reviews 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary In the Mouth of The Wolf HHHH


Michael Morpurgo, Barroux, Egmont, 9781405285261, 146pp, £12.99 hbk


Morpurgo is a master storyteller and never better than when he is telling a story based on real inidents – as he does here. Taking the voice of his uncle, Francis Camaerts, he looks back on his role in World War II. It is his 90th birthday, the memories are rich difficult and emotional both for the narrator and the reader. The tone is familiar, slightly rambling, direct, full of reflection – and yes incident, real-life incident. Francis had entered the war as a pacifist; the death of his brother, Pieter, combined with witnessing a random bomb tragedy persuaded him to join up. He entered France as an undercover agent, (the Camaerts were a Belgian family so speaking French was his great asset). We meet fellow Resistance fighters; he reflects on the conflicting and complicated attitudes to the war – the destruction war causes not just to life but to relationships and communities. As the war recedes in time, this is


very much the sort of memoir needed to work alongside the many action packed WWII adventures that fill the shelves. The illustrations by Barroux capture the under cover world of waiting, of tension and shadowy existence to perfection. It is in a sense ageless, though the design suggests a younger audience. It needs to be read aloud – or even performed like The Mozart Question. A story to remember. FH


The Breadwinner, A graphic novel


HH


Based on the original book by Deborah Ellis, adapted from the feature film directed by Nora Twomey, Oxford University Press, 80pp, 978 0 19 276856 8, £8.99, pbk.


This slim book version of the currently released animation of Deborah Ellis’s The


Breadwinner has no credited


author or illustrator. It is simply a series of images from the film to which dialogue has been added. It does no favours to the original book nor, I imagine, to the film. It is subtitled “a graphic novel” but actually it is the antithesis of a graphic novel. If anyone needed convincing of the narrative and pictorial skill involved in creating a graphic novel then all that would be needed would be to take any true example of the genre and place it beside this arrangement of stills which jerk spasmodically from one incident to another. This is not any criticism of the movie itself, which I have not seen. It is just confirmation that you can’t simply take a pair of scissors to a film, cut away nearly all of the carefully edited narrative, arrange what’s left in a chronological sequence, and expect it to work as a story. This is neither a


movie nor a book. It might serve as a souvenir of the film but that’s all. CB


Fighting Fantasy: The Gates of Death


HHHH


Charlie Higson, ill. Vlado Krizan, Scholastic, 338pp, 978 1 407186 30 6, £6.99, pbk


This is a brand new addition to the world famous Fighting Fantasy series of books. Unlike traditional story books, Steve


Jackson and


Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy concept invites readers to take control of the narrative themselves. Like a computer game, readers/players have to make decisions throughout


the


book, in order to complete challenges and move forwards through their own quest. They have to collect weapons and provisions in order to survive battles (using dice) with mythical creatures and save the land of Allansia from a terrifying demonic plague! Like all


classic Fighting Fantasy


reads, The Gates of Death is an adventure that requires readers to think critically, take risks and, most of all, persevere when the going gets tough. The wonderful complexity of the storylines, and the sophisticated plot possibilities, means that it is extremely challenging to complete the book without being eaten, murdered or turned into a demon! As well as the exciting and original


concept, Higson’s story offers genuinely interesting characters - some of whom are truly frightening. Angry, drunken dwarves tussle with ferocious demon dogs and two-faced monsters, whilst mysterious beggars, scholars and strangers offer to help the hero on his/her way...but how do you know which ones to trust? Higson has succeeded in re-


energising a classic series, and many new readers will now be encouraged to explore


the back catalogue of


Fighting Fantasy quests. The Gates of Death is a brilliant combination of geeky gameplay and epic adventure, which readers will be queueing up to try and complete. Perhaps the biggest challenge of all for young readers will be trying to stop mums and dads from reading it all before they do! SD


Suffragette, The Battle for Equality


HHHHH


David Roberts, Two Hoots, 132pp, 978 1 5098 3967 4, £18.99, hbk


This has obviously been a labour of love for David Roberts. He has written and illustrated all of its more than a hundred big pages, and his passion, humour, outrage


and


years before the First World War, but he acknowledges the longer patient struggle whose constant frustration led to radicalism and the histories and continuing battle for women’s rights in other times and places. That he has decided to illustrate everything has its disadvantages. For instance, acknowledging the WSPU’s famous cat and mouse poster, he doesn’t include it but describes it, which doesn’t convey its power in the same way. There are, of course, existing photographs and images of many of the people and incidents described, and he uses none of them. Rather he creates an Edwardian world in his illustrations that is his own distanced version of the time, with galleries of subtly characterised portraits of the major players, cartoon coppers with truncheons, stuffy parliamentarians, and determined middle class ladies, to whose coiffure and couture he pays the minutest attention even as they are marching and fighting in the streets. Roberts’ love of fashion and design is everywhere apparent, as is the influence of Art Nouveau. This is one of the huge strengths of his approach, for it acknowledges in a way that I have seen nowhere else, the creative flair of suffragette agitation: the colours, the banners, the pins and badges; the turning of the arts of women’s domestic confinement (Roberts alludes early in the book to Victorian samplers) into powerful forms


of mobilisation. Another


strength is that, as an illustrator, he can go into places where cameras were either absent or not welcome. We can see the very moment when the fire-bombed pillar box starts to smoke and inside the cell where a weak and struggling suffragette is being ruthlessly


all, what Roberts achieves is a fine balance


between


force-fed. a


Above retrospective


recognition of the inherent absurdity of the situation, of the denial of the vote itself and the extremes to which it drove perfectly respectable women, and the time’s darkest and its more glorious


aspects, The Silver Hand HH


Terry Deary, Bloomsbury, 282pp, 9781472961440, £6.99, pbk


This romp through the last months of the Great War includes an encounter with the young Corporal Adolf Hitler and Baron Von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Aimee lives in


the admiration


are clear on every one of them, as is his careful research. As the title suggests, his interest, as with most of the centenary commemoration, is with the militant wing of the British movement for women’s suffrage in the


village


of Bray which had changed hands several times during the fighting. Her mother Colette is unbeknown to Aimee, part of the White Lady spy group helping the British. A spy is however discovered in the British camp and Aimee is allowed to


the cruelty with


which the status quo was defended and the heroism of those who fought for change. CB


help her mother root him out. They discover early on who it is, but he also discovers Aimee has overheard him and pursues her. Alongside this story is that of Marius, a young German who works in the hospital and befriends Aimee. Captain Ellis, the spymaster as it were, manages to mix up two rucksacks and thus the real pursuit of the two young people begins.


This as I said, a romp, as so many


unlikely things happen, including Aimee being allowed up in a balloon which is to take photos of German positions, being allowed to travel towards the battlefield at Peronne, being allowed over the river there by the Australian army who are ferrying material across, to the two protagonists being blown apart in the last moments of the war. There are some moments of seriousness, particularly when the songs of the time are written down for the reader. In this the centenary of the end


of the Great War, this story jars somewhat. Children will read it because Terry Deary wrote it, but there are many better historical novels which give a real feel of the time, of the tragedy and pain of war. JF


The Mystery of the Colour Thief HHH


Ewa Jozefkowicz, illus Sophie Gilmore, Zephyr, 978 17866 98940, 196pp, £10.99, hbk


A reader familiar with today’s fiction for


younger teenagers may well


recognise some aspects of his novel. Izzy’s mum is in a coma in hospital following a traffic accident, and Izzy is visited in her dreams by a shadowy figure which appears to be stealing colours from a collage of Izzy’s life which was created by her mum for Izzy’s bedroom wall. Izzy’s best friend at school abandons her for a more fashionable crowd, claiming that Izzy isn’t any fun to be around. Izzy is befriended by Toby, a boy who uses a wheelchair, who has recently moved into her street. Together they take an interest in Spike, a cygnet in a Swan family on the local stream who doesn’t appear to be thriving, another outsider who has to learn how to make his own way in the world. There is a lot going on in this first novel, not to mention Izzy’s leading part in the school play: Lady Macbeth, no less. If the characters and narrative are familiar in many respects, they are adroitly handled; and the impressive aspect of the story is the depiction of Izzy’s disordered state of mind. She is bewildered, frightened and angry and beset by guilt about her mother. She resents help and lashes out when provoked. Yet her good sense and determination, with help from sometimes unexpected places, not only sees her through but enables her to learn from the experience. CB


Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018 27


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