Review: Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Image: gracelin.com

Pacy is a Taiwanese-American girl growing up in upstate New York. The book opens on the eve of Chinese New Year, the year of the Dog, and her family (older sister Lissy, younger sister Ki-Ki and her parents) are preparing. She learns that the year of the Dog is a year for friends and family, since dogs are faithful and loving, but also a year for self discovery. As Pacy's year progresses, she makes a new friend, discovers more talents and learns from her mum and extended family to value her heritage, but also to be herself.

Pacy is a lovely character, who is conflicted- she feels to Taiwanese to be American, but too American to be truly Taiwanese. There are some great chapters that explore this: for example, another girl's horror when Grace (as Pacy is known at school) wants to try out for the part of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: "You can't be Dorothy. Dorothy's not Chinese!" When her class is entered into an illustrated story writing contest, Pacy can't think of anything to write. She is encouraged to "write what she knows", but with no models of Chinese-American culture (Lin explains in an afterword that when she was growing up, Taiwan was not recognised by the USA) she can't find her story. This is a lesson for all of us involved in promoting children's literature to children: it is so important for children to be represented in the books that they read.

This is a great chapter book for readers 7+, especially, but not exclusively, for British Asian children. I think it would be a useful book to read with children to discuss any mixed heritage. I loved it.

Gong Hei Fat Choi to anyone celebrating Chinese/ Lunar New Year tomorrow!

Review: North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler

Disclosure: I am very grateful for to the publisher for sending me a copy of North of Nowhere. This review however is my honest opinion.

Image: foyles.co.uk

North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler is absolutely wonderful. The story of Mia, who is dragged away from her friends at February half term to the tiny seaside town of Porthaven when her grandad goes missing. Porthaven is a fishing village more than a holiday resort, although the council are trying to promote fishing trips, and her grandparents' pub doesn't even have internet access, let alone mobile reception, and Mia veers between anxiety about her grandad, sadness for her gran and boredom, until she makes two friends- Peter, who she meets on the beach, and Dee, a girl with whom she starts a sort of pen friendship when she accidentally finds her diary while rescuing Flake the dog from a boat. However, when Mia and Dee plan to meet, Dee doesn't show up. Later, she claims that she was prevented by bad weather- but the sea is calm...

This compelling and magical novel is hard to write about without spoilers, but I recommend it highly to readers of 9+, especially for fans of adventure stories with a fantastical twist. It's wonderful, and I'm passing it on to a 10 year old who I hope will love it.

I'm looking for a book about...

I am in the middle of a very busy time at work at the moment, so unfortunately no blog this week. However I'm contributing an old post to http://www.playingbythebook.net/'s roundup on books about the environment. Do check it out tomorrow!

Funny books

One of my favourite books is Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm. I have read my way through a copy- I look after my books, but a copy that I have had for 30 years fell apart two years ago, and I was delighted to receive a new copy for Christmas, since I loaned a copy to someone and not received it back. It is a delightfully funny book, poking fun at over-written "rural novels" such as those by Mary Webb, but you don't  need to have read the books to enjoy it; the grotesque characters and the heroine Flora Poste's deflating of the ridiculous situations are enjoyable on their own.

Somehow, in our society, we don't prize comedy enough. We don't take it seriously; yet any writer will tell you that writing successful comedy is one of the hardest things you can do. I get annoyed with lazy comedy for children, with authors who think that references to bums and poo are enough; I was extremely disappointed to hear an author I really admire say that the only thing he has to do to make teenagers laugh on school visits is to use a mild expletive. (I suspect that the students are actually laughing at what they see as a sad old man trying to be "cool".) Therefore, I have added "funny books" as a genre for my teaching students to explore in children's literature, and I have promoted the Roald Dahl Funny Prize to them.

Image: foyles.co.uk

For a long time I avoided Utterly Me, Clarice Bean as I am not a great fan of Charlie and Lola. I was urged to read it by Melanie Library Mice, and she was quite right. I adored it! Clarice is a wonderful creation, with her big, noisy family, problems with friends and school, and her bemusement at daily life. I can imagine children reading along and getting the enjoyment of seeing the pratfalls and getting the jokes that Clarice doesn't quite. 

The premise of the story is that Clarice and her best friend, Betty Moody, are great fans of books about a girl detective, Ruby Redfort, who is a secret agent as well as being an American school girl. (Wonderfully, Lauren Child had so many readers asking her where they could read more about Ruby that she has written a book about her!) Clarice's unsympathetic teacher Miss Wilberton thinks that the Ruby Redfort books are rubbish, and isn't impressed when Clarice and Betty decide to do their Open Day book project on them. But Betty is mysteriously absent from school, Clarice is told that she must be bad boy Karl Wrenbury's partner, and she can't explain what she has learnt from reading Ruby Redfort- and if she can't, she will be assigned a boring book by Miss Wilburton. Then the book project winner's cup goes missing, and Karl is blamed. Can Clarice put into practice the detective skills that she has learnt from reading Ruby? Where is Betty Moody? And will Miss Wilberton learn the value of reading for pleasure? A brilliant, fun read for 7+, with great graphics and illustrations as you would expect from Lauren Child.

Image: foyles.co.uk

Poor Clementine. Bubbling over with energy and enthusiasm, things just seem to happen to her. She accidentally cuts off her best friend's hair, tries to draw it on again, and then to make Margaret feel better, she cuts off her own. She is sent to the principal's office almost every day because she just can't sit still. Can Clementine's creativity and ingenuity help her supervisor father solve the pigeon problem in their apartment bock? I adored Clementine, and recommend this book to readers of 7+. Adult readers who grew up on Beverly Cleary's Ramona will enjoy sharing Clementine's adventures with the children in their lives.

Image: foyles.co.uk

I must admit here that I was introduced to Kjartan Poskitt's Agatha Parrot and the Floating Head by my friend whose daughter was the "model" for Agatha's crazy hair! The first in a series by the Murderous Maths creator, the story again is told in the first person by Agatha, and involves Agatha's attempts to ensure that a promised school trip for perfect attendance goes ahead when her friend Martha has an unfortunate incident with an octopus paste pizza. Agatha decides to make a decoy Martha out of a balloon, a coat and some rolled up newspaper stuffed into trousers. The book is very funny, and the illustrations by David Tazzyman are as zany as you'd expect. A highly enjoyable book, again for 7+.

Finally, I can't list my favourite recent funny books without mentioning that absolute grimster, Mr Gum. The first in the series, You're A Bad Man, Mr Gum has had me hooting with laughter on public transport.

Image: foyles.co.uk

Mr Gum lives in a village called Lamonic Bibbler. He is an appallingly horrible man, with a beautiful garden that he must keep neat or the fairy who lives in his bath whacks him with a frying pan. A lovely dog called Jake, however, also likes Mr Gum's garden as a place to roll in the flower beds and leave "presents" on the lawn, so Mr Gum and his dreadful friend Billy William the Third the butcher, concoct a plan to kill Jake with poisoned meat. Luckily a little girl called Polly, with "a smile as happy as the Bank of England", and her friend Friday O'Leary are there to save him. This book involves brilliant word play, crazy imagery, David Tazzyman's illustrations, and Chapter 4, "Mr Gum has a cup of tea", reads: Mr Gum had a cup of tea. A wonderful read for 7+, and a fantastic book to read aloud- if you can manage it between laughing!

The pleasure to be had from reading books that really make you laugh of course cannot be understated. We want to do what gives us pleasure, so children will naturally read something that they enjoy. However, as Clarice Bean reminds us, "And it is amazing what you can learn from any books you enjoy, and you don't necessarily realise you are learning something because you are so busy enjoying it."

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner...

That I love books about London! 

Image: foyles.co.uk

Catherine Johnson's A Nest of Vipers is a thrilling adventure story set in a lawless and brutal 18th Century London. Young Cato Hopkins is being brought up by a gang of "coney catchers", confidence tricksters overseen by Mother Hopkins, who claims that she bought Cato from Newgate Gaol for a few pennies. The Hopkins "family" (Addy, who can pass as a boy and part fools from their money at cards; beautiful Bella, who has been parted from lovelorn young aristocrats at the altar- for a price; escaped slave Sam and Cato, who has been sold into slavery, but can crack any lock going, especially if there is something valuable on the other side of the lock) are famous among the London Underworld, and live at the Nest of Vipers pub east of Drury Lane, London. They pride themselves on only conning those deserving the con, especially slave traders.

But things are getting too hot for them in London, and Mother Hopkins is ageing. She has a dream to retire to Bath. Bella wants to marry Jack, who with Sam is in the Sedan chair business, and want to go straight. And surely Addy can't pass as a convincing boy much longer? In order to buy a house, Mother Hopkins plans one last con trick. But when she involves proud Quarmy, the son of a West African king, his unfamiliarity with their cons and his love-sickness for his former tutor's daughter may prove the family's undoing...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is framed at the beginning and the end with Cato in Newgate, dictating his story to the Ordinary, the gaol's chaplain. More detail about Ordinary's accounts can be found on the Old Bailey Online website. The historical detail is rich: accounts of London pubs, coffee shops, pie shops and the houses of the wealthy is finely drawn, and never overwhelms the pot, which rushes along like an 18th Century episode of Hustle. The use of thieve's cant also enriches the story (as it does, for example, in Georgette Heyer) and since Cato is often reproved for using it, it adds to the authenticity but doesn't make the dialogue less comprehensible for young readers. Like the best sorts of historical fiction, we are able to enter the world of a young Black boy in 18th Century London, learning more about his times and also about why our world is the way it is. Highly recommended for 9+.

I reviewed Catherine Johnson's Brave New Girl here. She's a fabulous writer; make sure you read her in 2013!

Seasonal reading 8: Lost Christmas by David Logan

Last year I watched the BBC TV film Lost Christmas with Eddie Izzard. You can see the trailer here. I found it an incredibly moving and very beautiful film, so I was excited to see that one of the writers, David Logan, has adapted it into a novel.

Image: lost-christmas.co.uk

10 year old Goose wakes up one Christmas Eve to the sound of a puppy barking. He runs downstairs to find his parents unsuccessfully trying to hide a mongrel puppy. Goose is full of plans to play with him, but then his firefighter dad receives a call and has to go to work. Disappointed, Goose hides his car keys. Of course, that doesn't stop his father from going to work; instead his mum gives him a lift in her car. Goose's spur-of-the-moment act means that he loses both parents in a car crash.

A year later he is living with his grandmother, who is in the early stages of dementia. He still has Mutt, his dog, but he has lost everything else, including his ability to feel. He is also involved in crime, stealing and handing over the objects to his dad's former best friend, Frank, whose wife left him when Frank's grief led him to drink heavily. 

Then after a heavy night in a pub, Frank meets a strange man, Anthony. Anthony seems to have lost his memory. However, he seems to have a strange power, to "read" people and know their secret- and not so secret- losses. As Goose and Frank become more involved with Anthony, he helps them to make amends and return lost things to their owners. 

This book deserves to become a Christmas classic. I think it is probably aimed at 10+, but I think it could be a fantastic book for a family to enjoy together, with an adult reading it to children 8+ and helping them understand allusions, to, for example, Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince. 

I wish you all a Happy Christmas, and hope that you enjoy some wonderful Seasonal Reading too!

Seasonal reading 7- Beauty by Robin McKinley

Well, Christmas needs a pantomime, and most pantos are based on traditional tales, after all!

Image: bookpeople.co.uk

Beauty lives with her sisters, Hope and Grace, and her widower father, in comfortable circumstances. Her father is a merchant, and while Hope and Grace are happy to live like proper, beautiful young ladies, Beauty (whose real name is Honor) is a plain, bookish girl, who loves her family and her horse, Greatheart.

However, life changes for Beauty when her father's fleet of ships (one captained by Grace's fiance) are lost in a storm. They sell up and move with Hope's husband, a blacksmith, to a remote village. Beauty's father is happy to start again as a carpenter, and the girls learn to cook, keep chickens and, in Beauty's case, help out in the forge.

Then one wintery day Beauty's father gets lost returning from the city through the forest, which they have all been told is dangerous. He is carrying with him a rose, which, when Beauty puts it in water, drops one petal. When Beauty picks it up, she sees that it is gold. The girls' father then tells them of his seeking shelter at the mysterious, empty castle, where he is waited on by invisible servants. On leaving in the morning, he remembers his promise to bring Beauty some rose seeds, and he picks the rose mysteriously growing in the castle garden, despite it being midwinter. Then the Beast appears, angry at what he sees as Beauty's father's dishonouring of his hospitality, and extracts a promise that Beauty will come and live in the castle if he spares the old man's life.

From this point, the story is the familiar one from the traditional tale, but with some twists: the Beast's library contains not only all the books ever written, but those not yet existing, which is a fantastic idea! Beauty and the Beast bond over books. The invisible servants gossiping and (unsuccessfully) trying to control Beauty through clothes are fun to read, as well.

I like also the way that Beauty's position in the Beast's castle is an uncomfortable one: she is a prisoner, even if she is an unwilling one, and since the novel is told in the first person, her frustration, loneliness and homesickness are very clear to us. 

This was Robin McKinley's first novel, first published in her native USA in 1978. It's a wonderful seasonal read for 10+. McKinley revisited the Beauty and the Beast story in Rose's Daughter, a more unsettling book, probably more suited to older readers.

I had the Overture to Philip Glass's score for Cocteau's La Belle et Le Bete running through my head as I read this book. Its rather icy beauty is perfect for this time of year.