reviews 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


mind than what’s being told; and over the length of the novel, a single joke may wear thin, no matter how witty. Inevitably, characterisation


dialogue is difficult and Sophie and her


through


story sometimes disappear beneath the language games.


There are other, more familiar and often successful devices. The typeface shrinks or expands when characters might be whispering or shouting. Words tumble at angles in varying sizes down a page when a character’s emotions are in free fall. Sometimes the plot moves forward through meteors (that’s emails) or even bi-lingual meteors in the fortune cookies baked by Sophie’s neighbour, Madame Wong, one of which – to give the taste – reads, ‘Your whiffle is pregnant with your third chick’. There’s much to admire, and some readers may well delight in cracking the code – maybe even trying to imitate it – and enjoying its effects; but the storyline might unfortunately be buried in the process.


GF Gorilla Dawn HHHH


Gill Lewis, OUP, 336pp, 978-0-1927-3917-9, £8.99 pbk


Set in the strife-ridden central African highlands the story unfolds through the eyes of three characters. All are very different and all have been torn from their families by the terror and corruption around them.


Imara is the witch-child held by the Black Mamba, a local warlord. She has no memory of her past and she knows that her survival depends on maintaining her magical hold over Black Mamba and listening to the devil inside her. Bobo, the son of a forest warden whose job is to protect the mountain gorillas, goes to find out what has happened when one of them does not return, and he ends up with the war gang at the mines, in gorilla territory. The final character is a baby gorilla that we come to know as Kitwana. He is taken from his troop by the Mambas as a gift for a western woman known only as the White Lioness.


This is not just an animal story or a thrilling adventure,


is both those. It is also a no-holds- barred story of the chaos that seems to rule central Africa. We see war gangs wandering the country killing, apparently at random. Our eyes are opened


police commissioner. Meanwhile the economic power of the west is all pervading: coltan (a dark ore used in electrical devices, especially mobile phones) and the wealth and power it can bring are the focus of the warlord and the White Lioness, demonstrating that money talks, even when it comes to stealing wild animals.


Lewis handles all this magnificently and reveals the characters as the story moves along. She paints a horrifyingly realistic life for young people in the region


Even more skilfully, she brings the without sensationalising it. demonstrated by the local although it


book to a resolution that is happy and believable without being mawkish.


A recommended read The Butterfly Shell HHHH


Maureen White, O’Brien Press, 192pp, 978-1-8471-7678-3, £7.99 pbk


Maureen White’s debut is the story of one year in the life of young teenager Marie. Told in a first person narrative and in a voice that is direct, honest and completely


description of grief, and an anatomy of a bullying. Raw and haunting as it is, it also manages to be a story of hope and of new beginnings.


convincing, it’s a


lovers, would be travellers, and anyone who wants to engage with lives different from their own.


CD for wildlife


Madame Tussaud’s Apprentice


HHHH


Kathleen Benner Duble, Alma Books, 280pp, 978-1-8468-8381-1, £6.99 pbk


Madame Tussaud is a name most young people will have heard of even if they have not visited the waxwork museum in London, which bears her name; Kathleen Benner Duble has woven an interesting story around her.


It’s 1789 and Celie and her partner in crime, Algernon, live on the streets of Paris


cheating at gaming tables to get by. One day they are caught, and encounter Manon Tussaud whose bag of wax models they have


stealing from houses, and


Tussaud finds Celie intriguing, and makes a bet with Comte D’Artois, the king’s brother, that she can make a lady of Celie. Celie has a talent for drawing, and she arranges for her to go to Versailles and give drawing lessons to King Louis’s sister, Madame Elisabeth. Both Celie and Algernon have suffered; they are determined to see the downfall of the king and the aristocracy, and justice for the people of France. But Celie finds her loyalties strained as she grows close to both Madame Elisabeth and Madame Tussaud and her family, and realises that the King does not have the happy life she imagined, but lives in a gilded prison.


Returning to Paris when the Revolution starts, Celie goes on a march with Algernon, which turns ugly. When the guillotining starts she is given the gruesome job of making plaster casts of victims – which include the King. Algernon, meanwhile, breaks down in front of Celie, and confesses that he is caught up in something from which he does not know how to extricate himself. The story ends with Celie and Algernon declaring their love for each other; there is obviously a sequel to come.


When Marie starts her new school, there’s another girl there with the same name and by the end of the first day, one of her classmates Rachel has nicknamed her ‘other


Marie shares her name with an older sister, who died at just a few weeks of age, and already suspects that in her parents’ eyes she is indeed ‘the other Marie’. When she finds a box of letters written by her mother to her dead baby, the hurt is almost physical.


child soldiers and how cheaply their lives are held. The obstacles to change that corruption presents are


to how children become


Ringleader of the year’s ‘Super Six’, Rachel is one of those girls with a loyal band of followers, and a readiness to hurt others. The nickname is the first of a series of deliberate cruelties she inflicts on Marie, whose time at school is marked by a bullying impossible to prove, but horribly effective. As her unhappiness increases, she suddenly starts to hear a baby crying at night. She finds a way to escape the pain and starts to cut herself. A breaking point has to come and when it does it is both terrible for Marie, and also strangely a relief: she is involved in a serious accident and almost dies. It is while she is unconscious, separate from the physical world, that she experiences something rather like a miracle, and that brings new hope into her life.


This is a very impressive first novel, the writing is spare and effective, and the story will resonate with young readers. AR


Marie’.


This is a well-written story which shows clearly how the injustices of life in France under Louis XVI led to the rising up of the people. It also shows how revolutions can grow in ways that are very different to their original ideals, and charts Celie’s realisation that


to consider. Manon Tussaud, while not the main character, comes to life along with her family and their rather unusual work; her time in the squalid prison where she suffers from claustrophobia and nearly dies is particularly memorable.


There are not too many stories which help the reader truly understand why people rebel against the government of


two novels about Garibaldi, Follow my Black Plume and A Thousand for Sicily are particularly good), and this is a welcome addition. (One small note: the use of the odd French phrase – ‘mon ami’ for example – does not really add to the flavour, but just looks a bit pretentious!


their country (Geoffrey Trease’s JF


The Secrets of the Wild Wood HHHHH


Tonke Dragt, trans. Laura Watkinson, Pushkin Children’s Books, 506pp, 978-1-7826-9061-0, £16.99 hbk


The story continues – Tiuri has been knighted and he carries proudly the pure


white shield proclaiming his Books for Keeps No.214 September 2015 27 there is always another side stolen.Madame


allegiance to King Unauwen. But all is not well. One of the King’s knights has gone missing; what has happened to him and what secrets are hidden in the Wild Wood? Accompanied by his squire, Piak, Tiuri sets out on the quest to find Sir Ristridin. On the way he will meet great kindness but also deception and evil. He will find his loyalties tested and learn that fighting for what seems right is not always simple and can involve difficult choices. He will also learn that victory comes at a price.


The success of The Letter for the King in which Tiuri’s adventures begin will ensure there are eager readers keen to follow the story. Nor will they be disappointed. Though in many ways very different from the current crop of action packed thrillers aimed at a young audience, the author draws the reader in and does not let go. Filled with the chivalry of an Arthurian age, Dragt also presents the reader with questions and ideas about such chivalry adding a reflective element to the adventure. However, the conviction that right will prevail is not in doubt. Laura Watkinson’s translation never flags, and though not a slim volume, the prose would be accessible to quite young able readers.


FH Wild Song HHHHH


Janis Mackay, Piccadilly Press, 978-1-8481-2442-4, £6.99 pbk


Set in Finland, Wild Song is a relatively short teenage novel but one that is full of restrained emotional power as it tells the story of Niilo, whose seemingly inexplicable anger and disruptive behaviour have driven his family to breaking point. Niilo is sent away from Helsinki to attend the Wild School on a tiny island where, with other boys excluded from mainstream education, he learns about the natural world and is taught such skills as growing food, foraging and woodwork. Niilo refuses to speak or participate and continues to be plagued by nightmares of drowning and a deep fear of the sea. The only teacher that Niilo will interact with at all is Hannu, who very gradually guides Niilo into responding to the natural world, overcoming his fear of water and even learning to swim. Hannu recognises Niilo’s Sami origins and uses stories


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