Fiction: November 2006 Archives

“We were brought up to know our duty. ‘Suffer little children to come unto me,’ the good Lord said. So we are doing his will, and this we shall train you to do as well. A child is born sinful and must be bent to the will of God. That is now our task.”

Taking its title from “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”, Michael Morpurgo’s latest novel focuses on an autobiographical account of Arthur Hobhouse, a man who relates his boyhood but who is unable to provide the beginning to these story for his story remains incomplete at the time when he writes.

With little more than a vague memory of a sister called Kitty, Arthur Hobhouse’s voyage from childhood to a period of forced responsibility to secure his development and future begins. He journeys by ship from Liverpool to Australia to begin a new life.

On arrival in Australia, Arthur is taken to the farmstead of Mr Bacon, a religious fanatic whose fervent faith and the unquestioning nature of his own righteousness makes for a prohibitive and highly volatile environment against which Arthur and his friend Marty grow up.

After eventual escape, the boys are saved from severe dehydration and starvation by Aborigines. Touching scenes arise whereby despite language and cultural barriers, the boys befriend the Aboriginal children and are able to play with them.

Through a series of successes and saddening tragedies, readers follow Arthur’s life to adulthood and to eventual death. A shift in perspective sees his daughter, Allie, take up the narrative and indeed the challenge to learn more about her father’s origins in a voyage of great personal and familial discover.

Perhaps Morpurgo’s most powerful writing in the past, and indeed within this book, arises from a justifiable moral anger and outrage at situations that preclude the ‘natural’ development of the child. In a cultural climate that has begun to openly question the effects modern society has upon ‘the child’, exemplified in Sue Palmer’s “Toxic Childhood”, this is a timely and thought provoking novel highlighting the plight of child migration.

Told in a frame-setting reminiscent of Chaucer’s “The Book of the Tales of Caunterbury”, the reader assumes the role of a stranger, lost amidst travels, aided by a black-clad figure who will tell tales to pass time along the voyage...

A decalog of ten deadly, dark ghost stories, in this volume Chris Mould has collected and retold ready for modern audiences, five tales of haunted happenings including Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleep Hollow” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, interspersed between these stories, readers are, at last, treated to five of Chris’ own chilling tales. Proving himself adeptly equal to the challenge of the chilling, readers find themselves gripped in the hands of suspense and uncertainty, unsure whether its vice-like clamp will be released or whether it will close in, ever tighter, until we are crushed to the constituents of dust and bones…

Exceptionally high production values, an astounding level of attention to detail and a beautiful lovingly packaged gift box including ghastly stickers and a gruesome skeleton to hang, make this a spook-tacularly special gift set to give to ghouls and boys aike...

Chris Mould extends the influence of his self-branded ‘consumer friendly, politically correct, grotesque’ and of things that fester and are feared in this marvellous anthology by the master of the macabre. A perfect book to read during long, cold, dark evenings…

“It was a mass of shiny, brownish-yellowish-greenish substance,a bout the size of a coffee table. It was quivering slightly, like jelly on a palte – and it was moving slowly towards him.”

A sneeze, and the substance thereof, starts the fourth story featuring the hapless Measle Stubbs. The bones of this story are set some eight-hundred years ago when a precocious young wizard, Sheepshank, whilst endeavouring to bring a dead spider back to life, sneezed, and inadvertently created a ravenous monster from his mucous.

Having been safely secured in the dungeons of the Wizards’ Guild building, the creature makes an unfortunate bid for freedom and sets off on a sticky rampage. Hungry for humans, and having devoured most of Measle's entourage of enemies and assimilated their desires and aspirations, most especiall for Measle, will our hero escape the beast's gluttonous clutches?

Measle's fourth outing is a characteristically, disgustingly addictive adventure told with pace and panache by Ian Ogilvy. As ever a more perfect choice of illustrator than Chris Mould could not be found for this series, his sublimely subversive illustrations breathe life, atmopshere and infinite expression to the array of situations and character studies.

‘Young Dracula’ focuses on Wilfrid, son and heir to the infamous count himself. The story follows a ‘Prince and the Pauper’ styled mishap drawing question to the importance of child-rearing and nurture against genetic inheritance in a book that extends the Vampiric legends of Transylvania.

Expanding the above ideas of child-rearing and nurture to include formal education, ‘Young Monsters’ sees Lon packed off by his father to Dr Ffelix Ffurter’s School for Young Monsters. Lon’s unease about the institution is increased initially by the head, who quite literally is a disembodied head, and once again by the attempted application of a bolt through his neck! After successfully preventing this, Lon is befriended by another boltless pupil, Omar, together the two of them struggle to escape the notice of the pupils and teachers at Dr Ffelix Ffurter’s but for how long will they succeed and what other surprises lie in store when the school Spectre visits…?!

Characters and situations are depicted in dastardly detail by Chris Mould whose art always revels in the revolting with assured resplendence! Collaboration between Lawrence's anarchic stories and Mould's subversive illustrations guarantees readers fiendish fun!

As an act of vengeance, Nefret herself sets the boys a dare, to visit the place of purification to go to Seneb’s tent and to bring back a charm of the dead. Whilst so doing, Kenefer comes across what appears to be a three legged mummy and is caught by Seneb, the austere embalmer… Through a surprising and enlightening twist, Kenefer is able to make Seneb laugh and therefore is able to attain the charm of the dead he sough.

An addition to Barrington Stoke’s “FYI” series, “The Three Legged Mummy” provides insight and understanding about the culture, and sociology of Ancient Egypt. An invaluable aid to all with an interest in Ancient Egypt, particularly those studying the subject under the Key Stage Two National Curriculum.

Arthur’s malaise is aided at midnight by the appearance of Story Cat, an intrepid feline with a feel for what works best in books and in stories. Conversation between Story Cat and Arthur outline the key factors in crafting a story; the plot, settings, suspense, characterisation whilst simultaneously applying these to the meta-narrative of Arthur’s own story.

This book is a powerful force against the paralysis blank pages can induce upon creativity. The story brilliantly architects the creative process that Julia Jarman here makes available to young readers and potential young writers... In all senses, an empowering book.

Underpinning early works such as “The Suitcase Kid” and “Double Act” are subtle, well-observed situations and social interaction. In books such as “The Lottie Project” a careful symmetry is constructed between child lives in the contemporary and Victorian ages. By comparison, more recent works, “Love Lessons” and “Candy Floss” have felt lacking in the types of astute vision that previously belied Wilson’s crisp, easy prose. In these latter books, the dynamism of storytelling feels to have been submerged by the ‘issues’ presented.

A return to Wilson’s self-professed favourite character – a certain Tracy Beaker – seemed an opportunity to return to novels led by punchy storylines and feisty, strong characters. Sadly, the promise of this is not entirely fulfilled.

The indomitable Tracy Beaker is cast by art and drama teacher Miss Simpkins as the lead, Ebenezer Scrooge, in the school production of “A Christmas Carol”. Preparation for the play alongside schoolyard squabbles, Christmas shopping and the eventual performance of the production make for a pedestrian and fairly cynical-in-feel Christmas tie-in. Credibility is stretched to belief and beyond when Cam, Tracy’s potential future foster mother, proceeds to facilitate the girl’s intoxication using a bizarre concoction of red wine, honey, dandelion leaves, cinnamon, sugar and stale ginger biscuits.

More positively, considered reflection is given to dependencies and expectations in child-mother and mother-child relationships. This occurs most revealingly and indeed touchingly when Cam relays an encounter with her mother following the request that she brings someone along on Christmas day. In typical Jacqueline Wilson style this is related over a temptingly sumptuous box of chocs.

Ironically, given Wilson’s championing of shared reading during her tenure as Children’s Laureate, the lack of chapters in “Starring Tracy Beaker” allows no natural pauses, making it a difficult and, at points, clumsy book to read aloud. The careful expose on the continuing significance of parental influence holds much promise for a book more subtle and soulful than this. It is hard not to feel disappointed.

Anxious about his mother who is hospitalised awaiting the birth of a new baby, Jamie suffers at the hand new teacher, Mr Barron’s, caustic humour. However, following an dispiriting day in the classroom, Merry (Meredith in full) Christmas appears in the guise of a lollipop lady purporting to help Jamie cross the road whilst at once claiming to be a fairy godmother.

Reluctantly and abashedly, Jamie makes wishes, but Merry becomes the victim of a road-traffic accident when saving Jamie from a similar fate. Unsure what to think or to believe, Jamie confides in best friend Taz, and together the two track down Merry Christmas who now claims to be an alien.

One particularly satisfying episode suggests Meredith has transformed Mr Barron who’s crushing comments have made his pupils feel like worms, into one of the self-same lowly nematodes! Once again Sandra Glover astutely keeps readers guessing, actively engaging them in issues of trust and belief.

“When she thought about it later, Anne thought it must have been because her legs under the duvet made a shape like a landscape with two long hills and a green jungly valley in between.”

Suffering from a frightful case of the mumps, purple cheeked and swollen, Anne Smith is confined to bed. To allay the tedium of the sick-room, Anne begins drawing pictures of a hero, Enna Hittims (Anne Smith spelt backwards with an additional ‘it’ – because Htims is too hard to say!).

The power of Anne’s imagination imbues life and character into the felt-tip drawing of Enna, a fearful, though diminutive warrior, whose magic sword and cavalier attitude places her firmly in the spirit and mould of the Amazonians.

Bed-linen becomes laid out as the landscape upon which Enna Hittim and her associates’ battles and adventuring are played out. Explorations are charted around Ankle Bend, following Fold River and ascending Left Toe Mountain.

Chaos and comic capers abound in Sandra Glover’s latest novel. Life in the countryside seems set for radical change when the Beesley Trings from London, less affectionately known as the Beastly Things, move into the barn that Mark’s dad has converted.

Mad, the mother of the family is a painter of modern art, son Robinson is an aspiring actor who makes his debut appearance shortly prior to striping down and posing in a scanty pair of boxer shorts, the Beesley-Tring father is a collector of bones and skulls and Penny and Benny are the twins whose friendship is bestowed upon unwilling neighbour Mark.

Perception and preconceptions are explored and examined through the course of the novel, with pastoral notions of the countryside juxtaposed with those of modernity and the city. Glover skilfully evades the narrative siding with either set of stereotypes leaving two distinct interpretations to the novel and a satisfying challenge for readers as to whether the Beesley-Trings truly were Beastly Things, or whether Mark’s judgement is entirely to be believed…