amanda Craig, in The Times, mentioning:
The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett
Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy Maclennan
Fine As We Are by Algy Craig Hall
Gallop! by Rufus Butler Seder
Little Boat by Thomas Docherty
Ice Road: The Wickit Chronicles by Joan Lennon
Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler
The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel
Lee Raven, Boy Thief by Zizou Corder
A Nest of Vipers by Catherine Johnson
Hazel's Phantasmagoria by Leander Deeny
Resistance and Dogfight by Craig Simpson
Broken Glass by Sally Grindley
Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson
The Bone Magician by F.E. Higgins
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine
Shadow Web by N.M. Browne
The Amazing Mind of Alice Makin by Alan Shea
The Savage by David Almond
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
The Bone Magician by F E Higgins
The rich vocabulary - "unguent", "peregrinating", "dolichocephalic" - does not detract from the forward drive of the plot, and Higgins has wry, dark, witty turns of phrase. Peopled with bizarre and splendidly named characters (such as Deodonatus Snoad), this book asks to be read aloud, so adults can share the pleasure. NICOLETTE JONES
Guardian Review - Meg Rosoff reviews Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
One of the joys of this book is its willingness to confront big themes. Within a fast-paced drama that any 14-year-old can enjoy, Bog Child explores political conflict, personal heroism, human frailty, love and death. As a writer, Dowd appears to be incapable of a jarring phrase or a lazy metaphor. Her sentences sing; each note resonates with an urgent humanity of the sort that cannot be faked. Bog Child sparkles with optimism and a deep passion for living. Love falls from it in particles, like snow. MEG ROSOFF, Guardian Review
The Siobhan Dowd Trust will be launched on Wednesday, and aims to help disadvantaged children improve their reading and writing skills: details at www.siobhandowd.co.uk
The Bone Machine by F. E. Higgins reviewed by Amanda Craig
Charlie Higson reviews Kevin Brooks....
Brooks is terrifically good at mapping out the teenage world that takes place in the scrubby corners of our world, on the banks of the canal, up behind the disused factory, in someone's back garden. It's a world of casual sex, text messaging, random violence and drinking till you puke. But in Brooks's hands it's also shot through with a hallucinatory weirdness and sense of magic that when the story's over you can't be sure was entirely caused by the spiked drinks.
