BfK 8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued


her mother, who is working in the city, upsets this happy life, as Ma wants one of the girls to go with her and earn more money. Peony’s adventures as she tries to


learn how to behave well working as a maid in a big house are hilarious, and the difference between unhappy rich people who live in a huge house is contrasted with her happy life in a tiny shack on the farm. She does have an impact on the daughter of the house, Esmeralda, a spoiled girl of her own age who seems to be agoraphobic, and her friendship and encouragement


is acknowledged


by the family when, of course, it all goes wrong, and Peony runs away back home.


Life is tough on the


farm and in the city- there are two deaths off- stage, but generally all ends well. The characters are all very credible: the squabbling sisters, the stern but kindly housekeeper in the big house, weak Mum and her selfish boyfriend, “The Ape”, and the lovely homely Gramps. This enjoyable story is written in the present tense as if from Peony’s point of view, with some grammatical oddities and with all her feelings and misunderstandings, and this really does work. DB


The Storm Keeper’s Island HHHH


Catherine Doyle, Bloomsbury, 9781408896884, £6.99 pbk


Fionn, feeling angry and rejected is sent with his sister Tara to spend the summer with their grandfather on the island of Arranmore. Grandfather is the Storm Keeper on Arranmore, a powerful and magical heritage. But he is old; it is time for a new Storm Keeper. A struggle is coming between the followers of Dagda and those of Morrigan. But who will the island choose? Mixing a very real landscape and


magic with confidence and assurance, Catharine Doyle tells an exciting story that quickly engages the


belief. Drawing on Irish mythology in the Dagda and the Morrigan, proponents of


light and darkness,


she provides the setting for the age- old struggle between the followers of each; a very traditional theme but a very satisfying one providing plenty of


opportunity for tense, gripping


moments of real jeopardy. Fionn is a credible boy torn between anxiety


reader’s for his mother, resentment of his


sister and confusion in the face of his destiny and his Grandfather’s failing memory. Imaginative touches include the Grandfathers use of candles to store memories and past events, while it the island itself as a character in itself that has the final decision. But it is not going to end there; Fionn may emerge as the new Storm Keeper but the Morrigan is waking. The struggle will continue to bring more magical excitement to young readers. Here is an author to watch. FH


The Embassy of the Dead HHHH


Will Mabbitt, Orion, 978-1510104556, 272pp, £6.99 pbk


I’m a big fan of Will Mabbitt’s Mabel Jones series, funny, clever


and


frequently gruesome stories full of jokes and larger than life characters. His new series, Embassy of the Dead, is more serious but there’s still a good deal of gruesome humour (the MacGuffin is a box containing a dead man’s finger), and the best characters are the dead ones. For Jake Jones the most pressing


issues in his life are his parents’ separation, and the forthcoming school trip. All that changes however when he runs into – almost literally – the ghost of a long-dead undertaker called Stiffkey. In a case of mistaken identity, Stiffkey entrusts Jake with the care of a highly


dangerous object which, should it fall into the wrong ghostly hands, will cause real and terrifying problems for the living. This is the beginning of an adventure which sees Jake careering across the countryside at the wheel of his father’s campervan (scenes any right-minded child will love) pursued by some very unpleasant


spooks, while gathering


around him a band of dead companions including a fox, and a hockey-stick- wielding, school girl poltergeist. Mabbitt finds humour in both the


worlds of the living and the dead, and envisages the latter as governed by a mix of council-office bureaucrats and high-level spies. It’s great fun, but the action occasionally and momentarily slows to give readers a glimpse into the


pain of losing someone, and


there’s a real poignancy in some of the scenes. Generally readers though will enjoy


this for the exciting, scary, fast-paced ghost story it is and will want to see out book two in the series which will see Jake and poltergeist Cora summoned to


the Embassy of the Dead to undertake a special mission… MMa


Jason Banks and the Pumpkin of Doom


HHHHH


Gillian Cross, ill. Sarah Horne, Barrington Stoke, 55pp, 9781781128138, £5.99 pbk


The Pumpkin of Doom is such a clever little book it builds up with this cheeky little idea, stealth like, with a really humourous streak. As a reader, I think you sort of know what the outcome will be and that there will be justice along the way but it’s, as the sticker says, ‘Super readable’! Everyone is afraid of the school


bully Jason Banks. He behaves in a very non friendly way towards everybody and consequently his peers steer clear of him. There are reasons for this - as there always are - and the book subtly explores those. Jason lives with his mum who has to work very hard and doesn’t really see him at all. His obvious hurt at this comes out in treating everybody in a bad tempered way because he is feeling bad himself. There is lots to think about in the book and what you see on the surface isn’t quite what’s happening underneath. The book is about second chances and not judging – seeing beyond a person’s actions. When Millie arrives at school everybody tells her to keep away from Jason but she strives to develop a friendship with him much to everyone’s horror.


Meanwhile a pumpkin carved with


the words ‘pumpkin of doom’ keeps mysteriously appearing in Jason’s life, on his doorstep...everywhere! What is the meaning of it? The book is a Barrington Stoke read


so will be really effective in engaging reluctant older readers but everyone. It’s an all round winner, just seems to hit the spot on lots of different levels with some fantastically quirky illustrations to help too. SG


Moth HHHHH


Isabel Thomas, ill. Daniel Egneus, Bloomsbury, 978 1 4088 8975 6, £12-99, hbk


spectacular book tells a remarkable story of evolution.


This powerful and visually It captures the


struggle of animal survival in our evolving human world. It is an atmospheric introduction to Darwin’s Natural Selection


theory, with a


simple, explanatory text and brilliant, graphic illustrations. The peppered moth, back in the


early 1800s, was light with speckled wings. During the day, their wings provided brilliant camouflage as they rested on lichen-covered tree trunks. Occasionally, a dark form emerged, but these were easily spotted by birds, and were easy prey, so their numbers decreased. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, an enormous increase in pollution killed off lichens, and tree trunks became coated with layers of soot. Therefore the converse happened; the dark form of speckled moth was now well camouflaged, and became the more likely to survive and pass on darkness to their offspring. Over time, the dark form became more prevalent. By the middle of the 20th century, laws were passed to reduce air pollution from smoke and soot. As a result, the proportion of light speckled moths rose, as trees shed their sooty bark and lichens regrew. This amazing natural selection is dramatically told through an excellent marriage between the text and the illustrations. It is certainly a book which will be perused time and again by those many young readers interested in the changing world around us, interested in the effect human enterprise has upon other


forms of life. The illustrations


offer a perfect introduction to the concept of creatures adapting, and evolving, to survive and endure within our complicated world. It ends with the word, HOPE. A truly wonderful book. GB


26 Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018


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