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BfK 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued


and The Ox and The Donkey, to a South African Zulu tale Unanana and One Tusk and The Miller’s Daughter. The latter, a Moroccan tale wherein the girl of the title (with the help of a jinni), uses her intelligence to outwit a stony-hearted sultan, is fascinatingly akin to the European Rumpelstiltskin.


We also have a Yenda pourquoi tale How Elephant Got his Trunk (he doesn’t use it as a spanking device


like Kipling’s Elephant’s Child though, but for ease of eating and drinking). An elephant features large in the Unanana story too. This one is a child-swallowing pachyderm that meets his match in the young widow girl whose children he gobbles up, even though she has to get the better of him from inside. Another pourquoi tale, Why Hippo Has No Hair comes from Kenya and tells not only what the


title says but also how Water replaces Fire as Hippo’s best friend.


Every one of the vivaciously told stories reads aloud beautifully – one would expect no less from Naidoo – and all are wonderfully animated by Grobler (not that animation is really needed, so strong are the verbal renderings). His visuals vividly capture the various moods of the characters – animal and human. The latter he clothes in traditional garments from the various regions and the former are often beautifully adorned with


8 – 10 Junior/Middle Hercufleas HHHHH


Sam Gayton, ill. Peter Cottrill, Andersen Press, 978-1-84939-636-3, 272pp, £6.99 pbk


Heroes can come in many sizes. Of course, we expect them to be tall, well built and good looking. We don’t expect them to be tiny, the size of a flea. But even a flea can be a hero and Hercufleas is definitely that. Will he be able to prove this to Greta as she searches for a way to defeat the giant, Yuk?


Sam Gayton has already made a name for himself as an author with a lively and original imagination. This, his latest book, will confirm this reputation. It is no mean feat to make a flea attractive, but Hercufleas is a real character and the reader is drawn to him from the moment he hatches. Greta also steps off the page; brave, determined and individual. The somewhat spikey relationship between the two adds realism to the fantastic setting of the narrative. It is the confidence with which Gayton weaves his tale, the consistency of details – Hercufleas is never anything but a flea and his world is seen from that perspective. As with all the best fairy tales there is a quest, there are choices to be made, battles to be fought, and there is a ‘happy ever after’. Gayton is going from strength to strength; definitely an author to follow. FH


Henry V 978-1-78493-004-2


Julius Caesar 978-1-78493-006-6


HHHH


Timothy Knapman, ill. Yaniv Shimony, Tales from Shakespeare series, QED Publishing, 48pp, £8.99 hbk


If retellings of Shakespeare’s stories should both offer immediate entertainment and prepare young learners for enjoying the plays later on these books succeed. They each tell an interesting but complicated Shakespeare story well, partly by using quite a lot of lively direct speech, which enlightens about motives and personality.


The design of the books makes them inviting: they are pleasant to handle


and the pages uncluttered. The print style gives a sense of antiquity while being easy to read. The pen and ink drawings, sometimes coloured in a restricted palette, are splendidly detailed; as well as informing about clothes, armour, events and emotions they often communicate a sense of drama. In Henry V there is a full-page picture of Henry leading his troops through the breach of Honfleur and, in Julius Caesar, the horror of Caesar’s assassination is dramatically shown.


I like the way the author brings in apt quotations from Shakespeare’s plays, presented on scrolls throughout the books. But these are short and perhaps some longer speeches might have been included to introduce children more fulsomely to the unique power and rhythms of Shakespeare’s language. For example there might usefully have been a longer extract from Henry’s rousing pre-battle speech and from Mark Antony’s tribute to the dead Julius Caesar. Nevertheless I find these two stories are told with life and pace and explain convincingly the motivations of the characters. The reasons for Henry’s seemingly harsh decisions – to abandon Falstaff the friend of his carefree, youthful days and not to pardon looters are made clear. Well explained also is the way Cassius and his friends justified the brutal murder of Caesar. These stories would have a well-deserved place in the upper primary school collection.


MM Demolition Dad HHHH


Phil Earle, ill. Sara Oglivie, Orion Children’s Books, 192pp, 978-1-44401-386-3, £6.99 pbk


This nice little story features George Biggs, a huge and amiably strong dad, and his adoring son Jake. A famously effective demolition man and master of the wrecking ball, George is finding work increasingly hard to get in the decaying town of Seacross. But Jake has plans for him to become a wrestler, in which sweaty sport he soon excels. But a disastrous trip to America and a humiliating defeat at the hands of the home-grown Tsunami Terror leaves George a shadow of his former self. It takes a return home and a heroic rescue of his son from a collapsing building to restore him to his former confident self, except he


24 Books for Keeps No.212 May 2015


has now decided to re-train as an architect.


Contemporary stories involving long-term loving relations between father and son other than Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World are not always easy to find, and Phil Earle plugs this gap to the full. Sometimes he tries a little too hard, but this is essentially a heart-warming story with a very happy ending. The multiple award-winning Sara Oglivie, and her scratchy comic drawings make a perfect foil for this lively and affectionate story.


NT


Fennymore and the Brumela


HHHH


Kirsten Reinhardt, trans. Siobhán Parkinson, ill. David Roberts, Little Island, 978-1-90819-585-2, 130pp, £6.99 pbk


What, you ask, is a brumela? You will have to read this book to find out. On the way you will meet Fennymore who has lost his parents. He does have a bicycle called Monbijou, who thinks he is a horse and an Aunt Elsie who eats salt-baked daschund (don’t worry this doesn’t happen here), and the evil Dr Hourgood. Will Fennymore find the answer to the mystery of the lost invention before the doctor gets there?


This is a wonderfully surreal story that successfully mixes humour with the slightly gruesome, to create an imaginative romp that carries the reader along. There is no need for Fennymore or Fizzy to be rounded characters. It is, after all, a fairy tale and we are happy to accompany them on their quest to foil the villainous doctor and his mind-modification. There is no hesitation as the narrative moves smartly along in this lively translation by Siobhán Parkinson, while David Roberts’s illustrations capture the flavour of the text perfectly. For confident young readers who enjoy the unusual.


FH Fuzz McFlops HH


Eva Furnari, trans. Alison Entrekin, Pushkin Press, 56pp, 978-1-78269-075-7, £6.99 pbk


This is a book whose textually playful tale of an anxious scatter-brained


poetic rabbit hero ends up revealing a rather didactic purpose. At first sight this tale, translated from the Portuguese and winner of Brazil’s Jabuti Prize, seems to have the stamp of more familiar work by Scieszka or the Ahlbergs, with instruction manuals, poems and letters, stories, a recipe, a musical score and a postcard all helping to relate the tale of the love of a persistent fan of our reclusive lop-sided rabbit poet and how she frees him from his anxiety of being different and brings a more cheerful aspect to his life. However, after the story itself comes a fourteen page ‘post script’ in which the nature and usual purpose of each of these elements is explained as particular forms of textual communication, rather as if the story had become part of an implied lesson plan, a form of textual communication which the book does not explain. The book’s production leaves something to be desired, too. It’s in a format that seems too small for the content and some of the text, particularly in a few of the ‘inserts’, is not comfortable to read. It’s all a bit cramped and poorly designed. CB


Secrets and Dreams HHH


Jean Ure, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 248pp, 978-0-00755-395-2, £6.99 pbk


What would you wish for if your family won the lottery? Zoe’s sister chooses a pet dog and a pony, Zoe has always dreamed of boarding school. She’s read all the books; she knows what it will like. When she arrives she is met by another new girl Rachel. Rachel is sweet but a little immature, a little strange and convinced that life is exactly like the Chalet School.


As usual from Jean Ure, this is not a simple bubbly confection. Negotiating around school politics is an art and Zoe struggles with being friends with Rachel, who obviously needs some form of protection, and being part of the popular crowd. What we find is that Rachel has had an unusual upbringing which explains much of her behaviour and allows Zoe loyalty and understanding to pay off.


The characters are well drawn and clichés are avoided. Although there is rivalry and emotional bullying none of the girls are truly bad. The final moral of the story is that we are all different.


patterns, stripes or spots: all radiate the humour inherent in the tellings.


A superb volume, essentially for reading aloud (although it could also be enjoyed by individual readers) that can be enjoyed in many settings – home or school, around a camp fire even. Find some appropriate background music, read, dance, sing, play and above all, enjoy.


JB


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