reviews


Chang’s potion. The first person to twig what’s going on is Boydy, who proves to be a loyal and sensitive friend in time of need, and there are plenty of needs aboard this plot’s high-speed ghost- train ride (too spectral and startling to be a mere roller-coaster). Probably the best forays into invisibility occur when Ethel has to do a spot of burglarising inside the Knights’ house when the twins threaten serious blackmail; and again when she rescues Boydy from utter humiliation in the School Talent Contest (he hasn’t got any). Stark naked but invisible (obviously the clothes would have given the game away), Ethel nips on stage, grabs Boydy’s guitar and wafts it about, strumming a couple of chords, and then the guitar floats off through the auditorium, with Boydy in hot pursuit. It’s a knock-out with the audience, but it’s also high risk since she’s never sure when the invisibility will wear off - and it’s a fine piece of comic writing. Meanwhile, Gram is behaving very


10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued Moondust


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Gemma Fowler, Chicken House, 287pp, 978-1-9106-5542-9, £6.99 pbk


Aggie is working as a technician for Lunar Inc., the company that mines for the miracle mineral Lumite, on the Moon. But Aggie has a secret that she does not want to share: she is the sole survivor from a catastrophic explosion that occurred 10 years previously and where she gained the title of ‘Angel of Adrianne’. The events have left her traumatized and wanting to keep out of the limelight. However with threats from an organization called ‘the Fall’ putting mining at risk, the powers that be want her to take up her mantle as the ‘Angel’ and front their attempts to improve their support. However not everything is as it seems and Aggie soon finds her loyalties divided and her trust being tested. This is a science fiction story


that gets very close to having a feel of being possible.


oddly. She, of all people, is harbouring secrets. Piece by piece, the jigsaw of Ethel’s life becomes clear, as the mysteries about Dad, Gram and Great- gram fall into place, and the truth about Mum emerges. At first, Ethel is angry – they have all been lying to her, even about her name; but then she sees that behind the secrets, these grown- ups had troubles of their own or they were trying hard to shield her from pain. So although no-one is what they first appear, she realises that what looked like deceptions have been prompted by love, not malice or indifference.. GF


Tilt HHHH


Mary Hoffman, Barrington Stoke, 96pp, 978 1 78112 565 6, £6.99 pbk


This historical novel in Barrington Stoke’s teen series begins in the Italian city of Pisa in 1298 as architects and stone masons struggle to solve the mystery of the leaning tower. Netta’s father is the Head Mason, last of the Pisano family line of sculptors and stone carvers, and the responsibility of righting the tower’s


him. Netta, bored with housework and dreading marriage and motherhood, longs to help, to solve the engineering problems and to become an architect. Gradually, with an understanding father and by means of her own skill, observation and thought Netta is able to achieve those dreams. This is a ‘what-if’ historical novel


tilt rests on


themes are very much about the environment and how far we can go in order to maintain our fuel hungry lifestyle.


that big business will go to in order to protect their interests. Aggie is a damaged heroine in that she lost her father in the disaster and he was blamed for the event; putting a sense of guilt on his daughter. She finds herself in a situation where she does not know who she can trust, including those she has depended on for the last 10 years. The story really makes you think about the world we are living in now and how we can prevent our resources being totally consumed.


been ongoing for years but this book gives another opportunity


the matter to young people and for them to consider what kind of world they want to live in. Whilst this stands up as an exciting action story, it also works at a much deeper level and will support elements of the curriculum. MP


The Fearless Travelers’ Guide to Wicked Places


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Pete Begler, Curious Fox, 377pp, 9781782025955, £7.99 pbk


that uses a real setting and situation and a fictional heroine to address issues of gender in a male dominated world, the ‘hidden women’ of history and the question of whether female ambition, creativity and practical ability would have had any outlet beyond the domestic world. It is a lot to address in a short novel aimed at struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+ but, whilst the subject matter may not appeal widely, it is very satisfying to see such a positive portrayal of the skills of building and engineering and to consider the possibility of a woman fulfilling her ambitions within that world. SR


How do you introduce young people to When a dark and malignant looking cloud appears over her home town of Misty Falls, Nell is sure that something is not right. This feeling is only intensified when three mothers disappear and finally Nell’s mother is consumed by the cloud in front of her eyes. Nell and her two brothers, George and Speedy are determined to find and save their mother but find it almost impossible to get anyone to believe their story.


old man called Duke Badger joins them and is able to explain who has taken their parent and what it all means. He is also able to explain why Nell has the ability to see other people in a totally different way; with animal or distorted faces, almost as if it shows their true selves. The children find


Finally a strange


The debate has to bring


It is also about the lengths The underlying


time she thinks of one and stores them in a locked treasure hidden under the tiles


reader to ponder her questions too. The chest is kept out of reach of her younger sister Tala who loves nothing better than to give away secrets. Butterfly’s Questions and dreams for


overwhelm her: questions such as why does her older sister Zaynab often cry at night and why does her aunt have to marry her uncle’s brother after her husband was martyred?


find out that the man Zaynab loves is in prison but she must marry a cousin instead.


Zaynab’s wedding Butterfly sees the deprivation first hand as children in Jordan enjoy freedoms denied to the Palestinians who are made to carry ID cards at all times. Butterfly wrestles with typical


themselves on a quest, where they travel through the Dreamlands until they arrive at the Wicked Places, which is the home of the Dark Daughters and of Nightmares. But will they be able to save their mother and return safely home? This is a complex story with


separate strands which occasionally cross and interweave; the


characters move in and out of the story but always with the focus on tracking the Nell’s mother Rose and freeing her from the devilish clutches of the Dark Daughters. The one unwavering theme that runs through the tale is that of a mother’s love of her children and Nell’s inspiration is the thought that ‘A mother always knows her children’. This premise is played on at the end as the leader of the Dark Daughters, Freyja Skoll, turns on her daughter Fenn. The author has created a mysterious and very scary world of dreams and nightmares, which needs to be kept in balance and which thankfully we are usually able to withdraw from when we wake up. This is one of those stories that grow on you as you get to grips with the various elements of the plot. Even the real world seems disconnected from the one that most of us know and it moves even further out of our sight as the story continues; possible something that the author intended. It is a story about love and friendship overcoming tremendous obstacles and will appeal


to many young people. MP Code Name Butterfly


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Ahlam Bsharat, translator Nancy Roberts, Neem Tree Press, 110pp, 978 1 911107 02 6 £8.99 pbk


Beautifully written and almost poetic in the sparseness of the prose this is a wonderful story about friendship and family set in the occupied territories of Palestine. Our heroine known as Butterfly lives with her brothers and sisters in a close loving family.


father’s job is to tend the olive groves in an Israeli settlement, a fact Butterfly begins to question as she grows more aware of the political situation. She chooses the nickname Butterfly to represent freedom of thought and what she hopes to become. Butterfly writes down all the questions she wants to know every


Her main On visiting Jordan after the She does the future often threaten to inviting the chest


teenage worries too with her friends Mays and Haya giving her conflicting opinions and advice; Mays is more of a revolutionary but Haya cares more about make-up and grooming. Butterfly has a secret crush on student Nizar and often waits for him to pass her window on his way home but finds to her horror that her friend Mays likes him too. This is a thoughtful and perceptive coming of age tale – it slightness belies its depth and intensity as we follow Butterfly’s hopes and dreams as she grows in confidence and wisdom. The story is a gentle one but with touches of wry humour revealing without any rancour the injustices faced by ordinary people living under occupation. JC


You Can’t Be Too Careful! HHHH


Roger Mello (trans. Daniel Hahn), Elsewhere Editions, 32pp, 978-0- 9146-7164-0, £14.99 hbk


At once puzzling and intriguing is this curious and complex concatenation of


wonderful cast of characters, from 2014 Hans Christian


Award winner, the Brazilian, Roger Mello. The author/artist uses an idea that from his childhood, that one small action can have amazing consequences. The


direction and then in reverse, putting me in mind of


from T.S. Eliot’s East Coker ‘In my beginning is my end.’ The thread of a story passes from


story itself works in one the


opening line


character to character, starting with a barefoot gardener who has lost his shoes, and is guardian of a ‘penned in’ white rose. The reason for the loss of his shoes


is followed through the strange cast and the motivations for their actions. The whole story is impossible


summarise but starts and finished in the same place with the gardener and involves a cat, a lost letter, a brass ring, a ridiculous moustache, a hole in the ground, an escaped performing monkey, a fake doctor, bagpipes and most significantly, a map from which the compass rose is missing. Or is it? From this point, press ‘return’ and the narrative retraces itself through an alternative reality where we learn contradictory information about all the characters.


Books for Keeps No.223 March 2017 29 to Andersen events with its weird and


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