Posts Tagged with middle grade fiction

Darwin’s Dragon by Lindsay Galvin

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I loved reading Darwin’s Dragon, one of my most anticipated books of the year which has finally arrived. My daughters a big fan of Lindsay Galvin’s the Secret of the Deep, so I was expecting great things. It didn’t disappoint. 

The story begins in 1835. It’s about what could have happened during one of Darwin’s expeditions to the Galapagos Islands.  It is written from the perspective of Syms Covington. Who first joined Darwins ship the Beagle, as a cabin boy and a fiddler. He then worked his way up to become Darwin’s assistant. With short chapters, and plenty of nail-biting action there is lot’s to draw readers in. 

The story is a most intriguing and unique combination of historical fiction, weird and wonderful detail on the animals and habitats of the Galapagos, and fantasy (a real life Dragon). There is a survival theme running through the story. To begin with is is how Sym survives on an uninhabited island and later it’s about the lizard.  

In chapter 2 Syms rescues Darwin from the sea, but is then swept away and is washed up on a strange uninhabited island. On the island he is befriended by a lizard, who he names Farthing after his copper coloured eyes. She helps him survive on the island and escape the dragon. 

I found some of part 2 harder to read. I think at that point I was still getting my head round there only being one human character and lots of the weird landscape of the Galapagos which is so well portrayed in Lindsays writing. If using in the classroom some real pictures of the Galapagos might help. I mention this as some readers may benefit from being read the beginning of part 2 as they will love the next bit. 

I loved how Syms fiddle features in his survival story, and serves as a tool to introduce us to some of his back history and to help him survive the present. And the clever placing of the objects in the cave, which helped Syms and the eggs to escape the island was really clever storytelling, which could be used to help children write their own stories.

After Syms is rescued, Darwin’s ship makes its voyage back to London.  In London we get to find out more about Farthing, the lizard and the dragons eggs. We also see Syms taking on a role in looking out for Farthing.  There is also a great fictional connection to Queen Victoria.

The story covers a number of years in Darwins’s life, not just his expedition to Galapagos. With insights into the collating and publishing of his work on evolution in London, and the need for him to stay away from additional controversy as his ideas on the Origin of the Species were controversial enough at the time.  Finally a the end Syms re-visits the island with one of his daughters.

Cleverly interweaving real facts and information with action packed adventure, and fantasy and cleverly twisted facts to create believable fiction this is not to be missed.  A story that will keep you in the moment and which you will want to re-visit. Highly recommend for 9/10+ to 99 years. 

Thank you to the publishers Chicken House books for a free advance copy.

 

Darwins’s Dragons is published on 7th January 2021. Available to pre-order from me an independent bookseller at Readers that Care. In a special 2 book bundle, choose 2nd book from a selection of over 20 titles. 

Duncan Versus the Googleys – Kate Milner

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There have been many original stories published for children aged 7 to 9 year years in the past few years. This is certainly one of them.  Duncan versus the Googleys would come near the top of this list for its quirky, wacky and original story-line which make it a very unique story. Duncan is sent to live with his Great-Aunt for the summer holidays, who is not pleased to see him. However, all is not what is seems in Arthritis Hall.  With the help of the caretakers daughter Ursula, Duncan begins to unravel what is going on.  This story will keep readers of all ages intrigued and engaged with its unravelling plot lines and all sorts of quirky ‘incidents’ where you never quite sure what will happen next. It comes with a warning that if you prefer linear and predictable stories this may not be for you:

“It is only fair to warn you, before we go much further, that so much in this story is upside down, backwards, twisted, devious and downright peculiar. It is not a story for the faint-hearted. …….If you are the kind of person who likes things to plod along in a predictable fashion from A to B then this story is not for you.  I would suggest you go and do something useful instead, like sorting out your socks. ” (p12)

One of the fascinating things about Kate Milner’s story it the way an online game world is intertwined with the mysterious goings on in a big large house.  Duncan loves playing a game called Poo-Chi Planet. So does an old lady called Mrs Pettigrew!  Duncan has three gaming friends that live in other parts of the world: RatboyRyan ( Australia) Kobe (Kenya) and a Chinese girl called Zhang who lives in Shanghai. When Duncan and Ursula get into a tricky situation with an unusual robotic monster called Fluffkin, can the coding and hacking skills of his gaming friends help them understand this monster in time to save the day?

If this hasn’t already got your attention there is plenty more going on. Duncan’s Great-Aunt is gathering a collection of crooks and villains for her big plan. They are gathering under the disguise of a ‘Knitting Circle’.  The illustrator had added some of her own illustrations which really help to bring some of the characters to life. The Great-Aunt also seems to have some way of seeing what goes on everywhere (well almost everywhere) in this big large house, but luckily for Duncan Ursula knows many secret passageways. There is also a plot to unravel about who the Googleys are and what their connection is to Arthritis hall.

There is both a directness and unique perspective to the narrative voice. Which helps to bring it all together. It provided just the kind of wry humour and observational perspectives that I needed to distract me in these extra-ordinary times we are currently living in.

I would highly recommend it to children and adults aged 8 to 88 years. Please note because the plot jumps about a bit, some less confident readers may need an adult to share this story with them – but then again they may be more than happy to be absorbed in all the quirky and slightly off the wall detail!

You can buy a copy from my small online bookshop, Readers that Care, here.

Thanks to Pushkin Press for a free copy to review. You can find about other books they publish here.

 

   

 

Trees and weird creatures – some quotes for writing inspiration

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A teacher in the fabulous bookish twitter community I am part off, recently posted this question:

“We are using this picture as a writing stimulus. Y6 children thinking hard about the effect of the reader. Looking for extracts from books of strange, unfamiliar creatures (harmless or dangerous) and/or forest descriptions (again peaceful or scary)”

 

Trees and Suspense

All three extracts feature trees or a tree, and some great suspense writing . In Celine Kieran”s Wild trilogy, MUP is on here way back home from visiting her sick Aunt; as she drifts in and out of sleep in the car she sees through the window witches in the trees.  In Kathleen Fidler’s the Boy with a Bronze Axe, they are not sure what’s lurking in the water in a cave they’re exploring. later they discover it is a tree trunk!  Finally in Barbara Henderson’s Punch a young boy is running away from a fire and climbs up a pine tree, but then something starts to climb up after him.

“outside the night was streaming past, Mup had slumped against the door with her face tilted to the sky, and she was looking up through the branches of the roadside trees, the trees were falling away as the car sped by, and there were witches in the branches and they were following the car.
Mup wasn’t startled – half asleep as she was, with the taste of warm custard in her mouth – but she frowned up aT the witches with an inkling that something wasn’t right……….….Mup was filled with the knowledge that she was awake, and there were witches in the trees, following the car.
There were men witches and women witches, and they leapt from branch to branch, racing along at tremendous speed. They were nothing but shadows among shadows, so that Mup had to strain her eyes to see them……….Then one of the witches jumped the gap between the two trunks, her silhouette dark against the fine grey of the sky. She descended in a falling arc, her clothes blown back like ragged black wings. As her pale hands reached for the branches of the next tree, she looked down into……”
p10-11  The Wild Magic Trilogy: Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan
It was Brockan who first saw the strange thing in the water below the ledge. “Oh look! What’s that?” he cried in terror, clutching at Tenko. “What’s that dark thing, waving terrible arms? Is it the spirit of the cave come to snatch us?”
He turned to run and would have fallen into the water below if Tenko had not grabbed him. Tenko’s heart had leaped and thudded for a second, but he saw the object did not move any nearer to them. All at once he knew what is was.
“Stay here!” he said to the other two. “I am going to have a closer look.”
……………Tenko crouched down, crawling nearer and nearer to it as he would creep up on an enemy. One of its arms was outstretched towards him. Suddenly Tenko dealt it a blow with his axe. There was splintering sound but the arm did not move. Tenko stood up and gave a cry of joy.
“Come here! Come here!” He shouted. ” It is what I thought.” Kali and Brockan came slowly timidly, not quite sure of their safety.
“What is it Tenko?” Kali whispered, Even her low voice echoed mysteriously round the cave.
“It’s a tree!”  Tenko shouted triumphantly.
They drew closer staring.
P69 The Boy with the Bronze Axe, Kathleen Fidler.
A young boy called Phineas is running away from a his boss, after he accidentally started a fire. 
“ A sob rips through my lungs and my vision blurs, a mix of smoke and despair; until more flutterings and rustlings disturb me and the trunk sways alarmingly. I hold my breath. There is no mistaking it.
Someone is climbing my tree.
Someone heavy.
I cling to the trunk as tight as I can and I peer down, and my blood freezes.
Through the dense needle branches. I recognise the subtle stripes of a prisoners clothes.”
p12 Punch by Barbara Henderson

Some ginormous and rather unusual spiders:

In the Christmas holidays I read Dan Smith’s Below Zero. Which features some brilliant robotic spiders that get rather out of control, but to find out the reasons why they do you will have to read the book!  Then my son suggested I include the giant spider in Larklight.
“At the back of the room there were three large bays………Right now HAL and ROY were empty, but the bay with ED above it was home to something that was one of the most amazing things Zak had ever seen. But, also one of the scariest.
The Spider were slightly bigger than a two-seater Smart car, and was made of a flat oval casing, about a metre and a half deep that housed the robot’s ‘brain’. On top of that, the bulk of the body was a ribbed dome, like a bloated tick that had filled itself with too much blood. It had four legs, each joined in six places, giving it a look of a weird grey metal spider. Close to the front, it had four narrow arms designed to accept interchangeable attachments. For now the arms were tipped with pincers.”
P91   Below Zeor by Dan Smith
“Down in the hall, the monstrous spider squeezed it’s prickly ball of a body in through the door with a faint scraping sound. A cluster of black eyes glittered like wet grapes at the front end. Above them a shabby brown bowler hat was perched upon it’s spines. Beneath, hairy mouth-parts twitched and fidgeted. It tilted itself upwards, and saw me starring down at it.
“The names Webster ‘ it said, lifting it’s hat with one huge claw. I’m expected.”
P27-p28  Larklight by Philip Reeve and illustrated by David Wyatt
Some follow-on ideas:
Think about what sort of spider you would create. What size would it be? Is it a friendly spider or a monster?
Can you draw what Dan Smiths robot spider looked like? What features of your own might you add?
What other stories do you know that feature a spider or spiders?

 

Friendly, spoon collecting Alien’s

And finally but by no means least is my son’s favourite creature from Cakes in Space, written by Phillip Reeve and illustrated by Sarah McIntyre. Astra IS in a spaceship, with her family, which is travelling from earth to the planet Nova Mundi in deep space. They were all put to sleep in little sleeping pods. But, astra wakes up whilst everyone else is sleeping. she has already dealt with some rather unsual cake monsters.
“ It was a monster alright, but a different sort of montster: a squat plump one in a grease-stained spacesuit like a grubby chimney pot, with a nest of eyes on stalks poking out of it’s helmet.“
“Ploogah stofie!” Shouted the creature, it’s voice loud and buzzy on her helmet radio. “Britxit Floop”.
“I am sorry said Astra. I don’t understand.”
Astra remembered her mum and dad telling her that there were not such things as aliens. But, then they’d probably thought there were no such things as a man-eating fairy cakes, either. She was going to have lots to tell them when the woke up.”
P105-p107 Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and illustrated by Sarah McIntyre

 

Black Powder and Running on the Roof of the World

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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.