Dance of Resistance, The Josephine Baker Story, written by Catherine Johnson, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

    This is an astonishing story, all the more powerful for being true. 

    Catherine Johnson has already published with Barrington stoke two compelling stories of the lives of two pioneering black men, Olaudah Equiano who achieved freedom from slavery and recorded his own story, and Mathew Henson the Arctic explorer. Now we have the story of the breathtakingly brilliant and surprising black woman dancer, comic, actor, singer, spy Josephine Baker, here telling her own story.

    What a story it is! Wonderfully suited to a child readership because Josephine's huge show-business ambitions began in childhood, as did significant events that made her the woman she became. She became a live in maid with responsibility for a baby at the age of seven! Ran away from a sexually predatory boss at the age of thirteen ... then got married at that same age, and married again at fifteen! But all this time she would spend any money she could on going to see shows, and discovered that dancing in the street to ragtime music coming from a bar could earn her an audience and sometimes money. 

    We sweep on through a career of boldness and originality, wit, determination, hard work, a complex private life, and travel. You can look on Youtube to see Josephine in her glorious and daring costumes dancing her heart out. 

    But underlying all that is the stark realities of racial segregation in Josephine's home country, America. Even at the height of her fame, hugely rich and famous as lead attraction at Paris' Folies Bergere, a visit to America meant being turned away from hotels, not served in restaurants, bad reviews for shows. Shocking. 

    So she stayed loyal to France which treated her so much better than the US did. During World War Two she actively used her skills to spy for the French against the occupying Nazis, transmitting signals, smuggling documents, helping Jewish people escape, winning her top military honours from her adopted home country. 

    She was then active at a distance in the American Civil Rights movement. What a woman!

    A gorgeous book cover and an engrossing read.  

DRACULA, retold by Tanya Landman, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

    

I'm somebody who has been aware of Dracula, book and character, most of my life, but never actually read the original by Bram Stoker. I know what a brilliant children's novelist Tanya Landman is, trusting her to give me the essential atmosphere and story without having to wade through the much longer original. So, I was delighted to open the blood-dripping cover of this Barrington Stoke abridged version, and find out what I'd been missing.

Aimed at children in KS3, so early years of secondary school, I can imagine this book grabbing readers from the off. Told in the first person, eventually from more than one viewpoint in protagonist's journal entries, this horror story is delivered in small chunks that give a 'just one more sweetie' feeling to tempt us to read on; perfect for those who have struggled to read longer books. The opening has innocent Jonathan Harker looking forward to meeting Count Dracula, unaware of what child readers will surely already know will be BIG trouble ahead!

We're soon into entrapment, a host with pointy teeth, no reflection or shadow, hairy palms, and a penchant for leaving his castle by scuttling like a lizard, head down, straight down the wall of his castle. Weird beautiful women want to be kissed. Coffins arrive. Then live children in a sack to feed those vampiric beauties (the origin of the Child Catcher?). We move from Transylvannia to Whitby, and now it is heroine Min who tells everything as her innocent lady friend is punctured and blood-sucked, becomes a vampire herself, and has to have a stake hammered through her heart before her head is cut off and mouth stuffed with garlic. The horror escalates with a chase over sea and land to try and kill Count Dracula before Min now a vampire herself, is totally lost. 

Plenty to thrill young readers, but will they 'get' why holding a communion wafer would be a weapon of choice? I'm not sure I understand quite what's going on here as 'the body of Christ' who 'rose from the dead' is used against 'the undead'. 

I'm glad to have read this, and its retold beautifully, but I would perhaps point child readers towards much better horror stories written by brilliant contemporary writers such as Chris Priestley, Tom Palmer, Cathy MacPhail, Chris Wooding, and more.  

Ghostlines, written by Katya Balen, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

    I have read and enjoyed Katya Balen's 'October, October', so was already keen to read the new middle grade novel by this Carnegie Medal-winning fresh-voiced author. But I admit that what confirmed my choice of this book rather than other attractive options on display was this lovely play with the page edges! -

    Told in the first person by Tilda who loves her home Scottish island of Ayrie, this is her story about her relationships with two boys, and their relationships to that island. 

    The immediate story involves the novelty of a new boy arriving on this small island. He's angry with having to be there, and Tilda is given the tricky job of trying to befriend him. That story builds slowly through many very short chapters, letting us, as well as Albie, get to know this wonderful place and community. Then comes drama involving dangers kyaking at sea, a secret island haunted by stories, a storm, an accident, an incoming tide ...

    The older boy Tilda is preoccupied with, again needing to mend and renew his relationship with the home island, is one hinted at for many chapters before the facts are revealed. Tilda's beloved big brother and soul mate has left, cutting off communication with his family, and Tilda thinks she is to blame for that.

    All resolves happily. Children of perhaps seven to eleven will love the adventure, the puffins, the wonderful dog, the ultimate safety of parents and community in this beautiful book. 

Birdie, by J.P. Rose, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

                 Author J.P. Rose tells in her Acknowledgements that 'Birdie is a book drawn from my heart'. It certainly engages readers' hearts, and had me sobbing (happily!) at its end.

                Set in 1950s Yorkshire Dales, this is the story of a child moving from a children's home in Leeds to live with an unknown great aunt in a small mining village. Such a change would never be easy, but its made harder for Birdie, and for her aunt, by her looking different from other villagers. She's of mixed race. The stupid school teacher assumes she'll be unable to keep up with others, when in fact she's ahead of them. Bullies taunt her. Parents don't want their children to befriend her. She runs from bullies, finding a hiding place at the old coal mine ... and soon finds herself down in the mine itself. It's empty, except for one old pit pony. 

                That pony becomes her friend. Birdie defies the adults to help the pony, and the story works into an exciting adventure of escape and peril and lives saved, before a return to the village for a tense heroic rescue that changes village attitudes to both girl and pony.  

                The story, told in short lively chapters, gallops along. It's a very appealing middle grade read that raises issues about identity and racism and friendship and family and love for animals whilst fully delivering on plot and character. Recommended.  

Becoming Grace, written by Hilary McKay, illustrated by Keith Robinson, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

        What a wonderful book this is! As with all Barrington Stoke books, this story is told simply and efficiently, here in ten short chapters. And yet Hilary McKay's writing feels relaxed and welcoming, vivid and exciting, full of love and fun.

    Rather than plunging straight into the drama of young woman Grace Darling's heroic rowing to rescue those shipwrecked in a storm, here we get to know Grace the child, her big family of characterful siblings, her parents and animals, and their lighthouse keeper life. Grace's childhood experiences all feed into that story finale of the famous rescue, making us feel very personally for Grace and her family. We know and love them by that point, and I read some of that last part of the story through tears because I'd been made to care and believe so strongly.

    Keith Robinson's illustrations match the writing for atmosphere and character and beauty. Here, for example, 'The little lantern they'd hung up rocked so hard in the wind that all the shadows jumped' -

Very highly recommended for almost any age. 

The Biggest Breakfast, written and illustrated by Richard Jones, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

This beautiful new (hardback) picture book from Richard Jones is a simple joyful story of animals and food, giving and receiving. And counting. But the counting, if you want to engage with it, comes in doublings of numbers to dramatic effect.

The child narrator meets a little blue bird, and offers crumbs to be pecked from a hand. 'See you tomorrow'. And next day the bird is joined by two mice. The day after that, by four squirrels. And soon the breakfast feast is getting out of hand with increasing numbers of wolves and elephants and puffins and ring-tailed lemurs and round-bellied frogs in a glorious gate-fold -

It's all a bit much, so, next day, the child stays in bed, wondering, 'Who will make breakfast for ME?' Just then there was a knock at the door ... '  And you can guess who come, delivering '1 huge, ginormous, delicious breakfast!'

 

The Beck, written by Anthony McGowan, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

        This new short novel by Carnegie Prize winning author Anthony McGowan is excellent. Funnier than his wonderful 'Lark', but equally insightful about adolescent characters, families, and the natural world. 

    Thirteen-year-old Kyle, 'only ever got left with Grandad when all the other babysitting options were used up. It was like when you look in the cupboard for some biscuits, hoping for maybe a Jaffa Cake or a Jammy Dodger, and all your find is a cracker.' Grandad's boring and embarrassing (insisting on wearing his Elvis impersonator wig). But of course Grandad actually leads Kyle into a naughty scrape, into becoming friends with a girl, making his tormentor bullies change their minds about him. 

     After showing Kyle the wildlife in and around the beck, and also showing where developers are about to concrete that life out of existance, Grandad intends to do something naughty, borderline illegal, to stop this from happening. But then he's hospitalised with a stroke, and Kyle decides to do the deed himself. So the triumphs of friendship and protecting wildlife are properly his own achievements. 

    Thought-provoking, involving, moving and funny, this makes a very satisfying read, and a quick and accessible one as you'd expect from Barrington Stoke.

    Oh, and Grandad's three-legged dog is called Rude Word. 

The Bicycle, written by Mevan Babakar & Patricia McCormick, illustrated by Yas Imamura, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This is a very special book; one which I think children will remember forever. Why? Because it shows the very worst and the very best of humanity. It shows those things particularly powerfully because this story is true.

Mevan and her family had lived in Kurdistan for generations. It was a place 'where figs fell from the trees and the air smelled like honeysuckle'. It was where Mevan's family and friends were. My four-year-old grandson was particularly interested in the grocer who gave Mevan a sweet!

                    

                But then the Iraqi government forced Kurds like Mevan and her family to flee their                    homes.

                

                    

Mevan and her parents travelled to Turkey, on to Azerbaijan then Russia, unwelcome and with poor Mevan feeling smaller and smaller. 

But they found kindness in the Netherlands where  Mevan was fascinated by all the people riding bikes. She'd never seen bikes before. She longed to ride one, but she had no bike until ...

 

 ... Egbert, caretaker of the building she was living in, gave Mevan a red bike that 'made Mevan feel a hundred feet tall'.

A year later, Mevan and her parents were told that there was a new home waiting for them 'in a country where they would be safe, where they would never have to leave. Mevan and her family had to leave in such a hurry that she never got the chance to say goodbye to Egbert.' 

              

.

They settled in the UK, and Mevan 'never forgot the man who taught her how big a small act of kindness can be.'

In a heartwarming Epilogue we learn that Mevan grew up and visited that land of figs and honeysuckle, seeing grandparents but, poignantly, 'the grocer was gone', as were many others.

Grown-up Mevan also visited the Netherlands, and she asked if anybody knew of kind Egbert who had 'seen her when others hadn't' and give her that important red bike? They did ... 

 

What's Mevan doing now? She's doing important and positive work towards a better world for everyone 

                              https://mevanbabakar.com/     

It's an astonishing story, as you can tell beautifully told and illustrated. Highly recommended.

               

Devil Bird Island, written by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

Grandad's Star, written by Frances Tosdevin, illustrated by Rhian Stone, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

A gorgeous silky hardback book with thick paper that carries images and text sharing a poignant and lovely story with us. 

Rhian Stone’s gentle pictures capture dear Grandad’s love for sharing his knowledge and excitement about space and planets and stars whilst giving us such a sense of his vast subject … and then the closing in of Grandad’s memory as time passes. 

Frances Tosdevin’s kind and insightful story shows how Grandad’s wonder, determination and knowledge is passed on his grandchild. Her first-person narrative by that little girl reflects the confusion and sadness as she observes Grandad failing, finally to even forgetting her name. But she can return the favour he has done her, now showing and naming for him the stars in the sky. She even names one after him, fulfilling his dream; the Alpha Grandadi Loveliest. Throughout we see the middle generation mum kindly enabling both young and old. 

What an uplifting depiction of family love.  

The Nightmare Before Christmas, written and illustrated by Tim Burton, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

Amongst the many funny and sweet and classic Christmas-themed children’s books on offer this year, here is one that offers something thrillingly, even horrifyingly, different. It plays a mash-up between the worlds of Halloween and Christmas.  

First published almost thirty years ago but recently updated, The Nightmare Before Christmas is written and illustrated by Tim Burton, famous for his multi-award winning gothic horror and fantasy films. The rhyming text jogs along, swerving into a macabre version of The Night Before Christmas, and offering echoes of Dickens, enjoying itself as it tells a simple story of trying a different life but finding that the old one suited you better. 

Spider-like Jack Skellington is bored of non-stop terrorising in Halloweenland. So he magically slips into Christmasland, steals bits of Christmas then steals Santa himself because Jack is jealous of Santa being the one who brings joy. That ‘it’s not fair’ feeling that somebody else is having better fun than you are will resonate with many children! He tells Santa to, ‘lie in my coffin, creak doors and yell, ‘Boo!’ I’d have loved to see Santa attempting that, but we stay with Jack’s story, not Santa’s. 

Guess what? Jack, in his coffin sleigh with skeletal deer, brings only horror to the children awaiting presents. ‘A baby doll possessed by a demon’ and ‘a vampire teddy bear with very sharp teeth’ are amongst his offerings. The humans respond with ‘bullets and missiles intended to kill’. This is the part of the story Tim Burton enjoys and dwells on the most. Then the inevitable ending comes very suddenly, Santa telling Jack to stay in his own lane whilst he ‘brought Christmas to the land of Halloween’. ‘THE END’. We never get to know whether Santa puts things right for the children in the human world or not. Perhaps it’s more exciting to make up your own mind about that.   

For the right child at an age and stage where this will thrill enjoyably rather than terrify, and when it won’t destroy their image of kind Christmases and make them worry, this will be a daring and memorable book. But I won’t be sharing it with my four year old grandson just yet. Perhaps when he gets to seven or eight?   

Sleepy Little Bedtime, written by Sally Symes, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

    Poke your fingers through the board book holes to provide wiggly legs for the sleepy babies, the teddy, the bath frog, and even the sponge and book within this gorgeous book. All the usual baby and toddler bedtime routine is here, celebrated in rhyme and wriggles and yawns until we end with a 'Nighty-night, sleep tight!' 

    Simple. Clever. Perfect for the intended young audience and their adult carers to enjoy together. 

Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’, retold by Tanya Landman, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

          

            This is an exciting retelling of the story of naïve, ambitious Pip who is so caught-up in the promise of his ‘great expectations’ that he turns snobbishly against dear blacksmith Joe, his childhood protector. That, to me, is the relationship in the story that matters most. Yet, to Pip, it his love for steely cold Estella, warped by the disappointed life of Miss Haversham who Pip supposes is the source of his suddenly gentlemany life with no trade to follow but a great deal of debt. We readers, along with Pip, are thrown when we discover that Pip’s benefactor is actually the scary convict Magwich who Pip had helped when a boy at the story’s opening. 

            This strange story of bitterness, revenge, snobbery and control, played out with moments of huge drama and a cast of deliciously, mostly awful, characters, is cleverly streamlined by Tanya Landman. We gallop enjoyably through the action, forever led-on by promises and fears and hope. This version is written with those with a reading age of 9+ in mind, yet is a full-blooded reading experience for fluent reading people into adulthood. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

            It’s wonderful that great stories can be filleted into relatively easy reads, accessible to so many more readers. 

Twenty Questions, written by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Christian Robinson, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

            

This is a picture book quite different from most. It doesn’t tell a story … but it sows the seeds of many many potential stories. Those seeds just need a child’s imagination to work on them, maybe within a group, in order to grow and flourish. I wonder what those stories will be? 

            Sixteen spreads of bold collage and print and drawn images by Christian Robinson work with twenty questions set by Mac Barnett. 

            Do questions have to have answers? That’s up to you. Is there a right answer? That’s up to you. Might there be multiple answers, surprising answers, unlikely answers? Again, up to you. 

            Perfect for any imaginative child. 

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! 

Too Nice, by Sally Nicholls, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

                  This is a clever, accessible, little chapter book story about feelings and relationships. 

                  Teenager Abby has a problem, and it isn’t the kind of problem that gets much sympathy at first, especially from herself. 

It’s been just her and Dad for as long as Abby can remember, but now Jen has moved in, in step-mother role, and Jen is just too nice! Too full of compliments that Abby doesn’t believe, too much there all the time, giving Abby no space. Abby reacts to this by becoming rude, a liar, a ‘brat’ of a kind she doesn’t enjoy being. It needs a slight crisis to bring things to a head, and an imaginative surprise gift to Jen from Abby breaks through to real love. 

                  Beautifully handled, this is a story that evokes empathy for all three characters, Abby, Dad and Jen. Each of them is struggling, loving, trying to get it right … and finally succeeding.  Who knew that ‘adults are human being too’?! A revelation for some children, perhaps! 

Drowning in my Bedroom, by Steve Cole, illustrated by Orion Vidal, published by Barrington Stoke, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

           

       Set in a fast-developing catastrophic typhoon in Manila, this short novel is told alternately by two eleven-year-old children, each of them leading difficult lives. They have noticed each other on the street, each feeling pity for the other, glad they aren’t like that other child, each of them hating being noticed and pitied by the other.  

Gayla has a form of cerebral palsy that makes movement difficult. That, along with her stubbornness and bad luck, means that she is soon alone in a residential centre for children with disabilities as flash floods trap her there, threatening to drown her. Jajun is a beggar child whose shack home is washed away, and, in desperation to find medicine for his sick sister, he goes to steal medicine from the centre. The two of them need to overcome their previous thoughts about each other and work together in order to save themselves, Gayla’s clever idea enabled by Jajun’s bravery. 

This exciting story demonstrates the power of empathy and teamwork. It also shows and explains something of how the disaster is precipitated by human action and politics, and global warming. A story to warn and to empower children. 

Illustrated with dramatic energy in graphic novel style by Oriol Vidal. 

There's a Tiger on the Train, written by Mariesa Dulak, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

My three year old grandson absolutely loves this book, and so do I. It has rhythm and rhyme, naughtiness, peril, fun, and a solidly happy ending, all served up with a lovely rhyming text and beautiful pictures. 

'You'll never guess what happened 

On our trip down to the sea ...

A tiger in a top hat

Came and sat right next to me!

He growled a gruff, 'Good morning',

Took a comic from his hat,

Then disappeared behind it.

'Hey Dad! Did you see THAT?'

But Dad is intent on his phone. He doesn't notice the tiger. Nor does he notice the growing chaos of other animal passengers getting into the train.

Not until the Tiger ...

...  and eats the phone! Then, ...

And at last our narrator child has Dad's full attention ...

A book that pleases on so many fronts. Highly recommended. 

Lottie the Little Wonder, written by Katherine Woodbine, illustrated by Ella Okstad, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

A fun simple read rich in colour illustrations, bringing to life little Lottie Dod from more than a hundred years ago. The youngest child in a very wealthy one parent family whose passion was sports of all kinds, this ‘little girl’ wanted to prove herself against older siblings, boys, adults, and then the world, and, my goodness, she did. At fifteen, Lottie become Wimbledon tennis champion. She went on to win at the 1908 Olympics, making the story topical in this current Olympics year. 

Adding a further layer of interest to this real story, there is a final chapter About The Real Lottie Dod. It tells how she went on to triumph in archery and golf and tobogganing down the Cresta run, and more. And it also tells where the vast wealth that allowed a mother and four children to live in a large house with its own tennis court, looked after by servants, and never in their whole lives have to work for money, enabling them to focus on their sporting passions, came from. Lottie’s father, who died when she was very young, had made a fortune importing cotton from America to Liverpool, supplying Manchester’s cotton mills. That cotton was grown and harvested by enslaved people. Food for thought for child readers at a core age for feeling a natural instinct for something being ‘not fair’. 

Altogether, a small book that offers a lot, very attractively and accessibly served in pictures and short chapters of lively action.  

A Horse Called Now, written by Ruth Doyle, illustrated by Alexandra Finkeldey, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

A gentle, beautiful, comfort of a picture book story, ‘A Horse Called Now’ encourages over-wrought animals to calm down and focus on the present. 

 

A simple but powerful story about the panic induced by ‘what if’ thoughts, how a change of focus can help, but, perhaps even more, how coming together with others in troubling times helps us all through. 

 

Alexandra Finkeldey’s limited colour palette pictures have a feel of artwork from the early 1960s, that spare treatment beautifully suiting the simplicity of Ruth Doyle’s story. 

 

A very lovely book, sure to be asked for again and again.