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J. E. Roberts |
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Sea Campion |
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9781943092703 |
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June 2015 |
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paperback |
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Sea Campion is a tiny independent press. This is its first children’s book publication. The author, J. E. Roberts can write. He can write very well. And I enjoyed this short but atmospherically intense novel very much indeed. Set in the Black Mountains (where the author lives) it is described as “an ecological adventure story for children 9 years old and above’. Roberts succeeds in establishing a rapport with his main character Joe (a boy recently moved from the city who has an interest in Charles Darwin) but is also able to create vivid supporting characters, notably an old man and an old woman, and also Joe’s much younger brother, Ant. Less vivid is Gwen, the girl Joe befriends. Nearing the climax of the story I feared the book might become too polemical, too message-driven, but in the end this was successfully avoided. The book bears comparison with Bone Jack by Sara Crowe, albeit without the sense of menace, and deserves to find a readership in its own right. The publisher is actively trying to attract more authors with work highlighting ecological issues.
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