BfK


are somewhat underdeveloped, with McIntyre’s brilliant, playful two-colour illustrations doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of description and characterisation. As it is an opener to the series, many characters are introduced who, it is clear, will have bigger roles to play in further episodes. This is certainly the case for ridiculous hamsters, Neville


the and


Beyoncé, who readers will find either hilarious or very irritating! Kevin and Max’s friendship grows


throughout the story and the dilemma of how to maintain a relationship with someone who lives in such an entirely different world


from yourself is the


most emotive element of the book. There are plenty of signs in this new story that Max and Kevin will have much excitement and funniness to offer in future episodes, and it will be particularly popular by children who like their stories to be as silly and random as possible. SD


8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued Dogs in Space


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Vix Southgate, ill. Iris Deppe, Wren and Rook, Hachette, 978 1 5263 6057 1, £12-99 hbk


Written by a leading expert on Yuri Gagarin as well as all matters space, Southgate is manager of World Space Week for


the UK (every 4th-10th


October) This initiative helps children participate with the wonders of space and its exploration, working closely with astronauts and cosmonauts. This book will surely spark much interest in the incredible adventure of Belka and Strelka, who, in 1960 were the first ever living creatures to successfully orbit the Earth. These two Russian dogs were selected from a number of potential canines (candidates!) and were thoroughly trained in survival for this unknown situation. The text and illustrations combine to engage readers


fully as the momentous


day for lift-off arrives. The two dogs, dressed in their spacesuits, one red,


one green, successfully orbit the earth many times. In 1960, the Space Race raged between Russia and the US, but it was the joyous safe landing of these two dogs which allowed Russia to forge ahead, sending Yuri Gagarin into space the following year, 1961. Having told the tale of the celebrities Belka and Strelka, there follows a double spread showing the Space Race, beginning with the sending of fruit flies, 1947, the first monkey, 1949, and an explanation of how the Space Race fizzled out mid-1970s, emphasising that in recent years, scientists from around the world have worked together on missions to space. In conclusion, the book ends with a time-line, 1960-2015, with photos covering the first men on the moon; the Lunar/rover, the first permanently manned space station, through to Tim Peake’s expedition in 2015. After this is flagged THE FUTURE … first human on Mars … IT COULD BE YOU! This is an intriguing book, where the talents of author and illustrator combine to spark great interest in the subject, surely inspiring further investigation by youngsters fortunate enough to lay their hands upon it. GB


Wizarding for Beginners HHH


Elys Dolan, Oxford University Press, 217pp,9781782953043, £6.99 pbk


This is a monochrome cartoon/text


story which grew on me as I read it. It is the second instalment of a series starring Dave the dragon knight-the first we heard of him was in Knighthood for Beginners. Dave, as he says himself, is a ‘moderate risk dragon’. The story is a romping yarn about


an evil wizard who casts spells on animals enabling them to talk. He then collects them for evil purposes and Dave the dragon knight has to try and stop him. Dave has a side kick called Albrecht who is a goat with a very long beard - he is rather pleased with it and himself in general. The writing is humorous but you


have to be a fairly astute reader to keep pace with the quick fire language; there are many plays on words and lots to enjoy if you have a good general knowledge as well. The mix of text, illustrations and


then some cartoons with speech bubbles makes for a varied read and give the book lots of energy. It is a romping tale - full of silliness and reveals the power of, would you believe it, porridge. You’ll have to read it to find out how! SG


10 – 14 Middle/Secondary The Dam HHHHH


David Almond, ill. Levi Pinfold, Walker, 40pp, 078 1 4063 0487 9, £12.99, hbk


With this author, with this illustrator (and with this publisher) you should expect something remarkable, and, if anything, this exceeds expectations. David Almond’s spare poetic text opens on a Pinfold scene reminiscent of the brilliant time-bending opening of Almond’s Kit’s Wilderness. A man and a girl walk away from us through the long grass and mist of a moorland dawn. The girl has a fiddle case on her back. It could be then. It could be now. They are going to the valley for the last time: “The dam was almost done.” And they will stop, and she will play, at each deserted house, to honour the music and the people of the place. Then: “The dam was sealed. The water


rose. This was


covered over. This was drowned.” And – “The lake is beautiful.” This is entirely Almond country. it’s his beloved


Yes, Northeast


and the book is dedicated to the wonderful Kathryn Tickell and her husband Mike, but it’s not just that. It’s that potent mix of the elegiac and the lyrical: in which what we have lost and what we love, what we have been, what we are and what we will be, are dissolved into dreams and visions. And music: “It flows through


all the dams in us. It makes us play. It makes us sing. It makes us dance.” Almond’s text makes generous space for Pinfold’s illustrations, setting out the theme and stepping back, waiting to see what will be made of it. And Pinfold’s not only in harmony, not only in step, he’s stepping right up, with his own take on the real and the numinous. We see a flower, blades of grass, in close up. Each empty building emerges from the early shadows into sunlight stony solidity. There is the sweeping immensity of the dam itself: a man-made cliff that, at the book’s beginning, blends


into its misty


surroundings, as if in anticipation of the book’s end. The man and the girl move in and out of the times, now in the country fashion just before the closing of the dam, now long ago, now exactly now. The music spills from the fiddle into the empty rooms like the wraiths of the other singers, players and listeners who have gone before and will come after. And, on the last page, old and young dance in silhouette in a ring under the moon, like an image from the end of Ingmar Bergman’s Seventh Seal. Music, creativity and life go on. I am at that stage of life when downsizing looks inevitable, and some books, perhaps a lot, will have to go. While this is one of my most recent acquisitions, I will keep it and wonder at it for as long as ever is. CB


26 Books for Keeps No.232 September 2018


Dark Sky Park: Poems from the Edge of Nature


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Philip Gross, ill. Jesse Hodgson, Otter-Barry Books, 96pp, 978 1 91095 9 886, £6.99 pbk


If you are going to extreme places, like the very depths of the sea, say, and fancy doing extreme things, like lava boarding on a volcano, and you feel you need a poet as guide and companion, then the award-winning Philip Gross is the obvious choice. At home with either adults or children, his verse is so sure footed that he can take you anywhere in perfect safety, clinging with a young kittiwake to a perilous cliff edge or cat cautious through the battered deserted streets of Aleppo. So many kinds of extreme here: like the world of the tardigrade. Look it up or, more properly, down -through a very powerful microscope, he returns to it often, finding different facets of its largely invisible nature to fire his and our imaginations. He’s not there for the sheer excitement either. He wants you to think. What about the snow leopard chasing the goat across the mountain edge? Why are we “so in love with beauty, with its claws and teeth,/as though this is its story, and not our own and the goat’s – that plucky comedy/played out through centuries/ between the sheer drop and the killing snow?” And what about Uncle Bradley who takes moderation


to such extremes: “Trying not to climb higher than anyone else/ he went right over the top.” These are poems whose wonder at the world is conveyed in images that seem both fresh and absolutely right and often display a sly and subtle humour. This is another winning collection from Otter-Barry books, who are building an enviable list of some of the best of today’s poets for children. CB


No Fixed Address HHHHH


Susin Nielsen, Andersen, 266pp, 9781783447213, £12.99 hbk


Don’t be put off by the doom-laden title; this is YA writing at its best. Although Canadian 12-year-old Felix and his unmarried mother Astrid are technically homeless they still manage to eke out a life in a van parked in the streets of Vancouver. Although Astrid


is unstable Felix, often half-


starved and bitterly cold at night, still manages to remain cheerful and resolute until things reach breaking point. Fortunately he is backed up throughout by two close friends, kindly teachers and eventually properly concerned social workers. All this still manages to come over as oddly cheering even when Felix is faced by the reality of not being able to wash or make regular use of toilet facilities. And for turning this whole


narrative into an excellent


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