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BfK 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


boys home to the Caribbean, where she lives with her father, lost in the shadows of her grief. He, too, has his own pain and loss to carry, which emerges slowly during the story. In the end, it’s the children who teach the adults to dance in the rain, and help them discover how to carry on living even when their hearts and lives are so badly fractured. Set in the beauty of the Dominican


Republic, this is a story of bravery, resilience and a determination to become whole in the unbelievable


narrative to help young teens confront the pain and meaning of loss, and to discover the dignity and power of the human soul when dealing with suffering.


GR Eliza Rose HHH


Lucy Worsley, Bloomsbury, 354pp, 978-1-4088-6943-7, £6.99, pbk


Timothée de Fombelle is a storyteller Lucy Worsley is better known as a TV historian and this is her first foray into fiction for young people. She has taken the story of Katherine Howard, the fifth of Henry VIII’s wives who was beheaded for adultery after a very short marriage. Eliza Rose is a fictional cousin, who first meets Katherine when she is sent to learn to be a lady whose main aim in life would be to catch a rich husband at court. The author paints a convincing picture of a rebellious


who leaves her beloved home which she is supposed to save by a good marriage, but whose reputation is already blotted by a ‘failed’ marriage. Eliza finds Katherine beautiful but difficult, and already aware of her own sexual power. The two girls are sent


to Anne of Cleves, number four of Henry’s wives, who after a brief marriage is cast aside and Katherine becomes number five. Eliza has had an unhappy conversation with her father who advises her to become Henry’s mistress


never on the cards, although there is an uncomfortable scene in the story when Henry presses himself up against Eliza. Meanwhile Eliza has met and fallen in love with an illegitimate son who is a page at court, but a marriage to Ned would not save her family home. Katherine is caught in adultery and sent away, accompanied by her cousin, and Eliza discovers the pressure that the marriage to Henry, who is by this time is impotent, has brought on the girl. Katherine is beheaded and Eliza finds herself back at court, unhappy at her prospects but then a solution is found and all ends well. This is a well written story as one


would expect with a great deal of historical atmosphere and a very rounded and sympathetic heroine. The court with the figure of an ailing and ageing Henry at its centre is very well drawn, in particular the sexually charged atmosphere with so many young and ambitious people around. The difficulty with the story is that it starts with Eliza at twelve, and ends


but that was to become ladies in waiting young girl pain. It’s a powerful face of


with her in her late teens and grows in depth and detail as she matures, to the level of a teen/adult novel. The understanding needed for the details of court life, Henry’s marital difficulties, his supposed impotence, Katherine’s purported solution to the problem is more than the beginning of the book suggests.


JF Ned’s Circus of Marvels HHHH


Justin Fisher, HarperCollins, 427pp, 978-0-0081-2452-6, £6.99 pbk


Ned has spent his entire life moving around the country with his dad. His mother died when he was a year old, so he has no memories of her. What Ned really wants was to settle down in one place and have a normal life. Then on his 13th birthday everything changed. It might have been the sinister clowns that seemed to be trying to kill him, or the fact that his father disappeared whilst trying to save him, but on his father’s instructions he makes his way to the Circus of Marvels and he is thrown into a world he had never imagined. It seems that his quiet retiring father had been “The Engineer”, someone who helped members of the circus keep Demons and other evils on the other side of ‘the Veil’. Ned is drawn into an adventure to save his father, save the world and find the missing ‘Medic’, who is vital to their venture. This is a truly imaginative and


with ‘Da’ in the village of Gromera, her twin brother and mother having died. Times have been hard since the evil governor arrived some years before: he separated Gromera from the rest of Joya by a forest; residents are forbidden to travel – a particular hardship for Da who is a cartographer; and those who disobey the governor are thrown into dungeons. However Isabella is fascinated by maps and is desperate to travel to the Forgotten Territories beyond the trees and chart what she finds there. The opportunity presents itself when


Thirteen-year-old


Isabella


lives


a fellow classmate is found dead. Isabella’s best friend Lupe, the governor’s daughter, blames herself and goes after the murderer into the Forgotten Territories. Isabella joins the subsequent search party, her


coming in handy in the grim world of dry rivers, destroyed villages and vicious monsters in which they find themselves. But especially important, as she finds herself unexpectedly following in Arinta’s footsteps, is her knowledge of mythology. Isabella is a great character,


cartographic skills


brave, empathetic and loyal, and her relationships with Lupe, Da and her fifteen-year-old neighbour Pablo are very well drawn. It’s a beautifully written story, with a pleasing mix of magic, mythology and menace. RW


The Best Medicine HHHH


Christine Hamill, Little Island Books, 166pp, 9781910411513, £6.99 pbk


Twelve-year-old


frightening world, or rather it is a place where two worlds meet and the fight for dominance is vital to everyone. At the beginning Ned is just a quiet boy who is average at school, rarely makes friends as he moves around so much and has a very strong relationship with his father. He grows throughout the book as he faces many challenges and learns to cope with them. He also learns who he can trust and the power of real friendship. Justin Fisher has created a world that is enough like ours to be believable, but odd enough to be dangerous. The range of characters is fascinating, ranging from George, the educated and very charming Gorilla to Kitty the elderly and totally zany (but loveable) soothsayer; whilst on the side of evil are Sar-adin and his master Barbarossa. This is a truly exciting and magical start to a new series and I am sure it will become a firm favourite. MP


The Girl of Ink and Stars HHHH


Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Chicken House, 228pp, 978-1-9100-00274-2, £6.99 pbk


‘A myth is something that happened so long ago people like to pretend it’s not real, even when it is,’ Isabella tells her friend Lupe. Isabella’s favourite myth is about Arinta the girl warrior who lived on the island of Joya when it sailed freely on the ocean. One day Yote the fire demon caught Joya, attached it to the seabed and would have swallowed it completely had not Arinta managed to save the island from destruction only to become lost in underground tunnels, never to be seen again.


28 Books for Keeps No.219 July 2016


comedian, reluctant poet and fervent Harry Hill fan, is busy dealing with the usual teenage problems, girls, teachers, the school bully, when his Mum is diagnosed with breast cancer and life takes a more serious and difficult turn. Philip has a whole new series of problems to face and his progress from an initial reaction of sulking and wishing his Mum had a less embarrassing type of cancer through the realisation that he could lose the most important person in his world to a desire to help and make a difference is portrayed with humour and poignancy. Philip’s efforts to cope and to help his


Mum are both funny and moving and the story is broken up by Philip’s advice- seeking letters to his hero, Harry Hill. The appearance of this fictional version of Harry Hill at a fund-raising event at the end of the book provides a fitting climax to a story that seeks to deal with a serious subject in a comic way. The author has written a successful non-fiction book for adults on breast cancer


Mum’s illness and treatment and its emotional effects are portrayed convincingly and the


fictional approach to a difficult subject, told through Philip’s likeable, funny voice, will help young people to understand and cope with a situation that many are likely to face.


SR Oh, Freedom HHHH


Francesco D’Adamo, translated by Siân Williams, Darf Publishers, 140pp, 978-1-8507-7285-9, £6.99 pbk


This exciting adventure follows a family of slaves in 1850 as they escape from


light-hearted so the stages of Philip’s Philip, would-be


a cotton plantation via the legendary Underground Railway. An enthralling story of courage and resilience it will fascinate children, who might not know much about the secret escape route into Canada that was used by as many as 100,000 people. Sadly, it is more than a thrilling piece of historical fiction and there’s much to the story that is relevant to the world today. Central character Tommy is a bright


young man with lots of questions. He’s immediately intrigued by Peg Leg Joe, the man who appears out of a storm, gourd slung across his back. “Who’s in charge here?” Joe asks Tommy, the first of a series of questions and answers that make Tommy see things as they really are. Joe teaches Tommy the songs that give slaves hope and secretly reveal the route of the Underground Railway, and more besides: he teaches him to read and write, and tells Tommy stories of Harriet Trubman, whose courage, determination and vision inspire them all. And he reveals what freedom really is: “To be able to look another man in the eye without being afraid, because every one is the same. They are equal.” Two families dare to leave with Joe, risking the certain cruel treatment they’d face if they were caught and the other dangers of the journey. On their way they face hardship, hunger, fear but also receive unexpected help from different people, black and white alike. Not only does the book remind us of the almost unimaginable wickedness of


others as less then human, but it highlights too the courage Tommy and his family needed to risk that journey to freedom and a better life, even as many thousands of people today are daring to make similar journeys. A powerful and important story that won’t fail to affect readers and set them thinking.


MMa The King’s Revenge HHHH


Philip Womack, Troika Books, 304pp, 978-1-9099-9130-9, £6.99


In the concluding part of Womack’s Darkening Path trilogy, Simon and Flora have rescued the siblings they wished away into an otherworld, and toppled the sinister Broken King from his throne, setting his daughter


slavery, of treating


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