Pan Macmillan, 2017. ISBN 9781509846757
(Age: Senior secondary - Adult) Well, I have put down this book, so
reluctantly, having just finished reading it, dragging myself out of
Trollope's London. This is the story of four women friends, their
attachments, relationships, marriages, children, and work. Trollope
situates the characters at a crisis point, for each but of varying
severity, where each faces a redefining of what it means to be a
mother, to be married, to work, to strive to be the best, to be
successful. All of this erupts before us in a vitality, this
credible story of 'real women' taking place in an authentic reality,
one that we can envisage, where each women needs to find a way to
manage their work and personal lives. All are eager to keep the
friendship, that has sustained them, and which allows them to be
frank and supportive over so many years.
While acknowledging that Trollope created this story, it seems that
she has constructed the world of the narrative, the characters, and
their situations, as a reflection on the shared experience of modern
women striving to be the best at every single thing they do and
indeed, in the many roles they are expected to play. This is about
work, as much as it is about modern families, our different ways of
being family, our choices, our many kinds of love. It is also about
learning how to handle success and failure in work and life.
Reading this book is like chatting with women friends, hearing about
their lives and joining in their joys and successes, their losses
and pain. Each chapter is narrated by one woman, telling us, it
seems, in this very personal narrative style, about their
interactions, their fears, and the importance of support and love.
I was captivated from the opening chapter, and I felt that strange
sense of being vitally interested in these women, their children,
their joys, sorrows and challenges, as well, of course, as knowing
and understanding their emotions, even while acknowledging that this
is actually a work of fiction! It did not feel like fiction - it
felt like real life, and of course, her construction of plot, her
choice of characters, and her depiction of their choices and
actions, seemed so true-to-life.
Trollope has created, as she does so well, a story of the demands of
modern life, for men and women, of work, friendship, children,
education, raising families, and of the modern ways that we are
expected to support the ill and elderly. She elicits a powerful
emotional response in the reader to these challenges, creating a
strong sense of the poignancy of the demands of modern life, where
we all face the challenge of striving to be the best at what we do,
of wanting to achieve success in so many areas, particularly the
specific demands that modern parents face. Trollope has embedded the
narrative in the bedrock of respect for the set of values that
ground us: that of loving and accepting friends, children and
partners, for whom they are, and this is grounded soundly in the
absolute values of love, honesty and friendship.
This novel explodes with the joy of life, it bubbles with humour,
dry wit at times, and evokes a strong sense of understanding the
sheer impossibility of having it all under control, despite our best
efforts.
Liz Bondar
Cast iron by Peter May
Hachette, 2017. ISBN 9781784299774
(Age: Senior secondary-adult) Highly recommended. Crime, Thriller,
Cold case. Forensic expert, Enzo Macleod opens a can of worms as he
investigates the second to last murder in a book of unsolved crimes,
published by the journalist, Raffin. A girl's body was found on the
edge of a lake some years ago when a widespread drought caused the
lake to shrink. The girl had been murdered fourteen years before,
and it is her murder, that Enzo is to reinvestigate, one of the
unsolved crimes listed in Raffin's book, and the subject of a bet
between the two men. But he is ambushed at her parent's house by
another group of parents, called the Bordeaux Six, who are also keen
to find out what happened to their daughters. Enzo is unwilling to
take on their cases, as he sees them as insoluble, but when his
daughter and her partner are kidnapped, things change.
The Bordeaux Six remain a constant thread within the story, leading
Enzo and Dominique to the hiding place of one of the missing girls,
hidden within plain sight.
I have not read the previous Enzo stories so felt a little
disadvantaged, but the story was enough to tempt me to continue
reading and eventually find out just whose cast iron alibi would
crack.
Set in southern France the feel of the area is decidedly real, with
chateaux, villages, forests and motorways in the background. Enzo
picks away at his investigations, uncovering details left unsaid,
stories left unreported and things hidden from the original
investigations. He visits a murderer in prison, the man jailed for
killing some of the other girls, but this only adds to another
thread in his detailed investigation.
There are leads all over the place, connections and secrets
unwilling to be revealed. May cleverly insinuates people around
Enzo, even his daughter's lover, causing them to come under
suspicion, so the reader will like me be mesmerised until the truth
is revealed at the end.
Fran Knight
A quiet kind of thunder by Sara Barnard
Macmillan, 2017. ISBN 9781509810987
(Age: 14+) Highly recommended. Opposites attract, but sometimes
kindred spirits with shared challenges, are more likely bedfellows.
In this YA romance, the narrator is an elective mute. Stephi has
recently been making progress for her ongoing anxiety, particularly
at school, with the help of medication. Enter Rhys, who cannot hear
at all. When Mr Stafford, the head of year level, asks Steffi to
take the deaf boy under her wing because she does know a little BSL
(British Sign Language), Rhys' outgoing nature inspires Steffi to be
louder and more present in the world. At first they complement each
other. Interestingly, her other relationships evolve too - with her
best friend Tem, her parents, her classmates. The one constant is
her part-time job working with dogs, where she has always been
communicative and content.
Steffi grapples with university aspirations not shared by her
parents. After a misadventure with Rhys, she too starts to question
whether her world isn't in fact shrinking because of a romance that
is too intense, too quickly. A quiet kind of thunder is a
thoroughly readable cross between YA Romance and the Bildungsroman
genre, but sprinkled with insights about our ubiquitous challenges:
grief, broken families, mental health, adolescent sexuality, our
affinity with dogs; not to mention the revelational insularity of
the deaf community.
The text plays with alternate texts - mostly in the form of chat
exchanges and SMS messages. Sara Barnard is one of those writers who
knows you and explores her character's feelings and thoughts in ways
you never imagined anyone else could understand. Her debut novel, Beautiful
broken things, is likewise cathartic for most teenagers, who
are by default engaged in self-discovery. Many youtube vloggers have
reviewed A quiet kind of thunder. Xina Hailey, for example,
melds review and personal recount with artistic flair in her book trailer.
Deborah Robins
Me and you by Deborah Kelly and Karen Blair
Penguin Viking, 2017. ISBN 9780670079247
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Family. Self awareness. With soft pastel
illustrations full of warmth and humour, the family goes about its
everyday events, each offering interaction between family members
all done with lots of wit and love. The arty-crafty days sees Dad
sit with the kids on the floor, having fun with paint and glue,
while the next page shows the result of their glueing, a pirate
costume. Yummy-scrummy days sees them in the kitchen with Mum, and
pedal-pushing days sees them riding their bikes to the park, where
more adventure happens. On sandy-sandwich days they are all at the
beach, slippery-slidy days at the playground, grubby-garden days
outdoors with the grandparents, leading through the days to
stretchy-yawny days where all the family wants is to relax and read
a book.
In funny rhyming stanzas the activities are shown with a lot of
movement and adventure.
All types of activities involving the family are offered, things
kids will easily recognise, others needing more explanation. Each
page underlines the family doing things together, the warmth that a
family offers, the closeness that comes with being together. Reading
aloud will add fun to the activity of the book.
Fran Knight
Fancy pants by Kelly Hibbert
Ill. by Amanda Graham. Raising
Literacy Australia, 2016. ISBN 9780994385352
'Once a year the Outback Dance is held near Bunyip's Bluff
Where animals in fancy pants arrive to strut their stuff...'
Dingo loves to dance under the desert's night sky but he doesn't
have any fancy pants - just his regular coat and while he pretends
not to care, deep down he really does.
Meanwhile all the other outback creatures are preparing for the big
night, although not without some difficulty. Poor Emu is more suited
to scarves - pants are not her thing while Bilby's britches are
still on the line and Kangaroo falls over in his and tears a big
hole in them! Wombat seems to have gained some weight since the last
dance, Koala has too many choices and makes a big mess and poor
Cockatoo is just bamboozled about how a bird can fit into pants!
Only Frill-Neck Lizard seems comfortable, looking like something
straight from 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'!
But eventually everyone gets themselves sorted, meeting together
near Wombat's place - and then Dingo turns up in just his coat. At
first the animals are concerned for their safety but then when he
says that his coat is all he has, Kangaroo breaks the hush that has
fallen...
This rollicking, rhyming yarn will not only entertain young readers
with its humour and bright pictures, but will also allow them to
hear the sounds and rhythms of our language and join in the delight
that stories give.
Who hasn't had the dilemma of what to wear to a party and then found
that their choice doesn't work - it's too small, it's in the wash,
it has a scratchy tag, it's ripped, it's just not right somehow? And
who has felt awkward and awful about not having a costume when
everyone else is in fancy dress? Not only will young readers
resonate with the situations in this story but it will also help
think about Dingo and how he might be feeling and how they might
respond if this was one of their friends. Would they poke fun,
making him feel more miserable than he already is, or is there a
better way? And what if they were Dingo with no fancy pants to wear?
Would they decide to stay home or wrap themselves in a cloak of
resilience and go anyway?
Team it with the 1988 classic Animals should definitely not wear
clothing by Judi and Ron Barrett and have them design their
own fancy dress for the story by giving them "paper doll" cutouts
that they have to dress, encouraging them to think about size and
structure and fit. Talk about why humans wear clothing, why our
clothes are so different, national costumes, fashion, and a host of
other related topics.
While illustrator Amanda Graham has many books under her belt, this
is the first work of an experienced primary school teacher and to
another teacher's eye it reflects so much of what we know attracts
youngsters to the printed word including a strong underlying theme
that opens up lots of discussions that will help children think
beyond the words and pictures on the page. A book that will be read
again and again and which enables a new pathway to be explored each
time.
Barbara Braxton
Love, ghosts and nose hair by Steven Herrick
UQP, 2017. ISBN 9780702228780
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. Love, Sex, Death, Family, Humour. The
author of 22 books the first of which was published in the early
1990's, Herrick is well known for his performance poetry and verse
novels which touch on the ordinary in a most extraordinary way. Love,
ghosts and nose hair was first published in 1996 with loud
acclaim, and its reissue along with sequel A place like this,
exposes a new generation of readers to his words of wisdom,
encapsulated in fragments of sentences, while giving another life to
books which demand another outing.
Jack, plain Jack, narrates the story of his family: dad a
journalist, often away from home for long hours, sister, Desiree,
who has left school and works in a bookshop, Jack sixteen and hungry
for things to happen in his life: love (sex), dealing with his
mother's ghost still wondering through the house and his problem of
nose hair.
Through a series of sometimes terse, often funny poems, Jack tells
the reader about his family. In doing so, he tells more about
himself and his dreams, especially those concerning Annabel
Browning. Along the way we hear of their mother's death from cancer,
including one of the most poignant lines written about a family in
despair:
'They said the pills eased the pain - they only gave them to Mum'
followed by the image of Desiree in her bedroom examining her
breasts, and the ghost in a red evening dress who now visits their
house. Dad drinks each night and seven years on has a date which
ends with him telling the woman all about his wife who is still
there. Finally Jack takes Annabel out and they become lovers,
evincing a talk with his teacher, ending when Jack tells her he
prefers orange condoms. It is pithy comments like this that send a
message without being obvious. And another example that needs
airing: Desiree has no boyfriend 'because she has perfect eyesight
and all her brain cells'.
Some of the poems are written by Dad and a few by Desiree and
Annabel giving a different perspective through the tale, but all are
about Jack and how he sees himself. We know he will be alright when
he begins to see that he no longer needs the ghost in his life and
looks forward to what ever will happen next despite the work of the
vocational guidance officer.
A superbly written series of poems makes up this tale of Jack and
the ending of his childhood, and the sequel, A place like this,
takes us along on his journey after leaving school. I loved it first
time round and thoroughly enjoyed reading it again.
Fran Knight
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Puffin, 2016 (1988). ISBN 9780141369365
(Age: 10+) Highly recommended. School, Family, Humour. With dad a
used car dealer, not averse to putting sawdust in the engine to stop
it being noisy, or winding back the odometer, Matilda finds it hard
to understand just where she fits in. Her brother is the apple of
everyone's eye, destined to follow in dad's footsteps. When Matilda
offers opinions or heaven forbid, answers arithmetical problems, she
is derided. Mum cannot abide a clever girl and tells her she will
not be able to get a husband. But Matilda is determined to think for
herself. Making use of mum's afternoon absences at bingo, she finds
the library where a helpful librarian feeds her with books, allowing
her, after she has read all the children's book, to read her way
through the adult library as well despite being only five years old.
Going to school means that Matilda is way ahead of all other
students, and kindly teacher, Miss Honey, suggests to the
headmistress, that she should be advanced from grade one. The woman
in charge, the redoubtable Miss Trunchbull already enamoured of Mr
Wormwood who has sold her an excellent car, takes an instant dislike
to Matilda, and is determined to make her life at school as
unpleasant as possible.
So follows a very funny account of how their lives interact, and how
Matilda with the help of meek Miss Honey and several other students
who have felt Trunchbull's wrath, eke out their revenge.
This wonderful tale has been in print since its first appearance in
1988, and with the stage show open around the world, will be sought
after again.
Fran Knight
Monsieur Chat by Jedda Robaard
Five Mile Press, 2017. ISBN 9781760405007
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Loneliness, Cats, Friendship. When Monsieur
Chat comes into their lives, the long days for Pierre and Josephine
become less lonely. The cat joins Josephine for breakfast, then goes
upstairs to Pierre's flat for dinner. Each of the neighbours is
happy with the cat in their lives, little realising that Monsieur
Chat visits each of them in turn. But one day he does not appear.
Josephine and Pierre search the apartment house where they live.
They go around the building, up and down the stairs, out into the
cold and wet night, but the cat is nowhere to be found. Without
warning they find him together and so the two are lonely no longer
and have all their meals together with Monsieur Chat with them for
company.
A simple story nicely told will have readers enrapt as they follow
the cat's exploits in bringing the two together. As they search the
cat can be seen on the pages by the audience, who will shriek with
laughter at knowing something the other two do not. The cute water
colour illustrations give a good impression of an apartment building
in Paris, and children will learn a little of city life in the
story.
The lift the flaps publication will intrigue readers longing to lift
the flap on each page to see what is hidden beneath.
Fran Knight
A rising man by Abir Mukherjee
Random House, 2016. ISBN 9781910701898
(Age: Senior secondary-adult) Highly recommended. Crime fiction.
India. Calcutta. British Raj. When former Scotland Yard detective
Sam Wyndham is given a job by his old commander, he is happy to be
leaving post war Britain. But on his first day as Detective a high
ranking British official, MacAuley, is found dead in the Indian
suburb of Calcutta, dressed in formal attire. A note stuffed in his
mouth implies that this is a political murder by one of the Quit
India terrorists. Only just beginning his investigations, he is
astonished when summoned to his boss' office to find he already
knows of the death. Sam sees that other forces are at work, and is
torn between the secret service, the Lieutenant General and
commercial interests. When he is told to investigate the murder of a
train guard as well, his offsider, Digby, is more than dismissive,
wondering why they have been called to the murder of an Indian when
they have such an important murder of a British man to solve.
But Sam eventually links the two cases, intervening when the secret
service seems to have found the culprit, Sam trying to keep the man
alive and in his custody.
Sam is a flawed character: an opium addict after leaving a field
hospital at the end of the First Word War, he arrived home to find
his beloved wife had died during the influenza outbreak. Being
offered work in the new CID in Calcutta seems to promise a new
start, but he quickly finds his way to an opium den.
The writing reflects the times in 1920's India, where a sign on the
door to the Bengal Club states that Indians are not allowed, where
being Anglo-Indian means not being welcomed by either group, where
Sam's sergeant, Banerjee, educated in Cambridge, is treated with
little respect by those he works with, particularly Sam's second in
command, Digby.
But romance appears in the guise of MacAuley's secretary, an
Anglo-Indian girl called Annie. The mix of weather, the arrogance of
the British Raj and the fight for independence shows India at a time
of change and the shock of the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, occurring
in the midst of their investigations, reflects the turmoil the
country is in.
Mukherjee's time in Scotland has served him well. He writes nuanced
characters from Scottish backgrounds with panache, and his depiction
of Calcutta is so intense that many like me will resort to Wikipedia
to gain a visual understanding of the wonderful descriptions
presented in the book.
This book is the winner of the Harvill Secker/Daily Telegraph crime
writing competition, and is the first in a series with Captain Sam
Wyndham.
Fran Knight
The fever code by James Dashner
Maze runner bk 5. Chicken House, 2016. ISBN 9781911077169
(Age: Year 7-9) Utopian fiction. Lies and deceit. Science
fiction. Special abilities. Science experiments. Relationships. If
you are a Maze runner junkie, then you will enjoy this next
instalment. Following on with the theme of the end of the world,
children are snatched from their families and tested on their
abilities to solve complex problems. Then they are asked to build or
run through an impenetrable maze.
The hero of the story, Thomas (aka Stephen), is taken from his
family when he was four. He is conditioned to use a new name to go
with the identity he has within Wicked, this newest adult
organisation. During the story Thomas matures and begins to
recognise that the clean and calm world in which he lives is not all
that it seems. He meets a girl, Teresa, whose bravery leads Thomas
on a journey of discovery. He uncovers a master plan to help save
the world but in the process he finds that the work he is
undertaking is destroying young lives. As he grows up he is asked to
do more and more complex tasks and his relationship with Teresa and
Dr Leavitt changes with dire consequences.
Wendy Rutten
Girl out of water by Nat Luurtsema
Walker Books, 2016. ISBN 9781406366525
(Age: 11+) Friendship. Humour. Swimming. Teens. Lou Brown
and her friend Hannah have been best friends since they were 6; they
are both tall with frizzy hair and are competitive swimmers. The 15
year olds are focused on representing Britain at the Olympics but
when Lou comes last at the National Time Trials and Hannah makes it
into the High Performance Training camp Lou has to face going back
to school as a failed swimmer without her best friend. Lou's family
is very supportive; older sister Lavender asserts that no one at
school will care one way or another; her parents are separated but
her dad moved back in when he lost his job so he says he knows how
she feels; her mum, who teaches creative writing, keeps the family
on track, comforting Lou while enjoying her own life. Lou
reluctantly goes to school vowing to make new friends but she is
subject to bullying by a nasty group of girls and feels clumsy and
out of touch with normal school interactions after spending so much
time focusing on swim training. She finds refuge in the school
library 'home of the introverted and people too quiet to say 'no Lou
I don't want to be your friend''. She finds an old book in the
sports section called 'Swimming for women and the infirm'
which makes her laugh with its emphasis on making 'ladylike shapes'
in the water. It comes in useful when a group of boys who want to
get on 'Britain's Got Talent' ask her to train them in a cross
between dancing and synchronized swimming and Lou becomes too busy
to worry about making friends or keeping in touch with Hannah at
training camp. Hilarious escapades ensue as the group pursues their
dream but when her friend needs her Lou bravely goes to her rescue.
Skillfully blending the emotional drama of modern teenage life with
self-deprecating humour and a positive message about friendships and
finding your place in the world this book will appeal to middle
school girls.
Sue Speck
Handstand by Lisa Stickley
Pavilion, 2016. ISBN 9781843653127
Picture book. Little girls love to do handstands and Edith is no
exception. She is teaching herself and each day she gets a little
better increasing her upside-downness by a second each day. But each
day something interrupts her concentration like the worm who popped
up by her hand, the bird who used her hand for target practice and
the spider that crawled down her shorts when she rested her legs
against a tree. But nevertheless she keeps on practising...
This is an interesting book - its tagline is 'a kind of counting
book' which it is as Edith manages an extra handstand and an extra
second each day and the words and numbers are included in the
illustrations. But it is also intriguing because as she encounters
each little creature the creature gives its perspective on how Edith
has interrupted it, offering an introduction to getting young
readers to see things from another point of view. The worm pops his
head above ground and sees 'a giant hand next to my preferred
popping up place'. It could spark some discussion and drawing about
how little girls and little boys appear to the creatures in their
environment. Resilience is also a theme - how we must practise and
practise to get better and not be deterred by trivial things like a
spider in your knickers.
The appearance of the book is also interesting - harking back to a
time when handstand competitions were features of recess and lunch
break entertainment for girls of my era, the colours and style give
it a definite retro feel. Even the name 'Edith' suggests a bygone
time. The illustrations are also what a child the age of the
narrator might draw adding to the impression that this is, indeed, a
young girl telling her story, but the font, presented in the style
of a child of this age might prove tricky for young readers to start
with.
Even though this appears to be a counting book at first
flick through, there is much more in it that can provide lots of
chat between child and adult and even tempt them to try a new skill.
I'm sure Miss 10 and Miss Nearly-6's eyes will boggle at the thought
of Grandma being the school handstand champion a lifetime ago!!!
Barbara Braxton
My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781760112226
(Age: secondary to adult) Highly recommended. Crime, Thriller,
Siblings, Mental health, Psychopathic behaviour. Che has always
looked after his much younger sister, Rosa. Their parents are
focused on their business, so the two children are taken along with
them, this time to live in New York working with their father's long
time friend. His children, twins of Rosa's age and a girl about
Che's age, are expected to get along, but Che becomes aware that
Rosa is pushing the once close twins apart, and manipulating one to
be her close friend.
Che is worried. Rosa has shown these traits before, and specialists
have diagnosed her as lacking in empathy, a psychopath.
Che has four things on his to do list. One is to look after Rosa, a
role given him by the parents when she was born. Next is to find a
girlfriend, then to spar and finally to go home to Australia.
Each of the four sections in this thrilling book tackles each of
Che's aims in turn.
In looking after Rosa he talks with her often, teaching her how to
be more interested, how to talk to people, how to use and decode
facial expressions. In doing so, he inadvertently gives her more
tools with which to to manipulate people more easily.
Rosa's character is amazing. She is able to wrap most people around
her fingers, using her Shirley Temple looks to contrive and deceive.
Che reveals the extent of her ability when she manipulated one girl
into killing her pet guinea pig, and so the reader is warned about
what else she might be able to do. When Rosa's new friend eats
peanut butter even though she has an allergy, Che realises that he
must watch Rosa far more carefully as he is convinced that she is
behind the event. And so a cat and mouse game evolves.
Meanwhile Che loves to box and finds a girlfriend in the gym he
attends. She is bound by her religion, one of her mothers is a
minister, and the discussions they have are fascinating, opening up
a field not generally discussed in young adult literature. Che has
promised that he will not spar but one night does so, only to find
that Rosa has brought his parents to the gym. He has told her not to
lie, and so she 'innocently' tells her parents of his intentions.
The fourth aim on his list becomes less a focus as his relationship
with Sid develops, and he becomes more used to New York.
But it is the power play between Rosa and Che that piques the
interest of the reader. Tension mounts as Rosa becomes more adept at
twisting words, as she and her new friend use a secret language to
baffle and exclude, as Che's parents reveal some of what they know.
The climax of the book is shocking, the girl's powers mind boggling,
her manipulation of events almost landing Che in jail. The
subsequent medical examinations of all three children reveal yet
another layer of intrigue and readers will not be able to put this
one down. Packed with a huge range of diverse and multi layered
characters, many hiding something they know, the atmosphere of the
gym, the closeness of the two families, the pressure of Sid's
religion, all contrive to make the reader feel claustrophobic,
entrapped in this little world, despite being in New York with all
it has to offer. Rosa seems to be pulling the strings making
everyone dance for her own entertainment.
Larbalestier always enthralls: her original stories weave their way
into the readers' minds, grappling with bigger issues that continue
to fester long after the last page is read.
Fran Knight
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Usborne, 2016. ISBN 9781409581970
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. Scotland, Jacobite Uprising,
Adventure. When David Balfour leaves his home in 1751, after his
parents' deaths, he is told by the local minister to go to the House
of Shaws, there to claim his inheritance. David is baffled, he has
no idea of just how he and his family could be related to the laird
of this wealthy estate. But going there seals his fate when he meets
his avaricious uncle, Ebenezer, the younger, who plots his death.
After an unsuccessful attempt to cast David off the derelict tower,
he is taken to the port on business and his uncle leaves him to be
tied up and thrown into the bowels of the ship. But when the cabin
boy dies, David becomes his replacement and here he sees the rescue
of a boat containing several people off the Hebrides in Northern
Scotland. The survivor is Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite with money
to take to the Stuarts in their bid for the Scottish throne. David,
a Presbyterian Scot from the Lowlands and so supporting George 111,
and Jacobite Alan are on opposing sides of the political divide in
Scotland, and each is suspicious of the other but circumstances see
them cross paths several more times, developing a mutual respect and
understanding between them.
A wonderfully adventurous story, Kidnapped was written in
1886 by Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson. This large edition
has a brief outline of Stevenson and his work, a glossary which
details the words modern readers may not know and an outline of the
Jacobite Uprising of 1751. The whole is illustrated with pictures
which reflect the times. Although seen as a 'boy's book', I
thoroughly enjoyed reading it again. Some may find the language a
little old fashioned, but once engrossed, the style matters not a
jot. Story is all! The
Guardian's list of 100 Best Books Written in English has Kidnapped
listed as number 24, after such worthies as Catch 22 and David
Copperfield.
Fran Knight
Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
Hodder and Stoughton, 2016. ISBN 9781473628113
(Age: Senior secondary) Themes: Historical fantasy, War, Gender
roles, Spies and Espionage, Relationships. If you can get students
to pick up this voluminous title and then get them to read though
the first 100 pages then they will be in for a good read. The
narrative contains a plethora of interesting characters that
intersect in a variety of situations.
If students are interested in war, travels, ancient spies and
espionage, gender issues, simmering plots and allegiances in a
fantasy setting then this is the book for them.
Wendy Rutten
