.jpg)
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
Middle Grade Book Reviews
Adventures in Lylaland
Louise Pentland, pub. Templar Books
In Lyla's real world, things are tough. Lyla lives with her mum, who works a lot and is often tired, busy and certainly isn't around as much as Lyla wants. In addition, whenever her mum and dad talk they really don’t, instead they always argue - loudly. At school things are also getting harder as her two friends, Honour and Clara, are starting to be around less now that they have started to run a maths club – maths is definitely not Lyla's favourite subject! Lyla is struggling to know what to do.
The answer is quite simple, it would seem. When everything gets tough too tough to handle Lyla has a special place to go. She can take herself off into her imaginary world, Lylaland. In Lylaland glittons fly around blowing out rainbow glitter: if you read the book you can find out more about these wonderful imaginary creatures. Then there is her enchanted giant eagle Celeste who helps her battle the evil Sir Radstone with his evil maths monster. She really doesn’t like maths!
Sadly, however it seems as though a glitch is appearing in Lylaland, it happens when everything in the real world is becoming a bit too much and Lyla finds she has to look for other solutions to her troubles.
This is a cute story for any imaginative young people who would like to explore this magical land and also perhaps discover some tricks for overcoming their own worries.
Hayley Reeve
Blitzers
Alastair Chisholm, illus. Francesca Ficorilli, pub. Barrington Stoke
Follow Danny as he tries to get in with the in-crowd with his own 'Blitzer' - a fighting game craze which is flooding his school.
Danny's family aren't wealthy, and he can't afford to buy into the latest craze, but his brother, Jay, gets hold of a Blitzer for him - and that's when the action begins. Discover if Danny can:
-
Save the day and confront the people who've developed this aggressive and highly combative game.
-
Rekindle his friendship with best friend Tan.
-
Understand and forgive school-bully Mel, and her intimidating father.
Danny may have, thanks to his brother, been able to join in with the craze for playing the new fighting game but when his stops working, when it won’t fight he refuses to take his brother’s advice and wipe the code so he can start again. He does something different and reveals a dark underside to the company who are making the toy. Danny has uncovered a deadly secret…
This book is great fun, an exciting read with a great message for young people. It’s packed with fabulous black and white manga illustrations too. Pick it up now so you too can enjoy the glorious romp to the finish.
Laura Brill
Firebloom
Justin Davies, illus. Francesca Ficorilli, pub. Floris Books
Every year, visitors flock to Stormcliff for the Firebloom Festival. They enjoy what the island has to offer: the delicacies, the drinks, having their fortunes read but they are there for one thing in particular – seeing the jellyfish light up the water during the Firebloom. When the jellyfish do not show up for a number of nights in a row however, panic starts to spread. Can Tally Smuck, the next Sting Winkler, save the day, or will this be the first year when the Firebloom doesn’t happen?
Tally’s grandad is getting older and is feeling that his Sting Winkling days are behind him. Tally is next in line to take the role and be able to communicate with the jellyfish, ensuring that the Firebloom can happen and that the town’s unique supplies of medicines can be harvested from jellyfish tentacles. Something isn’t right though, the jellyfish are acting strangely, and Tally gets stung by one – something that hasn’t happened to any Sting Winkler before. Lady Vorpal, self-appointed leader of Stormcliff, is starting to lose her patience and the town is starting to lose faith – after all, so much of their fortune relies on the influx of visitors for the Firebloom Festival each year. Tally and her friends have to find a way to discover why the jellyfish are not acting normally and essentially make the Firebloom happen.
Justin Davies carries the story well and captures the frustrations and fears of the town through the characters. One of the outstanding characters is Colette, or Zasu as she prefers to be known, who has inherited her family’s ability to tell fortunes. Her wonderfully optimistic and determined attitude helps Tally believe that she is the right person to save the Firebloom. The illustrations by Francesca Ficorilli subtly placed around the pages of the book help to bring the story to life.
Firebloom is an entertaining read and one that lovers of The Stormkeeper’s Island and Malamander may enjoy.
Tom Joy
The Invisible Parade
Leigh Bardugo, illus. John Picacio, pub. Orion Children's Books
With a number one New York Times bestselling author and a World Fantasy Award winner coming together to create this book expecting something outstanding did not seem far-fetched and was exactly what I found. Their personal notes at the back of the book reveal just how long this book has been in the making and some of the inspiration behind it. For John Picacio it is a story from his Mexican American culture, set withing Día du Meuertos which is a time when people celebrate the loved ones they have lost. For Leigh Bardugo it is a children’s book to help families talk honestly about grief and loss. This book is special to them both and I hope it will become the same to you.
Tonight there is a party, everyone in the neighbourhood is getting ready to go and will be there later because they all know someone who is on the guest list. This is a once a year party, held on the day the dead return. Cala should be going, her family are all going, preparing to celebrate but she is still grieving the loss of her grandfather and working to pretend she isn’t scared about going. She does attend but when they are at the cemetery Cala finds herself separated from her family. That sounds quite scary but when she meets four horsemen, mysterious riders who seem to have come out of nowhere, she lets them show her that she really is quite brave after all. Cala’s story is one of love, loss and courage. There are plenty of unexpected moments of humour set amid the story and there is an abundance of love.
John Picacio’s illustrations are uniquely evocative, they fit perfectly and I can imagine them sitting comfortably in graphic novels or on film. They are graphic, in muted and simply colours, the fill the page with their presence but they don’t dominate, a true skill. The whole story is truly heartwarming, it is evidently born of love and the desire to share that love, to share a meaningful relationship with both life and death. Outstanding.
Louise Ellis-Barrett
Isle of Ever
Jen Calonita, pub. Dorling Kindersley
The book opens with an extract from Evelyn Terry’s journal, written in Long Island in 1825. She recounts a race with friends to a mysterious island known only to them. As she starts to cross over to it a strangely dressed man appears. He forcefully warns her off, especially as there is a blood orange moon in the offing. He asks if she knows of Captain Jonas Kimble – she doesn’t – and what year it is and is astonished by her answer. Evelyn returns to her friends. Bizarrely, none of them have seen the man. Only she and Aggy glimpse the ship with a skull and crossbones.
The scene shifts to Boston in 2025. Twelve year-old Benny is scrounging food at the diner where her mother Lynn works. She wishes she had friends but they move frequently as Lynn finds work then loses it, finds lovers and loses them. Benny never has long enough to fit in at school. There is never any money. A man in an expensive suit comes in, searching for Everly Pauline Benedict. Her! He announces that she has inherited a fortune – a Long Island estate worth millions. Only the inheritance will be lost if she cannot solve a puzzle set for her by an ancestor named Evelyn Terry 175 years ago. She has just a few days.
They move to Evelyn Terry’s magnificent house and revel in luxurious surroundings and food. But Benny must work. Her ancestor has left her baffling clues. She meets helpful people and even starts to build friendships. But who can she really trust? Evelyn has sent her warnings down the centuries to be on her guard. Time is ticking away. And there’s a blood orange moon about to appear. Can she even locate the island?
This is a great adventure story, full of excitement and tension. Calonita knows Long Island and evokes the setting well. Benny is an excellent protagonist – quick-witted and kind, but wary. The ending is truly unexpected. With luck we will read more about Benny and the challenges she faces.
Anne Harding
The Last Bard
Maz Evans, pub. Chicken House
The Last Bard features Will Davenant, who discovers that he is a descendant of William Shakespeare, via the poet and playwright William Davenant – who is rumoured to have been the illegitimate son of Shakespeare. This discovery comes about when Will and his mother go to sort out Will’s grandfather’s flat, in a block called Arden Heights, in an unspecified seaside town. His grandfather had been an academic, and there are piles of papers everywhere. Crucially, there is also an old Collected Works of Shakespeare, to which Will is strangely drawn: when he opens it, magical things happen – Shakespearian characters, including Juliet, Lady Macbeth, Puck and a delightfully lugubrious Yorick – come to life and start talking to him. This only happens when he opens the book: it doesn’t work for anyone else – because he is the Bard, the descendant to whom the gift has been passed on.
There’s so much else going on in the story that it’s difficult to know where to start! Will’s dad died two years ago, and as a result, Will and his mum have been living with her horrible brother and his equally horrible son. It’s a sort of Harry Potter with the Dursleys/Cinderella situation: Will and his mum are bullied and treated like servants, given little to eat and nowhere decent to sleep. They’re delighted to get away for a bit. Will never met his grandfather but soon learns that his neighbours at Arden Heights were very fond of him and thought highly of him. Will meets a girl called Ani, who also lives at the Heights, she tells Will that there is a battle going on to save the Heights from being knocked down and redeveloped: the scheme can only be stopped if a certain number of tenants vote against it, and the main thrust of the story is the fight to save the flats, for the good people to triumph, the bad ones to be sent packing.
Maz Evans has lots of fun with references to Shakespeare – she says there is a reference to every single play included. The story races merrily along, and I’m sure it will be a great success with middle-grade readers. If some carping adult readers might question why a strong woman like Will’s mum puts up with such dire treatment, and why she doesn’t notice that her son is being beaten on a regular basis by his cousin – well, those aren’t the kind of questions that would have bothered Shakespeare himself. And they probably won’t bother young readers either. Or, as the great man wrote at the end of A Midsummer-Night’s Dream:
If we shadows have offended
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
Sue Purkiss
Medusa Gorgon’s Bad Hair Day
Bethany Walker, illus. Katie Abey, pub. Scholastic
Meet twelve-year-old Medusa Gorgon who works for Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, as a guardian in her temple at the base of Mount Olympus. Medusa is responsible for protecting Athena’s shield, not that she’s sure what she’d actually do if any if the other Gods living on Mount Olympus tried to steal it, after all who wants to mess with the Gods?
Medusa hates the unfairness of the punishments given out by the Gods on the mortals, and worried that Medusa’s fiery temper will get her into trouble, her best friend Arachne suggests that she write her feelings in a diary to help her deal with her anger. Arachne even buys her the wax tablets and reed stylus she needs to do this, and it seems to be working, for a while at least. Then Athena turns Arachne into a spider and Medusa, in a fit of anger, throws Athena’s precious shield into Hades’ well. Given that it’s probably not the best idea to make the Goddess of War angry, as a punishment Athena gives Medusa the worst hair day ever: she turns her luscious locks into a writhing head of hissing snakes.
When Medusa is offered a way to get back both her hair and her best friend, she has no choice but to sign a contract with Hades and Athena which sees her transported a modern-day secondary school ‘Shadwell Academy’ with the task of finding the shield and returning it to Athena. Easy enough, right? Well, no, it turns out that adapting to the 21st century is tougher than you’d think, especially when you mistake Alexa for an oracle, you have no idea what a bra is, and you asked to be served wine at lunch! How will Meddy keep to the terms of the contract, including not revealing who she is? And how will she ever find the shield? Be prepared to laugh a lot as you follow Meddy as she grapples with life in the 21st century and finds herself in some very unfortunate situations!
This action packed and quite honestly hilarious book will keep readers entertained from start to finish and you really don’t need to be over familiar with Greek mythology before you read it as everything is so wonderfully, humorously explained! Brilliantly packed with diary entries, letters between Hades and Athena, input from the Chorus (genius), and all wrapped up in Katie Abey’s most splendid illustrations this is a heart-warming tale of friendship and the craziness of modern society. Giggles are most definitely guaranteed!
Tracey Corner
The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam
Annelise Gray, pub. Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Phoebe and her nan, Cass, love to draw and paint together, especially in her grandmother’s small, sunny studio. As Nan paints she also instructs, inspires Phoebe, helping her to paint feelings rather than objects. Nan is working on an Ithaca seascape – based on memories of her childhood holidays on the Greek island with her good friend, Hattie. It’s Phoebe’s favourite painting. Every week, Nan tells Phoebe a new myth and, though she loves them all, it’s the story of Odysseus that truly captures her imagination. Over time, Phoebe notices Nan slipping away, her memory lapses are becoming more frequent and one day she momentarily doesn’t recognise Phoebe at all. Soon Nan is moved into a home.
Whilst mum is at work Phoebe, along with Nan’s lurcher Claude, visits the bungalow one last time to look at the painting. Magic is in the air and Phoebe suddenly finds herself on the Ithacan beach of the painting at the time of Odysseus. She meets Leander, a young boat maker about to set off on a quest to find to his father after the Trojan Wars, and Cass’s childhood friend Hattie, who presents Phoebe with her own quest. Together, Phoebe and Leander set off, with only by a map drawn by Cass and Hattie as children. Their journey is perilous thanks to the interference of the Greek Gods who want neither child to succeed, but as the greatest danger of all confronts them, neither has any idea how or if they will succeed.
Greek Mythology and dementia may seem odd companions but they are woven together beautifully to create a story of hope, acceptance and finding those you’ve lost. Building on author Annelise Gray’s reputation for creating compellingly detailed stories of the ancient world, this Greek adventure introduces readers to the infamous Odysseus and the implications of his long journey home. Written with vivid and powerful imagery Grey’s work needs no illustrations – I even double checked there were none as there are simply dozens of images in my head!
The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam is a captivating quest story which explores precious family relationships. The descriptions of Phoebe’s nan’s dementia are heartbreakingly accurate and brought tears to my eyes from the very beginning of the story. With the protagonist caught between guilt (for not speaking up when she first noticed Nan’s memory lapses) and anger that she is losing someone so precious, Annelise Grey has carefully navigated the subject of dementia through the eyes of a child, whilst all the while retaining a sense of hope and wonder. It is a story about finding your way and fighting daemons in every sense, but mostly it’s about what Phoebe’s nan tells her, that “The ending isn’t the thing that matters. It’s everything before the ending that counts.”
I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Tracey Corner
Out There in the Wild
Nicola Davies, James Carter and Dom Conlon, illus. Diana Catchpole, pub. Macmillan Children’s Books
“You’ll wonder what the hell we were all doing
To let the whole world get in such a state And look for those who brought us to this ruin
And failed to act before it was too late.
They’ll be right there, those old climate change deniers,
Roasting rats beside you over bomb site fires.”
Whenever I read poetry, I do so by opening a random page from a collection and indulging in words on the page. This time it was from a collection of nature poems. There it was- a potent one by Nicola Davies - the lines still resounding in my head. An award winning children's poet; a Carnegie Medal nominee; a writer and producer: the powerful trio of James Carter, Dom Conlon and Nicola Davies collaborated to create this meaningful collection of nature poetry. The book is divided into 8 sections with compilations on nature and memory; climate change; pets; wisdom from nature; birds and beasts; the azure world of the water bodies; the uninhibited wild; mythical creatures; and the minims we encounter every day. The book’s title is taken from the first section. Each poem I read was full of power and meaning, sharing messages too bright to overlook. Black and white doodles complete the poems and enhance the rhythm of the words. I loved the flowing Selkie illustration and the poem which captures the intimate connection she has with her skin-
“Come to me, my skin, my other!
Find me lost upon the shore.
A storm of dark is in me;
I fight no more. Come to me, my skin, my wildness!”
Then we read about a poet observing a plover and coming up with such beauty in this verse-
“…the shiver zone of light and shadow the boundary of sound and silence
the place where leverets and fawns hold still, and you are not reflected in the plover’s eye.”
And still more flows in when James Carter stands mystified by life and the experiences it entails, which for him translates into sublimity, the kind which Longinus and Keats once felt and wrote about in their expressive flows –
“Whether you call it magic,
a miracle or simply the workings of science, all life is a sublime concoction”
The reader can wallow endlessly in these pages and discover serene yet empowering words to carry on with them through the day, as they observe nature through their inner resources. It's a must read for poetry lovers and for those beginning to step into the depths of poesy.
Ishika Tiwari
Role Model
Ellen McNicoll, pub. Knights Of
Aeriel Sharpe is in a unique position. Her mother has just won the election to become Prime Minister, the most eminent political position in the country. Their move from Scotland to London has been fraught with change, busier lives and a hugely intense city. Aeriel is autistic and proclaimed an inspirational role model by the media. Finding herself splashed over newspapers and TV is hugely daunting and she soon falls into a pattern, consistently changing herself to better fit in with friends and this new life.
Her ‘friends’ at school are not really very nice or kind to her but fitting in is something Aeriel is keen to do. However, the effort takes a huge toll on her and she struggles in many of the social situations that come with her mother’s new role. Her mother and her ‘drones’ as Aeriel things of them, don’t really understand Aeriel and she is tired of trying to explain herself to those who just want her to ‘act normal.’
This is another incredible story from Ellen McNicoll and it offers an honest glimpse into neurodivergence with truth and passion behind every word. Aeriel is such a likeable character, one who readers will relate to and empathise with. I found this to be a powerful story and one that should be read widely and recommended.
Erin Hamilton
Sin Bin Island
Doug Naylor, pub. David Fickling Books
Thirteen-year-old Jack Digby lost his mother, stepfather and sister suddenly, in a plane crash. Upon his mother’s death, he inherited from her grandmother, twelve generations removed, a Russian nesting doll containing uncannily accurate information about his current situation, anticipating exactly what was going to happen next and a place at the Cyril Sniggs’s Correctional Orphanage for Wayward Boys and Girls.
Cyril Sniggs’s Correctional Orphanage for Wayward Boys and Girls is not your traditional school. Founded by Cyril Sniggs, a privateer with the permission of the Crown to attack and plunder enemy ships, who had decided to share his knowledge and skills with future generations. Lessons included the history of sailing ships and piracy, celestial navigation and the firing of guns and cannons, preparing pupils to pass their Pirate Attack Test. Any misdemeanors – and there were a myriad of rules to break - were recorded as lashes, and the four pupils with the most lashes each year were banished to Sin Bin Island.
The adventure begins as Digs quickly settles in, making friends and desperately avoiding the school bullies. Together, he and his friends explore the old building, finding hidden rooms and the promise of treasure beyond that of silver and gold. The answer unfortunately lies on Sin Bin Island, the very place they don’t want to go. Alongside the mischief and hilarity of daily life in a pirate school, is the exciting mystery of the messages from the Russian doll, and the pursuit of buried treasure. A fantastic mishmash of different genres, seamlessly blended into one story that young readers are bound to relish. Sin Bin Island itself casts a long shadow, whetting the reader’s appetite for the eventual arrival of our heroes and a strong dose of jeopardy as this could be their last resting place.
Doug Naylor, co-creator of Red Dwarf, the popular BBC science fiction comedy television series, has written his first original story for children, developing a great set of characters – heroes and villains alike – as readers root for Digs and his friends, the underdogs.
Sin Bin Island beckons.
Simon Barrett