I absolutely loved Cat Gray’s first novel “Spellstoppers”, with its mix of magic and normal life; so I was delighted when I got the opportunity to read and review this new book. Of course, I was hoping that it could meet the high standard of the first; well, I need not have worried as it surpassed my high expectations.
Usborne, 978-1801310048
This story is set in central London, where Pip and his parents have moved to, from Norwich, because of his scientist mother’s new job. Things do not start out well as they find the flat and shop they have rented is down a side alley that looks as if it is out of a Dickens novel. The alley is dark, seedy and the flat itself is very run down and things do not get any better when a young girl tells Pip that they should leave because “IF YOU STAY HERE, SOMETHING EXTREMELY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN” Well, she turns out to be perfectly correct. The very next morning Pip discovers his parents have totally change personality; no longer are they Tofu eating, TV hating and anti-mobile type people, now they are sitting in front of the TV and ignoring everything around them, so what has happened and what can Pip do? When he meets the young girl again he discovers that she is called Fliss and she lives next door in the “Ragged Hare” pub. He also finds out that this is a very unusual alley in that it is the home of some very unusual inhabitants. There are vampires, werewolves, banshees and ghosts amongst others and the alley is closer to Diagon Alley than it is to anything else. What he also discovers is that there is a mysterious character called the spirit snatcher, which feeds on people’s spirits, leaving them as shadows of their former selves and his parents are the latest victims. Not only that, he is likely to be the next target when he reaches his 13th birthday in a few days (at Halloween actually). The race is on to find the spirit snatcher and to find a way to reverse the effects on Pip’s parents.
What a wonderfully dark and magical story this is, with an excellent cast of characters representing many of the folk tales from our islands. However, we find that beneath their unusual appearances and habits, there are people who just want to live their lives and not have to be looking out for danger all of the time. Above all, there is the element of trust; when his parents are not there, who can Pip actually trust to help him get things back to his ‘normal’ and will Fliss learn to trust Pip enough to tell him her own dark secret? I really loved the way that the author has built up the atmosphere in the alley, but also the roller coaster of expectation as we think that the villain has been unmasked, only to have the arguments dashed. Thankfully there is a denouement, but how can the villain be stopped and what, if anything will reverse all of their evil doings?
This will make a tremendous addition to a Halloween collection, either in school, or at home. I can’t wait for more fabulous tales from this really excellent author.
The Author
Cat Gray is an author and journalist, based in London and Ireland. She started her journalism career at the age of 19,
interviewing musicians and celebrities in between attending classes, then went on to be an editor at a series of glossy magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country.
Since she was very young, she’s always believed that there’s an adventure just around the corner, and this is reflected in her magical fantasy stories. Spellstoppers was her first book.
worked in Bristol for 20 years and had the opportunity to bring books and information to schools, about the heritage that different communities bring to this vibrant city. I was also lucky enough to be at Tilbury Docks on the day that commemorated the arrival of the “Empire Windrush”, 75 years ago and the references to the way some of the immigrants have been treated, really does resonate. However, what really struck me is the wonderful sense of family that we are shown, despite the friction between Sunshine’s mother and grandmother. We also have the way that heritage can be remembered through music and food in particular. So as part of the school fundraiser the children choose to bake cakes or biscuits from their own cultures; we have the recipe for the one that Sunshine made at the back of the book and I think I may well have to give it a try, it looks quite scrummy! Overall this is one of those joyous books, where problems are faced and overcome and where the strong bonds of family and friendship are so important. Hopefully we will have more adventures for this band of friends in the future. A five star, feel good story.
stuffed green olives or hunting out a slice of cake. She enjoys nothing better than snatching time to read a good book and losing herself whilst imagining characters and storylines. The Sunshine Simpson series is particularly inspired by G.M.’s parents, who arrived in Britain, from Jamaica, as part of the Windrush generation, in the 1950s.
time, as I kept discovering more and more books which feature these majestic creatures. The realization that this is the Chinese “Year of the Tiger” spurred me on to actually put together this group of books. One of the main problems is that I keep finding even more, really exciting sounding books that I have now got on my ‘to be read’ list. I have added these to the end of the blog post, so that you can all have a go at reading some of them.
“Mr Tiger goes Wild” by Peter Brown
“Cinnamon” by Neil Gaiman and Divya Srinivasan
“Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon” by Sally Gardner
“The Time traveller and the Tiger” by Tania Unsworth
“The Dancing Tiger” by Malachy Doyle
“The magic Bed” by John Burningham
“Love is…” by Sarah Maycock
“Tiger in trouble” by Jess Butterworth
“There’s a Tiger in the garden” by Lizzy Stewart
“Frida Kahlo” by Lucy Brownridge and Sandra Dieckmann is a wonderful evocation of the artist’s life and art, aimed at younger children. I have loved her work for a long time, but seeing the exhibition about her life at the V&A in 2018 really brought home how amazing she was. This book mentions her health issues but does not go in to tremendous detail, rather it focuses on her development as an artist and the influence she has had outside Mexico. Sandra Dieckmann has done a tremendous job with the illustrations, bringing her own touches to the work whilst also paying ‘homage’ to Kahlo’s own style. This will make a tremendous addition to any primary school.
delightful look at coping with a fear of the dark. The young hero finds that he is a ‘bit’ afraid of the dark because of the shadows and various sounds that he cannot identify. So when his father takes him on an overnight camping trip he is really worried by the idea of the dark. However he has a revelation when it is truly dark; for it is then that he can really see all the stars in the night sky. This is a story of finding the beautiful and positive in something that we are not sure about and it is great for young readers. There are lovely illustrations and a really imaginative use of cutouts in many of the pages, which brings everything to life.
“The Usborne book of Night time” by Usborne and Bonnie Pang is aimed at younger children, perhaps up to lower KS2. It takes the concept of night and then gives us a double page spread to look at the various elements that make up the night. There are factories and cities, the sea and the sky, nocturnal animals, northern lights and different parts of the world; all of these are working while we are sleeping. This is a great introduction to understanding our world and can lead on to some really fascinating discoveries for the young readers.
collection of poetry, but importantly it is an A-Z of shape poetry. I think most of us find writing poetry quite challenging, so to find that these poets have created stunning work and all in the shape of various animals is quite amazing. The layout of the book and the simple use of colour really helps the words and shapes stand out but it is the imagination of the writers that really makes this book so stunning.
“Boy oh Boy” by Cliff Leek and Bene Rohlmann is a look at 30 men, both living and dead, who have had an impact on the way that we look at men and our expectations of them. Many of these people are household names, but others have not made headlines outside their immediate areas, yet they have had an effect on the way that people think and behave and they have even changed the laws of the land. These people are from around the world and from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, which shows that everyone has the potential to be great. The illustrations are very bright and strong and are somewhat 1950s in style, making the work stand out from others. After so many books about strong females recently it is good to see a book that looks at broadening the range of biographies.
and gives us a double page spread of ‘big thinkers’ in that area and then it looks at the development of our knowledge. Subjects covered vary from the periodic table, animal classification, and astronomy to computers, big data, and renewable energy. Whilst this does not have an index it does have a good glossary which will help the readers understand the new terms thy come across.
told introduction to the life of Mary Shelley (as she became) and how she came to write one of the most enduring stories in English Literature. The illustrations are a tour de force by Julia Sarda and the sophisticated and highly stylized images really bring the text to life. This would make a really good introduction to the young reader who is about to read the story itself; it also works as a good basis for learning about ‘Gothic tales’ and their popularity at the beginning of the 19th Century.
and the family of toy rabbits called the Twitches. When Stevie and her mother move from their tower block flat she is given a wonderful and quaint dolls’ house, in the shape of a teapot. Included are all the furnishings and fitting and a complete library; most fantastic of all are the family of toy rabbits that inhabit the house. What Stevie does not know is that the rabbits magically come alive and when the father, Gabriel is lost in the garden during the furniture moving, it is up to the family and especially young Silver to find him and get him back home. It is a lovely story about the importance of home and family and I am looking forward to reading more of their adventures in the future.
politics, written for children, causes such a stir but this title has done exactly that. Whilst aimed at KS2 and above this is actually very suitable for adults who have not shown an interest in politics before. It is divided into six main chapters, covering everything from kinds of governments to some of the major ‘questions’ that people as, such as “what is terrorism?”It is a well laid out book and has been very well researched. It has also used a range of experts, from BBC reporters to MPs. I particularly like the section on how to hold a debate because it makes you think about different aspects of the discussion. It has a good index and glossary and is really recommended, both for school and for the home.
the poetry and in the illustrations. The premise it simple; it is an alphabetical list of terms associated with nature, that seem to be disappearing from everyday knowledge and usage. However the reality goes far beyond this, because each definition or description is a poem in its own right and the first letter of each line adds up to create the name of the subject matter. Jackie Morris’s illustrations are almost beyond description; they are sumptuous, lyrical, magical evocations of the world around us. This is one of those books that totally transcends the way we label books. It is something that can be read and pored over with a small child, but it also works as a wonderfully absorbing read for adults. It is possibly at the top of my non-fiction list for the last year.
“Where’s Jane” by Rebecca Smith and Katy Dockrill is a look at the novels of Jane Austen. It covers six of her most famous works and gives a very concise description of the stories. Each book is given a double page spread with details of the plot as well as a small vignette of the characters. There is also a double page of just illustration which shows scenes from the book and which has an element of “Where’s Wally as the reader has to find the character of Jane, as well as her Pug dog. there is a great deal of complexity in the illustrations, all of which show everyday activities of the period and give us a real sense of the time. What is particularly helpful is the slight change in the colour palette for each of the books, this creates a natural division between the sections and brings a different atmosphere to each story. As we commemorated the bicentenary of her death in 2017 this book seems particularly well times. It will be extremely useful, not only as an introduction to the books, but also a look at the social and cultural elements of life in the early 19th century. Definitely one for the KS2 classroom.
world around them and changed the way that we think. Some of these people are household names but many of them are not; however they have all been chosen to represent specific quality. the book is aimed at younger readers, from about 7 years upwards and it is heavily illustrated with bright and cheerful pictures. this introduction really whets the appetite and will hopefully lead young people to find out about the award winners in more detail.
have been produced in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Women’s suffrage. This one is aimed at a relatively young audience, the lower end of KS2 or even good readers who are slightly younger. The range of women cover the last four thousand years of our history from Ancient Egypt to the Russian Cosmonauts; whilst most of them are well known there are one or two who do not usually appear in such books and it is great to see this variation. It is a brightly illustrated book with plenty of information, but in bite-sized chunks and I am sure that readers will be encouraged to go ahead and find out more about the amazing women mentioned.
“Animal surprises:how to draw” by Nicola Davies and Abbie Cameron. Nicola Davies is one of the most well known and respected writers of narrative non-fiction for young people, with an emphasis on the natural world. This book is part of a series that she has written in collaboration with a young illustrator called Abbie Cameron. The idea is to show young people how to draw some of the creatures that are found in some of Nicola’s books, starting with “Animal Surprises”; this will be followed by other titles such as “The Word Bird” and “Into the Blue”. Each animal has a short half page description by Nicola but the main emphasis is on the building of the illustrations. It is aimed at the absolute beginner, using circles, ovals and lines to construct frameworks and then filling in the details. I feel as if even I could have a go at creating the animals shown.
“10 reasons to love a bear” is part of a series aimed at younger readers and which introduces them to some of their favourite creatures in the wild. There are double page spreads and just three or four lines of text on each page, so that it makes for a great book to read on a one to one basis. the facts act as a starting point for more in-depth searching. It is a very child friendly series and further titles include Whales and Elephants.