Children's Book Round up for Literary Review

Here is my latest children's book round up for Literary Review. The featured books are:

The Colour of the Sun by David Almond
The Family Tree by Mal Peet
Little Liar by Julia Gray
The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill
The Sword of Ice and Fire by John Matthews
McTavish Goes Wild by Meg Rosoff
The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd
The Story of Tantrum O'Furrily by Cressida Cowell
Square by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

June 2017 Children's Round Up for Literary Review

Here's a link to my latest round up of children's books, for the June 2017 issue of Literary Review. Read it here.

Greek Myths in Children's Fiction: Part 2 of 10

I have written extensively about my next choice: David Almond's superb recent novel, A Song for Ella Grey. It takes the haunting myth of Orpheus  and his love for Eurydice, and transports it to the modern day North of England. Full of boldness and beauty, almost a poem in its sparse concentration of meaning, it demonstrates how the power of myth can be found in everyday teen life. There are many thrilling scenes, too, such as a descent to the underworld; and lots of nods to details in the original story. Surely Orpheus does walk among us, again and again, taking on different guises: a bard for all time.

Children's Authors Live: World Book Night Event with David Almond and Annabel Pitcher

It's World Book Night, and I went off to Surbiton (which has a beautiful Art Deco train station, by the way), to chair a conversation with the legendary David Almond, and prize-winning author Annabel Pitcher. The video of the event is up: click here to watch.

Autumn round up of children's books

Here's my autumn round up of children's books for the Telegraph. Read it here.

Bath Festival of Children's Literature & War Girls review

This year I'll be appearing at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature; the Telegraph asked me to do a round up of some of the authors who are also doing events, from September 26th to October 5th. The round up is in the paper today, (not online yet - I'll post it when it appears) and features:

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
Terror Kid by Benjamin Zephaniah
Wild Boy and the Black Terror by Rob Lloyd Jones
The Tornado Chasers by Ross Montgomery
Secret Agent Mummy by Steve Cole
Boy Face and the Tartan Badger by James Campbell
Papa Chagall, Tell Us a Story by Laurence Anholt

My review of War Girls, a collection of short stories about girls in the First World War, published by Andersen, was cut, so I've pasted it here below:
 

 War Girls: A Collection of First World War Stories (Andersen Press, 258pp, £6.99), is a welcome addition to the reams of books commemorating the Great War. The nine stories here cover a wide range of the feminine perspective: among them Berlie Doherty’s outstanding “Sky Dancer”, in which a young singer goes to the front to entertain troops; Anne Fine’s tightly-wound “Piercing the Veil” which deals with spiritualism; and Theresa Breslin’s finely-cut “Shadow and Light”, about an artistic ambulance driver. All nine engage thoughtfully with the battles that girls faced: to love, to work, and to become themselves whilst all around the world exploded.

Literary Review: Children's Round Up

My round up of children's books is in this month's Literary Review, a magazine so packed with jam it's like a bonus-sized jar of Bonne Maman. And don't we all love Bonne Maman. Mmmmm. Hold on a sec. Right, now that I've had my afternoon fix of toast and jam, I'll tell you about the review - I'm doing ten (mostly) creepy books for Christmas.

They are Anne Fine's The Devil Walks, Mary Hooper's Velvet, Chris Priestley's Mr Creecher, Lauren Oliver's Liesel and Po, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce, A Greyhound of A Girl by Roddy Doyle, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp by Philip Pullman, and School of Meanies by Daren King.

In this issue you will also find out what the Hawaiian word for sulphur is - "kukae pele", or Pele's excrement (Pele the goddess, that is), and be introduced to Leet, the gaming language in an article by David Profumo; there's also brilliant stuff from Kwasi Kwarteng, Robert Irwin, Adrian Tinniswood, Claire Harman, John Gray, D J Taylor and bags more.

Literary Review Children's Round Up

That most wonderful of all literary magazines, Literary Review, contains this month (that is, June 2010), my twice-yearly children's round up. In it I review the following ten books:

A Web of Air by Philip Reeve
The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon by David Almond
Quicksilver by Sam Osman
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Halo by Zizou Corder
Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper
Beswitched by Kate Saunders
Frightfully Friendly Ghosties by Daren King
Sylvia and Bird by Catherine Rayner

They are a sweetly varied bunch, ranging widely in style and content, and mostly containing a great deal of wit and charm (surely the two things that any children's book should have, at least in part). My particular favourites were Daren King's zippingly zany little book about massively over-polite spectres, and the beautifully rendered Sylvia and Bird by Catherine Rayner. I challenge you to read it and not be totally gripped. The review is unavailable online, so I suggest that, if you wish, you beetle on down to your local newsagents and demand a copy.