children's & YA recommendations on the go
Topical fiction about life in Afghanistan under the Taliban by award winning Canadian author.
Published in the US in 2012, My Name Is Parvana, is a sequel to The breadwinner trilogy.
When Oxford Children’s Books published it in the UK earlier this year, they also reissued the first book in The Breadwinner sequence (with compatible cover design).
2014 has been a significant year for Bernard Ashley.
It was 40 years ago that his first novel, The Trouble With Donovan Croft, was published.
And Orchard Books celebrated the 15th anniversary of Little Soldier by reissuing it with a new cover design, at the same time as publishing a brand new novel, set during WW1, Shadow Of The Zeppelin.
There have been some impressive debut novels this year. Judges for the next Branford Boase Award should have no trouble arriving at a strong shortlist. One book likely to be in contention is this highly atmospheric story about the relationship between a boy and a semi-vagrant war veteran called Webster.
This was Julia Eccleshare’s pre-release summary on LoveReading4Kids:
A poignant debut novel, The Dark Inside is the touching story of a thirteen year old coming to terms with the death of his mother as well as an exciting, mysterious and dramatic adventure. When James finds a man covered in terrible wounds living in the ruined house that he runs to in order to escape his step father, he begins an complicated journey in which the real readily becomes magical and the supernatural is never far away. The lessons James learns about change are thought provoking.
I particularly liked the way the book posed philosophical questions along the way. The author read Theology at Cambridge.
Flambards and The Edge of the Cloud by K. M. Peyton were both reissued and rejacketed by Oxford Children’s Books this year.
First published in the late 1960s and set around the period of WW1, this pair of novels will appeal to readers who fancy a change of tempo and mood from brash contemporary teen fiction. They can also be appreciated by adults who enjoy reading Edwardian period fiction filled with horse riding and plane flying. Peyton’s writing is immaculate. The second book was awarded the Carnegie Medal.
A third Flambards novel appeared soon after, and a fourth title a few years later.
In an excellent recent Guardian feature, it was said: “There are shades of Downton Abbey in Peyton’s sweep from the top of the social scale to the bottom…”
Here is a chronological list of her titles:
Simon & Schuster have packaged these two Sophie McKenzie thrillers really well. The book jackets, designed by Nick Stearn, are superb.
So how about giving both titles together? These are highly topical thrillers with a plotline that involves extremism, terrorism and bombing. But they have a reputation for being unputdownable, so if you give them to a family member prepare not to have much interaction with them once they start reading.
This historical tale has a magnficently wintry opening:
The snow had come early, blanketing the land on All Souls’ Eve and re-covering it at regular intervals, up to and beyond the Solstice. Old Scratch had never known such a persistent piling up of the stuff. Day in, day out it came, with drifts touching what passed for his roof and no respite, not even on melt days, because the melting only went so far before the sky turned goose-grey again and down came another load, white upon white upon white.
When Tony Bradman reviewed this novel for The Guardian he said of it:
Julie Hearn writes with real skill, her style equally at home with the natural and supernatural, with rude mechanicals and over-reaching Tudor courtiers, with fairy-tale tropes and psychological realism. All the elements are familiar, but the final result is one of genuine originality.
Really and Truly, A story about dementia by Emilie Rivard & Anne-Claire Delisle.
The author and illustrator are French-speaking Canadians and this book was first published in Canada (in French as Vrai de vrai, papi) in 2011.
The story of a grandfather who amuses his grandson with imaginative stories about pirates and gnomes, and who then has to be amused back into some form of life and animation by the same child recreating some of their fantasy games is charmingly told and charmingly illustrated.
I just wish there had been the confidence in an audience’s capacity to understand without the need for that explicit subtitle and several jarring references to an ‘awful disease’ in the text.
I always think short story anthologies make ideal presents for young readers, especially when you can’t be sure what books they have already read, or might be given by somebody else.
And look at the list of authors represented here:
JAMILA GAVIN
IAN BECK
NIGEL HINTON
TIM BOWLER
LINDA NEWBERY
MALORIE BLACKMAN
ADELE GERAS
OISIN MCGAN
GERLADINE MCCAUGHREAN
SOPGIE MASSON
LESLIE WILSON
PAUL DOWSWELL
Each story has been specially commissioned for this collection so they won’t have been read anywhere else, even if the recipient is already a fan of several of these authors, as well they might be.
It’s a wonderfully well curated anthology, with full notes on all the contributors, as well as an Introduction and Editor’s Note by Tony Bradman himself.
How lucky we are that Shirley Hughes is still producing such wonderfully written and illustrated picture books. Set at the time of the coronation of King George V, when the actual day of the procession comes round Daisy, working as a scullery maid in a big house, is left Cinderella-like alone. She ingeniously fabricates some bunting from red, white and blue laundry, including a pair of red bloomers belonging to one of the two old ladies Daisy is employed by. They are much annoyed about this, but fortunately an American niece, staying in the house at the time, helps to prevent Daisy from being dismissed. She stays on, but in disgrace, and is hardly spoken to by the other servants. Then, when a fire breaks out, it is Daisy who ‘saves the day’.
Here is Shirley Hughes herself, talking about the book:
An affecting picture book for older children, well-received in hardback last year, and now in paperback.
The book is narrated by a boy [see comment!] growing up in a mean, hard and ugly city. He lives by stealing, usually pickpocketing on crowded streets. Then one night he tries to snatch a old woman’s handbag but she hangs on tight and will not let go until he has made a promise to “plant them”. He is expecting the fat bag to be full of coins. But when he opens it he finds only acorns. “I stared at them, so green, so perfect and so many, and understood The Promise I had made. I held a forest in my arms, and my heart was changed.”
He keeps his promise and travels from city to city, planting the acorns. Slowly they flourish and the cities become lively, colourful places once again.
Finally, on arriving in a new city where his planting was yet to start, “in a lonely alley, a young thief fought me for my sack of acorns. I smiled and made the old bargain, knowing how a heart can change, knowing that my planting will go on…”Not a particularly seasonal book, but foll of genuine Christmas spirit. A book author, illustrator and publisher can be proud of.
via The Promise.
