story time books

Jane Smiley’s writing for adults has been much admired, with a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics’ Circle Award for A Thousand Acres, but this is, as far as I know, her first foray into writing for younger readers. With recommendations on the cover from Meg Rosoff: “Passion for horses shines out of every page,” and Hilary McKay: “Wonderful storytelling,” it was almost guaranteed to be a great read, but as I’ve mentioned before, books can evoke very different responses in different readers. In this case I’m happy to concur with their enthusiasm. There are lots of books which feel as if they are almost exploiting the love of horses that exists in many a young reader, but this has a lot more to it.  Abby has troubles at school, and her father, a horse-trading / farming born-again Christian who is very loving, but can be rather dogmatic, as her older brother has found. Danny now lives elsewhere. Abby loves the horse work on the farm, and is very good with horses, but there’s one gelding who won’t let her be friends and bucks her off as often as he can. Then Jem Jarrow turns up, a man who has a different way of looking at horses from Abby’s Dad, or her uncle, who makes things worse by attempting to dominate the horse. This book has the best horse scenes I’ve read since Silverhorse and its sequel, beautifully drawn characters and the “wonderful storytelling” Hilary McKay identified. Suitable for anyone who can read it, probably nine or ten up.

This is a novel by Canadian-born but New Zealander resident since the age of two, Elizabeth Pulford. I’ve admired her writing before and this is a lovely story. Kate’s father is missing, possibly the victim of a plane crash and Kate, 13, and her younger sister Madeline are keeping their hopes alive in different ways. For Kate, lighting a lamp at the old tin hut in the tussock is an important ritual, and the light may help guide her father home. Madeline puts her hope in building a Stone Man, a connection to a local legend, the Stone Man having reputedly saved people who would otherwise have drowned. But at the hut they also meet Troy, a boy who seems almost as lost as her father, and who also resembles Madeline’s  Stone Man. One of the things I like most about the story is the way in which much is left unexplained. Young and new writers often feel they have to tie up every loose end, but Elizabeth Pulford is confident enough to leave some things unresolved. The characterisation is lovely, from Kate, though her mother to Old Jonesy, the farmhand; the landscape is beautifully evoked; and the way the characters deal with the uncertainty of whether grief or worry or anger is appropriate is confidently complex. I like this book a lot and recommend it for confident readers over ten, though secondary students will get even more from it. I also really like the cover, with its tussock and snow palette and a face superimposed, though such things are very much a matter of individual taste.

This book by Paul Adam has a subtitle: a Max Cassidy Adventure, which suggests that there may be more to come, and the non-resolution at the end makes that almost certain. I hope so, because it’s a very good exciting read which will capture readers (boys in particular) who are perfectly competent readers but who tend to avoid reading. This is exciting stuff which should grab them from the first page. The first chapter is a real attention grabber as a young escapologist tries a trick which he has never performed in public before, and it nearly goes wrong. From there on the pace scarcely falters. The back cover blurb says: “They tell me two things are true: My mother is in prison for killing my father. My father’s body was never found.  But I know two things for sure: Mum didn’t do it. And Dad’s still alive. I’m going to prove it.” Not much more can be said about the plot without spoiling the suspense, but there’s plenty of that, Max is an interestingly complex character, there’s villainy aplenty, good dialogue, and the ending is certainly suggesting a sequel or more, as I mentioned. Great action read for upper primary, intermediate or lower secondary students.

This is the first in a great new series of first novels for the 6-8-year-olds by Chris d’Lacey. The blurb describes the dragons as “charming and friendly, magical and mysterious” and that description could just as easily refer to the books, which have illustrations by Adam Stower. Great for reading to a younger child who can’t read them for her/himself yet, or for the new reader growing in confidence. Any new addition at this level is welcome, and one as good as this even more so. Three other books in the series also available, so this is a good new series for school libraries.

Kyle Mewburn’s latest is for older readers than anything else he’s written, but still  accessible to primary age children.  Conor’s day starts badly in several ways, including his mother ripping her favourite skirt on a  spring in their old sofa. Money’s not readily available, but then something happens that seems impossible: a red sofa floats into the bay, against the tide. When Conor and his mum check it over it seems perfect, except that its size seems somewhat variable, and they don’t think it will fit in their room. When it does, it seems ideal, until Conor uses it as a trampoline, his mother loses her job, he falls asleep and wakes up somewhere different. Too much more plot would ruin the story for a reader, but it’s a good read with some most unusual twists. Good readers of seven and anyone older might enjoy. It’s only 165 pages, and has infrequent zany illustrations by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson. The acknowledgements at the end tell of several other writers and editors helping the novel to its present state, so kudos to all concerned.

This is Wellington writer Philippa Werry’s latest novel, and it’s a very good one. I read it a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, but I did wonder if it was too sophisticated for most children, so I asked an eleven-year-old friend to read it and let me know how she found it. So here’s Eleanor’s review.

“This book is an extremely strange and funny one. Harriet Jasmine Emerald Florence Mabey McDonald is a girl in year 8. She has a normal life and a best friend called Jessica. But all of that changes on the day the new girl arrives and suddenly life is turned upside down. There ares so many questions to be answeered, like will the new girl be as exciting as she hoped? Or will her Mum get a job? And will Uncle Theo be OK? This is a great book that to me says not to judge someone by the outside but find out what’s on the inside. I highly recommend this book to people who like things that include problems and imagination.”

The book is really all about that wonderful thing called imagination. Harry has a very active one, and it sometimes causes problems for her. As the story develops she realises that it is both an asset and a liability. I liked Harry as much as Eleanor did, and I also recommend the book, especially to imaginative readers.

I reviewed Wolven here in January this year, and here’s the second book already. By Di Toft, it has a similarly spectacular lenticular cover, and a similar mix of supernatural beast horror and humour. Take this image: a character feels “as nervous as a small nun at as penguin shoot.” All the usual suspects are here again, vampires, werewolves, wolven, goodies and baddies. I’ve almost entirely given up on vampire books and the werewolf clones which have followed. Every publisher has tried to cash in on the huge Twilight sales, mostly with a notable lack of success, but these are different and worth a read. Great characters, humour, and a rattling good yarn, and the conclusion to this one leaves little doubt that there will be another.

This is Volume Three of the trilogy by Kate Thompson which started with The New Policeman and continued with The Last of the High Kings. It is just as wonderful as the previous books, with the same humour, insight, beautiful writing, fantastic characters (human or ploddy and fairies) and playfulness, the same sharp comment on ploddy ways, and the same insistence that the fairies are only a little better, still full of ego and self-protective camouflage. This time the setting is in the future, with a global-warming ravaged Ireland almost incapable of sustaining human habitation.  So in Tir na n’Og, the land of eternal youth, there’s a refugee crisis, with ploddies appearing everywhere. When enquiries are made and it’s clear that one of JJ’s sons is the tyrant responsible for making things even worse than they might be, JJ has to use the White Horse Trick (see the Irish legend of Oisin) to return across the time skin and do some sorting. A great read,  a terrific conclusion, and now that all three books are available in B format paperback a good time to read them all. Lovely storytelling, but there are always several threads, so these books require a good reader.

Fleur Beale’s maverick Quin Majik is back in his third adventure in Tidy Street. Complete with the usual inventions and inventiveness, Quin and friend Fred battle the forces of convention, tidiness and excessive order once again, to the great frustration of Mr Spick and Span who wants the Majiks removed from Tidy Street before total anarchy arrives. Again inventively illustrated by the wonderful Philip Webb, hugely humorous and beautifully written, a complete novel with beginning, middle and end, heroes and villains in 64 illustrated pages. Great stuff, and ideal for slightly reluctant as well as enthusiastic readers. Includes pages on Morse code and semaphore for those who wish to create mayhem themselves.

This book has been eagerly awaited, and much wondered about, and of course now that it’s out, much discussed. Some see it as merely Percy Jackson gone Egyptian, because Rick Riordan has had huge success with that series; some fans of the earlier series are inevitably disappointed, but some readers like this one better than the Percy Jackson books.  Naturally it’s a bit hard to compare one book with a series of five, but I liked this as much as the Percy books. The Gods are Egyptian rather than Greek, and the narrators are plural, brother and sister: nerdy 14-year-old Carter who has travelled with his Egyptologist father most of his life, and who looks African-American like him, and acid-tongued 12-year-old Sadie, who has lived in England with grandparents and who looks white like their mother. When their father’s attempt to do something they don’t understand at the British Museum causes chaos and lets loose ancient gods and magicians, the children have to learn about their own powers quickly to survive. The action is almost non-stop, because even when they sleep the children have visions which help to make sense of the “real” things that are happening to them. For most readers the Egyptian gods will be even less familiar than the Greek ones Percy Jackson interacts with, but the characters explain as the action takes place. This book is quite a lot longer than the Percy Jackson books, at over 500 pages, but it’s certainly a good read for those who like action, and won’t disappoint many fans of the earlier series.