Hugo Pepper

Paul Stewart Illus. Chris Riddell

Doubleday

0385607253

Apr 2006

Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell share one of the most dynamic author-illustrator partnerships in children’s literature today. The fruits of this truly collaborative process shimmer, shine and truly stand-out from the crowded book shelves in shops, libraries, schools and homes. Their ‘Far Flung Adventures’ series ‘ each one eponymously named after its hero or heroine ‘ have charted a fantastical world perfect for fuelling the minds and imaginations of small children.
‘Hugo Pepper’ is the third, and sadly reportedly also the final, novel in this series. Mystery, adventure and humour combine as Hugo pieces together the fragments of stories amassed by renowned story collector Wilfrid McPherson, the background to the blight that The Firefly Quarterly has become upon Firefly Square and the role of himself and his family to the legend of Brimstone Kate and her lost treasure. The joy here is that readers make their own deductions in parallel alongside Hugo to arrive at the various kinds of misappropriation the media are wielding to exert control over the community of Firefly Square.
What is particularly admirable in ‘Hugo Pepper’ is that Stewart and Riddell have crafted in this book a remarkably apt yet good-humoured exploration of the way stories construct our sense of identity ‘ our personal history with ancestries amalgamated, the platform of the present and the possibilities the future poses for us all’
The gentlemen are on fine flying form here, prompting the request ‘Please Sirs, we want some more”