diversity

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Son of the Sea by Richard Pickard

It is always exciting to read a second book by an author, especially if you have really enjoyed their first book.  I was lucky enough to be part of the blog tour for Richard’s first book in August 2021 and he wrote a short entry for me, all about his influences and where he writes.  He spoke about the outline that he was writing for his second book, so it is fantastic to see all of his hard work come to fruition.  You can see this first blog entry  by searching”Peculiar tale of the Tentacle Boy”

The hero in this story is called Caspar and he has a dream that he can swim the channel before his 12th birthday.  The only problem is that he is now more than 11 years old and his parents ban him from going anywhere near the water.  Despite this he finds ways of swimming, whether it is in the local ponds or even the water feature at the shopping centre.  However things are about to change dramatically; following a freak accident at the local supermarket both of Caspar’s parents end up in hospital (they were run over by a giant wheel of cheese!) and Caspar is sent to the seaside town of Corallium, where his unknown grandmother lives.  This is not the last of the surprises that he comes across in the next few days.  Corallium is the home of his absolute hero, Beryl the Bazooka and he not only meets her, but finds out that she was his grandma’s wife, until they fell out.  Then Caspar discovers that sea swimming is very different from being in a small pond and after he nearly drowns, Beryl volunteers to train him.  The record that Caspar is trying to break has stood for 60 years and every person under the age of 12 who has attempted the crossing, has been struck down by a ‘curse’; so will our hero overcome all the obstacles in his way?  With the help of his new friend Wynn, he is determined to follow his destiny.

Underpinning this whole story is the enormous secret that Caspar has been hiding for all of his life, as his parents are scared he will be treated as a freak; both of his feet are webbed, with skin between each of his toes.  The question is whether this has anything to do with the ancient legend that Corallium was once a city under the sea.  This is a story about keeping secrets and the impact that it can have on relationships and also how we feel about ourselves. This very much applies to the relationship between his grandmother Ida and Beryl, but it also is central to the way Caspar, his parents and grandma also interact.  We have a multilayered story where the events of the past still impact on the lives of people today and it is so sad to see that some characters are trying to hang on to past glories, rather than trying to support a new generation in their attempts.  The author has managed to combine both humour (in the guise of Wynn’s archaeologist father) and pathos, particularly when we see the anguish of those who have failed to achieve their dreams because of the so-called ‘curse’.  However, the ending is particularly uplifting and I gave a quiet cheer as people finally admitted to things they had kept hidden and then discovered that they were not alone, in fact they were part of a community that had been hiding in plain sight.  I have read this book twice and it is one of those enchanting stories that you know you will go back to in the future.  Congratulations to Richard on this lovely book.

 

https://www.richard-pickard.com/bio  to find out more about the author and his work.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicken House; 1st edition (11 May 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1913696726
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 – 12 years
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The Butterfly Club: The Ship of Doom by M A Bennett

Welbeck Publishing, 9781801300049

Like many millions of people around the world, I have been a fan of time travel stories since I was a child.  Tales such as “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Phillipa Pearce”, “The Ghosts” by Antonia Barber” and  “The Gauntlet” by Ronald Welch” introduced my generation to the possibilities of movement in time.  This sub-genre has become increasingly popular in the last generation or so and a basic search on websites such as Waterstones and Amazon will give you a plethora of titles for a wide range of age groups.  However there is one element that most of these books share, namely that the characters tend to find themselves going backwards in time and only a few authors have taken the heroes forward into an unknown future.  This new series manages to find a compromise with this situation, so read on, to find out how it was done.

The Butterfly Club is the title of the series and it gets its name from a premise that  states “if a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, then there will be a much larger event happening on the other side of the world”  Basically, it is a case of “Cause and Effect” and although I can’t think of many titles that use this construct, a brilliant example of its use is “Mortal Chaos” by Matt Dickinson.  M A Bennett has used this idea to bring together a group of adults, many of them well-known, who are part of a secret organization that has managed to ‘discover’ the secret of time travel.  The young people at the centre of the events find themselves there because of their family links to the club.  Luna is living with her aunt, due to the ‘disappearance’ of her father; Konstantin is the son of a German member of the group, and Aidan is the son of an Irish engineer.  Whilst the story starts in 1894, the children are asked to travel forward to 1912, in order to ‘steal’ information about a new discovery called a “wireless radio” by Guglielmo Marconi.  they arrive at Southampton and manage to stow away  (with the time machine) on board a very fine vessel, one of the White Star Line ships.  By this point most of the readers will be getting a real sense of trepidation, which is only confirmed as the trio discover the name of their vessel, it is RMS Titanic!

What follows is a mix of an exciting adventure story as the intrepid children try to find the wireless, together with a traumatic build up to the events that befell the ship, crew and passengers.  The author uses the time machine to allow the children to re-live the day prior to the iceberg, so that they can try and prevent some of the small events, which then ended up having a profound impact on what happened.  On each occasion their attempts seem to be thwarted by a sinister figure, with a watch face in place of one eye; but who is he and what is his motivation in wanting the ship to meet its doom?

This is a fabulous read, with some fascinating sub-plots that will resonate with many readers.  The fact that they can only travel between their own time and 1969, means that they are limited in where they can visit.  However the additional premise, that the purpose of the club is to find more modern technologies and bring them to the 19th century, means that there is plenty of opportunity for adventure and even danger.  What we do discover is that each of the young people has a secret and as they gradually become friends they are able to share these secrets with the others.  It will be fascinating to see how these issues play out in the coming stories, but what I can say is that the friendships are only strengthened as the young people learn to support each other.

This is a stunning start to a new series and I cannot wait for the next title in the series “The Mummy’s Curse”; as a fan of Ancient Egypt since childhood this is going to be right up my street.  I am willing to bet that a certain pharaoh might be at the centre of this story, especially as 2022 celebrates the centenary of his tomb being discovered.  Thank you to Welbeck for allowing me to include this excerpt from the book, in order to further whet your appetite.

The Ship of Doom (The Butterfly Club series) by M.A. Bennett (£6.99, Welbeck Children’s) available now.

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Nisha’s War by Dan Smith

For someone who watched the full series of ‘Tenko’ as a young person, this subject matter brings back many memories.  For those who are far too young to have watched the original programmes, Tenko is the story of the fall of Singapore and the imprisonment of women and children by the Japanese; the name tenko means “roll-call” in Japanese.  It caused quite a stir at the time, because of its portrayal of the prison camps, the  social class system and the racism towards non-European prisoners.  The war in the far-east has received far less attention than the war in Europe, or even the final assault on the main Japanese islands.  This conflict in Malaya and Burma has been considered “the forgotten war” and yet the suffering is almost beyond comprehension; both for the European middle classes and especially for the general population of these countries.  This is a period that deserves to be remembered and the people appreciated for what they suffered.

The story begins in 1942 when Nisha and her mother arrive at grandmother’s island home in the north east of England; they are fleeing their horrific experiences during the fall of Singapore to the Japanese.  Nisha’s mother suffers an attack of malaria and her life hangs in the balance.  Nisha is desperately worried about her mother, but also about her missing father, when she meets a mysterious boy in the garden.  No one else seems to know the boy and we gradually realize that he is a ghost, who is linked to the old tree that he sits under. He offers to help her mother and father, if Nisha will find three ‘truths’ in the house.   How she tries to do this (without knowing what they are) and how she solves some long-standing mysteries makes for an exciting and yet heart-rending story.

This is an absolutely stand out story with wonderful characters and a magical and yet truly believable story.  Nisha is such a strong yet vulnerable character, who has been through many traumas.  She has a mixed heritage family, with an English father and an Indian mother, and  although her father’s job has shielded her from racial discrimination, she finds that in England many of the people are far more wary and even hostile. The story is told with two separate ‘voices’, both of them showing the different aspects of Nisha’s life.   We have the contrast between the main narrative, set in an England still beset by German raids, rationing and a sense of exhaustion with the war;  then we have  the journal that Nisha keeps (of what happened in Singapore), which really highlights the trauma that she has suffered and her very close escape from death by drowning.  There are many twists and turns along the way and we see how she is haunted by her experiences, but gradually she is able to find her place in her new community and build a relationship with her very formidable grandmother.

This is proving to be one of my highlights of the year, so far.  It is a story that lingers in the mind and makes you appreciate the challenges that previous generations faced, and that people in many countries are still facing.  I hope that this will help young people understand the past and hopefully want to find out more about less well known conflicts.  This story has ‘award nomination’ written all over it and I am sure it will appear in some lists over the coming year or so.

The Author

I first came across Dan’s work when I was asked to review a book of his called “Big Game”, which was a great read.  It is safe to say that the author has gone from strength to strength.

“Growing up, Dan Smith led three lives. In one he survived the day-to-day humdrum of boarding school, while in another he travelled the world, finding adventure in the padi fields of Asia and the jungles of Brazil. But the third life he lived in a world of his own, making up stories . . . Which is where some people say he still lives most of the time.

Dan writes for both children and adults”