“Dido Twite (the enchanting heroine of Black Hearts in Battersea), waking from a long sleep to foil Miss Slighcarp, the wicked governess, in her plan to assassinate King James III by long-distance-gun – and her greatest ally is a pink whale called Rosie.” Croopus! What a blurb. These words appear on the back of the … Continue reading
In Stig of the Dump by Clive King, bored Barney meets a Stone Age boy in a rubbish filled chalk pit near his grandmother’s home. Despite being unable to speak to each other the boys strike up a friendship based around the mutual pleasure of making and fixing stuff using bits of rusty cars, broken … Continue reading
One of the 100 best children’s books of the 21st century, SF Said’s Varjak Paw follows the adventures of a Mesopotamian Blue cat as he escapes his stultifying purebred family to find his way in the world. The books are bountifully illustrated by Dave McKean, an artist previously best known for his work with Neil … Continue reading
In this week’s Deeper Reading podcast, Damaris Young discusses how the Lie Tree inspired her debut children’s novel, the Switching Hour. Perfect reading for Halloween. Continue reading
The chronology of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books is nearly as hard to work out as the fluctuating time anomalies between time in our world and the land beyond the wardrobe. The Silver Chair is commonly presented today as the sixth in the series, and it makes sense like that, providing a satisfying ending to the … Continue reading
