Sarah Singleton

Simon and Schuster

1416904034

Feb 2006

‘Look at me, Elizabeth. Do you think I’m wicked? Do you think I’m a devil? In my time everyone was a Catholic, because there was only one Church, but even then I was different from the others because of the shadow land. Don’t let your mind be clouded by what other people have told you. Judge me with your heart.’
So speaks the strange green child that twelve-year-old Elizabeth finds in the forest as she secretly tends a ruined Catholic shrine. The year is 1586 and Protestant England is an unforgiving place for Catholics. But mindless blame, fear and persecution are nothing new, as the green child, Isabella, can testify. She herself was born more than three hundred years ago, the child of a wise woman and midwife. Her mother was executed as a witch, a scapegoat when a rich family’s baby was born with a faulty heart, and since then Isabella has hidden mostly in the land of faeries, leaving her bones hidden in a hollow tree awaiting her return.
Yes, this all sounds a little strange, but Sarah Singleton has a gift for blending the seen and the unseen, the matter-of-fact and the magical, into a convincing whole. After all, what is the magical other than something we are not used to or don’t understand? And that is what this book deals with; the problem of how the different (in this case the spiritually different) can be demonised by the unthinking mob. Set against the hounding of Ruth Leland (Isabella’s mother) and the sixteenth century persecution of Catholics is the simple and powerful friendship that develops between the two girls. For Isabella her tragedy is done, and yet she berates herself for not having stayed at her mother’s side until the bitter end. For Elizabeth the fear has just begun: the Queen has sent the brutal Christopher Merrivale to hunt for the priest that her family is sheltering. Perhaps here there is a chance for the two girls to help each other: for Isabella to gain ‘closure’ and a second chance with a loving family, whilst Elizabeth gains safety and escape.
A powerful tale against a strong historical backdrop, this book introduces many themes but works most of all because of the focus on the girls’ fears and hopes and needs. In comparison, the sinister Merrivale, the dogmatic and ecstatic priest, even the cold-hearted faeries, seem unimportant, no matter what their schemes and desires. The writing, too, is mostly first rate, with a great feel for visual detail:
‘As the men whispered one to another, light and shadows slid over their faces, alternately revealing and hiding eyes, noses, mouths moist with wine and words. They looked like demons, leering and grimacing.’
A highly appealing, multi-dimensional historical adventure. Check it out.

John Boyne

David Fickling Books

038560940X

Jan 2006

It’s important ‘ crucially important ‘ not to lose sight of the dual function of historical fiction. It is not its sole preserve to document historically accurate fact ‘ that position is held, to lesser or greater degrees, by history books. Historical fiction aims to make an artistic statement brought into rapid relief alongside the backdrop of history. It’s indisputable value then is that it triggers within readers a shift in perspective.
The ambivalence that surrounds much of the criticism about John Boyne’s first novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, seems to arise from an inability to suspend one’s disbelief. As Kellaway asserts in the Observer, ‘(t)he Holocaust as a subject insists on respect, precludes criticism, prefers silence.’ The danger here is respectful silence has an unnerving ability to marginalise the Holocaust from mainstream historical discourse. This can be evidenced by BBC research findings that less than 40% of young people had heard of Auschwitz. Research on the streets of Minsk resulted in similar findings: ‘I think Auschwitz is a type of hoofed animal’.
Clearly historical treatment of the Holocaust for young people in the main has not resulted in even basic comprehension. The question arises then as to whether fiction has a role to play here and it can easily be argued that it does’ Successful fiction captures the imagination, it allows us to live lives that are extraordinary to us. The story of Bruno and Shmuel within ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ does exactly that, through it we gain a fresh and new perspective on the Holocaust allowing us to invest our emotional economies, should we divest our interaction with history of this then historiography becomes the realm of arbitrary facts and figures.
This novel is one whose success is grounded within the naivety of its voice. To criticise that and to dismiss Bruno as ‘thick and unobservant’ as Saunders does within The Times is to radically misalign the premise upon which ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ operates. As publisher David Fickling comments, ‘This is a book about innocence walking into darkness’, the at-once emotional and artistic impact of the book occurs as the reader moves through from disbelief to an awareness of the true capacity for humanity to dispossess itself from all respect and compassion. This is not, as Saunders suggests, a novel of ‘absolutely blush-making vulgarity’, neither is it as Kellaway claims ‘the first novel ever written for children about the Holocaust’, it is a novel whose ending remains with readers long after the paper pages are finished, it is a novel that inspires thought and difference of opinion, it is a book that deserves to be read, to be discussed, to be held close to the heart’

Deborah Kent

Kingfisher

0753410885

Nov 2005

Set in the American Civil War, Chance of a Lifetime opens with protagonist Jacquetta May Logan staying with relatives Aunt Clem and her ‘unbearably lonely’ cousin Mattie. Jacquetta’s genial life of deportment, sewing and riding is shattered by the advancement of the Union army and its seizure of her family’s plantation. Together with her trusty steed Chance, Jacquetta escapes by cover of darkness and embarks upon a series of adventures, daring and intrigue that lead to the eventual liberation of her family’s Morgan horses’
It is easy to see how this novel could have been both unique and superb. Throughout the narrative trots along at a steady pace and in places it picks up speed and truly begins to gallop. This works best when Chance and Jacquetta are together feeling the winds of freedom and liberation rush through their respective manes and hair, the power of the writing at such times sweeps the reader along and makes the book a genuine pleasure. The marrying of a fairly traditional equine-focused tale together with the American civil war is not wholly comfortable however. Despite a somewhat sentimental scene whereby Jacquetta learns of the death of her brother Marcus, for a large portion of the novel the impact of war’s emotional focus is directed most heavily upon horses. As such the reader is left with an after-taste that the story would perhaps have felt more satisfactory had it not have placed the mortality of human kind and horses together.

Kate Pennington

Hodder Children’s Books

1904442714

Oct 2005

Think Moll Flanders for the younger reader, but if that description puts you off, then consider this simply as an exciting story about thieves, highwaymen, gang warfare and disguise. It is 1739 and Charley Feather has just seen Dick Turpin hanged. This is a salutary experience as thirteen-year old Charley is a highwayman too, a member of a gang led by the notorious Jack Wild. When Wild is captured, Charley has to run and ends up heading for London with the suave ‘Frenchy’. He has a plan for survival which involves playing a dangerous game of trickery, and Charley is caught up in it.
This adventure story is an exciting and evocative tale of loyalty, betrayal and characters who are not what they seem. There is a real historic feel to the book, enhanced by chapter headings in the style of the mid-eighteenth century. Chapter Two for instance is subtitled: ‘In which I find a poor billet for the night, reflect on my murky past and ponder my uncertain future.’ While details like this add to the atmosphere, they do not get in the way of a fast-paced story. The many twists and turns of Charley’s fortune draw the reader on and the setting is sketched with a light, sure touch. Very convincing and a thoroughly enjoyable read.