Skip to content
Reading Pebbles

children's books and outdoor fun with kids

Cateogries

Archives

Recent Posts

  • What’s That? Blog Tour post July 21, 2022
  • Four original non-fiction books on Ancient Egypt March 8, 2022
  • Storm Horse by Jane Elson – Blog Tour October 6, 2021
  • Raccoon and the Hot Air Balloon by Kristen Humphrey and Jill Atkins July 1, 2021

Posts Tagged with historical fiction

Flight – Vanessa Harbour

Flight – Vanessa Harbour

Posted on September 24, 2018September 27, 2018 by melissacreate

 

Sometimes you read a story that you enjoyed so much and which makes you think that you just need to write about it. Last  week that book was Flight by Vanessa Harbour. A thrilling epic journey which is both heartwarming and at times heart-wrenching.

I am a big fan of middle grade fiction with a journey narrative and of accessible historical fiction, and this does both brilliantly. It is a well paced exciting journey, with the strong sense of the threatening presence of  the Nazi’s adding to the risks and excitement and there are lots of horses!

It is a about a Jewish boy called Jakob who when he is orphaned takes shelter in a nearby stables. His guardian takes him on to look after the Lipizzanner stallions.  They are very famous horses owned by the Spanish Riding school of Vienna, who are renowned for their almost dance like dressage performances. When the horses become endangered Jakob and his guardian and a Roma girl called Kizzy set off on an epic journey across the countryside and over the mountains to safety.

I loved this story just as much as ‘Sky Chaser’ by Emma Carroll. Flight by debut author Vanessa Harbour is every bit it’s equal.  Each cut’s across genre, creating modern historical adventures that will appeal to readers of all ages. This book also reminded me of  ‘Running on the Roof of the World’ by Jess Butterworth, where Tash makes an epic journey with two Yaks across the Himalyas. Both stories bring a real strength to the journey narrative in that the main characters have to care for themselves and their animals.

Reading the story I got a real sense of what it might have been like to have lived in a Nazi occupied country in World War Two. The risks are especially high when you are a Jewish boy trying to sneak across country with a large group of highly prized horses! The story opens with Jacob hiding in a hayloft:

“If Jacob sneezed he could die, he passed a sweaty hand over his nose. Every part of him was shaking. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears….”

Early on you learn the power that the Nazi’s have when Jakobs favourite horse is shot. There is more to come, and because of this I would recommend Flight for children aged 9/10 years and older. However, having said that the constant presence of the Nazi’s is effectively integrated into the story in a way that you feel like you are really there At the same time the full impact is ‘softened’ a little for the reader, as is often the case in the very best of middle grade fiction.

The first two thirds of this story is fast paced with plenty of action to keep you reading as you want to find out what happens next. Then the excitement of the journey appears to be over and you are briefly left wondering what will happen in the rest of the story. Less experienced readers and/or children who prefer fast paced stories may need a little encouragement to get past this. The last one third of the story doesn’t disappoint. It is very clever. You get a hint of what life might be like for Jakob and Kizzy after their adventure and for horse fans there is an absolute treat to come!

Set within an exciting adventure with horses, is a running theme of prejudice, which is superbly handled by the author and leaves plenty to discuss. This includes: attitudes towards Jews in World War Two, and towards Roma children both then and now, and attitudes to women in sport at this time.

I really enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to see what Vanessa Harbour writes next.

 

Black Powder and Running on the Roof of the World

Posted on September 22, 2017September 22, 2017 by melissacreate
A comparative introduction to the stories by Ally Sherrick and Jess Butterworth

In this blog post I aim to compare two middle grade stories: Black Powder and Running on the Roof of the World. They are among my favourite reads of 2017. The settings are very different and there are some differences in writing style. But, both the main character go on a journey’s to help their families. A journey in which they discover things they didn’t know about themselves or their family and in which they have to use their wit’s and their courage to see them through. By looking at the the two stories I noticed some things which I may not have seen if I had looked at one story alone. I have found it interesting to identify some similarities between Ally Sherrick’s and Jess Butterworth’s stories. I hope you enjoy reading about them.

Introducing the Stories

Black Powder is set in 1605 in England. I immediately warmed to the main character Tom. His family were Catholic in a period of British history in which they were persecuted by the King for their religion. When his farther is caught helping a priest Tom’s world is turned upside down. His Dad is arrested and taken to London where he may be hanged. Tom becomes separated from his Mum and baby brother too. He sets out on the first part of his journey to seek help from an Uncle he has never met.
Running on the Roof of the World is set in modern day Tibet. The main character is Tash, whom I also immediately warmed to. She lives in a small village near the mountains, where the presence of the military is keenly felt. Near the start of the story she witnesses an incident, and shortly afterwards her village is put on curfew and her parents are taken away by soldiers. Tash decides she must journey over the mountains to ask the Dalai Lama’s help to free her parents. *

*The Dali Lama is the leader of Tibet who has been excited to India.

Opening Chapters

Something striking about the opening chapters of both stories is how effectively they convey gathering crowds, and the clever way the child in the story is both in and outside of the crowd. This helps to create the feeling that you are actually there and certainly helps to hook you.

I love the way that Ally Sherrick starts her story:

“The hangman stood hunched at the top of the wooden scaffold like a huge black crow. A mob of screaming gulls wheeled above him, but his eyes stayed fixed on the noose as it swayed to and fro in the cold sea breeze.”
“ Tom’s heart jolted. He didn’t want to watch a man die, but if he ran away now everyone would know he was a Catholic for sure…” (Black Powder: p1)

Straight away you have got a sense of atmosphere of anticipation, of something that is waiting to happen, and a clear warning from the very beginning that being a Catholic in these times is dangerous.

In the fist few chapters Jess Butterworth cleverly uses a series of rules that introduces the reader to the control soldiers have over individual lives. Then in chapter two Tash observes a gathering:

“But, today it’s different. Everyone is gathered in the middle pressed against each other. They face the same direction watching something. Silence ripples through the group there are no smiles.
I stand on the outer side where the crowd is thinner and scan faces checking for Mum and Dad.”  (Running on the Roof of the World: p9)

What Tash witnessed was a man setting himself and the Tibetan flag on fire as a protest against military occupation. This set’s in motion a series of events that lead Tash to be on the run from the soldiers and to decide on an epic journey across the mountains.

The Journey’s

A core part of both stories is the journeys they under take both physical and mental. The journeys are however very different in their setting. Tom’s is through mirky roads, back streets and tunnels first to get to his Uncle’s house and then to London. He has to constantly watch who he can trust. Whilst Tash’s journey is across the remote mountains from Tibet, and hopefully into India where the Dahli Lama is in exile. She travels with her best friend Sam and two Yak’s. Once into the mountains her challenge is one of extreme survival in remote landscapes as winter approaches.

Capturing the setting at the start of their journeys

The first part of Tom’s journey is across rural countryside from his home to a place called Cowdry where his uncle lives. As Tom arrives on the outskirts of Cowdry and looks for his Uncle’s house, you get a great sense of the power his Uncle has by the way the location of the house is described. There are also some hints that there may be some unsavoury characters lurking in the Shadows too. This ramps up the tension before Tom has even set food inside his Uncles house.

Tash and Sam’s first task is to get out of their village with two Yak’s called Eve and Bones before they are captured by the Soldiers, which is no easy.

“Hours go by and the sun shines from it’s highest point.
With each person we pass I grow in confidence
Until we seem them.”  (Running on the Roof of the World: p86)

Surprise discoveries about their families

Near the beginnings of the stories both children discover something they didn’t know about their families and are given something to look after by their parents. Tom’s mum gives him a bible, which she said his Uncle gave her for her sixteenth birthday, but up until that point Tom didn’t even know he had an Uncle!

Tash is given a rucksack by her farther, full of leaflets. As she waits by the vulture tree for her mother (who does not come) she put’s her hand inside her rucksack to look at the papers her father shoved in there as he insisted she must take the rucksack with her. She discovers some ‘Snow Lion’ secret resistance leaflets in the bag, and slowly as the story progresses she begins to realise what risks her Dad took. There are also more secrets to unravel but to find out what they are you will have to read the story!

This was the first in a series of steps in which Tash realises there is a lot she didn’t know about her fathers involvement in the resistance.

There is a lot more I could say about both stories. But, that would involve giving away things that could spoil the story for someone that wanted to read it. Both Tom and Tash in their different settings go on physical and emotional journeys, in which they learn they had strengths they didn’t know they had and what is truly important to them. I would highly recommend both stories for anyone (including adults) aged 10 years or more.

 

 

 

The 3 books, that got me an adult reading children’s fiction

Posted on December 16, 2016May 12, 2017 by melissacreate

The books:
The MockingJay (The Hunger Games Book 3) by Susan Collins
The Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler
The Book of Learning (Nine Lives Trilogy Book1) by ER Murray

When I picked up the Hunger Games trilogy 18months ago I didn’t know it would be the beginning of a fantastic reading journey. In my twenties I read some children’s fiction and especially loved Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials. In the next decade I read a small number of adult novels, but mainly I read non-fiction some for professional qualifications and training and some of my own choosing. I especially enjoyed books that linked different ideas together. Yet, with a few exceptions when it came to adult fiction I struggled to find anything I wanted to read, most were too long and when I looked on the back they seemed to be the predictable: family saga, cheating or double dealing, and a bit too dark. There are some parallels with my daughters experience of starting to read independently, where in her words the books she picked up were “boring or had no plot”. Then she found Hetty Feather, by Jacqueline Wilson. The first book she had chosen that she actually wanted to read. You can read about her journey in another post. These experiences along with conversations with my customers as an indepedent bookseller have led me to wonder:
“Do we take it for granted that once an adult or child has found a few stories they love they we will automatically find another book they want to read?”
For some, including those that would consider themselves ‘readers’, this is not the case. How often as adults do we stop to think about what it was that kept us reading a book? In this blog I explore 3 fantastic stories, which really got my attention, changed my understanding of what I like to read, got me reading again and opened the door to more books.

I chose these books because I wanted to read them as an adult reader, not because I wanted to find out if they would interest my children or other people’s children. When reflecting on what made me pick up each book it struck me how accidental my discovery of them was! I bought the Hunger Games trilogy by Susan Collins when buying some books for my children as it caught my eye. I discovered the Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler, whilst exploring the publishers websites for books I could potentially stock. I have always been interested in history and we were about to go on a family holiday to another ancient settlement in Scotland. I first learnt about E R Murray on Twitter because of her proactive contribution’s to the #CoverKidsBooks campaign. When I saw the front cover the name intrigued me, and so did the fact that Ebony had a rat. But it was the picture of the girl with long flowing hair on a motor bike that did it! So it was a series of coincidences that led me to pick up each of the books, which I am extremely glad I did! This poses some interesting questions about whether children (and adults) are being exposed to enough variety on a regular basis, so that they can discover their next read.

The main character in The MockingJay is Katniss Everdeen. We join her in book three of the trilogy. Where she has survived not one, but two Hunger Games. At the opening chapter her District 12 companion of two games is missing, presumed dead. This book in one sense is how Katniss Everdeen makes sense of all the awful things that have happened to her and find a way forward, along with the other characters who have been on that journey with her. Her journey to get to this point has been horrific and brutal and there are some pretty horrid things that happen in this book too. Yet as an adult friend of mine that has also read the trilogy said “ it manages to stay on just the right side of Ok.”

The Boy with the Bronze Axe, is set more than 2,000 year ago in the Stone Age Village of Skara Brae, on what is the modern day Orkney. It is about a girl called Kali and a boy called Tenko ‘from across the sea.’. The introduction of a stranger is a beautiful way for the reader to understand what life was like many thousands of years ago. With the added tension that from the beginning you know that the village is going to submerged by a storm toward the end but you do not know who if anybody will survive. Of the three books, on the surface this is a much simpler story, with fewer characters and a more local scale, yet at the same time it has some very powerful messages.

The Book of Learning, is about a girl called Ebony and her pet rat. She looses her grandfather at the start of the story and then moves from the countryside to the city of Dublin. Here she discovers an Aunt she didn’t know existed and that Ebony is part of a Secret Order of the Nine Lives, which amongst other things believe their souls are reincarnated. She is the reluctant heroine who at first doesn’t want to know but then curiosity get’s the better off her. E R Murray aptly describes it as “Urban fantasy”. One of several highly talented authors bringing a ‘realism’ to fantasy which I believe is highly relevant to the twenty first century.

The 3 book in many respects are very different from each other. Despite this they do have some things in common in the way they are written and their wider messages. Which I shall explore next, along with some of the things that make the stories unique.

For all 3 books the characterisation was great and the descriptive language was superb. For me both of these are pretty crucial in getting me interested in a story. When it comes to detailed descriptive language that makes you feel like you are actually there Kathleen Fidler accomplishes this brilliantly, and for me has set a bench mark by which others are measured! Another magic quality of the boy withe the Bronze Axe is the strong connection with the land and how central this is to the story too. When I stopped to think about it that later is something that both Susan Cooper and E R Murray do in a different way too. For them it is about the contrast between worlds. In the Book of Learning it is how different the city is to Ebony’s grandpa’s costal cottage by the sea where she grew up. In MockingJay there is the hunting in the forest, and a reminder of the ‘natural world’ emerging from the ruins of the Districts. What the 3 main characters from each book share is they are female, adventurous, strong-minded and love spending time outdoors. That is beginning to sound a lot like me, no wonder I love these stories!

Despite the extraordinary imaginary worlds created its is striking how well all there authors tell the ordinary. From the canteen many floors below the earth’s surface in District 13, to the mad going’s on in the kitchen at 23 Mercury Lane, to sitting round the fire eating in the stone age village of Skara Brae. All 3 authors conjure up very well what their characters are eating and drinking and use all our sense to do this. This brings a realism to the the stories which adds to the feeling that you are actually there. In describing what their characters wear and eat, what they touch, or smell they convey emotions which also turn these ordinary events into something else.

Susan Collins and Kathleen Fidler’s stories are fast paced throughout, usually important to keeping me interested in a story. That was until I read the Book of Learning . This is an intriguing mixture of the other two books but with it’s own uniqueness too. I immediately warmed to Ebony Smart and with the excellent scene setting, descriptive language and shorter chapters I was taken straight into the story. But, then in the middle of the story the pace slows down, before speeding up with lots of exciting twists and turns. There were many magical things about this story that kept me reading. It wasn’t until after I had watched Andrew Marr’s programme on fantasy stories that I understood what some of them are. What is intriguing is when I first started reading the Book of Learning I did not at first think of it as fantasy fiction. I have since discovered E R Murray is one of several talented authors, who are blurring traditional genres, and bringing an ‘earthly’ ‘realism’ to fantasy.

Watching Andrew Marr’s programme about fantasy reminded me how important J R Tolkien’s book was in my own childhood. Whilst Tolkien has created a whole imaginary world on a much grander scale I did have to chuckle to myself when I realised there were some surprising similarities with The Book of Learning, especially in the early part’s of the stories. Both, Ebony and Bilbo are reluctant hero’s who are taken out of a place that they love. Andrew Marr’s rule number 6 for fantasy stories is: “The reader owns the fantasy world”. This is very strong in both stories, the fact that both are not initially at all sure they want to be part of what they have ‘been chosen’ for or ‘indeed what that is!’ means you are kind of learning along with the characters which really did help me the reader own the story.

In Susan Collins, Kathleen Fidler and E R Murray stories there is a seamlessness which links everything together which for me elevates these to 3 exceptional stories. What excited me is that they were fantastic reads, but they all had important messages about what it means to be human and about wider society, which seem highly relevant 21st century Britain. The powerful messages of these stories are tricky to talk about without giving away what happens. So, I will simply say that in the MockingJay and the Book of Learning there are important messages about the ability of power to corrupt. One of the key messages of the Boy with the Bonze Axe is easier to talk about as it appears early on in the book. When Tenko is telling the Kalis family about where his Bronze Axe came from, you get that wonderful sense of the way that knowledge is passed through time and place from one generation to the next, a timely reminder of how many of us are connected to others. For the other messages you will have to read the stories.

Fir for Luck Blog Tour: A conversation with Barbara Henderson on nature and outdoors in the Scottish Highlands

Posted on September 20, 2016January 16, 2017 by melissacreate

img_2133-2 ffl-ebook-cover-final-2

What role does nature play in the story?

Nature is such a big player in my children’s novel Fir for Luck that I even argued it should be on the cover of the book! The land is part of Janet’s identity. It was a challenge, when writing Fir for Luck, to get across how tightly wound up Janet’s and her village’s identities are with the land.

But maybe the land didn’t need to be on the cover after all. Maybe the connection could be shown more subtly than that.*(1) I thought about all the ways that Janet’s environment featured in her everyday life. In the jobs she had to do: checking on the fields, grinding grain to flour, taking cows up the hill to better pasture, mucking out the byre. In her home: hearing mice rustle in the thatch above as she sleeps on a straw mattress beside the hearth. Being made to drink nettle brew when ill (one of my more fun research facts). And finally, the title sprig of fir as a symbol for luck, wound into a new hearth chain. The area around Durness where all this took place is barren and almost tree-less. A sprig of fir was not easy to come by. Again, it felt that nature itself played a part in Janet’s fate: the sprig is a motif which features throughout the book.

Spending family time in the Scottish Highlands…

I am a would-be-outdoorsy person. My husband and I are not one of nature’s innate sporty couples, but we do take our children*(2) on holidays to Skye, to Harris, to the wildernesses of Western Ross and Sutherland. There, our young people can enjoy searching for crabs under rocks, exploring empty beaches, building driftwood beach dens – and being dragged up a few too many hills! The stuff our children’s childhood memories are going to be made of: bonfire kindling, a blackened frying pan and the thinnest sausages you can buy (so that they cook before they char) – that is an essential part of kit for a fab day out. Of course it was on one of those ‘back to nature’ holidays that I came across the ruins of Ceannabeinne, a little known clearance village.

dscf0208-3     wp_20160404_13_19_34_pro-2    wp_20160404_12_51_09_pro-2

Is Ceannabeinne a real place?

Ceannabeinne really existed as a thriving township. All that is left now is rubble and ruins of course, but the burn still trickles through. It’s just east of Durness, the nearest village to Cape Wrath, the most northwesterly point of the UK mainland. Durness is a village now, but at the time it was made up of townships such as Durine, Sangomore, Balnakeil and of course Ceannabeinne. No place in the whole story is invented, and the key events all really took place there.

And a final word…   I know; not every reader of Fir for Luck will visit the amazing place where my character made her home, although they should if they can.So instead, let any outdoor bonfire take you to the ceilidh in chapter three. Listen to the sound and scent of the sea and hear and sense Ceannabeinne. Let every dark night take you there. That way, you can peek into Janet’s world.

Find out more on the authors website                      You can buy Fire for Luck here. 

*(1) There are hints of nature on the cover of the book with the fire in Janet’s eyes and the pine cones on the back. Publishers Cranachan decided against landscape in the end, and Barbara agrees as: “Young readers are most likely to care about the central character, and about the worst thing that can happen”.

•(2) Barbara has 3 children, who are now 11, 14, and 16 and they are in some of the pictures.

csoj1bpwcaayhvn-jpg-large

 

Fir for Luck by Barbara Henderson

Posted on September 20, 2016May 12, 2017 by melissacreate

ffl-ebook-cover-final-2

On holiday in Scotland, last summer I enjoyed finding out about the Scottish clearances, which sparked my curiosity in this period of history. So I jumped at the chance to review a copy of Fir for Luck. The historical context and the face on the front cover, a girl with a fire in her eye, looked like a winning combination, and it is!

Fir for Luck tells, through the eyes of a 12 year old, called Janet, a Scottish hamlet’s struggle to survive at time of upheaval in Scottish history. You find yourself rooting for Janet and wanting her to save her village. There are surprises and last minute twists. It is a cracking read, at times it is ‘brutal’, but there is gentleness too. I left with a real sense having been on a journey through both the landscape and a period of history.

I love that you get a sense of the wild landscape from: remote sparse heathlands to windswept coastal shores. You also get a sense of a community closely connected to the landscape. This is cleverly portrayed through descriptions, which refer to the shape of the land, passing light and the seasons. For example:

“The surf pounds the rocks down at the Cove, and the limited light from the tiny windows takes on a golden tint.” p4

“Ceannabeinne is bathed in a lovely autumn glow that simply doesn’t allow misery” p67

Read my guest post to find out more about the central importance of the landscape to the story and Barbara Henderson’s love of the Highlands.

In chapter five a gentleman of the law arrives at Janet’s hamlet with the intention of serving a ‘Writ’. If it is served Janet, her family and her community will be forced from their homes. Here the story really gets going. Janet (as we are discovering) is a girl who is not afraid to speak out or stand up for what she believes in. What can she do to protect her village? Added depth is given through flashbacks to 1814, when Janet’s grandma was brutally forced off the land. This helps the reader to understand what Janet and others might be feeling when they face a threat to their homes, 30 years later. However, it does make it a little more difficult to read. The flashbacks could be used creatively in a classroom context and would be great to read aloud.

The first four chapters beautifully introduce the setting, but it isn’t until chapter 5 that things start to fall into place, and the tension builds.  This may make it harder for some younger or less confident children to get into the story. However, there are several solutions to this possible problem. The first is as a parent or educator is to read the story to yourself first. You will then get a sense of the history and your enthusiasm for the story will show. Secondly, there is much potential to explore this story in a classroom, and for role play. The publishers Cranachan have produced a free education pack which will be available to download free on their website. There is a handy Glossary (p194) of the traditional Scottish words used in the story.

The name title: Fir for Luck, features in the story. It was a traditional Scottish practice to put a fir in the hearth chain above the fire for good luck. It is a beautiful and touching addition, which is also used very effectively towards the end. For any child or adult curious about the Scottish clearances and/or love of the Scottish highlands this would make a great read.

Fir for Luck is available to buy from the 21st September.

  • About Me and My Blog
  • About Me and My Blog
Copyright © 2022 Your Name. All rights reserved.