reviews 8 – 10 Junior/Middle Mad About Monkeys HHHHH


Owen Davey, Flying Eye Books, 40pp, 978 1 909263 57 4, £12.99 hbk


There are over 260 known species of monkey on our planet and 44 are featured in this magnificent book. In sixteen double spreads, we learn ‘What are Monkeys?’, our relationship to them in terms of evolution (Is a Monkey my Uncle?), their distribution across the globe, how to tell the difference between Old World and New World species (it’s all in the nose), of their diverse size and appearance, social life, habitats, diet, interaction with man and much more besides.


The species referred to in the book are listed in an index that gives their common and scientific names grouped under their geographical locations and family, and whether they are New or Old World Monkeys.


Owen


number of fascinating facts and much scientific information in a prose style that is direct, child friendly and totally accessible without in any way talking down to his audience.


Davy imparts an amazing


really do need to read the adventures from their start. In this way they will meet all the important characters, learn their characters and understand their motives. They will also be able to savour the setting - the City of Fayt where goblins, hobgoblins, faery folk and trolls, to name but a few, live happily with humans, the Ebony Sea peopled by fearsome (they are - meet them in book two, The Goblin’s Gift) merfolk, and Azurmouth, the City of Light ruled by the truly sinister Duke of Garran. The action is non-stop, the twists and turns in the plot more convoluted than any maze. However, a lively style, dramatic incident and engaging characters will keep the reader glued to the page. This series does not pretend to be anything other than it is; a fast-paced enjoyable fantasy for good KS2/KS3 readers designed to keep the pages turning.


Navid’s Story FH HHH


Andy Glynne illus Jonathan Topf, Barefoot Books, 32pp, 978 0 7502 7891 1 £11.99 pbk


Told in his own words, this is the story of Navid, his flight from Iran and his arrival in England as a political refugee. The book started life as part of the BBC Learning Zone’s Seeking Refuge


making the crossover into print. animated series before


The narrative has authenticity and the graphics are certainly distinctive, but I couldn’t help feeling that the animation from which the book derives is the more effective of the two. Part of its problem rests with the


vocabulary of a sixteen year old: ‘I could see the concern on my mum’s face’ and that of the four year old child reliving the experience: ‘I was upset for nearly the whole journey’.


His stylized illustrations are things of beauty using grace of line, shapes and patterns and blocks of colour to capture the essential characteristics of each species, rendering them instantly recognizable. His troupe of Hanuman Langurs on the social life spread for instance, were instantly recognisable to me having myself observed these creatures on many occasions leaping over the rooftops and grazing on the courtyard trees in Udaipur, India.


The balance between text and illustrations is spot on, and the use of thick matt pastel shade paper adds to the almost sensuous pleasure of turning the pages and poring over the delights within.


JB The Hero’s Tomb HHHH


Conrad Mason illus David Wyatt, David Fickling Books, 384pp, 9781910200346, £12.99hbk


The final action-packed instalment to the Tales of Fayt trilogy that began with The Demon’s Watch. Readers will not be disappointed, though they


The use of colour certainly conveys his flight from fear to freedom, but the graphics add to the confusion – they seem to be designed to capture the attention of younger readers, which is belied by the serious content of the narrative and the skill that is needed to read the text independently.


The book has a place in an Upper Key Stage 2 classroom, but not as general reading material. We live in a time when much of the world is migrating and children are surrounded by its media coverage. Properly contextualised, the book could be helpful in developing an understanding of why people leave everything and travel half way round the world in search of safety. Without contextualising, it runs the risk of being just another book about immigration. In the current social climate,


could actually be harmful, so use this book as an information text and guide the discussions that it will provoke.


GR that frequent tension between the


Uncle Gobb and The Dread Shed


HHHH


Michael Rosen, ill. Neal Layton, Bloomsbury Children’s Books,208pp, 978 1 4088 5130 2, 9.99, HB


Celebrated children’s poet and author, Michael Rosen, is on sensationally silly form in this new series for children. Young readers will be surprised to learn that in a time not so long ago, ‘DREAD SHEDS’ were prevalent in England and were frequently used to imprison and terrify naughty children! In this story, Malcolm and his friend are keen to avoid being locked up in the country’s last remaining dread shed.


Sadly for Malcolm, his fiercely draconian uncle, Uncle Gobb, with whom he cohabits, is rather keen on the idea of dread sheds. In fact, he strongly believes that all children should be harshly punished for even the slightest of things…it’s the only way they will learn! This means that Malcolm has to be extremely careful to be polite, courteous and respectful and to avoid such terribly rude activities as answering a question incorrectly or eating toast on beans instead of beans on toast.


As Malcolm attempts to tow this super-straight line, he is confronted by a barrage of brain-baffling questions from school. He soon notices that Uncle Gobb’s influence stretches far beyond his house – he is even messing with Malcolm’s worksheets and lessons at school!


Malcolm isn’t the only one feeling confused. The author shifts constantly between narrating the story and chatting casually to the reader, the effect of which is totally chaotic and often quite


readers might think things couldn’t get any queerer, magical genies begin emerging from characters’ noses!


Rosen has wonderful empathy for children and understands entirely the torturous impact of boring worksheets and the panic that sets in when one can’t recall a correct answer. The series is bound to continue conjuring up comedy through this effective contrast of charming children and the bizarre grown-ups with whom they are forced to share the world.


Stop Those Monsters SD HHHH


Steve Cole, ill. Jim Field, Simon and Schuster UK Ltd, 246pp, 978 0 85707 874 2, 6.99, PB


This high-powered quest story begins in Bob’s bedroom. Bob adores monsters and his room is festooned with posters and DVDs of horror classics such as Jaws and The Blob. By a ludicrous twist of fate, this bedroom (along with the rest of Bob’s house) is hurtling within a hurricane towards the alien (or, more specifically, monster) land of Terra Monstra.


As if being stranded many miles beneath the earth with no means of


Books for Keeps No.213 July 2015 25 hilarious. Just when


return were not worrisome enough, Bob quickly becomes the prey of a band of beastly brutes who are terror- struck by the presence of a human being whom, they believe, has the unnerving ability to shoot toxic waste of its nose!


This inversion of the ‘monsters are scary to humans’ cliché, is just one way that author, Steve Cole, plays constantly with horror conventions. Intertextual references are rife as bits and pieces of memorable monsters repeatedly


to bite at Bob! The gorgon, Zola and the dino-beast, Crudzilla, for example, must be within a whisker of contravening some sort of copyright!


Bob learns that his only hope of escape back to terra firma is to uncover the Star Jewel - and so a quest begins. Much like in retro computer games, as Bob descends through the levels of Terra Monstra in search of the jewel, his path is blocked by increasingly frightful freaks, such as Chopper the jollywobble lumberjack, who is ‘something that your worst nightmare would have nightmares about…’!


From aggressive, axe-wielding lumberjacks, to sluggish swirls of gloop, Bob and his new friends (including a talking, and surprisingly violent, giant hamster) lurch from one terrible crisis to another. With their colourful arsenal of mythical weapons and powers, the menagerie of monsters that confront Bob on his quest are at any one moment frightening, funny or just plain bonkers!


The comedy is, at times, a little crass (not least the detailed illustration of Bob’s friends emerging from a mammoth monster’s colossal backside), and its relentless presence throughout means there is little room for any genuine tension or drama. However, the chaotic carnival of scrapes, escapes and close-shaves that Bob encounters arrive with such frequency that readers will gobble up the pages like hungry, book-eating monsters.


SD leap into the narrative


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