Pirates, shipwrecks, voyages into the unknown, floods and mysterious strangers. Boats provide a useful function in children’s books. Over the next few months I’ll be writing about my fifty favourite adventures about boats. From fantastical nautical epics to salty graphic yarns, we’ll see how these stories form a central strand of children’s literature, and also … Continue reading
2017 was inevitably the year of Dust. Philip Pullman’s return to the world of His Dark Materials dominated the world of children’s books so completely that I’ve not quite been able to bring myself to read it yet. I think I’ll wait until the, ahem, dust has settled. In the meantime there were plenty of … Continue reading
As the literary world awaits the Book of Dust, the much anticipated prequel to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the Comic Book Club this month looks to the return of one of his less well known characters, John Blake. Serialised over the last year in the Phoenix comic, the Adventures of John Blake follows the … Continue reading
Another end of year list, but mine’s much later than everybody else’s, so that’s alright! What a bumper year it’s been, and what a thankless task it is to try and select ten titles from across the world of children’s comics, picture books and novels. So high was the quality that I’ve had to leave out incredible, … Continue reading
Of all the mythical creatures to have stalked our nightmares over the past few thousand years, witches are perhaps the most troubling. Orcs, ogres and goblins are scary, if you like that sort of thing, but witches are the only ones to have stepped out of our imaginations and into the real world. An idea taken … Continue reading
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you can’t have missed Luke Pearson’s intrepid beret wearing adventuress Hilda – although under a rock is exactly where you’ll find Hilda in her new book, which takes us deep inside the mountains near her home, a vast networks of tunnels and caves … Continue reading
Some of the great characters from children’s literature take the Hare PCL-R test for psychopathy. Think of villains like Lord Voldemort, Miss Slighcarp, the Twits – extreme psychopaths. But what of the heroes? Psychopaths aren’t necessarily sadistic murderers, they can be people in positions of power: surgeons, politicians, CEOs of chocolate factories… Continue reading
R is for Russia ‘Let me teach a child for four years and the seed I’d have sewn could never be destroyed.’ So said Lenin shortly after the revolution of 1917. From the start the intention was to mould young minds to become model Communist citizens. Enthusiastically taking up the challenge were a group of artists following … Continue reading
Everybody loves a good map at the front of a book. I got a little obsessed with them a few months ago when I started a new pinterest board of literary maps. Soon the good people of Twitter weighed in and I got to see a lot more brilliant examples, including a few by Thomas … Continue reading
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s list of my favourite picture books and graphic novels of 2015 comes another ten books for children, these ones containing more words than pictures. It’s a stupidly broad category that includes stories about trains, wolves, refugees, pills, Christmas, tigers and tapirs. And that’s just how I like it. Five … Continue reading
I’m sure you’ve seen quite enough end of year lists already, but a few people have asked, so here are some my favourites from 2015. First up a selection of the finest picture books and graphic novels from this ridiculously strong year. Imelda and the Goblin King by Briony May Smith (Flying Eye) I could … Continue reading
In the post Harry Potter age readers have become used to a dizzying number of children’s books which inevitably become series. Title after title appears year upon year, as surely as the tide pushes the sea onto the shore. They have their day in the sun and are washed away when the next wave hits. I’m … Continue reading
It’s been twenty years since Philip Pullman published Northern Lights, the first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Since then the books have become classics and are responsible for kickstarting the current boom in children’s publishing. Northern Lights has also spawned a movie adaptation, stage play and a two further novellas set in the … Continue reading
1823 is where it really began for illustrated children’s books in Britain; with the first publication of tales from the Brothers Grimm in English, illustrated by George Cruikshank – a man who had found fame drawing pictures of the Prince Regent blowing off. There had been publications for children before Grimms’ Fairy Tales; publishers … Continue reading
‘Lyra barged open the door, dragged her rickety chair to the window, flung wide the casement, and scrambled out. There was a lead-lined stone gutter a foot wide just below the window, and once she was standing in that, she turned and clambered up over the rough tiles until she stood on the topmost ridge … Continue reading
As Alice so wisely said, ‘what’s the point of a book without pictures?’ Not a lot I thought – particularly when it comes to something as visual as the Grimm tales. To prove the point I thought I’d have a look through some of my favourite illustrated tales from Grimm from the last hundred or so years. Continue reading
Now I've had a little dig at 'adult crossover' children's fiction before, and the sort of people who buy the editions with the 'grown up', i.e. boring, covers. But I had to make an exception for this print run of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. This was partly because the kid's copies had dreadfully … Continue reading
