The Serpent King - Jeff Zentner

Working my way through this year's Carnegie nominations list, The Serpent King wasn't at the top of my to-read list. The first page was good but I wasn't too sure about the plot and its religious themes. Plus, I've tried to approach this year's longest with a blank slate (ie. avoiding reviews etc) and I've done quite well. Except for the The Serpent King. And especially once it won the Morris award. I picked this book up not because it appealed to me but because of the favourable criticism it was receiving.

One of the best things, for me, about The Serpent King, was that it's a novel that I wanted to go and on. I was sad to finish it. At the end, I felt like I knew the characters and I wanted to hear more about their stories. This doesn't happen to me very often anymore (it happened a lot when I was a child/teen reader) so I was quite delighted.

The Serpent King is primarily Dill's story. He's in his last year at high school, he lives with his mother in poverty stricken conditions, and his father is a religious extremist who's in prison. But, Dill's story is very strongly interwoven with his friends Travis and Lydia such that this is also a novel about a friendship trio in rural Tennessee.

All three characters are very likeable and quite different from each other. Some wonderful dynamic tensions are played out. Character and friendship-wise, The Serpent King is reminiscent of the styles and interests of other American authors like John Corey-Whaley, John Green and Pat Schmatz.

What seems particularly distinct, for me, about this novel is the unflinching space the plot gives to an extreme religious faith. Dill's parents are fanatical and, in turn, this has made pariahs of them: not something that's easy to deal especially when you're a teenager. While the narration does not necessarily endorse this way of life, it gives it a very respectable, almost judgment free space. On the other hand, it balances it with Travis' religious family and Lydia's very educated middle class family.

This novel is full of some sincere and some (slightly) overplayed tragedies, a handful or two of good and bad luck, buckets full of dorky vintage love, a spot of glamour, and making tough and brave decisions. Hugely recommended and I'm keeping my copy.

Oh, and it's in third person - if that's the kind of thing that matters to you.


Publication details: Andresen Press, 2016, London, paperback
This copy: received for possible review from the publisher

All About Mia - Lisa Williamson

All About Mia is all about Mia and her sibling rivalry. Mia is a sixth former, and is a middle sibling. Her older sister is a perfect, high achieving academic heading off to Cambridge and her younger sister is a quiet, tween swimmer with eyes on the Olympics. Mia, on the otherhand, is popular, curvaceously flirty, and her only talent appears to be consuming high volumes of alcohol.

The first page is brilliant. I loved it. Turn over and it’s about a teenager who wants to get drunk on a Friday night. Eye roll on my part but I stick with it. It makes me smile a lot and not too long later, I’ve finished the whole novel.

Often, I find it difficult to read – and so rarely finish - novels with main characters like Mia whether they be child, teen or adult. They have chips on their shoulders, gripes about everyone and everything and they think that the world owes them everything. Yes, it’s all about them. Many times, these novels end up with a whingey, whiney and bitter tone that I find grating. But All About Mia is different and manages to avoid this tone possibly because the narration doesn’t overly indulge Mia’s chips.  The novel is filled with wonderful, warmly flawed characters. Additionally, All About Mia portrays characters, school life and family drama in a way that I believe.

There is plenty of high drama too covering everything from sibling rivalry, alcohol abuse, cheating friends, teen pregnancy, being dealt consequences and how to get a grip and feel comfortable in your own skin (or t-shirt!).

I’d heartily recommend it to teenagers and young adults. I would feel very comfortable buying this for almost any teenager, whether I knew their personal reading habits or not.

Publication details: David Fickling Books, Oxford, 2 Feb 2017, hardback

This copy: received for potential review from the publisher

Beautiful Broken Things – Sara Barnard

Beautiful Broken Things - Sara Barnard

What happens when your best girl friend makes a new friend? Is three a crowd? And can there ever be more than one best? Beautiful Broken Things explores the dynamics between Caddy (private school introvert), Rosie (state school straight-talker) and newcomer Suzanne (beautiful miss perfect) in an intensely enthralling way.

Paper Butterflies - Lisa Heathfield

Paper Butterflies - Lisa Heathfield

Paper Butterflies is an immersive, shocking, beautifully hopeful and single-sitting read. From the first to the last sentence, I loved reading Paper Butterflies. From the first to the last sentence, Paper Butterflies was an emotional experience.

The novel starts with June when she is ten and where we find that she is heinously bullied by her stepmother, Kathleen, and stepsister, Megan. Her stepmother’s behaviour towards June is so awful, it’s really unbelievable. She can’t be doing that, can she? And me asking myself this question is important because it holds a central point of this novel. Will anyone believe a child who claims an adult is doing this to them? Nobody could be so cruel, could they? And if she is, then Kathleen must be a monster.

A few years ago, I read Blood Family by Anne Fine, which also explored child abuse. It was a really dark read and it’s an understatement to say I was not particularly fond of it. I was worried that Paper Butterflies would have the same effect on me, but it didn’t.  It didn’t because Paper Butterflies – although teen novels don’t get much darker than this – threw in a beautiful and enduring hope. This came in the form of a home-schooled boy who made paper sculptures in a field of old trailers. His name was Blister and he lived with the chaotic family of Wicks.

Blister is a fantastic character. He’s welcoming, fascinating, thoughtful, kind – and he’s often scared (of the dark and rollercoasters). He is just what June and the reader needed. Together, June and Blister form a fictional relationship that, for me, rivals that of Maddie and Queenie in Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity (also published by Electric Monkey!). While this is a novel that explores difficult physical, psychological and moral issues linked to abuse, it is also a novel about a beautiful and blossoming friendship.

Paper Butterflies is straightforward storytelling and the writing flows effortlessly. A before/after structure adds a little suspense to the plot but it also offers the reader some clues as to where this novel might take them.

I finished this novel and went to sleep but I kept waking up in the night playing things over in my mind. Notably, this is not a customary habit of mine in response to a novel. But here I was, pondering and a bit heartbroken. I really wanted time to turn back - for June. Oh yes, this was a fiction. I forgot.

Highly recommended.

Some questions that the novel raises (for me)

• Where does blame or fault for abuse lie? Where does it begin and where does it end?
• What makes a functional or dysfunctional family? Is it biological parents? Is it families who send their children to school? Is it nothing to do with the form and more to do with their behaviour?
• Was Kathleen a monster? How about Megan? Or June’s dad? Or June? And what do you think about June’s dead mom?
• Can monstrous actions be excused?
• Because of the age of the characters throughout, is this really YA? I think it is and that the age of characters isn’t always the most important aspect.
• On a light note, can you use glue when you make paper sculptures?

****

Paper Butterflies has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2017.

Publication details:

Electric Monkey (Egmont), London, 2016, paperback

This copy: review copy from the publisher

The Midnight Dress - Karen Foxlee

The Midnight Dress by  Karen Foxlee

Guest Review by Alice (15)

Rose Lovell and her dad arrive in yet another town, she knows it will be the same as always, they will stay a while, her dad will get drunk and they will move on, it's happened before and it will happen again, won't it? But this time it's different, Rose makes friends with Pearl Kelly, the 'town sweetheart' who convinces the closed-book Rose to take part in the town's harvest parade. Rose goes to Eddie the town dressmaker whose life is riddled with secrets, tales, and according to the townspeople, witchcraft. Together they create a dress woven and stitched from memories, stories and magic. On the night of the parade the girl with the midnight dress goes missing, and nothing will be the same, ever again.

On top of having a beautiful plot line this book is one of the most spectacularly written books I have read in a long time. Rose is a bit of a goth, loves all things black and most of all the rainforest she discovers after hearing  Eddie's stories. When she meets Pearl she starts to come out of her shell. The way the character Rose is written made me fall in love with her and also feel a little bit of empathy for her, she had never really had any friends before Pearl and her dad doesn't really care about her. The book is written in a way that at the beginning of each chapter you find out a little bit more of the end and that helped me to understand the story more as the plot twisted on.

Anyone over the age of 11 could easily get as absorbed by this book as I did!

This book is brilliant for anyone who loves a good bit of friendship and mystery in a book. If you do then this book is most definitely for you!

Publication details: 2013, Hot Key Books, London, paperback

This copy: review copy from the publisher

Dead Ends - Erin Lange

Dead Ends by Erin Lange

 

Review by M

 

Dead Ends is a story that is as much about bullying, friendship and family as it is an unusual teen road trip adventure with plot threads and themes aplenty.

An unusual and forced relationship is at the heart of the story. Dane (the violent bully with a single mum who frames winning Lottery cards), is wisely chosen by Billy D (the new kid on the block who also has Down syndrome) to be his protector in school. As Billy D holds all the cards, a heartwarming (and frequently comic) friendship develops as he reels Dane in on a journey to find both their dads.

The novel cleverly intertwines an exploration of different relationships (and power). The obvious relationship is that of bully and bullied but teenage friendship and being a good and ‘real’ parent are also prominent. Both Billy D and Dane live with their mothers but their fathers are curiously absent. Another character, however, has two fathers who are gay - and neither one is her biological father.

While Dane is a bully and a very violent one, the novel’s tone is fiercely warm. Lange manages to paint Dane as a sympathetic and believable character - but she doesn’t let him entirely off the hook. She paints a very interesting view of bullying.

While friendship and family are at this novel’s heart, Dead Ends will also likely appeal to clue-finding road trip fans. These elements add charm and action but neither of them dominate the novel. What could have become a ludicrous storyline actually works out to be enjoyable, believable, and quite moving.

Publication details: 6 January 2014, Faber and Faber, London, hardback

This copy: uncorrected proof from the publisher

Bird - Crystal Chan

Book Review: Bird by Crystal Chan

Review by M



...Bird, with a feather bookmark

Bird is a lovely and gently heartbreaking novel. It’s a fairly quick and easy read with big themes and a surprisingly pageturning plot.

Twelve year old Jewel was born on the day her brother, Bird, died by jump-flying off a cliff. It was all Grandad’s fault and he has never spoken since. Jewel is a good girl but try as she might, she feels unloved and unwanted by her family. And then she meets someone and things go a little topsy-turvy, secrets are revealed, ‘guppies’ are everywhere and tempers flare.

Woven through this solid story about grief are parallel threads about race, identity and spirituality. Jewel is mixed race/ethnicity (Jamaican-Mexican) and lives in a small town in Iowa, USA (whose population is not very Jamaican-Mexican). Her family have different religious beliefs, among themselves and in contrast to the local community. The novel gently explores questions of identity and belonging in both the familial and community contexts.

For anyone who has even fleetingly felt a little bit lonely (or unloved), Bird will resonate. And if you have never felt like this, it may help you empathise with others. Most of the characters get things wrong. Bird may appeal to David Almond fans.

I found it hard to put down and stayed up until the early hours to finish it. Tissues recommended.

I know they're more expensive and can be awkward to hold, but here are a few words in favour of the UK hardback: It’s nice to look at and lovely to touch. The hard cover is soft to touch and nice to stroke. It’s the ‘short’ size hardback which makes it easy to hold, easy to shelve and makes it look thicker than it really is. To my eye, this is charming and it’d probably be a good one for those newly confident readers who want to tackle a BIG THICK book.

Publication details: 30 January 2013, Tamarind, London, hardback

This copy: review copy from the publisher

Paper Aeroplanes - M's review

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter

Paper Aeroplanes is a story about friendship and being a teenage girl. Renee and Flo are finishing their GCSEs at an independent, all-girls school on the small island of Guernsey. Their families have suffered break-ups and deaths, and they’re not coping very well. Both girls are desperately lonely and struggling with awfully bullying friendships, overbearingly sexist brothers, difficult parents and carers, boyfriends and puberty.

The novel’s appeal is in its depiction of schoolgirl friendships, the highs and the lows, and the really nasty bits too. A warm, frank tone, with a few funny and emotionally teary moments, is mixed in with crudely graphic yet honest representations of puberty and sex. Many of the characters make choices that impact on both themselves and other people, and have long term consequences.

Paper Aeroplanes has been viewed as brutally honest - it is definitely mortification highway! (Thankfully), Renee and Flo’s experiences were more embarrassing than anything I ever experienced at school and the novel may present some extremes.  The narration from both Renee and Flo’s perspectives was interesting although the two voices were not very distinctive . I frequently got lost as to what was happening to whom.

Inspiration for the novel came from the author’s teenage diary and there is a nostalgic and self-indulgent element to the novel that offers a strong appeal to readers who were teenage girls in the 1990s. I’d say it was aimed at these readers as well as young adults. If you're younger and haven't read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, I'd probably start there first.

Paper Aeroplanes Hot Key Ring (by Hot Key Books)

 

Reviewed by M

Publication details: Hot Key Books, May 2013, London, paperback

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

 

Liar & Spy - M's review

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Liar & Spy is like a stand-alone twenty-first century and urban version of The Secret Seven but written in a stylised John Greenish voice for tweens with the warm depth of David Almond or Patrick Ness. This novel is everything that it looks like on the cover – and a whole lot more.

The central storyline belongs to Georges, a boy who’s moved into a block of New York apartments and becomes involved in an intriguing Spy Club. But it cleverly and pleasingly draws together multiple mysteries and threads from other characters’ lives too.

I enjoyed a connection with most of the characters: Georges is immediately and wholly endearing, his dad should learn to cook, his mom is wise and hardworking, Candy is delicious (‘though is she a bit too clever for her age?), Safer’s mom is cool, Bob English Who Draws wants new spelling rules and so on and so on. Safer – well, you’ll have to make up your own mind about him. If I was a fan-fictionista, I’d look forward to many more tales of either The Spy Club or the Blue Team...dot...dot...dot (this’ll make much more sense if you’ve read the book!).

The writing is good and smooth. The scenes are interesting and clever. The characters are warming. There are funny bits. It’s the kind of book readers will go back and read again – to savour some of the delights (umami!) or re-check for clues they missed. Tissues may be required for some readers (probably those of the adult sort). If you find that the first few chapters seem a bit slow and leave you wanting something more, like suspense or anticipation, press on because the whole becomes beautiful. Georges’ mother would probably say it has things in common with a Seurat masterpiece. I highly recommend it.

Fans of either Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series, A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness), My Name is Mina (David Almond), The Treasure House (Linda Newbury) or pointillism in art will probably find some aspect of charming delight in Liar & Spy. And if you’re 8, 9, 10, 11 or maybe even 12, and you enjoy this novel, you may well go on to enjoy John Green’s novels when you’re a teen.

Pssst...don’t leave until after the credits, you never know what will happen.

Credits: 

Publication details: 2012, Andersen Press, London, hardback

This copy: hardback signed copy (yes!) won from the publishers

 

After the credits:

• Liar & Spy is useful reading for anyone trying to decide on what name to give their baby (Pigeon, Safer, Candy, Georges anyone?).
• Do tweens like birds a lot? I keep seeing them in middle grade novels lately.
• The character, Safer, is ok by me - but I'd have been very cross with him.
• I would like to have been homeschooled by Safer’s mom.
• The fortune cookies in this novel are great.
• I’m going to try and identify the umami taste whenever I eat: delicious.
• When I was about 9, my uncle signed my autograph book as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I thought he was strange. (U.N.C.L.E is referred to in this novel)

Reviewed by M

When You Reach Me - M's review

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I wish this novel had been written when I was about ten. I’d have loved it. I loved it now but I’d have loved it so much more back then. It has everything in it – endearing characters, comedy, friendship, mystery, shock, surprises, twists and turns and an intriguing title. It's probably one of my favourite children's books I've read in a long time. Think clever and endearing Time Traveler's Wife for children....

When You Reach Me is set in New York in 1979. It starts off with Miranda having kept a box of notes from ‘you’ and we find out that her single mom (with the perfect boyfriend except for his one-shorter-than-the-other leg) is practising for a TV show competition. For a while, this seems to be the main focus of the story but then something awful happens to Miranda’s friend Sal and we realise that this novel is even more of a mystery than it seemed. Just like Miranda, we’re in the dark about so much but we both know that April 27, 1979 is the key date to everything.

Basically, Miranda keeps finding notes from ‘you’, a friend has to be saved (oh but who is it?!), Miranda’s friendships are becoming complicated and even falling apart, and some things are getting lost. All your questions will be gloriously answered by the end but, when you reach the end, don’t be surprised if you’re still trying to figure out some of the scientifically mind-bending possibilities...or if you keep looking overly curiously at mailboxes...or if you suddenly have the urge to visit New York (Rebecca Stead makes it sound somewhere like the best place for home). Genre-wise, this is a mix of contemporary realism, mystery and science-fiction. This novel is full of wonderment, suspense, surprise and tenderness.

Highly, highly recommended.

A little note: I haven’t read it, but I think Rebecca Stead thinks this novel will appeal to fans of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time as When You Reach Me makes many references to it.

 

Publication details: Andersen Press, 2011, London, paperback (first published in USA, 2009)

This copy: ours

Bluefish - M's review

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz

"Sometimes life is hard to read"

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz

 

I loved this novel.

Yes, I blubbed. Not from page one but pretty much from page 145 onwards – and only a few short times before that. As an adult, I’ve recently realised that really good middle grade fiction can do that. Think about Once by Morris Gleitzman or A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. But those two novels had plots whose themes set you up to cry before you even opened the book in a way that Bluefish does not.

Bluefish is a beautiful and poignant story about secrets and grieving. One of the secrets is very, very sad although the overall tone of the novel is quietly uplifting. The story is set in the USA and is about Travis, a young teen who lives with his alcoholic but loving grandfather, has recently moved to a new town, loves the outdoors, and is grieving over his beloved dog who has disappeared. To top it off, he’s just started at a new middle school (he’s about thirteen/fourteen) and has terrible problems with reading. Very quickly, sharp-talking Velveeta with all her coloured scarves comes onto the scene to help him through all this in much the same way that Summer does in RJ Palacio’s Wonder. But Velveeta is going through a period of grief herself.

The novel is told from two points-of-view that alternate with each chapter. First, we get Travis’ story unwinding through a third person narrator. Then we have Velveeta’s view told through her diary. This works really well in showing how friendships and family relationships are both hindered and formed by our perceptions of what other people are thinking or doing.

The three main teen characters – Travis, Velveeta and Bradley – they’re really great. I don’t often go in for the ‘let’s talk about the characters in a novel’ thing, but these ones, they’re kind of special in a very ordinary way. Travis is definitely my favourite – he’s also the central character and he’s supposed to be. But Velveeta and Bradley, they’re not far behind at all. I was quite sad to let the characters go at the end of this book. I’ll just have to deal with that grief. Pass the doughnuts please (that’s a joke, if you read Bluefish, you might get it).

While reading the novel, a slight drawback for me was the reference to the plot detail in a few other books, especially The Book Thief. That’s just my personal preference but retrospectively, it’s not something that detracts from my overall memory of Bluefish. Bluefish is likely to be on my list of favourite novels read in 2013.  

This novel includes themes of learning to read, alcoholism, grieving, and relationships.

By the way, the author’s name is pronounced ‘Pat Schmotz’).

 

Publication details: January 2013, Walker, London, paperback

This copy: received from the publisher

 

Bluefish was originally published in 2011 in the USA and has received numerous awards and commendations.

Half Brother - Little M's review

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

 

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

 

Half Brother was a book I couldn't put down not even to finish a review I was doing; not even to go and tidy my room. It is so sad and funny at the same time that you can cry from both.

Half Brother is about a family and a chimpanzee who are brought together by the dad's science experiment. He wants to teach the chimp to talk; to be able to talk in sign language.

I recommended it to my mum and said, "You must read it. You will love it." (That's not something I say with every book I love.) I finished it in two days. That is how good it is. I recommend this book to everyone.

I loved Half Brother because I liked how when everything went wrong, Ben still went looking.


Publication details: 2011, David Fickling, Oxford, paperback
This copy: my own; Christmas prezzie

The Weight of Water - M's review

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

 

The Weight of Water has been nominated for the 2013 Carnegie medal. It is a quick and enchanting read, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough. I read it a few weeks back, made some notes and now....I actually can't fault it. Amazing.

The Weight of Water tells a contemporary tale about twelve year old Kasienka. She travels with her mother from Poland to England. They are in search of her father and have little money. The unwinding story is a familiar bildungsroman of a twelve year old immigrant who is the new girl in school trying to understand and form her own identity. Within this story, the main plot with its heavy themes of bullying, loss and immigration are lightly buoyed  by the sweet-and-scary joys of pursuing  interests, love and the prospects of newfound  happiness.

What makes this story truly beautiful though, is the way it is told. The Weight of Water consists of a set of poems. Its form takes a poetic shape but uses narrative prose to great effect. At first, I was alarmed when I saw the unfamiliar shape of poetry lines in the pages of this novel rather than the familiar chunks of paragraphs. But, the writing has a beguiling rhythm which adds a simple but beautiful flow to what is an easy story to follow. It is an engrossing story that you’ll read easily in a single sitting. Or in little bits if that’s what you prefer.

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Here are some of my further thoughts about the book in relation to the Carnegie shadowing criteria that we're using:

My first impression of Kasienka was that she was a good girl who felt loved and loved her family – although she felt terrible that her dad had left them. She seemed like a pleasant child who tried hard and was content. The descriptions of Kasienka’s thoughts, looks, behaviour are all very plausible and aspects of them are likely to be familiar to most people, especially twelve year old but nearly thirteen year olds girls.

Many of the main characters change as the novel progresses. While the plot is important and strong, the main focus is on how the main characters in this novel, Kasienka and her mother, adapt to their changing environment and relationships in England.

Kasienka has important relationships with a number of adults and students at school. Some of these relationships are positive and supportive, others are more negative. Many of these relationships change.

Despite the poetry, the language (vocabulary and syntax) is straightforward. The story dives straight in with Kasienka and her mother leaving Poland with just an old suitcase and a laundry bag. From the first page, you know already that this change in their life is not going to be easy.

The Weight of Water is told from Kasienka’s point of view. There is very little dialogue with other characters but there is a lot of internal dialogue. There is also a lot of description which helps to fill in the details of the story and to create an atmosphere of passing time and change. However, Crossan does not linger on irrelevant detail and the story moves swiftly, flitting past that which is not integral to the main developments of the character and plot.

The main plot about Kasienka and her mother's move to England in search of her father is well-supported and enhanced by the interweaved sub-plots. For me, it is the sub-plot around developing personal identity which are the highlight of this story.

 

This book definitely stays with you after you have finished it. You know where you finish the last page and just sit staring......and wondering what happens next in the characters' lives? And then wish you could quickly find someone else who has read it so you can talk about it with them? Yes, it was like that for me.

This book would probably fit into a contemporary genre because it is set in current times and is realistic (but you might also find it on the poetry shelves).

I would recommend this novel to readers approximately 11+ and think that it could have a broad appeal to a variety of readers.

 

 

Publication details:

Bloomsbury, January 2012, London, hardback

 

This copy: received for Carnegie reviewing from the publisher

 

Review - Silenced

Silenced by Simon Packham

Silenced by Simon Packham

Chris is in Year Eleven and his best friend’s just been killed in a car crash. Chris is so distraught by the news that he becomes unable to speak -literally! He has become mute. Silenced. Everyone is trying to get him to speak again – his parents, the psychiatrist, people at school, Ariel, and Will.

At first, Chris being mute is a bit funny.  But then you realise that the car crash or events surrounding it could be important – and maybe Chris knows something about it? Or not? He’s not saying and you’ll probably find yourself shouting “tell us, tell us” at him. From here on, Silenced becomes a bit of a thriller.

But Silenced is also very much about dealing with grief, and losing and making friends. The thing that stands out for me is that it looks at how to be a friend.  What exactly is a good friend?

Was Chris a good friend – he starts to ask himself this? Could suave Will Hunt be a new friend? Ariel? Well her off-grid, green Honesty life makes her a very interesting possibility – and she knows things that Chris doesn’t! And was Declan as fabulous as everyone’s making him out to be?

Silenced is a bit like Martyn Bedford’s Flip in some ways (maybe because it’s a teen boy character considering issues of death) but Silenced is a lighter, quicker and easier read.

This is a very readable book and most teens would probably enjoy it. I’d recommend it. Some ten years olds might be happy with it too but it does deal with themes of death, crime and suicide – although not in a dark or violent way. 

Publication details:

Piccadilly Press, 2012, London, paperback

This copy: received from the publisher