ACHUKAreviews

  • Back to main ACHUKA page…

The 13 Treasures

March 1, 2009 By achuka Leave a Comment

Michelle Harrison

Simon and Schuster

978-1-84738-449-2

January 2009


“I can’t cope with this,” Tanya’s mother declares at the start of this exceptional debut novel (winner of this year’s Waterstone’s Children’s Book Award), and promptly dispatches her daughter off to stay with the grandmother, in a suitably expansive and derelict mansion.
It is Tanya’s fixation with fairies that has driven her mother to the end of her tether.
And thus is set up a quintessentially English children’s book adventure; child staying with grandmother in slightly spooky house has escapades involving little people.
Now, whilst I am happy to read the classics in this genre, I have to say that a contemporary title of this ilk normally finds me a somewhat resistant reader. But I quickly found myself a thoroughly willing participant in the tale concocted by Harrison – one of fairy glamour and entrapment going back two generations.
The house itself and its principal occupants – Tanya’s grandmother, the groundsman Warwick and his son Fabian (nicely chosen names, these) – evoke just the correct atmosphere. And when the fairy intrusion occurs it happens with such unexpected malevolence as to be completely unnerving and, in the book’s best sequences, as exciting as an episode of 24.
There are occasional lapses of pace (usually when Harrison is attempting to convey narrative information via dialogue) and, quite importantly really, the book’s title is never given proper significance or weighting. Having said that, the sheer power of invention and fluency of story narration carry the reader along in a fashion that makes its winning of the Waterstone’s Award entirely understandable.
Here we have a writer who you just know will go from strength to strength. There are superbly well-realised sequences – in the catacombs of the house, in the surrounding woods – which, in my own reader’s mind I imagined as a TV dramatised adaptation, so visually vivid was the description.
The book has a Prologue and an Epilogue. Its chapters are of just the right length for children to read one (or more) in bed at night. Harrison herself decorates the initial letter of each new chapter, in a style suggesting she might also have contributed excellent narrative illustrations had the publisher been so inclined.

Filed Under: Drama, Fantasy, Fiction

Social

  • View achuka’s profile on Twitter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Categories

  • Adult
  • Audiobook
  • Chapter Books
  • Counting
  • Drama
  • Early Readers
  • Fairytales & Retellings
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Graphic Novels
  • Historical
  • Humour
  • Mystery/Thriller
  • Non-Fiction
  • Picture Books
  • Poetry
  • Pop-Ups
  • Reference
  • SciFi
  • Series
  • Teen/YA
  • Uncategorized
  • War

Archives

  • August 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • February 2010
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • July 2008
  • March 2008
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005

Copyright ACHUKA © 2021 · designed on Genesis Framework