reviews 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


project causes many to lose their homes and in some cases their lives. Examples of the way activism can


make a difference is described, for example


when direct community


action halted plans to build a golf course on paddy fields thereby protecting livelihoods. And hence the book’s subtitle. Written by the same author as the


highly successful A is for Activism this new book provides a highly readable introduction to the social movement for change and the power of the individual to make a difference. Grounded


in his own experience


and knowledge, it is written in an accessible style and very apposite at a time when young people are becoming increasingly


politically and socially


engaged. Nagara is a talented artist and graphic designer and the striking full colour illustrations throughout the book add to the drama and appeal of the book. SMcG


The Pearl in the Ice HHHH


Cathryn Constable, Chicken House, 304pp, 978-1912626519, £6.99 pbk


If you love mystery and adventure, proper


adventure dangerous, that is, in far-away places,


adventure tinged with magic and that requires the protagonist to show real courage and integrity, then Cathryn Constable is the author for you. Set in an other-world that closely resembles Europe in the tense years before the outbreak of World War One, The Pearl in the Ice tells the story of twelve-year old Marina, who we first meet dangling ‘from the branch of a London plane tree in the garden of her father’s house in Hampstead.’ Marina’s father is a naval commander and about to set off for Cadiz while she – to her horror – is being sent to a Ladies’ College where she will be taught things important to young women of her class. Marina’s invalid mother left when Marina was so small that she can hardly remember her. In fact, Marina never makes it to


her ladies’ college: rather she jumps trains at the station and makes her way to Portsmouth, determined to plead with her father to let her join him in the navy instead. A chance encounter on the train with the dashing Miss Smith, a secretary at the Admiralty, convinces Marina that women can work for the navy and that parents aren’t always right, but arriving in Portsmouth there are surprises in store. Her father is not the commander of the HMS Neptune at all but the much smaller Sea Witch, and their destination is not Cadiz but the


far North. Discovered stowing


away, Marina is allowed to stay, and plays a part in a story of espionage and heroism, in which all sorts of people turn out to be not what they seem. As


they travel further into the


freezing waters, Marina discovers more about herself and about her mother and now the story also


becomes deliciously mysterious,


calling on old sea stories of mermaids and undersea creatures. Constable carries this off with bravura, blending the


real world together and the perfectly, and, after


magical the


devastation of the war, leaves Marina with the power and determination to create a new world, using a language she has plucked ‘like pearls’ from the drowned depths of the ancient sea. It’s a story to make young readers believe anything is possible, and all the better for that. AR


Resistance HHH


Brian Gallagher, O’Brien, 259pp., 9781788490801, £7.99 pbk


This story is an interesting example of ‘what if’ plots, in this case what if the Nazis had conquered Eire, a country which in real history which was neutral during the Second World War. Credibly there is resistance of course, but also those who collaborated in various ways and some interesting moral points are raised during this very readable novel. Roisin is in fact Rachel, child of


a Jewish mother which in the eyes of the Nazis is reason to send her to a concentration camp.


She has


escaped Cork by the skin of her teeth to Dublin, but eventually her real name is discovered and friends Mary and Kevin become involved in her eventual escape by submarine to Iceland, where the Irish Resistance is beginning to plot the end of the occupation.


Mary’s father has had


to leave his family to be a leader of the resistance, but Kevin’s father, a local councillor has stayed to work alongside


the Germans. Here lies


the moral question, what would you do? Then there is Dennis O’Sullivan who has found his own way to act, collaborating for money and spying on his local community who subsequently suffer at the hands of his minder Vogts. All this makes for a very credible story with considerable depth and


very believable characters. The


reader feels for Kevin who has the courage to make a brave stand for his friend Roisin to make her escape, and also for Mary who sees her father only in brief snatches. She helps in a daring attack on a prisoner train, and finds it hard not to let her younger siblings know that their father is still alive, and acknowledges her mother’s courage in covering for her husband and bringing the children up alone in this subterfuge. The children’s ages are at the end


of primary school, maybe it would have been better if they were slightly older to add credibility to the story, particularly as Mary is used in a prominent way to stop the train, and her father also reveals some serious secrets to her, but these do not get in the way of a good story, which raises some good questions for discussion. JF


The Starlight Watchmaker HHHHH


Lauren James, Barrington Stoke, 119pp, 978-1-78112-895-4, £7.99, pbk


The Starlight Watchmaker is another high-quality offering from the ever- reliable


catching cover is beautifully designed and hints at the


Barrington Stoke. Its eye- content


within,


arousing curiosity in a prospective reader. This foray into sci-fi features Hugo, the eponymous watchmaker and an android who needs the starlight of the title to recharge his batteries and ensure his survival. He lives and works in a tiny attic on the campus of an elite academy attended by only the most privileged biological students and is thus wholly isolated from the world around him. His life changes rapidly when


Dorian, one of the students, comes to demand high-handedly that broken watch is repaired.


his Hugo


discovers that the quantum energy source which powers the watch is missing and suspects it has been stolen to make a bomb. The story unfolds into a quest to find the thief and prevent any destruction and along the way intriguing characters and scenarios are introduced. An unlikely friendship develops between Hugo and Dorian and, when their search takes them to an abandoned and forgotten city beneath their own they find the answer to the puzzle of the missing quantum energy. A colony of abandoned androids


is living in the gloomy depths, with no light to recharge their batteries and so the theft of the energy is the only way in which they can survive. They have all been abandoned by their owners for newer models and so cannot get ID passes which allow them to live and work on the surface. This heartless and unthinking exclusion from society offers a parallel to our own attitudes to possessions and to those we feel are inferior to us. Dorian uses his father’s wealth and influence to reinstate the androids into society, recognising that the old and battered robots have valuable


inter-planetary language skills to offer those who wish to work


and travel in other solar systems. James makes


it clear in this


entertaining and thought-provoking story


that there are lessons to be


learned, but she allows readers to explore the unfolding ideas through the course of the narrative, thus making their impact even more hard-hitting. VR


White Eagles HHHH


Elizabeth Wein, Barrington Stoke, 136pp., 9781781128961, £7.99, pbk


Published as a teen novel this slight novel is aimed at the top end of the age range 10-14. Elizabeth Wein’s previous novel for Barrington stoke was also about women flying during the Second World War, Firebird set in Soviet Russia,. White Eagles starts as the Germans invade Poland in September 1939, when eighteen year old Kristina is called up just before her twin brother Leopold, to join the White Eagles of the title, the Polish Air Force. But tragedy strikes very quickly when Leopold is killed after a brave attack, witnessed by his twin.


In shock Kristina decides to


escape in her plane, not knowing she has a passenger. Together with Will, all of eleven, having witnessed the violent death of his parents, the two make their escape in the plane to eventual safety. The violence and brutality of the


German invasion of Poland is not glossed over at all, but neither is the courage of Kristina, flying initially without maps, trying to find safety for herself and Wil. The sheer physical task of flying a plane over unknown territory is well described and also the difficulties even then faced by a young woman. Will emerges as young man of great courage and resilience, even deceiving Kristina into thinking she is learning French when he is teaching her English, which does stretch the imagination somewhat! This is a short novel, covering a


great deal of ground both literally and within the story.


It catches the fear


and chaos of war very well, something Elizabeth Wein has demonstrated both in ‘Firebird’ and ‘Code Name Verity’.


both the historical


It is difficult to capture feeling and the


character development in such a short novel and it would be good to see the author write a longer novel again. But this short novel would be good for more reluctant female teenage readers. JF


We Are The Beaker Girls HHHH


Jacqueline Wilson, illus Nick Sharratt, Doubleday, 328 pp, 978 0 857 53587 0, hbk


This is the second Wilson book narrated by Tracy Beaker’s daughter Jess,


aged ten. Jess and


have moved home to Cooksea, a seaside town bearing an uncanny resemblance to Brighton. Tracy now runs an antique shop called The Dumping Ground, in partnership with a woman named Flo, who at one time was a minor television celebrity. The Beaker mother and daughter team face two main problems. The first


Books for Keeps No.239 November 2019 31 Tracy


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