Book reviews: 23 November
Whether it’s a charming picture book, an anthology, a comic annual, or a classic revisited, there’s something for everyone here. Celebrate the season with humour and nostalgia just by dipping into these page-turners for hours of family entertainment over the holiday.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai (Harper, £10.61)
Told in vivid and spare verse, 10-year-old Hà relates how she and her family exchanged wartorn Vietnam for a new life in America’s Deep South. Primaryschool- aged children will be swept away by this heartfelt, semi-autobiographical tale.
FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM by the Grimm Brothers (Puffin, £25)
This lavishly illustrated edition commemorates the bicentennial of the Grimms’ fi rst publication – a volume that includes some of the creepiest folkloric fantasies of all time. Full-page colour plates by Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Axel Scheffl er and Emma Chichester Clark.
DEAD END IN NORVELT by Jack Gantos (Yearling, £5.99)
After being grounded for life, Jack is facing a summer of doing nothing. Determined not to die of boredom, he experiments with other forms of death – including crashing his dad’s homemade plane and catching the disease ‘that makes you dance to death’. Winner of this year’s prestigious American Newbery Medal.
SUPER NATURE: THE 100 BIGGEST, FASTEST, DEADLIEST CREATURES ON THE PLANET (Dorling Kindersley, £18.99)
Pre-pubescents will be intrigued to come face to face with the 100 greatest superstars of the animal kingdom, from the tiny fl ea to the humpback whale. The cunning folk at Dorling Kindersley work their magic with breathtaking 3-D pictures and stripped-away images that take you ‘under the skin’.
THE CONSIDINE CURSE by Gareth P Jones (Bloomsbury Childrens, £5.99)
When 14-year-old Mariel returns to England for her grandma’s funeral, she starts to discover some unnerving family secrets: why did her mum argue with grandma all those years ago, and why won’t her cousins talk to her? Winner of the Blue Peter Book Of The Year, this dark, domestic tale will go down well with 11- to 13-year-olds.
MY BIG SHOUTING DAY! by Rebecca Patterson (Jonathan Cape, £5.99)
Relive a toddler’s day-long strop by immersing them in this high- decibel read aimed at the undersixes. Bella has problems with her shoes, a broken biscuit and toothpaste that is too minty! The toddler’s howling mouth would give Munch a run for his money.
THE PEPPERMINT PIG by Nina Bawden (Puffin, £6.99)
The wonderful Nina Bawden, who died earlier this year, loved to shake her younger readers up with stories that made them look at life in a different way. In this 1975 classic, the beloved family pet is destined for sausage meat.
THE DANDY ANNUAL 2013 (DC Thomson & Co Ltd, £7.99)
Celebrate the landmark 75th anniversary of the world’s longestrunning comic, and its sad demise, with this bumper edition of the Dandy Annual. Silliness, slapstick and jokes with perennial favourites Desperate Dan and Korky The Cat, and stroll down memory lane with nostalgic reprises from Greedy Pigg, Owen Goal, Winker Watson and the rest of the gang.
ERNEST AND CELESTINE by Gabrielle Vincent (Catnip, £10.99)
Charming story about a lost toy penguin and its eventual restoration. Ernest, a kindly bear, does the honours while Celestine the mouse fi nds that old friends don’t disappear forever. The snowy Christmas landscape is beautifully drawn by Vincent.
GIFT BOOKS
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CALL THE MIDWIFE: THE OFFICIAL COMPANION TO SERIES ONE AND TWO by Heidi Thomas (Collins, £20)
An absorbing Christmas annual for dedicated fans of this smallscreen gem. A book that not only takes you behind the set, but also turns out to be a well-researched slice of domestic history. Find out about 1950s make-up, fashion and food – but mostly about the perils of post-war childbirth. A lively foreword by Jenny Agutter.
102 ENGLISH THINGS TO DO by Alex Quick (Old Street Publishing, £9.99)
This prettily produced book – an excellent gift for overseas visitors – inducts readers into Englishness. Top tips, aside from the commands to play cricket, croquet and conkers, include the suggestions to watch an Ealing Comedy, read a book by PG Wodehouse and eat a Cornish pasty made in Cornwall.
FISHING’S STRANGEST DAYS: EXTRAORDINARY BUT TRUE STORIES FROM OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF ANGLING HISTORY by Tom Quinn (Portico, £9.99)
Ever heard of a story that sounds too fi shy to be true? This book is packed to the gills with unlikely tales of piscatorial folk. There’s the story of the nine-year-old boy who caught a mussel containing 40 pearls, and the Americans who cast a fly into the Thames from the roof of the Savoy.
MRS HUDSON’S DIARIES: A VIEW FROM THE LANDING AT 221B by Barry Cryer and Bob Cryer (The Robson Press, £12.99)
Behind every great man is a great woman – never truer than in this recreation of the life and times of Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper, Mrs Hudson. Written in diary form by father and son comedy team Barry and Bob Cryer, we learn how this enterprising landlady can lay claim to being the most important, indeed the only, woman in Sherlock’s life.
JANE AUSTEN’S GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE’S DILEMMAS by Rebecca Smith (Ivy Press, £12.99)
Heels or flats? Should I tell my parents about my debts? Should I date an older man? Via the auspices of Rebecca Smith, Jane Austen’s great-great-great-greatgreat niece, we learn what the great writer would have advised you to do. Quoting from Austen’s novels, letters and diaries, we learn how excessive rouge signals a woman on the prowl, and how half boots set off a shapely ankle.
ROGER, SAUSAGE & WHIPPET: A MISCELLANY OF TRENCH LINGO FROM THE GREAT WAR by Christopher Moore (Headline Books, £12.99)
Roger: a code word for gas cylinder and a nickname for rum. Also, to have sexual intercourse. Sausage: an observation balloon. Whippet: a small, light tank with a top speed of 8mph. This fascinating miscellany of trench lingo complied by BBC producer Christopher Moore, is essential reading for First World War buffs and Downton script editors.
WHITAKER’S LITTLE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE (Bloomsbury, £9.99)
Want to brush up on your Shakespeare, great novels and famous battles? Need to know about the 10 fi lms, plays, artists and philosophers you should have heard of and why? This eclectic and eccentric compendium has all the answers. The sister publication to the grander Whitaker’s Almanac.
I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen (Walker, £6.99)
Visual humour lies at the heart of Jon Klassen’s subversive picture book about a bear who’s lost his hat. Patiently, he asks every animal if they’ve seen it, until he SPOILER ALERT! ends up scoffi ng the rabbit that nicked it (off-page). Repetition for the underfi ves and chuckles for the over-25s.
THE OXFORD BOOK OF CHRISTMAS POEMS edited by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark (OUP Oxford, £9.99) A toothsome anthology of old chestnuts, including songs, poems and narratives by Ted Hughes, John Betjeman, WH Auden and Dylan Thomas. Snowy nights, lowly stables and firesides await.
FIFTY SHEDS OF GREY: A PARODY: EROTICA FOR THE NOTTOO- MODERN MALE by CT Grey (Boxtree, £9.99)
Colin Grey’s life was happy and simple until the day his wife read that book. Suddenly, he was confronted with a new world of illicit pleasure and pain. This is the story of one man’s struggle to preserve the greatest love of all – his shed. Warning: graphic shed-based imagery included.
PARLOUR GAMES: INDOOR FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY! by Katie Hewett (Anova Books, £5.99)
This handy volume contains 60 retro parlour games that will perk up fractious children during the post-Christmaslunch slump. Forgotten the rules of Murder In The Dark, Consequences and Are You There, Moriarty? Look no further. Katie Hewett, a harassed mother from Croydon, provides the blessedly succinct answers.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai (Harper, £10.61) Told in vivid and spare verse, 10-year-old Hà relates how she and her family exchanged wartorn Vietnam for a new life in America’s Deep South. Primaryschool- aged children will be swept away by this heartfelt, semi-autobiographical tale.
FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM by the Grimm Brothers (Puffin, £25)
This lavishly illustrated edition commemorates the bicentennial of the Grimms’ fi rst publication – a volume that includes some of the creepiest folkloric fantasies of all time. Full-page colour plates by Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Axel Scheffl er and Emma Chichester Clark.
DEAD END IN NORVELT by Jack Gantos (Yearling, £5.99)
After being grounded for life, Jack is facing a summer of doing nothing. Determined not to die of boredom, he experiments with other forms of death – including crashing his dad’s homemade plane and catching the disease ‘that makes you dance to death’. Winner of this year’s prestigious American Newbery Medal.
Pre-pubescents will be intrigued to come face to face with the 100 greatest superstars of the animal kingdom, from the tiny fl ea to the humpback whale. The cunning folk at Dorling Kindersley work their magic with breathtaking 3-D pictures and stripped-away images that take you ‘under the skin’.
THE CONSIDINE CURSE by Gareth P Jones (Bloomsbury Childrens, £5.99)
When 14-year-old Mariel returns to England for her grandma’s funeral, she starts to discover some unnerving family secrets: why did her mum argue with grandma all those years ago, and why won’t her cousins talk to her? Winner of the Blue Peter Book Of The Year, this dark, domestic tale will go down well with 11- to 13-year-olds.
MY BIG SHOUTING DAY! by Rebecca Patterson (Jonathan Cape, £5.99)
Relive a toddler’s day-long strop by immersing them in this high- decibel read aimed at the undersixes. Bella has problems with her shoes, a broken biscuit and toothpaste that is too minty! The toddler’s howling mouth would give Munch a run for his money.
The wonderful Nina Bawden, who died earlier this year, loved to shake her younger readers up with stories that made them look at life in a different way. In this 1975 classic, the beloved family pet is destined for sausage meat.
THE DANDY ANNUAL 2013 (DC Thomson & Co Ltd, £7.99)
Celebrate the landmark 75th anniversary of the world’s longestrunning comic, and its sad demise, with this bumper edition of the Dandy Annual. Silliness, slapstick and jokes with perennial favourites Desperate Dan and Korky The Cat, and stroll down memory lane with nostalgic reprises from Greedy Pigg, Owen Goal, Winker Watson and the rest of the gang.
ERNEST AND CELESTINE by Gabrielle Vincent (Catnip, £10.99)
Charming story about a lost toy penguin and its eventual restoration. Ernest, a kindly bear, does the honours while Celestine the mouse fi nds that old friends don’t disappear forever. The snowy Christmas landscape is beautifully drawn by Vincent.
GIFT BOOKS
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CALL THE MIDWIFE: THE OFFICIAL COMPANION TO SERIES ONE AND TWO by Heidi Thomas (Collins, £20)An absorbing Christmas annual for dedicated fans of this smallscreen gem. A book that not only takes you behind the set, but also turns out to be a well-researched slice of domestic history. Find out about 1950s make-up, fashion and food – but mostly about the perils of post-war childbirth. A lively foreword by Jenny Agutter.
102 ENGLISH THINGS TO DO by Alex Quick (Old Street Publishing, £9.99)
This prettily produced book – an excellent gift for overseas visitors – inducts readers into Englishness. Top tips, aside from the commands to play cricket, croquet and conkers, include the suggestions to watch an Ealing Comedy, read a book by PG Wodehouse and eat a Cornish pasty made in Cornwall.
FISHING’S STRANGEST DAYS: EXTRAORDINARY BUT TRUE STORIES FROM OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF ANGLING HISTORY by Tom Quinn (Portico, £9.99)
Ever heard of a story that sounds too fi shy to be true? This book is packed to the gills with unlikely tales of piscatorial folk. There’s the story of the nine-year-old boy who caught a mussel containing 40 pearls, and the Americans who cast a fly into the Thames from the roof of the Savoy.
MRS HUDSON’S DIARIES: A VIEW FROM THE LANDING AT 221B by Barry Cryer and Bob Cryer (The Robson Press, £12.99)
Behind every great man is a great woman – never truer than in this recreation of the life and times of Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper, Mrs Hudson. Written in diary form by father and son comedy team Barry and Bob Cryer, we learn how this enterprising landlady can lay claim to being the most important, indeed the only, woman in Sherlock’s life.
JANE AUSTEN’S GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE’S DILEMMAS by Rebecca Smith (Ivy Press, £12.99)
Heels or flats? Should I tell my parents about my debts? Should I date an older man? Via the auspices of Rebecca Smith, Jane Austen’s great-great-great-greatgreat niece, we learn what the great writer would have advised you to do. Quoting from Austen’s novels, letters and diaries, we learn how excessive rouge signals a woman on the prowl, and how half boots set off a shapely ankle.
ROGER, SAUSAGE & WHIPPET: A MISCELLANY OF TRENCH LINGO FROM THE GREAT WAR by Christopher Moore (Headline Books, £12.99)
Roger: a code word for gas cylinder and a nickname for rum. Also, to have sexual intercourse. Sausage: an observation balloon. Whippet: a small, light tank with a top speed of 8mph. This fascinating miscellany of trench lingo complied by BBC producer Christopher Moore, is essential reading for First World War buffs and Downton script editors.
Want to brush up on your Shakespeare, great novels and famous battles? Need to know about the 10 fi lms, plays, artists and philosophers you should have heard of and why? This eclectic and eccentric compendium has all the answers. The sister publication to the grander Whitaker’s Almanac.
BEST BOOK FOR LAUGHS
I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen (Walker, £6.99) Visual humour lies at the heart of Jon Klassen’s subversive picture book about a bear who’s lost his hat. Patiently, he asks every animal if they’ve seen it, until he SPOILER ALERT! ends up scoffi ng the rabbit that nicked it (off-page). Repetition for the underfi ves and chuckles for the over-25s.
BEST CHILDREN’S POEMS
THE OXFORD BOOK OF CHRISTMAS POEMS edited by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark (OUP Oxford, £9.99) A toothsome anthology of old chestnuts, including songs, poems and narratives by Ted Hughes, John Betjeman, WH Auden and Dylan Thomas. Snowy nights, lowly stables and firesides await. 
BEST LITERARY JOKE
FIFTY SHEDS OF GREY: A PARODY: EROTICA FOR THE NOTTOO- MODERN MALE by CT Grey (Boxtree, £9.99) Colin Grey’s life was happy and simple until the day his wife read that book. Suddenly, he was confronted with a new world of illicit pleasure and pain. This is the story of one man’s struggle to preserve the greatest love of all – his shed. Warning: graphic shed-based imagery included.
BEST FAMILY FUN BOOK
PARLOUR GAMES: INDOOR FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY! by Katie Hewett (Anova Books, £5.99) This handy volume contains 60 retro parlour games that will perk up fractious children during the post-Christmaslunch slump. Forgotten the rules of Murder In The Dark, Consequences and Are You There, Moriarty? Look no further. Katie Hewett, a harassed mother from Croydon, provides the blessedly succinct answers.