Polly) uncool actress mother.


The illustrations, which include Polly’s


drawings, photographs and images of things she has collected (luggage labels, wrappers, receipts etc.), are fully integrated with labels, captions and text, for which Dee has designed a special ‘handwriting’ font for added authenticity. Polly’s diary is intended to be a private space: ‘Belonging entirely to me’ SO PLEASE KEEP OUT! it proclaims on the cover. Who could resist taking a peak inside?


The Unbelievable Top Secret Diary of a Pig


Emer Stamp, Scholastic, 978- 1407139197, £5.99


Yes, animals can keep diaries too. Remember Anne Fine’s Diary of a Killer Cat? But how does a writer get inside a pig’s mind? Emer Stamp achieves it by inventing a unique voice for her Pig, ‘Me I is Pig. I is 465 sunsets old, but every day I gets older, so this fact is only correct right now, on the day I is writing’, he announces. If that makes your toes curl, think of it as a great opportunity to initiate a conversation about diversity in language. Pig is best friends with duck... and definitely not friends with the Evil Chickens (they are evil after all). Pig is being fattened for the pot but there’s a chance he may escape this dreadful fate, if he flies the Evil Chickens’ space rocket to Pluto. Hilarious, exuberant and very, very silly.


My Secret War Diary


Marcia Williams, Walker Books, 978-1406331998, £9.99


Following the success of Archie’s War, a child’s scrapbook of the First World War, Marcia Williams has created a diary written from the point of view of Flossie Albright aged 9 - 15. This is a brilliant evocation of Home Front Britain during the Second World War. Through the letters that Flossie receives from her father, we also learn about the impact of the war on those directly involved. Beautifully produced with artefacts and pop-ups, this is a book to treasure.


Line of Fire


Barroux, trans Sarah Ardizzone, Phoenix Yard Books, 978- 1907912399, £10.99


Unlike the other books in this list, Line of Fire is not a fictionalised diary but the graphic representation of a 100 year old diary, found by the artist, Barroux, discarded in a skip along with a medal and the lyrics of a song. The diary bore no name, and


Nikki Gamble is Director of Just Imagine Story Centre and Associate Consultant at the University of London, Institute of Education.


10 Witch Child


Celia Rees, Bloomsbury, 978- 1408800263, £6.99


Witch Child is a special book that leaves an indelible impression on the reader.


who witnesses Set in the seventeenth


century, it is written from the point of view of fourteen year old Mary Newbery,


her grandmother’s hanging for witchcraft. Escaping from England, Mary makes the voyage to America, where she establishes a new home in Massachusetts, within a Puritan community. Living dangerously on the fringes of society, Mary embraces the gifts she has inherited from her grandmother in the full knowledge that this puts her in jeopardy. Rees avoids the pitfall of attempting to imitate an archaic voice, rendering the story in a direct and objective style, which adds to the narrator’ appeal. Taut, suspenseful and compelling, from the first page to the last.


I Capture the Castle


Dodie Smith, Vintage, 978- 0099460879, £7.99


And the final choice is an established classic. First published in 1948, I Capture the Castle is a bildungsroman and romantic saga, documenting the life of a Bohemian family living in a crumbling castle. The mood is nostalgic, perhaps because Smith was living in exile in California with her conscientious objector husband at the time of writing. which


prevents


The enduring quality, this


from entertaining simply


being a period piece, is 17 year old Cassandra’s


narrative


voice, which simultaneously conveys innocence and perception.


so it represents the story of symbolic, unknown soldier. Line of Fire charts the progress on the Western Front until 1917, when the entries suddenly stop. Barroux’ striking monochrome illustrations add to the power and poignancy of this incredible diary. Superbly translated from French by Sarah Ardizzone.


Books for Keeps No.222 January 2017 13


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