Nothing better to do, I suppose. Rhodd found that most frogs she had met tended to be of a lugubrious, melancholy disposition.
I think I owe everyone a bit of an apology. I haven’t reviewed any books for some time and usually I do a run down of books that you should have / should buy for Christmas – a bit of a failure on that front. I caught some sort of bug…but that’s all history and this, this is a brand new (almost) year….
This is Penny Chrimes’ new book – as always her books are a little different. This about a young girl from the marshlands and her friend. She’s a bit of an outsider she’s different… and lives with her ‘Mum’ on the outskirts of the village. It used to be beautiful there…but the marsh has engulphed the river. No-one travels from there any more. No-one leaves by boat…
Penny’s books often have curious and wonderful elements and so it is with this – a wonderful ending, though not one you will expect…
A book of wildness and nature…not to be missed.
It is out on the 16th of February – put your orders in now to avoid disappointment!
Don’t miss her other titles…The Dragon and her Boy and Tiger Heart…this though, could be, her best yet.
‘Above it all echoed the cries of a preacher, all trussed up in black with a face like a dying duck in a thunderstorm…’
I so wish I had the ability to turn a phrase like Penny Chrimes does. In this and Tiger Heart. Both volumes are filled to the gizzard with wonderful lines, phrases and language. This adventure, I have to say, I think is better than Tiger Heart, but that isn’t to say that isn’t a fine book – just make sure you read both. You may not agree. Probably best to read Tiger Heart first – there’s a character in that referred to in this.
‘The fools blamed it on a burned pudding! Or a Frenchman. I don’t know which was more insulting!’
Well, in a way the title gives the story – The Dragon and her Boy – but what a tale this is. Again set in that period that mixes Georgian and Victorian elements, as was so well described in Tiger Heart.
Gutterlings and joskins are being snaffled, snabbled and yaffled – it’s a very hard life being a gutterling. More so at the start of this adventure. The temperature is rising, the toffs are leaving town for the country and there’s little in the way of maw-wallop, let alone, those bags of mystery – snossidges.
‘They were just children…little children…just morsels really…a mere moment in the mouth! So sweet! Like sugared almonds.’
Then the earth starts to tremor – all sorts of rumours start – it’s Old Nick, Old Bendy, Old Scratch – that old cove below stairs ‘what they calls the Devil.’ It’s amazing how wrong you can be.
An adventure that mixes palaeontology, dragons (you can’t go wrong with dinosaurs and dragons, though they are very different creatures), bravery, friendship, some very unpleasant people out for what they can get and a young group of gutterlings; these last set against seemingly impossible odds. What more could you want. Oh, if I could write like this!
A MUST buy.’
‘He told me that he once ate the heart of a saint, which had been kept locked up for centuries as a relic at the village church. Tasted like well-hung game, he said. Apparently the priest was most put-out.‘
Almost forgot – SUPERBLY illustrated by Levente Szabo too….really not to be missed….Pages 156 & 157 have a fantastic double spread picture…
A note to publishers. At one point one of the characters asks two questions, in quick succession: ‘Where have you been?’ and ‘How dare you leave me!’ The first is a question and should only have a question mark. The second, should only have an exclamation mark. Neither should have both. The reader – of all ages are able to know how intense the question and exclamation are and are able to put the right inflexion to the words. It is not necessary to put both. Particularly if they are printed in Upper Case. Inaccurate and misleading. It seems to be something that publishers of Children’s books are becoming much too prone to do. Give your readers the credit they are due and don’t confuse their English. Thank you.
This was my ONLY disappointment with this fantastic book.
This debut novel was one I picked up at work as the cover attracted me to it when it came into the store a few days ago. Sadly I wasn’t sent a proof – otherwise this would have been read and reviewed well before publication.
This is rather different – set in a period that is a curious mix of Georgian and Victorian history. Which you would think would be confusing, however, it isn’t – it’s rather an interesting merge of the two. Filled with characters – a young chimney sweep falls down into what should have been a normal room, in a normal residential house, and finds herself in a cage – set against the fireplace which contains a rather large
tiger…
This is full of colour. Fly attempts to escape (without returning up the chimney – for reasons you will understand if you read her story), and what is more she decides to try to return the tiger to the wild. It’s a story of freedom & equanimity; from avarice, captivity, bondage, and slavery. It’s a roaring, brilliant tale.
Part and parcel, and dare I say beauty of this story – this peculiarly hybrid Georgian and Victorian adventure, is the patois used between Fly and her cullies. For those more unused to the phrases there is a guide to their gutterling…at the back, however, it isn’t necessary to keep referring to it – the story flows without interruption. It is though, a pleasure to read once the story has been finished and should be a source of amusement and perhaps will help such phrases and words such as half-inching, snaffle, termagant, varmint and addlepated to be more widely used…
This is marvellous. It is proper slumdinger of a story with just the right of sorrow and joy mixed…
It reminded me of another book I read some years ago (but don’t seem to have reviewed, for which apologies) – The Boy with the Tiger’s Heart, by Linda Coggin – I think I must have read it before I started this blog. If you like tigers…then this is another for you…
Sue & Pakka's... 