BfK


that offers possible solutions. She then suggests activities that might help such as listing strengths rather than perceived weakness. She is not prescriptive nor does she offer certain success.


However, by describing


confidence like a muscle she introduces the notion that it needs practice and training.


8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued Mental health across all ages is now


a concern. By helping young people to strengthen their self-belief and to feel confident as they grow future problems can be avoided. This attractive book would be an excellent first step in identifying problems and areas of concern while enabling the reader to take action for themselves. FH


The Tzar’s Curious Runaways HHHHH


Robin Scott-Elliot, Everything with Books, 299pp., 9781911427131, £8.99, pbk


Peter the Great of Russia collected in his Circus of Curiosities, dwarves, giants and people with deformities whom he used for entertainment, often with a great deal of cruelty. This is the background to this unusual story. Three very different members of this circus find themselves trying to escape after Peter dies and his Tzarina wants them killed. Katinka, a hunchback ballerina, Nikolai the dwarf with the beautiful voice, and Alexei the gentle giant, join together to evade their fate. Helped considerably the map drawn by Johann Daniel, the librarian, they start to make their way to the Ural mountains where Katinka has good memories of her home and parents. Their journey through the forests and then the steppes is beset by both animals and unfriendly people. But when they reach their journey’s end, Katinka’s memories are shattered. This is, in essence a journey story,


so where is Johann Daniel’s map? Not many children will be familiar with the vastness of Russia or the inclement climate with winter coming on, and therefore it does seem to me a map is essential. Having said that this is an exciting story about three very different young people, both in their perceived disabilities but more interestingly


Kat and Nikolai often misunderstand each


other, and both


in their personalities. are


prone


to anger quickly but Alexei is the calming influence between them, and gradually the two learn to respect each other. The extreme poverty of the people, the harshness of the climate and above all the cruelty of Peter are slowly revealed


through the story.


The heartrending moment when Kat meets the parents she remembered as having loved her, who then want to hand the three over to the Tzarina’s guards, their perilous escape and the somewhat surprising ending, round up a very good and different story, set in a place and period of history with which not many children will be familiar. JF


10 – 14 Middle/Secondary Top Marks for Murder


HHHHH


Robin Stevens, Puffin, 367pp, 978 0 241 34838 3, pbk


This is the eighth book in a much- loved series about Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, two schoolgirl detectives in 1930s England. In this adventure their


beloved school Deepdean is


celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a weekend of festivities to which the girls’ parents are invited. Something nefarious is witnessed


in the woods surrounding the school. Daisy, Hazel and their friends must investigate. If they cannot solve the case, Deepdean School will close. This book is a worthy addition to


the series since it introduces two new elements. For the first time in the series the parents of the pupils and the alumnae of the school play a significant part in the narrative. As a consequence the reader learns a great deal about both groups of adults, including their motivations. Most readers of detective novels will be accustomed to strange twists about the identity of the killer. But with her


customary gift for the


unexpected, Stevens gives us a twist about who dies. The festival weekend is marked by


memorable events. The mother of one pupil has recovered from a potentially terminal illness. Her father has to tell this girl that her mother’s illness has returned. One of the school’s new pupils is apparently a little Egyptian princess. Conflict arises when the newcomer begins to usurp the limelight in which Daisy Wells is accustomed to bask. Issues such as serious illness and relative status do emerge in the real lives of young readers. They will easily understand what tensions arise in Stevens’s pages. The novel is, as Stevens’s admirers


will expect, compulsively readable. The reader must make the effort to keep track of a potentially bewildering multitude of characters. But the effort to do so is well worthwhile. RB


The Bad Luck Light House HHHH


Nicki Thornton, Chicken House, 367pp, 9781912626304, £6.99 pbk.


This second episode in the Seth Seppi series is, once again, filled with


26 Books for Keeps No.238 September 2019


magic, murder and mystery. Seth is a hotel kitchen boy who has recently inherited


the entire hotel discovering some rather after terrifying


truths about his family. His inheritance also included some magical powers, but he struggles to make sense of them, and he is relieved when his old friend Inspector Pewter, a magical policeman, arrives at the hotel, and offers Seth the opportunity to help him crack another case… Seth leaps at the chance. This adventure takes place in an abandoned lighthouse on a storm- broken island, where Pewter and Seth are charged with finding out the truth behind some ghostly goings on (and the rather


grizzly murder


of the lighthouse’s new owner). A cast of suspects is duly assembled, featuring a cagey lawyer, a jealous sister and a clueless kitchen maid, all of whom play their part perfectly as providers of clues and red herrings. The detectives have their work cut out - and then the shadows begin coming to life and attacking people! The menacing presence of magic


like this is used sparingly for much of


the novel, but the allowing readers to


focus instead upon the ‘whodunnit’. The story stays true to most murder- mystery tropes,


careful


sprinkle of magic here and there gives the book a broader appeal: young fans of fantasy fiction will find much to enjoy. As Seth unearths more and more


clues, he discovers links between the crimes at the lighthouse and his own previous encounters with evil sorcery. Like the plot of the book itself, Seth’s past is full of questions and uncertainty, and readers will long to see him reveal the truth behind his own mysterious family. In the first episode of the series, Seth proved himself as courageous and resilient. In this story, it is his friendship and compassion that shine most brightly and help him develop into a character of genuine depth and quality. It is also clear that Seth has nowhere near reached his potential for sorcery yet, leaving ample opportunity for many more Seth Seppi mysteries. No mystery novel is complete


without the big reveal at the end and Thornton succeeds in delivering a thoroughly satisfying finale, which twists and turns all the way to the last page, ready for Seth’s next exciting escapade. SD


Patina HHHH


Jason Reynolds, Knights Of, 272pp, 978 1 9996425 5 6, £6.99, pbk


This is the second of Jason Reynolds’ “run club” quartet to be published in the U.K. Already out in the USA, run club (US title “track”) follows the lives of four members of a youth running team in an unnamed US city. The first book, Ghost, came out in the UK earlier this year. This new one follows the story of Patina, a girl for whom coming second is coming nowhere (she


should have met my dad);


and that’s only one of the demons she has to deal with. Like Castle Cranshaw, aka Ghost, there’s pain in her family life. Her father is dead and her mum has lost her legs through illness. This is the kind of euphemistic phrasing from which Reynolds draws some unlikely humour and pathos as naive little sister Maddy involves Patina in some speculation about the adventures of the disembodied legs. School’s not


too good either.


Patina eats quickly, standing up in the


school canteen, because she


can’t be sure who she might sit next to. Reynolds’ skill is to acknowledge the considerable pressures on his characters, to show how they hurt, and how difficult it is to find a way through, but also to acknowledge the resources within and around them that are there to help. They draw strength


from themselves, and friends – and the family discipline


of the track – all the time making discoveries about other people and themselves. CB


Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It HHHH


Susie Day, Penguin: Random House, 221pp, 9780241351390, £6.99


Max Kowalski’s story describes perfectly the experience of a young person who simply cannot catch a break. Despite always meaning well and having good intentions, his actions never seem to result in anything other than disaster. But Susie Day’s most


recent family


adventure is not a comedy of errors. It is an emotionally charged story about growing up and taking on family responsibility and many readers, old and young, will be spellbound by it. After the death of his mother, Max


knows that he has to step up and help his dad look after his three younger sisters. His dad, Big Pete, is the family hero,


arriving late in the evening


with pizza for tea and mysteriously acquiring wads of cash for occasional spending sprees at the seaside. His loving but unconventional approach to parenting illustrates the difficulty with which he is adapting to single


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