reviews 8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued


two colours and never at a loss for bang on amusing detail. So here is a book for all ages.


Children may not pick up references to Caruso or


the avant-garde, but


they will always have a clear notion of where each particular poem is going. The twenty-two on offer, some of them stretching over three pages, explore the inhabitants of a varied canine world from a sleepy Dog Detective to a fearfully pampered but totally frustrated lap dog. The whole book is beautifully produced and has a pleasantly old- fashioned look to it. And while Reid’s poems use orthodox rhyming schemes and regular metres, his wit is topical and never in the least predictable. This is a book to possess and enjoy. NT


step ahead of hapless PC L.O. Elloe (yes, every opportunity to squeeze a joke out of this is taken). But there’s something strange about the phone too – could it have something to do with the disappearance of a young girl?


Structured like the best farce with


characters tumbling through doors, a lot of fast talking and even quicker thinking, the action will certainly keep young readers on their toes. One of the book’s particular pleasures however is the narrative voice, which communicates directly with readers via a series of footnotes (100 in total), commenting on the action, reminding us of important plot developments and clues, and sharing jokes. A fun, frenetic read that sneaks all sorts of fascinating historical facts in with the adventure. MMa


Into the Jungle. Stories for Mowgli


HHHH


Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Kristjana S Williams, Macmillan, 234pp, 9781509822317, £16.99 hbk


Wiggott’s Wonderful Waxworld: Terror Train


HHHH


Terry Deary, Scholastic, 978- 1407179346, 400pp, £6.99 pbk


It’s a work of fiction, but there’s certainly lots of horrible history in Terry Deary’s new book, the first in a series. Terror Train is a fantastical tale combining animatronics, time travel, the spookiest of spooky waxworks, and lots of humour. The MacGuffin is a new smartphone


– in fact, a very, very smart phone – stolen from its dastardly creator by a boy known throughout the novel as Boy, who is under orders to deliver it to the mysterious Dr Wiggott in his office in his Wonderful Waxworld. Stealing the phone isn’t a problem for Boy, who is an expert thief, but the second part of his task is a lot harder: there’s something very strange about the Waxworld, and venturing out of the train


carriages that carry you


through it takes you into the real worlds of the scenes represented – not fun if it’s the deck of Blackbeard’s pirate ship, the torture chamber of the Tower of London, or Lindisfarne moments before the Vikings arrive. Fortunately for Boy, the phone in his pocket helps him out of a variety of sticky situations, and keeps him one


Children now know The Jungle Book almost exclusively from its animated film version, which leaves Katherine Rundell a free hand to tell her stories in the way she likes without having to replicate any of Kipling’s former prose sonorities. And she does so supremely well, making every word work in a way the master would surely have appreciated. Her five action- packed tales involving Mowgli and a different animal friend and mentor mix the exotic with everyday forest life in just the right balance. Cheerfully anthropocentric and always up for a chat, her animal characters also kill, scavenge and fight, although there is nothing about their sex lives. Illustrated as discreetly naked for the most part, Mowgli too shows no intimation of the growing feelings that eventually led him to look for a mate in Kipling’s great original. The addition of


Kristjana’s wonderfully glowing


illustrations adds extra quality to an already outstanding book. Disappointingly Rundell chooses to


finish off her narrative with a boring, over-extended battle between good


and bad members of the animal


kingdom. Exhortations to win the good fight above all else seems an increasingly threadbare


strategy for


solving long-term problems in life or in fiction, and the evil Great White Ape living and plotting at the top of his mountain is the only character who fails to convince. The demonisation of his monkey followers along with that permanently grumpy tiger Shere Khan also seems out of place in fiction otherwise stressing the inter- dependence of animal species all with a right to their own existence. But this cavil apart, Rundell has done an excellent job. She tells a good story well,


with ample opportunities The Lost Magician HH


Piers Torday, Quercus, 330 pp, 9781786540515, £12.99 hbk


Piers Torday is a writer capable of inventing magical universes that stay totally believable. But he is not at his considerable best in this novel. Written as a modern take on C.S.Lewis’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the whole venture feels forced and lacking in creative excitement. This absence of conviction is also reflected in his laboured writing. The opening three


pages


employ the word ‘very’ five times, not a good start, and it reappears three times more before the end of the first chapter. By this time a family connection is described as ‘shrouded in mystery’ and young characters are twice described as ‘sprawled’ on different items of furniture. It could be legitimate pastiche to imitate some of Lewis’s dialogue at it most hearty, as here, but he almost always chose his other words on the page more carefully than this. Partially coming to the rescue is a


lively story where a post-war family of four children enter a hidden library in which another savage conflict is still raging. This is between favourite characters from fiction and their opposing forces


out to destroy


them in the attempt to found a new order based solely on facts. There is excitement and movement here, with the whole novel ending on a note of suspense in preparation for the two more instalments still to come. But working in the shade of an acknowledged classic is never easy, and all this ambitious but flawed story finally achieves is to remind readers how good C.S.Lewis was when he first started writing for children. NT


Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon


HHHH


Sally Gardner Illustrated by Nick Maland, Zephyr, 142pp, 978-1-786697-17-2, £10.99 hbk


Betsy’s mother is a mermaid, her father makes ice-cream, her home is an island. Life is perfect – or is it? Then Mr Glory creates an ice-cream


providing her illustrator to add


memorable extra ingredients to an already richly imagined scenario. NT


that tastes of wishes. What about an ice-cream that can grant a wish – a wish that could free a princess? But this requires a blue moon – which only happens sometime never. Can the mysterious Mr Tiger help? And what giant dangers will Betsy and her friends face to achieve their wish?


Sally Gardner can always surprise. In this beautiful little package of a book


she delivers a light-hearted


adventure that brings to mind such classics as Thurber’s Thirteen Clocks. However the element of the ridiculous is perfectly controlled, and delivered with such confidence that there is no difficulty in accepting a family where the mother is a mermaid who spends most of day in the sea, or ice-cream that can grant wishes. The assured voice


of the narrator instantly and


effortlessly transports to this world where imagination reigns; vocabulary, simple sentences, dialogue, concise description and above all wonderfully alliterative phrases paint a picture in the mind. Bringing the text to life and adding another dimension are Nik Maland’s quirky, lively illustrations which perfectly compliment and echo the narrator’s tone. Finally the


publishers have


chosen a very idiosyncratic production, initially surprising, printing the text blue ink on a white ground, white on a blue. However, by ensuring that the text is a clear sans-serif font it is both accessible and fun. What a delight to read. FH


The Missing Barbegazi HHH


H.S. Norup, Pushkin Children’s Books, 256pp, 9781782691815, £6.99 pbk


This wintry story is set in the Swiss Alps where Tessa lives with her family. Before his death, Tessa’s beloved grandfather always insisted that barbegazi, creatures from Swiss and French folklore that look like a mix of troll, gnome and yeti with long white beards and huge


on snow, really existed.


feet for moving Tessa’s


determination to find a barbegazi and prove him right leads her to Gawion. Gawion is young, in barbegazi terms, and he has problems of his own. His barbegazi family is starving without the berries that Tessa’s grandfather


Books for Keeps No.233 November 2018 27


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