BfK


will understand, visiting the 1980s will have its plusses and minuses for 21st century kids: you can buy packets of biscuits for 20p but have to survive without mobile phones. There are lots of details older readers will relish: the shop that sells the biscuits has comics Mandy and Bunty on its shelves too; the girls are baffled – and amused – by the hairstyles and fashions. While Curtin observes the rules of


time travel, she’s not really interested in the how of all this; it’s the why that is her real concern. Beth’s mum died when she was a tiny baby, and her longing for some knowledge of her mum is intensified now that she can observe daily Molly’s


relationship


10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued with her


these emotions into the past, she immediately decides to track down her 14 year old mum. Molly, there too, has misgivings, but accompanies her new step-sister. Emotions reach a very high point


as the two reach Beth’s mum’s home, and Curtin describes tension


meeting too is handled with real sensitivity. Beth manoeuvres things so that her mum brushes her hair, an extremely touching moment. Molly too gets to meet her the teenager who will become her own mum, and comes home


This is time travel that puts female beautifully. The eventual the mother. Propelled by understanding her better. Ed’s Choice The Hypnotist HHHH


Laurence Anholt, Corgi Children’s Books, 978-0-5525-734-50, 352pp £7.99 pbk


It is the 1960’s – the time of Martin Luther King and a rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Jack is looking forward to his new position as Head of Neurological Research in southern USA. Pip is trying to adapt to a life as a servant to Zachary and the extraordinary Lilybelle, Hannah, the mute Native American girl, is trying to keep out of the way of Erwin. Their stories collide and intertwine. This Laurence Anholt’s first novel


for a teenage readership and it is indeed a page-turner. Using three distinct voices, Anholt incorporates information on American history, personal reflection as well as an exciting narrative around Pip and Hannah. The shift in voice is emphasised by a differentiation in font and, of course, tone. Jack is the adult first-person narrator, but the reader follows Pip through a more conventional approach with a nod to that master storyteller, Dickens. The result is interesting but


not wholly comfortable. I


suspect young readers will find the narrative concerned with Pip and Hannah the more exciting and engaging and the shift to the adult voice disconcerting. However, the


topic, the situation, is a powerful one and the author’s passion and engagement shines through. This is a story that has a strong personal claim on Anholt and it is a bold first effort. Certainly the writer’s


style


carries the reader along; though some may find the use of Southern US dialect jarring, it did not intrude on my enjoyment. Pip and Hannah are engaging protagonists. Zachary and Lilybelle are Dickensian, Erwin monstrous,


Jack, our alter ego


observing from the outside. While not wholly successful this is an ambitious novel about a period that is fast becoming history but has much to say to young people today. FH


14+ Secondary/Adult Every Falling Star


HHHHH


Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland, Amulet Books, 336pp, 978-1-4197-2132-8, £9.99 pbk


This heart-wrenching book is the true story of Sungju Lee’s life in North Korea. During his early years he lived a life of privilege in the nation’s capital, Pyongyang - his father an army officer and Sungju’s destiny to follow him. The family’s lifestyle is described in glittering detail, giving a chilling insight into how military rule is perpetuated. Sungju is trained, indoctrinated and shielded from the horrors of life outside the confines of the capital into which, all too soon, he is to be plunged. Suddenly and without explanation


his family leaves the capital for what is first described as a holiday and later, truthfully, as exile away from the seat of power for an offence committed by his father which cannot be explained for fear of retribution on those who still remain in North Korea. The family soon run out of money and starvation begins to be a real threat. Sungju’s life is reduced to endurance and a realisation that the government has abandoned all who live in this place and all areas like it, keeping them under control by means of arrests, violence and even public execution. When Sungju’s parents leave,


relationships – mother/daughter, best friends – into the spotlight, in a book that is funny, sad and uplifting. It reminds us all too that the teenagers our mums were are only ever a splash of (Smitty) perfume away. LS


of educating young readers, Unboxed


making them aware of the precarious and often horrific nature of lives lived within the confines of North Korea. VR


HHHH


Non Pratt, Barrington Stoke, 140pp, 978-1-7811-2585-4, £6.99 pbk


Alix, Ben, Zara, Dean and Millie are at age thirteen an inseparable gang. They decide to make a time capsule and hide it on the roof of their school. When the time comes after five years for the capsule to be opened, in the meantime one of their number, Millie, has died. The others have all experienced changes in their lives. The


moment when the four survivors find and open the capsule. As part


thus


the input to the time capsule, each child wrote a letter to his or her own eighteen year old self. The rule is that when the capsule is opened, each person must read his or her


aloud. Alix has recorded in her letter a deep personal secret. Will she dare to read it out? If so, how will he three surviving comrades respond? The four survivors, now to be classified as young adults, also discover in the time capsule something none of them had any reason to suspect would be there. The central concept of this book


one after the other, to try to find food across the Chinese border and do not return he has no option but to live on the streets with his gang, his `brothers’ and embrace a life of crime, animal cunning, drink, drugs and danger. The story is starkly told, brought to life through the narrative voice of Sungju and sparing the reader none of the appalling details of his existence. This is a powerful medium, making an indelible impact because of the simple, unvarnished nature of the telling. The book contains a brief section


explaining the history of 20th century Korea and there is a glossary of Korean words used in the text. These two


additions 30 Books for Keeps No.221 November 2016 provide a means


is extremely powerful. It obliges the


These preoccupations will be familiar to anyone at this point of life. But Non Pratt could, in this reviewer’s opinion, had made a far more substantial book from these ingredients. It would have been both instructive and satisfying to have a more explicit account of each character’s history and identity. Despite this reservation, the book stands well on its own merits: it is to be hoped that film producers cast an appreciative eye over Unboxed. RB


future


their childish personae, to examine themselves as they are and to conjecture what the


protagonists to look back on holds. letter


story revolves around the of


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