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| Philip Ridley |
| Puffin |
| 1904442714 |
| Oct 2005 |
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BE ALIVE. DARE TO BE SCARED AND HOPE TO FIND... MAGIC Is the landscape of fairytales crumbling? Does its populace of familiar, universal figureheads - Kings, Queens, youngest sons - lose emotional impetus in modern urban environments? Should either statement contain even a vestige of truth, remedy can doubtless be sought in the modern urban fairytales of Philip Ridley... "Zip's Apollo" gives near kaleidoscopic vision of an urban environment and its emblems - houses, streets, supermarkets and most importantly for this novel... trolleys! As with Ridley's last book, "Mighty Fizz Chilla", this new novel marks a departure from his earlier work by juxtaposing the urban with the rural and the protagonist's present with his past. Zip Jingle has grown up in the forest with his family. His recent move with his mum and little brother to Yet To Be Named Street in New Town, where even the trees and grass are plastic where everything is uniform and seemingly sterile, comes as a real culture-shock. The thrill and tingle of life seems gone from the lives of the Jingles until Zip and his baby-brother Newt bring home a shopping trolley from the supermarket. When the two boys name the trolley Apollo it begins to communicate with them through thoughts, feelings and speech, helping the Jingle family to learn to see the magic in life once more and gradually come to terms with a change and a loss that has affected them all. An impressive tale encompassing love, loss, change, safety, care, protection and a coming to terms with one's past. "Zip's Apollo" contains one of the most beautiful, heartening and life-affirming speeches to be found in children's literature. A must read!
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Fiction: October 2005 Archives
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| Sally Gardner |
| Orion |
| 1904442714 |
| Oct 2005 |
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| Not since I feverishly immersed myself in the fantasy adventures of E. Nesbit and Elizabeth Goudge over twenty years ago have I been so utterly swept away with the fairies. As an adult I’ve enjoyed many ‘magical realism’ stories, and have at times revisited various interpretations of the traditional fairy tales, but Sally Gardner’s I, Coriander refreshed my imagination and enthusiasm for all things magical beyond any of these.
Part fairytale, part historical snapshot, it seamlessly weaves two sharply contrasting worlds – the oppressive, controlling and threatening real world of 1650s pre-Restoration London and a dreamlike fairyland – both seen through the eyes of our spirited heroine, Coriander. All the essential fairytale ingredients are here - a Wicked Stepmother, a Handsome Prince, Magic, Hardship and a Happy Ending - but there is also much originality and freshness about the author’s approach to the genre. Without the use of her paintbrush, Gardner expertly evokes through graceful yet unfussy prose a vivid, theatrical backdrop in which the reader feels almost part of the scenery. Her characters are equally well decorated, each with their own quirky back-story, and with a role to play in the advancement of the storyline. Coriander’s transition from naïve and rather spoiled child to world-wise young woman is no picnic. She swings between heartbreak and exhilaration during an emotional and physical journey that sees the death of her mother, the prolonged exile of her father and exposure to brutal cruelty, as well as the forging of new friendships and the first flutters of romantic love. The impressively paced narrative comes to a satisfying conclusion without indulging in too many clichés and an uplifting ending suggests the beginnings of further adventures. Whether or not there is a sequel, I am content to entertain many more magical possibilities for the inhabitants of this beautifully imagined enchanted world.
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| Nancy Farmer |
| Simon and Schuster |
| 068986096X |
| April 2005 (paperback ed.) |
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| A rare thing in the current children’s market: a title that walks partly in the historical footsteps of Rosemary Sutcliff, Cynthia Harnett, Geoffrey Trease et al, and stands with the best of them. The Sea of Trolls is seemingly the story of an epic quest, steeped in Norse mythology. Jack, an eleven-year-old Saxon peasant, helping his family eke out a bitter living on their farmstead on the chill north-east British coast, is chosen by the village ‘bard’ (the Celts would have named him druid) to learn the secrets and uses of the Life Force. Yet he has only just begun his studies when Viking beserkers descend on the region and carry him and his sister back to their own lands as slaves. Here Jack enters a world that he never dreamed really existed, a world of trolls and half-trolls, sea-serpents and enchantment. With the little he has already learned of the Life Force, Jack convinces his new owner, the larger-than-life Olaf One-Brow, that he may have a use. His baby sister, Lucy, has been given to the half-troll Queen Frith, however, and Jack’s inexpert use of the Force (yes, the Force is with him) leads to her losing her famous silky hair and her human shape. To save Lucy from the dire consequences, Jack must journey into the heart of troll country to Mimir’s Well, at the place where the world tree Yggdrassil pierces Middle Earth. With him go Olaf One-Brow and Thorgil, a self-hating young girl bent on glorious death.
This may all sound Tolkienesque rather than historical: indeed, Amanda Craig compares The Sea of Trolls to The Hobbit, although the description of the Life Force and the way it is used (and the opening of the book, where fog is spun to confound the attackers) seem also to touch the world of Ursula LeGuin’s excellent Earthsea books. Nevertheless, the tale is told in a much more down-to-earth manner than either Tolkien or LeGuin, and what especially delights is how the author gets under the skin of these people. Whether dealing with the once-conquering Saxons, now on the wane, or the rank, muscular, ruthless, lovable Vikings, Farmer’s book goes beyond meticulous research and shows real empathy with how life’s realities and the world of the unseen meshed together to make a life theatre for these people. The Sea of Trolls is action-filled, funny, sad, touching and vibrant. It sizzles with the advice Jack receives from the Queen Troll: ‘To ignore joy while it lasts, in favour of lamenting one’s fate, is a great crime.’
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| Blue Baillet ill. by Brett Helquist |
| The Chicken House |
| 1904442714 |
| Oct 2005 |
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| What an excellent concoction this is! Especially recommended for that group of children referred to by the rather unpleasant phrase 'gifted and talented'. It's a book for the thinking reader, for the reader who likes puzzles and mysteries. It's also a book that will make teachers who slavishly follow schemes of work think carefully about becoming more like Ms Hussey, the novel's wonderfully spur-of-the-moment teacher.
The book uses pentominoes (a set of 12 tessellating shapes each comprising five squares) as a model for the way apparently unconnected events can be made to interlock and lead to the solution of a mystery. The central relationship between Petra and Calder is somewhat serious and geeky but works well and the moody black-and-white fullpage illustrations by Brett Helquist make a huge contribution to the novel's atmosphere.
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