One beastly beast by Garth Nix
Allen and Unwin, 2008.
(Ages 9+) Subtitled, Two aliens, three inventors, four fantastic
tales,
this book of short fantasy tales will intrigue and delight the avid
Garth Nix/fantasy reader. Nix has always had a different view of the
world, and his fantasy writing is amongst the best. For older readers,
The Old Kingdom series is magnificent, and for middle school
readers,
The Keys to the Kingdom is just riveting. This book is for
middle
primary students and takes an askance look at some things we take as
written.
The first story, Blackbread the pirate, takes the term video
piracy
literally, as a boy, Peter, on his way to return his family's DVDs to
the video shop, is raided by pirates, Video pirates! The rats
steal his videos and scurry down the sewers, followed by the Navy rats,
resplendent in their blue and gold uniforms. When they ask Peter to
join them, he cannot, being somewhat too large, but an Alice in
Wonderland moment occurs, and Peter is transformed to the size of a
rat.
This funny story is followed by The Princess and the Beastly Beast,
Bill the Inventor and Serena and the Sea Serpent. All
great fun and
sure to please the middle to upper primary student, with illustrations
by Sholto Walker.
Fran Knight