He Says ... She Says ..., written by Anne Fine, Illustrated by Gareth Conway, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This easy to read Barrington Stoke story in short chapters and with fun illustration delivers a very good joke. That joke is pitched at just the right level for middle of primary school age children for whom nothing is funnier than adults being proven to be fallible. 

Siblings Harry and Skye dread spending time with Gran because they’ve been brought-up on Dad’s stories of how strict she’s always been. No treats to eat, no being lazy, lots of chores set, and more. But, actually, Gran proves to have similar tastes to themselves, wanting time on her computer, enjoying pizza and ice-cream. When they get home again, they play the same game as Dad, telling their parents of out the chores done for Gran etc, so their parents give them pizza and ice cream for supper as well! ‘Don’t spoil it,’ Harry tells Skye. ‘This way, they feel so sorry for us that we always get our favourite supper when we get home.’ A win for the kids! 

DECEMBER'S AUTHOR by Sharon Tregenza

ANNE FINE

Anne Fine was born on 7th DECEMBER 1947 in Leicester, England. She went to Northampton High School and studied politics at the University of Warwick. She taught in a girl's secondary school  and then moved to Oxford where she worked as an Information Officer for Oxfam.

In 1971 her first daughter Ione was born. One day, when a snowstorm prevented her from going to the library, in desperation she started to write a novel. Her list of books for children and adults has been growing ever since.

She works in absolute silence, mostly on computer but often with pencil and paper, in bed early in the morning or travelling on trains.

Her interest in politics shows up in many of her books. She raises quite serious social issues even in her books for younger children. Try 'Bill's New Frock' or 'The Chicken Gave it to me' but she also loves writing issue free comedy books that make her, and everyone else, laugh. Try 'The More the Merrier' and 'Trouble in Toadpool'. 

She was awarded the OBE in 2003.

Five facts about Anne Fine:

* She was Children's Laureate from 2001 to 2003.

* She would really like to be a good singer.

* She doesn't plot her books before she starts to write them.

* She's written over 50 books.

* She enjoys reading in the bath.

www.sharontregenza.com

sharontregenza@gmail.com

Getting Rid of Mum: Books With Single Parent Dads in Children's Fiction - Emma Barnes

I wasn't sure why I created a family without a mother when I wrote Wild Thing. I've nothing against mothers. I've a very nice one of my own. Many of my best friends are mothers. Not to put too fine a point on it, I AM a mother. It wasn't something I thought about at the time. Kate and Wild Thing just didn't happen to have a mum. They had a dad looking after them instead.

interior from Wild Thing Gets A Dog - copyright Jamie Littler

I think a lot of the reasons writers choose something are unconscious. Afterwards, bringing a more deliberate analysis to bear, the reasons become clearer. So now I've no doubt that the reason I got rid of Kate and Wild Thing's mother was because I wanted as much mayhem as possible. I planned these to be funny, chaotic books. Although I hate to admit it, I suspect that's easier without Mum.

Single Parent Families featuring Dad have a lot of advantages to a writer. Somehow, it seems entirely natural for dad to be fun and quirky, to be a lousy cook, and to forget about things like the start of term, or a child's need for new socks. Of course, mothers are quite capable of forgetting these things too. (Well, I am.) But it strains the credulity of a reader more. (Or it's just harder as a writer to break that “responsible, boring Mum,” stereotype.) So maybe writing about a Single Dad is the best way of writing about the chaos and mishaps which are, if truth be told, absolutely normal in all families everywhere.

Here are some children's books featuring single dads.

Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

Danny adores his dad, and together they have crazy adventures – would a fictional mother have been allowed to be so irresponsible, and yet so loveable?

The Summer House Loon by Anne Fine

Ione's dad Professor Muffett is an absent-minded academic, preoccupied with his research into “Early Sardinian trade routes”. He is also blind. An entirely sympathetic character, it is not surprising that a certain amount of chaos flourishes in their household in this witty, sophisticated book. A really fun read for a certain kind of teenager – the kind that doesn't want angst, but some comedy instead.

The Penderwicks  by Jeanne Birdsall

Another absent-minded professor, Mr Penderwick is left to bring up his four daughters when his wife dies, in a book which is a bit like a more modern version of Little Women, but with a dad replacing “Marmee”.

Rooftoppers by Katharine Randell

This prize-winning book features...another academic single dad. (Hmm, beginning to detect a bit of a trend.)   Charles is the foster father to Sophie, who is an orphan from a shipwreck. He is absent-minded and eccentric and he and Sophie eat off books rather than plates, their bizarre house-keeping getting them into trouble with social services. It's rather whimsical but also very appealing.

The Longest Whale Song by Jacqueline Wilson

And finally...you can rely on Jacqueline Wilson to be a bit more down-to-earth, and although she's written several books with single dads, I don't think any of them are absent-minded academics. What is especially nice about this one, is that it features the relationship between a girl and her stepfather, forced to work as a team when the mother enters a dangerous coma after her baby's birth. Ella's stepfather is far kinder and more responsible than her biological father, and once again Wilson shows that a successful family can come in all shapes and sizes.

Please tell me your favourite single dad stories...with or without absent-minded professors.

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Emma's Wild Thing series for 8+ about the naughtiest little sister ever. (Illustrated by Jamie Littler)
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
(Illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark)
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The Perfect Christmas Book by Emma Barnes

Forgive me, those who don’t like to think about Christmas in November. But this is my last post this year and I’m going to use it to think about what makes the perfect Christmas book. 

A shiny cover is not enough. Nor is a Christmas theme necessarily what you want, although some subjects do crop up time and again – Nativity plays for example, have inspired some great stories. And sometimes a lack of Christmas cheer is somehow more Christmassy (who can forget the present-less start to Little Women? Or Laura Ingalls Wilder and her beloved, homely, home-made rag doll?)  And where Christmas does feature it can be the downright ghastliness of it all that produces the best read (that’s the case with several of my choices below). 

But beyond that, what’s really wanted is atmosphere. I’ve only written one book myself, Wolfie, that I consider truly “Christmassy”, and it’s less because the action culminates in the Christmas holidays, and an exchange of presents, than because it contains deep woods, snow, church clocks chiming midnight and wolves – all of these elements associated in my mind with timeless winter, and therefore Christmas. 

So here are my top Christmas reads for all ages – full of snowy woods, Nativity plays and festive ghastliness. But I’m well aware they reflect my own prejudices, and my own childhood favourites. Which ones have I missed? Which would you recommend? 

Father Christmas - by Raymond Briggs. 

 

 Brigg’s Father Christmas is definitely of the “Christmas is ghastly” school of thought. Grumpy and curmudgeonly, he mutters “Blooming Christmas! Blooming reindeer!” as he struggles through the snow. With the minimum of words, Briggs has produced something both funny and beautiful that all ages can enjoy.

 The Killer Cat’s Christmas – by Anne Fine.

Anne Fine is good at disastrous families, and her anti-hero, Tuffy the Cat, is a wonderful invention. So a book about Tuffy’s Christmas, centring as it does on one of the most ghastly aspects of Christmas for many people – visiting relations – is bound to be hilarious. Bad Cat Tuffy relates his own story, and the succession of disasters that led to him spending Christmas locked in the garage. Aimed at newly independent readers, it’s a read that will be enjoyed by almost anyone. 

Lucy and Tom’s Christmas by Shirley Hughes

 Here it's the pictures that evoke a truly marvellous atmosphere, especially when the over-excited Tom goes for a calming walk with Grandpa.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

 

This is an absolute humdinger of a book – a comic classic in the US, where is spawned a film, but hardly known in the UK. The Herdmann children are every kind of ghastly and when they take over the annual Christmas Pageant at the Presebyterian Church disaster is sure to follow. But despite all the mishaps, the result is a truly moving triumph – and the book goes to the core of Christmas, I feel, but in the least sloppy, yet most heartfelt way.

 End of Term by Antonia Forest

This book is out of print, and also a school story – with a fair amount of the action concerned with netball and other non-Christmas matters. But bear with me - it contains the most beautifully written account of a Nativity Play I have ever read. Antonia Forest never won the acclaim in her life-time that she deserved, but her superb writing is well worth savouring at any age – if you can afford the price of the book, that is, for those in the know are prepared to pay high prices for her. 

The Hobbit – by JRR Tolkien. 

OK, so with the movie out in December, it’s not just me who is going to think this classic tale of Bilbo Baggin’s adventures the perfect Christmas read. But it is. Christmas plays no part in Tolkien’s mythology of MiddleEarth (unlike C.S.Lewis’s Narnia – see below) but it’s got the right atmosphere, in spades. Who could question that this tale of lost treasure, wolves, winter, and dragons makes for a perfect fireside story, while nibbling on some Christmas cake? 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

Supposedly Tolkien didn’t approve of his friend C.S. Lewis introducing Father Christmas into a book which already contained such diverse elements as fauns and centaurs straight out of the Greek myths, and talking beasts. It may lack consistency, but it works beautifully: the woods, the wolf secret police, the lamplight shining on the snow, the mothball-smelling fur coats, and the sardines for tea. And then there comes the sledge-ride, and the arrival of Spring... 

And finally, unbeatable I reckon for a Christmas atmosphere - 

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper 

A fantasy story, in which young Will discovers that he is one of the “Old Ones” who must battle the Dark, it takes place in rural Berkshire, close by Windsor, and despite the fact that Cooper’s mythology is inspired by a rather Celtic version of King Arthur, is full of the rituals of a traditional Christmas season. There is a wonderful carol service in a tiny rural church, a carol-singing expedition, but best of all is when the snow begins to descend, deeper and ever-deeper, and the village takes refuge in the ancient Greythorne Manor on Christmas day... 

Cooper wrote this book after emigrating to the US, and I can’t help feeling that it is shot through with nostalgia for a place and a childhood world she had left far behind. I also can’t help finding echoes of another great Christmassy classic, The Box of Delights by John Masefield.

So, which Christmas read have I forgotten?  Which is your favourite? 

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Emma Barnes's latest book is Wolfie

Sometimes A Girl's Best Friend Is ...A Wolf.

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