reviews 8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued


Ruth Brown is well known for her beautifully imagined realistic images of cats and the world through which they move. Here we see her in her element as she takes a playful look at some of the world’s great masterpieces – and most of them from the past century. These are artists that children are very likely to encounter in school – Van Gogh, Magritte, Kahlo – and some perhaps a little more unfamiliar. Central to each painting, taking pride of place and adopting both the style of the artist and the character is a cat; a cat who leaps off the canvas to follow Tom as he proceeds pied- piper like from image to image. Nor are these “imaginary” cats.


They are solid


and as the text reveals, real breeds carefully chosen to match their artist. There is humour in watching them interact with each other – and the reading


audience. The artwork is


bold, immersive, Brown’s rich palette bringing each image to vivid life. The design is simple – we are after all in a gallery and we move from exhibit to


exhibit naturally, without


Jane Goodall. A Life with Chimps


HHHH


Anita Ganeri Ill. and design Louisa Uribe, George Ermos, Keiron Ward Stripes Publishing, 176pp, 9781788951579, £6.99 pbk


The recent interest in creating


engaging and accessible information literature together with the emphasis both on diversity and empathy in books for young people has seen a revival in telling the stories of famous or important but perhaps unsung, men and women. These can range from anthologies to individual biographies. Jane Goodall by Anita Ganeri is one of the latter. It is one in a series which will include not just names from the past but contemporary personages as Jane is herself. Anita Ganeri is an experienced


fuss.


The simple text sets up the game describing the essence of the artists and their works. This is a game that could easily be developed and extended by imaginative teachers. What cat would


you choose for


Michelangelo? What a lovely and memorable way to be introduced to the world of art inside the classroom or out of it. FH


creator of information texts. This is, as a result, a well crafted engaging story. And it is a story. There are no sound bites. Here is an extended narrative through which we meet Jane Goodall herself from her early childhood to the present day. Interspersed are what in an old fashioned book would be a foot-note, but here are presented fully on the page, is the extra information a young reader might require ( the difference between the ape and the monkey; apartheid). Just As is the case with the foot-note there is no prescription to read these pages and they are differentiated in font and design from the main text. The neat line illustrations add further life to the words as do the quotes, while the whole


is rounded off by an index; it may be a story but it is not fiction, This is biography but truly accessible to a young reader. Part of the Trail Blazers series this and its companions are ones to look for especially for those whose interest might lean towards real life inspiration to feed the imagination. My only caveat, the use of white font on a grey ground for some quotations is not easy to read. FH


A Postcard to Ollis HHHH


Ingunn Thon, illus Nora Brech, trans. Siân Mackie, Wacky Bee, 220pp, 9781999903343, £6.99 pbk


Ollis (the abbreviation of her real name – Oda Lise Louise Ingrid Sonja – the names of five inspirational Norwegian women) feels abandoned. No because of the arrival of a little brother whom she adores, but the the arrival of a new ‘dad’. Einer is not her dad. Her real father, her Borgepa, disappeared and her mother will not talk about him at all. Perhaps he is dead? Then Ollis finds a postcard – a postcard from Borgepa. He does love her and she is determined to find him. Lively characterisation, lively narrative


seamlessly translated come together in this enjoyable narrative from the Norwegian author


Ingunn Thon,


perfectly visualised by Nora Brech. The theme is very familiar as Ollis searches for answers when faced with a change that will affect the way she sees her life and her relationship with her mother. Ollis steps off the page, a very real ten year old, ready to follow her friend Gro (surely a Norwegian Pippi Longstocking) on exciting adventures as they face down the Billy Goat of Christmas Past. Not all these


10 – 14 Middle/Secondary Lily at Lissadell HHHHH


Judi Curtin, O’Brien Press, 256pp, 978-1788491280, £11.99 pbk


Like Jacqueline Wilson, to whom she is frequently compared, Judi Curtin is increasingly drawn to setting her stories in the past, and that is the case in this her latest novel.


It’s


1913, and young Lily must leave school – and her dreams of becoming a teacher herself – to go and work as under housemaid at Lissadell House, the family home of the Gore-Booths. Life as the lowliest of the servants is hard: the hours are long, the work is exhausting and her fellow housemaid is distinctly frosty. On top of that, Lily is a long way from home and misses her mother, and little sisters and brothers very much.


But, like many


Curtin heroines, she’s bright, caring, optimistic and, above all, resilient. Lily knows that with her in employment, the financial pressures on the family are eased, and there are advantages to living in the Big House – not least, regular meals. As the story unfolds,


Lily makes friends with Maeve, one of the young ladies of the house – the real-life daughter of Constance Markievicz, who also plays a part in the story – and that leads to breaks in the routine and some exciting


adventures. wins the trust


Just as important, she of her grumpy co-


worker Nellie, and discovers truths about her life too. For all its Upstairs, Downstairs


setting, the accent is mostly on how much the people in the house have in common, and while Curtin skilfully creates a real sense of history – the arrival of the motorcar, talk of what is happening beyond Lissadell and Lily’s two room cottage home – we care most about Lily; the drama, such as it is, comes not from historic events but the sense of her development, and of what she might go on to do. It’s clear that Lily is living in an age on the brink of huge change, but the overall atmosphere is one of optimism and hope. The three main characters – Lily,


Maeve and Nellie - are as lively a trio as you could hope to meet, characters that readers will believe in and care about. As we’ve come to expect from Judi Curtin, the story is full of charm and humour and this is a genuinely heart-warming read. AR


Invisible in a Bright Light HHHH


Sally Gardner, Zephyr, 272pp, 9781786695222, £10.99, hbk


It begins with a mystery; more properly several mysteries. We might not expect to know who the man in the emerald green suit is; nor why he is sat in a barnacle encrusted throne in an undersea cave surrounded by dangling corpses. Such things will become clear; as will the precise nature of the task he is setting the girl before him. But the girl, who is she? She has lost her memory. She doesn’t even know if she is Marie or Celeste. Only gradually does Sally Gardner reveal exactly what is going on in this tale. It is once more a tribute to the great Dane, the best known coiner of such tales; and it draws its inspiration from relatively recent myths of disappearing ships and sailors (run the girl’s two possible names together). Most of the story takes place on dry land, in the Royal Opera House in a European port city in the late nineteenth century. Theatre is something that Gardner knows much


Books for Keeps No.239 November 2019 29


adventures will be comfortable, and may result in tension. Ollis may have to learn to be independent. She will also have to learn that not all stories have a neat ending, that assumptions are


dangerous, that relationships


can be messy but still loving. Young readers will revel in the eccentricities of the characters – Gro and Borgny in particular – and the freedom enjoyed by the two girls as they race through the Norwegian woods. They will be impressed by Ollis’ inventive abilities (and perhaps, inspired) and by Gro’s confidence and imagination. This is very definitely a book to recommend to lively KS2 readers. A welcome addition to any library And the author provides a useful


note at the end on the five inspirational women behind Ollis’ name. FH


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