BfK 8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued


Property Jones. When she was five, her parents took her into a second- hand bookshop and left without her. 10 year old Michael, who ran the shop with his altogether mum Netty, found


characteristic logic put her in the lost- property cupboard; that is how she got her name. Six years later, she’s very happy with Netty and Michael and all the stock; she loves the feel and smell of old books. Each evening, the three read copies of the same book – silently, but turning the pages at the same time, and ‘laughing and sighing at all the same parts”. But Property “was keeping a secret from them and it was a whopper”. No-one had ever taught her to read; so she has had to fake her reactions each evening, and now she’s too ashamed to tell Michael and Netty. Their White Hart Bookshop - it


used to be a pub and the sign was too good to waste - is up against it financially. So it is fantastic news when, in a grand raffle, they win the Great Montgomery Book Emporium, the most exciting, most famous, most amazing bookshop


Kingdom, or anywhere else for that matter. Its


lemonade-swilling, in the United


Albert H. Montgomery, has decided to retire – hence the raffle – but he stays to show them round his magical treasure-house. Suppose you want to look at books about Knights and Castles, or Desert Islands, or Woodland Tales or Space Adventures; you just pull the right lever and the relevant room creaks into place behind one of a dozen doors leading off a central hall. Michael’s favourite is The Room of Dictionaries. Behind each door there’s a kind of ferris wheel featuring a loop of different departments, each with appropriate decor (the Knights and Castles Room has stone walls covered in tapestries) and inventively displayed titles. It’s Paradise. Except, All Is Not


What It Seems. Albert H. Montgomery has a secret too. He’s been showing them round the Emporium when suddenly he exclaims, “Goodness me, look at the time!” and leaves abruptly. The fact


unwisely, he had agreed to buy the only extant handwritten manuscript of a Shakespeare play - for forty-three million pounds.


have. The seller (yes, the sinister, long grey coated Mr Pink) wants his cash. From the new owners. Now. It wouldn’t be giving too much away


Emporium and beyond, in that


pace, warmth and humour, much of it generated by Gunther Armageddon the Third, a Persian Blue kitten of ferocious disposition with a mind of his own. The family won him in the raffle, along with the Emporium, whether they liked it or not. GF


with


to reveal that everything turns out fine, but not without some wondrous adventures


wondrous told


is, somewhat Which he doesn’t


owner, the eccentric, cake-eating


Cass and the Bubble Street


Gang The Clubhouse Mystery HHHH


Erika McGann, O’Brien Press, 160pp, 978-1-8471-7920-3, £6.99pbk


Erika McGann’s new series is as lively and quick-witted as its central character Cass Okara, founder of the Bubble Street Gang. Of course the first thing any self-respecting gang needs is somewhere private and preferably secret to meet, particularly in Cass’s case when you really need to get away from your annoying baby twin brother and sister, ‘a pair of bulldozers in babygros’, so the first adventure for Cass and gang members Nicholas and Lex is to find a clubhouse. With input from Lex’s granny they find the perfect place – it even has a secret bridge entrance and giant snorting security guard (the Cass spin on the bull who shares the field) – and happy days follow, until they realise that someone else is using the clubhouse. The gang go into action to solve the mystery, and the reveal provides a lovely comic ending. Cass is exactly the kind of person


you’d want leading your gang or as a friend. She has the best ideas, is very funny indeed and never lets anything get


entertaining read, full of the kind of adventure that all children could see themselves having, and featuring a great cast of interesting characters. Nice to see too that it’s not


youngsters who get up to mischief with their friends – it turns out that Lex’s granny might have had her own motives in helping them set up a cosy secret den. There’s a great deal of fun and action packed into a short extent, and the chatty, direct voice McGann gives Cass keeps the pages turning nicely. Illustrations by Vince Reid add to the appeal. MMa


just her down. This is a hugely her and


sensible with


How to Be a Tiger HHHHH


George Szirtes, illus Tim Archbold, Otter-Barry Books, 96pp, 978-1-9109-5920-6, £6.99 pbk


Here’s another wonder full poetry collection


George Szirtes can take the plainest, simplest language and use it to make you see and feel the world anew. He begins with the joy and potential of having your own body: ‘It’s yours to wear and yours to be./And it comes free.’ He explores the sensations of running, climbing and swinging on a swing. There’s a poem about a child learning to speak that plays with the enticing pattern, sound and meaning of words and how they fit us into the world. There are poems about sunlight and moonlight and weather. And there’s a series of animal poems which begin with a poem of hilarious couplets warning of the dangers of eating with Apes and Monkeys. Sometimes Szirtes just riffs on a collision of sound and meaning, as in Oleg the Meerkat, who has a bow leg that’s better than no leg, or when he imagines Rumpelstiltskin’s brothers, who include Jumperstiltskin and Plumplipsstiltskin. Sometimes he goes for a mystery just out of reach as in the short poem November Hare: ‘As the cold squeezes in/it is where it’s been/though it’s hard to know where.’ These are poems suitable for younger children than his previous award-winning collection In the Land of Giants but the demands of the audience have brought out the very best of the poet. In poems like Spelling Your Name and Money, the precision of language and how it can be made to resonate is remarkable. And what about this retelling of The Emperor’s New Clothes when a sudden change of tense and viewpoint at the end turns our sympathies around? These are not just great poems for children. They are just great poems. Sometimes five stars seems a bit mean. CB


from Otter-Barry Books.


The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart


HHH


Stephanie Burgis, Bloomsbury, 249 pp, 978 1 4088 8031 9, £6.99 pbk


This is a fun story about a rebellious young dragon who runs away from home and unwittingly drinks a magic hot chocolate that turns her into a human girl.


to live as a human in the city, and her hot temper gets her into plenty of trouble. She is saved by the one thing that she loves more than anything else – chocolate! She gets a job as an apprentice chocolatier, and together with her new-found friend Silke helps turn the Chocolate Heart chocolate shop into the most well-known place in the city. The threat of Aventurine’s dragon family, circling closer and closer to the city as they search for their missing child, brings the city to its knees, and it’s up to resourceful and brave heroine Aventurine to save the citizens. This book brings together dragons,


a fairy-tale setting, and wonderful descriptions of delicious chocolate- making; it’s bound to have lots of appeal for children in the 9+ age group. Aventurine is a strong female character who many children will identify with – she won’t let anything or anyone get in her way! LT


8 Ways to Draw a Fish HHHH


Luisa Martela and artists, Tara Books, 16pp, 978 93 83145 39 3, £4.99


Artists


working in eight different folk and tribal art styles: Bhil art and Gond art,


from various parts of India


Rajasthani Meena work, Madhubani style


style from a West Bengali artist are featured in this fun-filled, engaging and instructive book written by Luisa Martela. Tara Books are renowned for their innovative quality


this is no exception. The pages are thick, almost cardboard, to allow for users to add their own colours and designs should they so wish, straight into the book; although it is suggested that the pages could first be traced instead. Each spread – there are nine in all – combines thick or thin


26 Books for Keeps No.223 March 2017 productions and


both from Madhya Pradesh, from a Bihari artist, Patua


Aventurine has to learn


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