Creature of the Night – Kate Thompson

This is the last of the longer novels for the Sheffield Children’s Book Awards that I’ve reviewed. It’s also possibly the most difficult to pigeon-hole. Is it an urban story or is it fantasy? I guess it’s a little of both. Kate Thompson has written a delightfully complex novel. You could even describe it as the Marmite book in the series. You’ll either love or hate it.

It follows the family of Bobby when they move from Dublin to a rented house in the country. Bobby is not a very nice person. In Dublin he was running wild stealing cars, stealing in the streets and all to feed his drug habit. His mother spends her time shopping, mostly with borrowed or other peoples money.

On moving to their new house they find that a murder was committed here and the last occupant left so suddenly that he left his car there. On top of this they find the house is on a fairy route between two fairy forts. Indeed Bobby’s younger brother claims to have seen one. This novel follows Bobby as he flits backwards and forwards from Dublin to the country. Some of the scenes are extremely disturbing and leave the reader, well at least this one, feeling uncomfortable.

This book is not a lazy romp, it cries out for you to take your time in reading. It’s not a book to curl up with in front of the fire as it leaves you feeling drained and cold after reading. I guess that this is the reason the author wrote it this way. She weaves the fantasy element into a hard hitting urban drama with great finesse. Its not a book to take lightly. Did I enjoy it ? I’m not sure.

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Twilight was a sensation when it was released 4 years ago. Since then the novel has spawned 3 sequels and propelled Stephanie Meyer into the giddy heights of super stardom. Will Generation Dead do this for Daniel Waters?

Generation Dead is once again set in small town America. It works on the premise that children are dropping dead and then instantly coming back to ‘life’ as zombies. These Zombies continue at school and appear to live a ‘normal’ life. However none of the living speak to the ‘living impaired’. However somehow life seems normal for this group of teenagers.

This book follows Phoebe as she falls in love with one of the ‘undead’ Tommy Williams (shades of Twilight’. Tommy is gorgeous, funny and member of the football team but more importantly dead.

Its a good story, keeps you turning to the end of the book, and there’s even a sequel planned. In our School Library it flies off the shelf read and devoured by the same girls who are ‘fanspires’. However I can’t quite get over the similarities to the base story of Twilight.

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

It was only a matter of time before someone worked on a novel about climate change that was set on our time, or pretty near it! The Carbon Diaries is one such book. It takes the premise that Britain decides, after huge floods and storms, to go it alone in trying to reduce carbon emissions.

Each person in the country is given a number of carbon units that they have to spend. If you overuse the units you’re punished. Even a simple journey on a bus eats into your units, buying products from abroad increases the units. Air travel becomes too expensive.

Told in Dairy form the book follows a year in the life of  Laura Brown. Laura was a normal teenager in a normal family before the start of the year. She plays in a band, the Dirty Angels. However during the year Laura and her families life’s change beyond belief. She has to cope with one crisis after another and finds surviving day to day life a struggle.

However what comes through is her incredible resolve to face any problem that is thrown at her, from her mother leaving home to not having enough power to keep warm right through to a flooded London.

Reading this book might not change the way you live your lives, but it’s certainly food for thought on the little things we take so much for granted.

The Knife that Killed Me by Anthony McGowan

Anthony is probably better known for his hilarious books Hellbent and Henry Tumour (previous SCBA shortlisted book). Both of these books are great but may have become better known for the adult language that they contained. The story goes that when Anthony was asked to write novels aimed at Young Adults he thought the age group was 18-21, hence the language used. Whether its true or not Anthony’s novels seem to hit the right note with younger teenagers as well. Henry Tumour was widely borrowed by Y7 and Y8 students who lapped up and had empathy with Henry.

The Knife that Killed Me is Anthony’s third book for teenagers. It tells the story of Paul Varderman, a student at an inner city school somewhere in Britain. Paul is a quiet student who never quite seems to fit in with any of the groups. That is until he meets two contrasting gangs. One are the hard nuts of the school. The other are the ‘Weirdos’, a group of kids who keep themselves to themselves. Both of these groups are to have a profound effect on his life.

Paul is picked by the hard nuts to deliver a package to a gang leader from their rival school. What it contains incenses the other gang and draws the two rival gangs towards a terrifying conclusion. As a reward the hard nut gives Paul a knife to carry, a knife that will change his life. The other group accept Paul for what he is and for the first time in his life he feels wanted by others. All that will change by the end of the book.

Authors usually when they add places or brands to a book ensure that they’re going to be around for ages  so as not to date the book. Anthony obviously did this when describing the Knife that killed him as being a cheap knife from Woolworths! However who could have foreseen that Woolies wouldn’t be with us soon after the book was published.

Its a great read and what’s typical in a Anthony McGowan Novel is that its not all what it seems at the end. Anthony has once again created a powerful read that will once again turn heads.

Sheffield Children’s Book Awards 2009

I think its time that I started to review some of the books that have been nominated for the Sheffield Childrens Book Awards! I read most of them quite a while back but never found the time to review most of them. Well except for Bog Child (my personal favourite) and The Ostrich Boys.

So the next few reviews should be from the Longer Novels List.

This year the Longer Novels  List looks like this:

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
The Knife that Killed Me by Anthony McGowan
Generation Dead – Dan Walters
Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson
Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd.

The Devils Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

The Knights Templar have been the subject of books for years. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail being the most famous until the publication of The  Da Vinci Code. This book opened the floodgates for books about the order. Soon nearly every book carried some mention of them. They all have the same theme however, a secret going back to Christ and a band of brothers sworn to keep the secret and protect the Grail.

Sarwat however comes in from a different and original angle. He has the Knights Templar as an order who are fighting ghouls and the ‘dark side’. Its an angle that works really well. The story follows a 15 year old girl, Billi SanGreal who along with her father and a pitifully small band of Knights try to protect London and the world from plague and pestilance brought on by the Ghouls and unholy.

In the first chapter Billi is set the task of getting rid of a ghoul that’s appeared in London. The ghoul has the body of a small boy and Billi is torn straight away from dispatching the Ghoul or letting the child live.Her father, she thinks, is a horrible man who hates her and just prepares her for the tasks ahead. Billi however just wants to be a normal teenager and she starts to secretly see Mike, a boy she meets.

If you’vce watched Demons on ITV you’re going to love this book. There are many similarities between the book and the series. As for the story it grabs hold of you quite early on in the book and doesn’t let you go until the ending. Along the way you’re treated to some great scenes. The ending leaves it open for the sequel which must surely come.

This is a great twist on the Knights Templar, its written with great style and I read it with much enjoyment. It’ll fit in well with both the Demons, Skullduggery Pleasent and Twilight crowd.

Solace of the Road – Siobhan Dowd

Siobhan Dowd was the highly praised author of ‘The London Eye Mystery’, ‘Bog Child’ and ‘A Pure Swift Cry’ All these books have garnered awards and nominations. It was a very sad day when Siobhan died of Cancer aged just 47. Siobhan had a real gift in her ability to communicate, through the written word, to teenagers.

It was with trepidation that I picked up the copy of her last every book. Was it going to be up to the usual standard or was it going to disappoint? There was only one way to find out…..

The books tells the story of Holly Hogan. Holly is one of the ‘cared for children’. She lives in a care home and at the start of the book gets the chance to live with a family on a long term basis. She dreams of being reunited with her mother in Ireland. A chance find of a wig changes her life. The blonde hairpiece gives her more confidence and she reinvents herself as Solace. Take the wig away and she’s just plain Holly. She decides to run away from her foster parents, in London, to find her mother in Ireland.

The wig makes Holly look and act older than she is, which causes problems for her on the way. However whenever she removes ‘Solace’ she looks and feels like a vunerable teenager. As the pages unfurl you start to hope that she’ll get through the experience in one piece. Her memories of her mother are strong and drive her on, but somewhere on the journey things change and get darker.

This is a fantastic read. It weaves the story of Holly’s dilemma’s with a great road story (film possibility?). It hooks you about chapter 3 and doesn’t let you go until the very end. The ending may be slightly telegraphed but is extremely satisfying when you eventually get there.

Was I disappointed, yes, but not by the words in the book. I was really disappointed that I’ll never read anything else by Siobhan again. The last few pages were read very slowly, savouring every last word. The sort of experience that you’ll have when saying goodbye to an old friend. Just what Siobhan could have achieved we’ll never know but at least we have been privileged to have 4 novels of the highest quality from an exceptional author.