ACHOCKABLOG: Reviews: April 2008 Archives

Review: Toby Alone by Timothe de Fombelle

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on April 27, 2008 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diane Samuels reviews Toby Alone by Timothe de Fombelle, translated by Sarah Adams

A big story about tiny people, this first volume of Timothe de Fombelle's award-winning two-part French saga takes the notion of discovering the universe in a grain of sand and applies it to a tree. Toby, the eponymous hero, is 13 years old and only a millimetre and a half tall; for him the distance from root to topmost leaves is an epic trek. This Lilliputian world is the setting for an ecological allegory, a microcosmic exploration of humanity's relationship with nature and a rites-of-passage adventure story...

Inside Out - Children's Poets Discuss Their Work

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achuka

on April 20, 2008 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewed on Fuse #8

Fowl deeds will rise

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achuka

on April 20, 2008 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guardian Review

Philip Ardagh reviews Chicken Dance by Jacques Couvillon

It's a rare skill to be able to bring a fictional family so convincingly to life, and with such humour, too. This is what puts Jacques Couvillon in the ranks of Frank Cottrell Boyce and the Australian writer Martine Murray. By the end of the book we've been so completely and convincingly drawn into Don's world - his family, his on-off relationship with his friend Leon Leonard, his dreams and ambitions - that he lives on beyond the story.

The Battle for Gullywith by Susan Hill | Review |

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achuka

on April 12, 2008 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Goof family read, says Adele Geras

Parents are being urged to read to their children, and the chapters here are exactly the right length for this. This is a perfect family book because the adult reader will share the pleasure of the listening child....

Adele Geras reviewing The Battle For Gullywith by Susan Hill

The Sunday Times children's book of the week: Philip Pullman - Times Online

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achuka

on April 7, 2008 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week

Once Upon A Time In The North by Philip Pullman

an exquisite object, finely produced, with skilled and handsome woodcuts [by John Lawrence] of the streets and harbour of "Novy Odense" on the Barents Sea, which has the atmosphere of a frontier town in a western... NICOLETTE JONES

Before she was famous | Guardian Review |

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achuka

on April 5, 2008 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guardian Review

Kathryn Hughes on Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

Anyone who loves Montgomery's original books (she went on to produce a whole series) will probably be able to read this prequel without minding the occasional jarring note. What may grate, though, is the cover design in which the UK publishers have clothed this Anne of Green Gables for a new generation. While the story works hard towards achieving historical and geographic authenticity, Puffin has given us Anne as a deracinated figure in what appears to be modern dress.

Doesn't 'grate' with me :)
What do you think?