Month: August 2023

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The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm by Karen Foxlee and Freda Chiu

I began reading this book whilst drinking coffee at Paddington Station, nothing strange so far, but then as I got to the line about the strange screeching noise, it happened!

“It let out a screech that was wild and full of rage!  …….It was a noise that had not been heard for many years.”

Yes, there was a terrible noise reverberating through the station, it sounded like an angle grinder cutting through metal bars; given that there is building work in that area of the station I can only assume this was part of the building works.

The story is set in the small village of Woolington Well, where archaeologist  Professor Martin has been asked to excavate, prior to a shopping centre development.  Her daughter Mary-Kate has to accompany her, as it is the school holiday and her grandmother will be away on holiday.  this should have been a very simple job, but on arrival at the village, they are met by a series of strange events.  Why are saucers of milk outside most front doors and why are so many houses shut up?  Meeting the village librarian and Lord Woolington (Lord of the Manor) they are met with tales of a legendary beast called the Wyrm, although Lord W insists that it is all make believe.  Whilst her mother begins her work on the dig site, Mary-Kate and her new friend Arabella (daughter of Lord W) start investigating the history of the Wyrm and particularly the claim that it “likes children”.  What happens next really adds to the action and makes several people change their mind about the legend and whether there can be any truth in the tale.

Although this brilliant story is set in a very small village and has a very limited number of characters, it really does not lack in excitement, intrigue or action.  I love the map of the village and its surroundings, so that you can follow the action as it takes place.  But can someone tell me where the church is?  There is a cemetery, but no church building, so is there a story behind this omission?  We have a beautiful rural idyll and the idea of a huge shopping centre in the middle of the village is unthinkable.  In real life I think there would be outrage and the planners would hopefully stop it.  One of the things that the two girls did discover is that the legend of the Wyrm and the odd happenings only occur when work is being done to the Village Square and the Well, after which the village is named, so is there a link?

Mary-Kate Martin is someone that you can feel great empathy with.  She suffers from a great deal of anxiety and needs the comfort of her special treasures, including her globe stress ball and I have my own version of this, as you can see from the picture at the side.  She also needs the reassurance of things being balanced, even down to glittery shoes to go with the glittery bag.  Mary-Kate seems to display many feelings that we might understand as being neuro-diverse, yet she manages to overcome many of her anxieties when she really wants to find things out.  Her new friend Arabella is also a great support and although an outgoing, bouncy extrovert, she is willing to  listen to Mary-Kate and even follow her when needed.

A really interesting element of this story is that we don’t have a completely evil villain.  Both the Wyrm and Lord Woolington have reasons for their behaviour and it is just a matter of finding a way around these differences.  We also have  the relationships between both of the girls and their respective parents and it is good to see that they have  strong and positive connections; which enables them to feel they can get support when needed.  This is an absolute delight to read and I love Mary-Kate and how she copes with her worries; it really is a five star book.  Thank you Pushkin Press for inviting me  to be part of this celebration for such a great book and congratulations to Karen Foxlee for a fabulous new heroine.

I am delighted to say that when looking at the author’s web that there is a second title due out on 28th March 2024.  I have got my fingers crossed that it will be available for review.

 

 

The Author

Karen Foxlee is an Australian author who writes for both kids and grown-ups. She grew up in the outback mining town Mount Isa and still frequently dreams she is walking barefoot along the dry Leichhardt River there.

One of four children she started telling stories when she was young. She filled countless small exercise books with sweeping sagas of orphaned girls illustrated with pictures cut from the back of Reader’s Digest magazines.   

She has worked as an underground cable mapper, pool kiosk attendant, library assistant and hotel laundry hand and eventually became a registered nurse. All the while she never gave up her secret dream of becoming a writer. ….

Karen lives in South East Queensland with her daughter and several animals, including two wicked parrots, who frequently eat parts of her laptop when she isn’t looking. Her passions are her daughter, writing, day-dreaming, baking, running and swimming in the sea.

https://karenfoxlee.com/

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Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies by Alison D Stegert and Micaela Alcaino

We seem to have a fascination with young ladies who are actually detectives or spies and it is not something new; although I am compiling a blog post for some of the latest additions to the genre.  It goes back to characters such as Nancy Drew and I am sure that there are many more sleuths to be discovered.  Over the last few years we have been delighted by authors such as Katherine Woodfine, Robin Stevens, Laura Wood and Sarah Todd Taylor and I am happy to say that this new title is a perfect addition to this group of five star authors.  I also apologise to the many other authors who I have not named, but whose work I admire and will hopefully include in other blog posts.

Winifred Weatherby is determined to be an inventor and follow in her father’s footsteps.  Even though she is only fourteen she is already helping him and is even making significant improvements to some of his ideas.  However, when her father disappears, Winnie is determined to find him, even though she is in danger herself.  Then she is recruited to a secret organization of young women (housed at her school) and they are charged with trying to discover the identity of the mysterious “Mr Magpie”, who is threatening Queen Victoria.  What follows is a fantastically exciting adventure, with a multitude of twists and turns involving the two main interlinked plots. The only questions are who is Mr Magpie and what does he want to achieve with his the threat to the Queen, and can Winnie find her father (together with his invention called a ‘Telautograph’)?

This has proved to be an absolute delight to read.  It is full of intrigue and adventure and the fast pace of the action keeps the reader focused on what is going on; it is a real roller-coaster of a ride.  The characters are well-drawn and very individual; I particularly love Winnie and her feisty and determined attitude.  We also have the inclusion of members of the royal family, which allows for a little bit of fun in highlighting the often fraught relationships.  What really comes across is the attitude towards women and the belief that they are not capable of running their own lives and having much in the way of intelligent thought.  However, the central characters in this story totally disprove such antiquated and sexist ideas (although it still seem to survive to this day in some areas).  There is a real sense of female empowerment and a desire to prove that everyone should be able to follow their interests and skills.  Winnie’s fascination with science is particularly relevant in a period where scientific achievement is at the forefront of developing a modern world.  I do hope that we see further adventures for this intrepid group of young ladies as they are going to have a huge group of followers.

Alison D Stegert

Children’s Author
Alison writes stories of many genres for children of all ages, but historical fiction for readers aged 10 -14 is her sweet spot.

Born and raised in the US, Ali has long called Australia home. She’s lucky to live in Gabbi Gabbi Country, the beautiful Sunshine Coast.

Literary Agent Lucy Irvine of PFD Agency, London, represents Ali’s writing.

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Peril on the Atlantic (Mysteries at Sea) by A M Howell and Marco Guadalupi

Over the last few years I feel that we have seen a proliferation of stories about adventures on ships and trains.  It is not really surprising as these have been a favourite setting for crime novels ever since Hercule Poirot took a journey down the Nile and boarded the Orient Express.  It allows the author to work with a close knit group of characters and in a space that is limited, thus allowing them to create the necessary settings required for the action.  Although there have been many stories about The Titanic, I can’t remember any others written about this particular Grande Dame of the Sea.  Interestingly the ship was only finished because of a government loan, during the depression and a condition was that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line.  So in early 1936 RMS Queen Mary made her maiden voyage and then continued to cross the Atlantic until she was de-commissioned in 1967; she was a truly iconic vessel.

This rip roaring adventure centres around Alice, the daughter of the Staff Captain on board the new ship.  She unexpectedly finds herself on board the vessel during the school holidays and is looking forward to having fun, discovering her way around.  However, she is told that she has to stay in her cabin or on the crew decks, reading books and doing her needlework.  Even in the 1930s this would not have been agreeable to a strong-willed and headstrong young girl.  Of course Alice sneaks out to explore and accidentally finds herself a witness to an attempted murder.  As a result of this, she makes friends with Sonny, Miriam (both young passengers) and Charlie, a young member of the crew.  They decide to investigate the incident and soon find themselves caught up in all kinds of skulduggery and criminal activity.  While the adults are concerned with trying to win the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, the young people are finding links to this and the other happenings on the ship.  Can the children solve the mysteries and will justice be served?

What a fantastically complex web the author has managed to create.  There are several threads which interweave their way through the book and it is only at the end that we understand the full complexity of the tale.  The setting of the story is beautifully described, but I think it is the unwritten class differences that resonate  when you have the interaction between so many characters and in such a relatively small and confined space; there is also the reference to Nazi Germany, as Miriam’s family are  escaping persecution by moving to America.  Above all this is a wonderfully exciting and fast paced adventure story,but it also has many lessons to show us, about family and friendship.  I really can’t wait for the next adventure, which sees the main characters involved in royal intrigue and a new setting in the Mediterranean.

About A.M. Howell

photo credit to Tom Soper

A.M. Howell has always been inspired by the stories around her, and how imagination can unlock the secrets of the past. Her thrilling historical mysteries have garnered great critical acclaim, winning both the Mal Peet Children’s Book Award, and the East Anglian Book of the Year Award, as well as being shortlisted for lots of other prizes and consistently being reviewed in the national press. A.M. Howell lives in Suffolk with her husband and two sons.

Since her 2019 debut The Garden of Lost Secrets, A.M. Howell has fast cemented herself as a stand-out author of thrilling middle-grade historical fiction. She has enjoyed widespread critical acclaim, twice being afforded the prestigious Times Children’s Book of the Week slot, and with The Telegraph calling her “a hypnotically readable writer, who keeps the pulse racing”, as well as prize wins and strong sales.

A.M. Howell is the recipient of the Mal Peet Children’s Award for The House of One Hundred Clocks which was also the overall winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year Award, the first time a children’s book has won this prize, whose past recipients include Sarah Perry.

After hearing about the discovery of a 100-year-old gardener’s notebook at the National Trust’s Ickworth House in Suffolk, A.M. Howell found herself wondering who it could have belonged to, and so The Garden of Lost Secrets was born. She continues to be inspired by the stories around her, and how imagination can unlock the secrets of the past. Her new series, Mysteries at Sea is inspired by her own childhood travels on ships.

After completing a BA and MA at the University of Manchester, A.M. Howell now writes policy documents for local government. In 2015, she was one of 15 writers selected to take part in the Curtis Brown Creative Writing for Children Course, tutored by children’s author Catherine Johnson.

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Once Chance Dance by Efua Traore

In the last few years we have begun to see a growth in the number of diverse books of all kinds being published, but this is still a very small part of the scene in this country.  Books written by people of colour are beginning to be published, but we still have a long way to go.  It seems appropriate that as I am writing this post, the Diverse Book Awards longlists are being announced.  I have to say that I can imagine this book being part of the longlist next year and I hope that it achieves this.

The author, Efua Traore has been at the forefront of the movement to show us the way that people live in Africa (in this case it is Nigeria), but through the authentic voice of children who live in the villages and cities.  I have been a fan ever since I read her first book, “Children of the Quicksands” and she continues to delight with her characters and her descriptive settings.

This is the story of Jomi, who has been living with his aunt and uncle, after his mother left for Lagos, in order to get a job and then come back for Jomi.  However, after three years she has not returned and he thinks that she has forgotten him.  When circumstances show him some letters from his mother, after developers start digging up the land around his village, he knows this is not the case and decides that he has to try and find her in Lagos.  The problem is that Lagos is the most populated city in Africa (Wikipedia) and how do you find someone in a city of over 26 million when you don’t have an address to go on?  Luckily Jomi is helped by a group of young street children, led by the feisty Tanks and looked after by ‘Aunty Bisi’, a nurse who is providing shelter and food for the young ones.  But the issue is still ‘how to find his mother?’ Then Jomi has a brainwave, his mother avidly watches a dance programme on TV, so if he and the others can get on the show, she will see him and know where he is.  Will Jomi succeed and can there actually be a happy ending for him and his new friends?

The author has created a stunning and  heartbreaking story that resonates in so many ways.  The themes of homelessness and modern slavery are shocking and we know they are happening across the world.  If you then add in the destruction of farmland and forests it makes for a situation that seems almost unbearable.  What makes this into an ultimately positive and hopeful story is the attitude of the central characters.  Despite all of the tribulations that they suffer, they still manage to retain a sense of optimism and a determination to make their lives better.  I really cannot recommend this enough, it is amazing and deserves all the accolades that I am sure it is going to receive in the future.

The Author

Efua Traoré is a Nigerian-German author who grew up in a small town in Nigeria. For as long as she can remember, her head was filled with little stories, but it was not until much later that she began to write them down.

Apart from Nigeria, she has also lived in France and Germany and she writes in English and in German. If she had her way, she would travel much more and write every single day.

Efua won the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa with her short story ‘True Happiness’ and she is a literature grant holder of the Munich Literaturreferat. Children of the Quicksands is her debut novel which won the Times / Chicken House Prize in 2019.

She lives in Munich with her husband and three daughters.

Photo credit belongs to Boubacar Traoré.   Thanks to the Chicken House website

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