10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued New Talent Wing Jones HHHH


Katherine Webber, Walker Books, 978-1-4063-6909-0, 378pp, £7.99 pbk


Wing idolises her brother Marcus. He is the star of the school football team and destined for a scholarship. She herself is a mouse, bullied at school for her mixed race convinced she is no good and longing to be noticed by Aaron. Then tragedy strikes and Wing catapulted into a family breaking under the strain discovers that she has a talent that is hers alone, a talent that might just prove her salvation. This is a very assured debut.


Webber takes a number of themes that are familiar to YA novels – race, identity, relationships, family crisis – and manages to knit them together


engages the attention and keeps the pages turning. She avoids the cliché of a terminal illness, building the tension around a situation that could indeed affect any family . She also provides a happy ending with just enough grit to avoid mawkish


wants to be the fastest but Jules doesn’t know why Sylvie constantly wants


adjoining their to run


as The Slip and the girls have been told by their father never to go there as it is dangerous and disappears underground


further downstream. But the sisters have been going there secretly for years to deposit their wish stones. One snowy morning the sisters run out to make a snow family by the path to the Slip but Sylvie races off despite Jules’s pleas not to go.


a tiny snow fox to the family group and waits for her sister but grows increasingly worried as she does not appear. When the school bus leaves without them Jules searches for her sister; finding a tree root and a huge gash by the river and she realises with horror that Sylvie must have tripped and slid into the river and drowned. She is devastated – they all are. Running parallel to this is the story


Jules adds before reappearing property is known faster. The river to create a story that


romanticism. Wing is an attractive character and I enjoyed the cameos of the two grandmothers. Her style (present tense, first person narrator) will ensure that


quickly engaged with the heroine and her


easy identification with her drama. A contemporary fairytale. FH


the animals that inhabit it. The fox family are warm, solid and believable even when the story strays into the mystical. Although it is a poignant and heart-breaking read it is the kindness and quiet strength of family and friends that shines through. This is a book for the more reflective child perhaps but it is heartfelt and hugely rewarding. JC


The Girl with No Nose HHHHH


Georgia Byng, illus Gary Blythe, Barrington Stoke, 96pp, 978-1-7811-2569-4, pbk


of a fox cub, Senna born at the time of Sylvie’s death. She is kennan - a spirit animal born to complete something unfinished. Senna somehow knows she is closely linked to Jules. She is a feisty cub full of life and curiosity in her physical surroundings and love for her fox family. The story weaves between fox and girl as they become more closely entwined. The fox leads Jules to a secret grotto in the woods where Jules finds a cache of Sylvie’s unsent wish stones and discovers the reason why Sylvie felt the need to run ever faster. The story ends in a powerful climax when the fox saves Jules’s life. This novel is beautifully


with an almost poetic intensity. There is a real feel for the landscape and


written


At an unspecified date in Victorian London Alice Peasbody is born without a nose. She is of course teased mercilessly for her disfigurement. Other children call her ‘Pancake-face’ and wave smelly objects in her face. However, somewhat to the reader’s surprise given the period in which the book is set, Alice is allowed to attend school. Alice together with her parents visits a circus. Unseen in the dark, Alice is content. When the lights go on, the audience spot Alice and laugh. A clown who is wearing a false nose tells


nose. Her parents act on the clown’s advice and have their daughter fitted with a prosthetic nose. The question now is how the world will cope with a girl with a false nose, and how will Alice cope with the world? Without a circle of friends, Alice becomes a voracious reader. As her reading advances, she realises that


stories on offer feature no characters with impairments


people in Victorian England who live ignores majority the


broadly she realises that conventional literature


like hers. More the


of Alice she also needs a false situation and providing its audience is


like herself in the shadow of physical or economic disadvantage. She finds her social circle in the company of have-nots. Alice’s story is significant because


it reveals someone with a serious and highly visible impairment fighting a determined battle to be accepted and have a life. Gary Blythe’s illustrations tread a delicate and candid line, depicting Alice’s impairment accurately


sensational. The double page spread of Alice and the clown following page 13 is a genuine work of art. From


vantage point we look with disdain at the cruelty of the Victorian era. But as we read Byng we are constantly reminded that some of the same prejudices that disfigured Victorian society still afflict our times. RB


The Greatest Show of All HHHHH


Jane Eagland, Barrington Stoke, 96pp, 978-1-7811-2573-1,£6.99 pbk


This story was inspired by Twelfth Night, and, like the


triangle with a girl dressed as a boy lies at its heart. Kitty longs to work with horses but is all too aware of the fact that girls have no place in the male territory which is the stables. When her brother Tom leaves home without warning or explanation and her father brutally rejects her offer of help with the horses she determines that she, too, will leave home, look for Tom and try and find employment for herself. Huxley’s Circus is performing in the town and Kitty decides that this is where Tom must be. Disguised as a boy she goes to seek him out, but there is no trace of him. After quietening a horse which is out of control and potentially dangerous she is offered a job as a stable ‘lad’, at which she excels. She soon becomes a valued part of


play, a love our privileged without becoming modern


information groups.


exploring the wealth of imagery, but the text is aimed at proficient readers of 10 and upwards. An


at the characteristics of all animal life and what distinguishes it from plants and fungi. Clear explanation is given of the animal kingdom and how it is classified before the book concentrates on each of the major groups, from invertebrates and fish to amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.


shown visually by comparison of the animal with an adult human figure, a human hand or half a thumb. The


Throughout scale is


technology allows for some dramatic images that even the most talented wildlife photographer would find hard to capture – a giant Pacific octopus mid- lunch, a terrifying-looking shoal of red- bellied piranhas, a startling close-up of a snow leopard or a snarling hyena. Photographs are dropped in to highlight details, and there are cut-aways to reveal an animal’s internal structure. Fact boxes and fascinating details are liberally perfect


readers, enlivening what is sometimes quite dense text within a complicated layout. A final section entitled Animal Science examines different aspects of the animal kingdom – lifecycles, behaviour, feeding and reproduction as well as habitat and ecosystems. A colourful and visually exciting


reference book for animal lovers, and remarkable value at the price. Christmas may have passed, but the book’s attractive production makes it suitable for a birthday, not just the reference or library shelf. SU


The Goldfish Boy HHHH


the circus family, which, like all families, has its feuds and secrets. Oscar the clown is a hardened bully, desperate for the love of Sara, the beautiful tightrope walker, but aware that Jack, the show’s star rider, is also in love with her. Meanwhile, Kitty develops a crush on Jack and Sara, in turn, is drawn to Kitty. Within the tightly enclosed community which is the circus, symbolised by the Big Top, feelings become hot-housed and tensions develop, too often with calamitous results. Barrington


deserved reputation as a publisher providing good


people in whom the skill of reading is not fully developed-and this is one of those good reads. The author never patronises her readers but immerses them in an earlier world where it was still possible to make your own way, whatever your age. Her characters are believable, but avoid stereotypes and Kitty supports the central premise: one should know where one’s heart truly lies. VR


Animal! Knowledge Encyclopedia


HHHH


John Woodward, DK, 978 0 2412 2841 8, 288pp, £16.99 hbk


A encyclopedia


lavishly illustrated that


is dense


animal with


Stoke has a well- reads


for young


Lisa Thompson, Scholastic, 396pp, 978-1-4071-7099-2, £6.99 pbk


Matthew’s OCD is all-consuming and prevents him going to school. And his anxiety escalates when he finds out one of the neighbours is expecting a baby as he believes that even the germs in his room might cause his family and friends to sicken and die. Although Matthew is housebound


he watches the daily comings and goings within the cul-de-sac


his window and so notices at once when something different


such as the day that Mr Charles’s two grandchildren come to stay next door. When one of the grandchildren, toddler Teddy disappears Matthew is convinced that not is everything is as it seems with the inhabitants of


discrepancies with the neighbours and


concluding that he should be able to solve the mystery of who took Teddy if he can only work out the details. Together


Melody and Jake from the Close and his friend the wallpaper lion as his confidante inside his room Matthew begins to uncover secrets and finds each house has a story waiting to be discovered: the sad story of Old Nina’s son who disappeared while on holiday, whom she leaves a light on for every night; Melody who collects


Books for Keeps No.222 January 2017 27 with unlikely allies


the Close. He starts changes in their


noticing habits


occurs from


sprinkled on each spread, fodder


for statistic-hungry use of computer-generated introductory section


Younger children will enjoy


and


spans


the


age looks


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