Uclan, 9781912979769
It is so delightful to see the growth in the number and quality of books for the younger reader. There was a time when it felt as if it was only reading schemes that were available. thankfully this is no longer the case.
This is the first in a series of stories featuring the young witch Autumn Moonbeam and her love of all things to do with dancing. This young heroine really want to make a success of her dancing, but she is unfortunately one of those people who are always accident prone. she hopes that she will eventually make it big and her real wish is to be accepted into a dance team. When her friend Leif, who attends
Sparkledale Dance Academy, brings a flyer into school, Autumn gets very excited; the Academy is about to hold trials for young people to try out for their competitive dance team, The Black Cats. However, Autumn’s nasty neighbour Severina is also determined to make the team and she is willing to go to great lengths to achieve her end, even putting a spell on Autumn that turns her into a black cat. The question is, will our heroine achieve her dream?
What a delightful story that will really resonate with so many young children. The characters are at that age where they are wanting to branch out and do things, but they are also very vulnerable and worried about whether they can fulfill their dreams. It is great to see a story where the friends and adults are all very supportive and even the ‘nasty’ Severina is made to understand the consequences of her behaviour and starts to mend her ways. It is a great read for fans of series such as Amelia Fang and Leonora Bolt.
I admit to really loving books about magic, witches, and the mythology surrounding the Fae folk. This belief in the fairy people has its roots in Celtic myths, as far as I know and you can forget any thoughts of pretty little fairies with tinsel and wings. The characters in this story are human sized, powerful and have a very strong dislike for humans, although they have a fondness for young children and often kidnap them. In the land of fae there are also creatures ranging from goblins to pookhas, all of which are a danger or at least an irritation to the human world.
protect the ‘Hedge’, a dense wood that creates a barrier between the human and faery worlds. It seems that creatures are trying to break through the barrier and they have been stealing children to take them back to sell to the ‘Lords and Ladies’ as the Fae are called. Cassie finds that life has become very complicated; not only is she is starting lessons at the witch version of the girl guides, trying to navigate between several friends and getting to know her new family, but above all she is trying to find clues about her mother’s disappearance. As you can see from the brilliant map, this is a small and tightly knit community, but it is still wonderful to be able to visualize it in this way. There are also some marvellous illustrations throughout the book.
seem possible for the general population. But is everything really better?
There is something quite fascinating about pirates and even ex-pirates; the stories have been sparking the imagination of readers both young and old for many years. As a child my first encounter with the idea was watching episodes of ‘Captain Pugwash’ on the television and then later on discovering the wonders of ‘Treasure Island’. If I thought really hard about it, I am sure that there were other pirates in books, but I definitely remember those to be found in the swashbuckling adventures of actors such as Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster; Sunday afternoon was full of old films that kept us happy on a cold winter’s day. Today we have the whole range of films such as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘The Goonies’, as well as a host of books for all ages. As a librarian for a School Library Service I was constantly being asked for collections of titles about pirates and whilst there are lot of amazing titles about real-life buccaneers, it is also fantastic to be able to create imaginary worlds with a wide range of characters. This would definitely have been part of my collection at work..
the cabin boy aboard the vessel “The Black Hound” , but the crew are not what you might expect. They are all ex-pirates and have become ‘Pirate Investigators’ who help retrieve stolen treasure. This second adventure sees them asked to retrieve a precious gold goblet that has been stolen from Fergus McSwaggers, the chief of one of the clans in the Boglands; the only problem is that he is the brother of the cook on board the ‘Black Hound’ and they have not spoken for quite a while. The plot deepens as they try and discover who has stolen the goblet. The consensus is that it was probably a giant cat-like creature called the Mogdrod, that is feared but rarely seen and is said to love shiny things. When Flyntlock, his friend Red and the rest of the crew are captured by Gretel the Sea Witch, they discover that Mogdrod is her ‘Kitty’ and that she had taken the goblet. To further complicate the story, the treasure is then taken by the Ice Pirates and it is up to the crew to rescue it again.
Derek Keilty lives in Belfast and is the author of over ten books for children. His work has been translated into many different languages, selected for the Richard and Judy Club and shortlisted for the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year.
Mark Elvins lives in Yorkshire. When he’s not drawing pirates he’s a print-maker and recently won an English Heritage competition to illustrate the displays at Whitby Abbey.
What a really great concept for a story. The heroine, Morgana is a witch and lives in a world that has divided into the magical community and the non-magic; the latter have become a highly technical society and robots are used in order to do all of the more menial tasks in life. The main problem is the absolute dislike that the two societies have for each other, it really is a case of “Ne’er the twain shall meet”. The only reason that the magical community visits the city is to get supplies from the small magical community, who live in the ‘undercity’ and are looked down on by the non-magic. Morgana is definitely different and has a fascination for robots; her magical abilities are nearly non-existent and she really wants to go to school. When her father takes her on one of his trip to the city she is delighted and together with her friend Esther she makes several secret visits to the metropolis. A turning point comes when school inspectors arrive in the village and she demands that she be allowed to attend school, something unheard of in the past. The consequences not only put her at odds with her community, but it also puts her life at risk, when she and her new friend Jonathan find that robots have been changed and are ready to take over the world.
When you read that a book was instrumental in giving J R.R Tolkien the inspiration for his Hobbits, then it is time to get excited. The plot of the story is similar to frameworks that we have become used to over the last decades. The two main characters Pip and Flora are orphans and both find themselves living in a somewhat unusual orphanage. The owner, Miss Watkyns, is strict but the children are well looked after. However when a strange woman tries to kidnap Flora, the two children decide to run away and hide. They then accidentally pass through a magical door and find themselves in the land of the Snergs; these are small rather round individuals who have a love of eating cake and other sweet things. Our first introduction to these characters is through the person of Gorbo, who ends up being central to the whole story and helps the children navigate the strange world they find themselves in. The children soon discover that Flora is the target of a rather nasty witch called Mrs Meldrum, but the reason for this is unclear; however she turns out to be the same person who had tried to kidnap Flora at the beginning of the story. How they solve the mystery and save themselves and others from a terrible fate makes for a really tremendous adventure.
original version of the book is still in print and it is still possible to buy both an audio and e-book version. The original author would have appeared to be a bit of an adventurer in his youth but he started writing children’s books after World War I, perhaps as a respite from the horrors of war. the original book has been written with a slightly older audience in mind and the text is much fuller, with quite long sections of description and explanation. However it would be a great choice for avid readers who want to see how a story can have more than one way of being told.