BfK 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


written memorials from the graveyard before they are thrown away and Teddy’s sister Casey who is weirdly obsessed with her doll and appears to be a bit of a sociopath. The burgeoning


between the children and the visits to Matthew’s insightful therapist help him not only uncover the mystery of the missing toddler but also to find the


cleaning. The ending is hopeful and upbeat when he comes out of his room to join a neighbourhood party and states he is going to be fine. Peopled by a cast of somewhat


reason behind his obsessive friendship


of bathos to complete the set. The narrative impact is rather uneven in the first third of the book but comes more into its own in subsequent pages and is worth sticking with for its surreal qualities and its social comment. VR


The Ministry of SUITs HHHH


Paul Gamble, Little Island, 978-1-9104-1154-4, £7.99 pbk


‘In the middle of the street lay a single shoe,


oddball characters this is a heart- warming tale of a lonely boy who faces up to his demons and learns not only a whole lot about himself but also some surprising things about his neighbours and that you cannot take things at face-value.


relationship with his Dad is well-handled and it says a lot about the different ways people view mental-illness.


takes a little while to get going and is a tad too long in places but is a touching and satisfying debut. JC


Life In A Fishbowl HHHH


Len Vlahos, Bloomsbury, 325pp, 978-4088-7063-1, £7.99 pbk


Jared


brain tumour and a wife and two teenage daughters to support. He is determined that they will be provided for after his death so takes the unusual option of trying to sell himself on ebay. When regulations ban the sale, interested parties step out of the shadows to offer their help – in very different packages. The comedic element is strong, here the cast of would-be rescuers ranges from a nun obsessed with leading souls – and herself – to glory; a gamer; a young, narcissistic and reckless billionaire; and a TV programmer whose career hasn’t quite reached the stellar heights he had envisioned it would attain. The outcome is that the family


Stone’s lives are filmed to entertain the thrill-seeking, sentimental prime- time television audience. This theme is particularly well done, stripping back the sanctimonious litany of `the public has a right to know’ to expose the


sets this almost forensic observation against a running commentary


the efforts of Jared Stone’s would- be saviours. There is some moral certitude here, too-a young gamer rallies her fellow players to help the family, at first financially, until that proves impossible, then practically. The final protagonist is the tumour


clearly delineated and Vlahos of


Stone has an inoperable The story His somewhat awkward


exactly as it means to go on. The next 300-odd pages (it’s a meaty read, requiring a certain amount of stamina) unfold in the same manner, packing all sorts of


middle-grade novel


warning that there was an escaped pirate somewhere nearby.’ With this deadpan assertion, Paul Gamble’s debut


starts


straight-faced silliness into a story of the strangeness behind the everyday. Jack Pearse is addicted to asking


splendidly


unexpected questions. After a terrifying encounter with a bear on the way to school, his insatiable curiosity wins him a job offer from the eponymous Ministry (with responsibility for Strange, Unusual and Impossible Things.) He’s dismayed to discover that his schoolmate Moody Trudy, notoriously free with her fists, is another Ministry new hire, but he soon has more to worry about - odd kids are going missing, and Jack’s best friend David is definitely an odd kid. It’s only a matter of time before he’s added to the list.


an unmistakable


is in the detail. With Pratchettesque, rambling, stream-of-consciousness footnotes to explain that black is white, up down, gravity nonsense and time subject to manipulation if you’re in the right emotional state, it provokes a smirk, a snort or a guffaw on almost every page. Nod-and- wink references to grown-up sci-fi, speculative and horror classics are interwoven throughout – the


of the ancient Cthulhu being safely contained in the Ministry’s filing branch (‘since he wants to send the world mad, working in bureaucracy is pretty much his ideal job’) may sail over the head of many young readers, but


reading. This is a book for a specific kind of silliness-seeker, who delights in the surreal, the ‘what if?’ and the ‘but why?’ – and, in the right hands, it should satisfy completely. IRW


Double Identity HHHH


Dave Shelton, David Fickling Books, 64pp, 978 1 910989 005, £8.99, pbk


Here’s a second full volume excursion for


and McBoo, whose crime fighting adventures feature regularly in The Phoenix comic. It’s been over five years


Book 1 and this time there’s just the one long story. It features the same mean streets of Muttropolis where the bumbling heroes frequently fall over each other (and other people) in their attempt to unravel a humorously Raymond Chandleresque series


since Good Dog, Bad Dog


events, with more than nod to classic American film noir (see the caper’s title). This time the duo are called to investigate threats to the life of Sam Wiener, who, with his twin brother Jack, runs one of the biggest movie studios in Collie-wood. There follows a lot of snappy dialogue, a femme fatale chanteuse, an embarrassing slip up at a funeral, a giant red alien crab pursued by our heroes through the studio lot, a night club dust up, a car chase, a denouement at Sammy (Oscar) Awards night, and a lot of doggy punning on film titles and film star names (e.g. Michael Canine and Angelina Collie, star of Laura Crufts, Tomb Raider). Dave Shelton carries it off with wit and enthusiasm. CB


self-seeking, amoral grab for ratings. Individual family members are


deduced, is on the outrageous


itself: this jars and even irritates at first, but then provides a reliable commentary on Jared’s memories and relationships when he is unable to recall these for himself. There is humour in the narrative


often turned against big corporations who manipulate people in extremis for their own callous ends. There is pathos, too and a detectable amount


disappearing juvenile eccentrics, there’s the mystery of why the sleek Chapeau Noir company has donated new polyester uniforms – identical to the old ones – to Jack’s school, and why smiling old ladies with shopping trollies have started shadowing Jack and Trudy. Plainly, an evil mastermind is developing a stupendous scheme behind


characterisation is not especially profound, either, although it doesn’t feel scamped – it’s simply not the main focus of the book.


28 Books for Keeps No.222 January 2017 the scenes. Gamble’s


The main plot, side.


as As well as the broad-brush, might be


Who are Refugees and Migrants? What makes People Leave their Homes and Other Big Questions


HHHHH


Michael Rosen & Annemarie Young, Wayland, 48pp, 978-0-7502-9985-5, £13.99 hbk


How do you introduce young people to the issues surrounding the journeys, often full of dangers, of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants as they seek to join new countries and face new challenges when they arrive? For younger children there are some fine picturebooks often telling of one family’s or one person’s experiences. Mary Hoffman and Karin Littlewood’s moving book The Colour of Home tells how Hassan, a refugee child from Somalia, struggles to relate to a


of the dog detectives Bergman might, equally, prompt wider idea


Here the devil – and the delight –


new country while Shaun Tan’s silent graphic novel allows readers of any age to create the compelling story of one immigrant’s experiences from arresting


is also a need for books giving clear definitions of the different categories of


pictures. However, there


information older children and young people need to develop an informed understanding of important issues. Who are Refugees and Migrants? clarifies terminology and gives clear information. But it also encourages young readers to come to their own judgments and opinions based on evidence. The organisation


book is helpful with each section heading taking the form of a question – for example ‘Who are refugees and migrants?’, ‘What makes people leave their homes?’, ‘How do refugees and migrants travel?’ and ‘What happens when they arrive?’ There are also sections on ‘Migration through history’ and ‘What is culture and how do we share it?’ But, above all, what makes this book interesting and valuable is the interweaving of information and pertinent questions with powerful personal experiences. Each of the authors gives an account of their own rich background and we also learn about the experiences of Muzoon Almellehan,


Avcil and Benjamin Zephaniah. This book will be an excellent resource for teachers and pupils in the upper primary school and lower secondary


school years. MM Welcome to Nowhere


HHHH


Elizabeth Laird, Macmillan, 352pp, 978 1 5098 4049 6, £9.99, hbk


In her latest novel, Elizabeth Laird returns to the Middle East. Set at the very beginning of the Syrian civil war, it’s the story of a middle class family (father is a government employee) which is caught up in the protests in Bosra and Daraa and forced to flee to Jordan. Elizabeth Laird has visited the camps and the novel is based both on research and her meetings with refugees there. Her account of the destruction of the family’s comfortable life and its desperate flight with no money and only the possessions that


Omid Djalili, Meltem of the incomers and providing the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32