Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Children's Book Picks Feb 2023 - US Published Post

 

Beth Lincoln (Author), Claire Powell (Illustrator) - The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels - Published by  Dutton Books for Young Readers (February 7, 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593533239 - Hardback - Age: 7+

On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name, and a definition. A definition it is assumed they will grow up to match. 
Meet Shenanigan Swift: Little sister. Risk-taker. Mischief-maker.

Shenanigan is getting ready for the big Swift Family Reunion and plotting her next great scheme: hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost treasure. She’s excited to finally meet her arriving relatives—until one of them gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs.

So what if everyone thinks she’ll never be more than a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can become whatever she wants, even a detective. And she’s determined to follow the twisty clues and catch the killer.

Deliciously suspenseful and delightfully clever, The Swifts is a remarkable debut that is both brilliantly contemporary and instantly classic. A celebration of words and individuality, it's packed with games, wordplay, and lots and lots of mischief as Shenanigan sets out to save her family and define herself in a world where definitions are so important.

• Jonathan Starrett - The Architect - Published by Tyndale House Publishers (February 7, 2023) - 
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496466600 - Harback - Age: 8+ 
• There’s a golden rule in Phantom City: “No one about when the Zeppelin is out.” But one night, twelve-year-old Charlie Crane comes face-to-face with the Zeppelin, and instead of finding trouble, she is awakened.
  
  Determined to find the truth in a city plagued with lies, Charlie, along with a quirky band of unlikely heroes, works to free the people of Phantom City from the clutches of a shadowy, evil villain. Helped by a mysterious Architect who only communicates over radio and telephone, Charlie wrestles with two big questions: Can she trust a guide she can't see? And is the truth actually worth the trouble?
  
  Filled with sinister schemes, bumbling superheroes, unexpected friendships, and plenty of humor and plot twists, The Architect keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Boys and girls alike will be fascinated by the unique world of Phantom City, with its steampunk and Gotham City–type elements and will quickly find themselves cheering for our heroes in their fight against evil.

Miya T. Beck - The Pearl Hunter - Published by Balzer + Bray (February 7, 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063238190 - Hardback - Age: 8+

Set in a world inspired by pre-Shogun era Japan, this is a stunning debut fantasy in the vein of Grace Lin about how a young pearl diver goes to the ends of the earth to rescue her twin sister, who has been stolen by a ghost whale.

Kai and Kishi share the same futon, the same face, and the same talent for pearl diving. But Kishi is the obedient daughter, while Kai tries to push the rules, and sometimes they fight. Still, when Kishi is stolen and killed by the legendary Ghost Whale, nothing will stop Kai from searching for her, deep in the ocean, hoping for a way to bring her back to life.

But such a rescue is beyond the power of an ordinary mortal. Kai strikes a deal with the gods: she’ll steal a magic pearl in exchange for her sister’s soul. As she journeys across treacherous landscape, Kai must navigate encounters with scheming bandits, a power-hungry warlord, and a legion of conniving fox spirits.  And when a new friendship becomes something almost as powerful as her love for her sister, Kai must make impossible choices and risk everything just to get home again.

Woven through with Japanese culture and legends, this many-layered story will grip readers of all ages.

Misa Sugiura - Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind - Published by Labyrinth Road (February 28, 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593564066 - Hardback - Age 7+ 

All Momo wants for her twelfth birthday is an ordinary life—like everyone else's. At home, she has to take care of her absentminded widowed mother. At school, kids ridicule her for mixing up reality with the magical stories her mother used to tell her.

But then Momo’s mother falls gravely ill, and a death hag straight out of those childhood stories attacks Momo at the mall, where she’s rescued by a talking fox . . . and “ordinary” goes out the window. It turns out that Momo's mother is a banished Shinto goddess who used to protect a long-forgotten passageway to Yomi—a.k.a. the land of the dead. That passageway is now under attack, and countless evil spirits threaten to escape and wreak havoc across the earth.

Joined by Niko the fox and Danny—her former best friend turned popular jerk, whom she never planned to speak to again, much less save the world with—Momo must embrace her (definitely not "ordinary") identity as half human, half goddess to unlock her divine powers, save her mother’s life, and force the demons back to Yomi.

Humza Arshad & Henry White (Author), Aleksei Bitskoff (Illustrator) - Little Badman and the Rise of the Punjabi Zombies - Book Review

 

Asian YouTube sensation, Humza Arshad, and comedian, Henry White, have smashed it up with another book from the laugh-out-loud little BADMAN series. Are you ready to rap your way out of a paper bag? This third book is another madcap adventure based on Humza Khan and his group of friends. Welcome to Big School (Egginton High) and the most embarrassing first day as Humza is driven to the school gates by his not-so-COOL dad or car. 

This mahoosive story features a magical orb, a school bully, an evil teacher, and an unlikely friend who helps him with his homework. However, this is only the start as the fantasy brain is flexed in a fast-paced, hilarious roller-coaster read that is as fresh as my underpants and as diverse as a curry. The authors and the illustrator bring a magical mix of fantasy, comedy, and illustration that you will not find in any other stories. However, it's time to save the world from destruction, defend oneself from giant killer hamsters as well as the rise of the PUNJABI ZOMBIES, and don't forget that little voice in your ear. In fact, I think I can still hear him now. 

This story has a great slice of British culture coursing through its veins. I've never enjoyed such amazing and wildly over-the-top themes that are told with so much heart and comedic uproar. It's entertainment with a capital E and is a real joy to read and love. It's a series that I would definitely recommend; perfect for readers of seven years and up. The characters are brilliant and feel very memorable whilst the plot is pure genius with a bit of a moral in the tale. You can never second-guess what is coming. The only thing in this book you have to be careful of is what you wish for .... and I wish for another book really SOON. You can buy it HERE!

Alake Pilgrim - Zo and the Forest of Secrets - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Are you looking for a fantastic read this summer? Then look no further as we definitely have the book for you. This is a fantastic middle-grade adventure - a Caribbean masterclass of storytelling - by debut children's author Alake Pilgrim. Zo and the Forest of Secrets will be the first book as part of a new series which will be published on 2nd June 2022 by inclusive publisher Knights Of. The story is based on the island of Trinidad & Tobago which gives this plot a wonderful backdrop to base the story. It really gives it a multicultural infusion as it breathes life into the story with descriptive panache.   

The story has been inspired by the idea that "every child deserves to be the hero of their own stories". Lenny Henry raised a similar point recently stating that he wanted to create characters that young children could identify with as this was something he found difficult as a child. As an avid young reader, he often wanted to go on a fantasy journey with a character that looked and felt like him. Therefore, it's important that books provide children with a sense of enjoyment but also enable them to identify with the story whether this is through the characters, settings, story themes/topics etc. In this book, the author reflects the connections with different countries to her own island of Trinidad & Tobago. 

There are a number of topical and important themes that are covered in this book such as family, friendship and eco-consciousness. However, what I really loved about this book is its brilliance and uniqueness - it's 100% bonkers. The story starts with a shroud of mystery and strange unexplained visions. When Zo finds a lost boy called Adri drowning in the river, she must uncover the mysteries of the forest to find their way home. The journey brings more surprises including a spider with a mechanical twitching arm called Cap'n Peg! This character actually brought tears to my eyes as I was laughing so much. I'm really looking forward to more antics in the next book through the eyes of the main character and their unusual cluster of spiders

The synopsis does not really do this book justice in my opinion. What the story has to tell is a different narrative. It's a read for a seasoned armchair explorer willing to undertake a fantasy exploration through an exotic forest. Expect to encounter an abandoned facility that may hold a few answers whilst encountering a cavern full of disturbing nightmarish creatures called X. You'll dance, skip and hop from one dangerous situation to another whilst smelling the flora and fauna along the way. You'll fully immerse yourself in colour and song as you join one of the best imaginative fantasy journeys this year. Take my advice and give this book a read. You can pre-order from all good bookshops. 

Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick (Author), Chie Kutsuwada (Illustrator) - Guest Post Interview - Guppy Books

 

Hello Everybody! (みなさん、こんにちは) One of my favourite books of the year has been Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick. It has been brilliantly illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada. Told through both prose and manga, it's a fantastic but very poignant cultural reality. If you would like to read my review then follow the link HERE. This post is an interview with Julian and Chie about the partnership between author and illustrator and the origins of this amazing book. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have. 

There is a link at the bottom of the post to watch the live book launch and a place where you can buy signed copies of this special book. Enjoy and see you soon. 

Julian writes: Two things in particular worried me about researching and writing Tsunami Girl. The first was to earn the trust and support of affected communities on the Fukushima coast, and create a story that would do justice and respect to the heavy themes of loss, trauma, damage and recovery. If I hadn’t had such a positive reaction from the towns I visited near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant, I would have abandoned the idea. 

But secondly - even after winning that trust, and friendship – I also worried a lot about whether my idea of combining a prose and manga story could work. It took many, many notebooks, early abandoned drafts and plot diagrams to find a way to combine the main prose part of the novel  (which tells central character Yūki’s story) with the manga inserts that show another angle – another world even – and highlight Yuki’s own creation, a diminutive superhero called Half Wave. 

Even when I had the main shape of an idea, and a contract with my new publisher, Guppy Books, I still had to convince an experienced manga artist that this would work. It was at this point that a mutual friend introduced me to Chie Kutsuwada, and – after our own discussion about motivations and trust! - our collaboration began. 

Below, we chat about the practical process involved in weaving manga and prose into one book.

JULIAN: Hi Chie! I’m still so delighted that I found you to bring the manga sections of Tsunami Girl to life. For a long time I worried whether the idea would work, and what a manga artist would make of my script. Did you have any worries about the technical aspects of tying prose and manga together? And was there anything that particularly excited – or worried you - about the task?

CHIE: Hi Julian! So do I! I’m still feeling honoured and lucky to be involved in your brave and epic project! 

Well, I actually didn’t have many worries. I just liked the idea of prose and manga together. And when I read your text, I felt sure that it would work well. The aspect I was most careful about was this: I had to make sure that all the characters ‘looked’ the same in both the prose and in the manga parts where readers can actually see the characters’ faces. So, I tried to imagine the whole book visually first. By doing so, I could get an even approach to, for example, how each character makes their facial expressions. How about you, Julian? How did you make the text go back and forth between prose and manga seamlessly?

JULIAN: Through a long process of trial and error! I always knew there would be both manga pages and a manga storyline, but in early versions it was Grandpa who had created Half Wave, and it was the grandchild who helped him imagine one final great instalment of Half Wave’s adventures. At that point the manga story was a separate adventure that mirrored what was happening to our central character Yūki - (who incidentally started out as a boy in the first few drafts!) 

Whilst I could make certain echoes between the prose and manga stories, they just wouldn’t interweave well enough, until I realised the manga story had to be more about the disaster itself, and just show a different, imaginative interaction with that disaster and the recovery. Suddenly I could feel it was going to work. But even then I wondered if the images and text would gel. 

Your early roughs of characters and settings were really convincing and good to see. But I remember it took us a little while to find a version of Half Wave that worked for us all. Maybe you could say a little about developing the characters visually - particularly Half Wave?

CHIE: I know it is not the most practical way to do character design, but I usually wait for inspiration to hit me. In this case, I read the script a few times and repeatedly read some critical parts. I was thinking about the characters, almost all the time, until I started feeling that I knew them.

Usually when I feel I know characters, I can get to see them visually, then I start sketching several different versions. For the Tsunami Girl characters, I did not need to do much planning sketches. As I familiarised with the story, I quite easily started to see them visually because the way you describe them is very clear. I believe you know them very, very well. Because you are the creator, of course to come extent you must know them - but it is beyond that. I feel you really KNOW them, maybe it is because some of the characters were based on your actual friends? Also the image references you showed me helped me a lot.

As for Half Wave, the sketch of him by your son was everything. His sketch, and how Half Wave acts in the story, gave me inspiration - and I think I did not change much from your son’s initial image! What I did was to make him look more manga. That’s it really!  I remember that our discussion was mainly his age and height,  wasn’t it? 

JULIAN: It’s interesting that your process of finding characters as an illustrator is so like mine as a writer. Suddenly - you know they are coming to some kind of life. 

Practically, with Half Wave, getting his height right was really important - he’s an eternal (wise) child, forever on the cusp of growing up, with real wisdom and strength. What we did discuss was how Half Wave should look subtly different from Yūki, Taka, Grandpa and the other people from this world. Half Wave needed to look like he belonged in the liminal space between this world (konoyo) and ‘that world’ (anoyo). After two or three versions, suddenly he was there. A very exciting moment. (And as my younger son comes towards the end of his comic and character design degree at uni, he’ll be glad of that praise!)

It’s interesting, ever since reading Spiegelman’s Maus I’ve been in no doubt that all subject material can be tackled in comic/graphic novel/manga type approaches. I never worried that manga could help carry the weight of the story of the disaster, (especially after reading more widely around  alternative manga or gekiga - and coming across works like the incredible Fukushima Devil Fish by Katsumata Susumu.) Are there any manga series or titles you’d love to see translated and brought into the UK market from Japan? Anything we’re really missing out on?!

CHIE: It was amazing when your visualisation of the characters and mine overlapped and merged to become what they are now…
Well, as for manga which I strongly believe should be translated... all of Yumiko Oshima’s work, especially short stories. She debuted in 1968 and is a very well-established manga artist. She is just one of the best storytellers… (Another manga artist who I think is in that category is Moto Hagio. Her work is getting translated more and more recently.)
Oshima’s work may look quite pretty and delicate, but often the theme is very heavy and philosophical, concerning love (not typical romantic type), birth, death, mental illness, aging, and the end of the world - which are not typical topics for manga works targeting towards young girls. I think this kind of heavy but realistic theme is picked as a theme for manga more and more recently, but she did it more than 30 years ago, and her work does not look dated at all… 

One of many qualities I like about her work is even though she talks about those heavy issues, she does not use bang-in-your-face sensationalism. Her work is very poetic, her choice of words and drawing style is soft, but as you read, it feels like something has gouged at your heart. Very powerful. I hope one day some of her work is properly translated into English. I even want to volunteer to be that translator…!

Click Here if you weren’t able to make the event live – and enter password +aD4@u%4 to watch. Signed copies by both Julian and Chie are available on the Waterstone’s Website Here.

Candy Gourlay - Bone Talk - Book Review (Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books)

Amazing cover illustration by Philippine illustrator Kerby Rosanes

Samkad lives in a tribe deep in the Philippine jungle at the end of the nineteenth century, and has never encountered anyone from outside his own tribe before. He's about to become a man, and while he's desperate to grow up, he's worried that this will take him away from his best friend, Little Luki. However, Samkad's world is about to change utterly. A strange man with white skin arrives in his village, and Samkad discovers the brother he never knew he had. A brother who tells him of people called `Americans'. Americans who are bringing war, and burning, to Samuel's home...

The remarkable primitive culture of the Philipines, many years ago, has been brought to life by Candy Gourlay. Bone Talk is set around 1899, a period which is known as the Philippine-American War. It's a fantastic story that will be published on the 2nd August 2018 by David Fickling Books. This will be the author's third published book and, in my opinion, the best book to date. You are all definitely in for a great historical treat. 

Some books grab the attention of the reader well before you turn the first page. The idea for this book is very intriguing as you are instantly transported back in time to 1899, Bontok. Like small ripples in a pond, this book will reach out to the fantasy brain and stay with you for some time. The story is told from a Filipino perspective, which I really loved and depicts the beating heart of tribal life in the Philipines around that time. It is brilliantly written, weaving historical facts and research together to deliver a plot that, hopefully, reflects the time as authentically possible.  

It's a fantasy story that itches at the skin through the brutal reality of life and will ask many questions of the reader along the way. It is a reflection of a time that many people will be very unfamiliar with. However, it makes the reader want to know more. In fact, I became really emotionally involved with the story. I wanted, on so many occasions, to be able to climb up the nearest tree and experience what was going to happen first hand. Pure armchair fantasy! Nevertheless, it's a very hard-hitting book that combines a basic way of life with a dark and macabre reality from death and war.

You will love one of the main characters called Luki. She is very well written and dances off the page with a playful charm and cheekiness. She will make you chuckle as her character really does deliver a lighter-side to the plot. 

I loved this book in so many ways. It's diverse, very challenging and really made me think. I feel as if I have lived every moment of the story. You set off on a mundane ramble and end in an explosive narrative that finds the Philippine tribes move beyond the village into an unknown world. This is a great young-adult read that strikes away from the norm. It certainly shook me from my reading perch as it was enjoyable on so many levels. 

Gill Harvey - Egyptian Chronicles:The Horned Viper Book Review

Book synopsis:
The Horned Viper is the second in a new series of four books set in Ancient Egypt. The Spitting Cobra, the first in the series, was published in August 2009. Two further instalments will be released in 2010. Each book is a well researched and atmospheric evocation of Egyptian life encased in an exciting adventure story. The boy and girl characters, Hopi and Isis, feature in each book and readers will be intrigued to follow their struggles for existence and adventure in Egypt circa 1150 BC. In this story, The Horned Viper, Isis and Hopi find themselves on the banks of the River Nile, pitting their wits against dangerous servants. 


Mr Ripley's Book Review
The authors love for Egypt is evident and allows the reader to feel and sense the events clearly, even without any prior knowledge of ancient Egypt. The book is written in the same vein as the debut book "Orphan of the Sun" which sets the characters headlong in to the world of Egypt, circa 1150 BC. The book develops around an adventure, following the characters of Hopi and Isis, overcoming dangerous enemies and their fears. The story flows like the River Nile; the historic culture of this book makes it an enjoyable read, with much more to be developed within the next few books. 
The other great feature of this book involves the factual and detailed notes which are included, these will help younger readers to enhance their understanding and interest of ancient Egypt. 
I give this book three out of five - only due to the short nature of the story, I wonder if some of the stories could have been compiled into two books rather than four?


Another recommended read is Marissa Moss - The Pharaoh's Secret - See book review. 


Egyptian Chronicle Series:
Book One     The Spitting Cobra  Published by Bloomsbury 3 August 2009
Book Two     The Horned Viper    Published by Bloomsbury 5 October 2009
Book Three   The Sacred Scarab  Published by Bloomsbury 1 February 2010
Book Four     The Deathstalker    Published by Bloomsbury 5 April 2010


About the Author
Gill Harvey studied French and Philosophy at Oxford. After experimenting with a number of careers, she eventually got a job as a writer/editor at Usborne Publishing in 1994. Five years later, and having reached the position of Senior Editor and completed an MA in Modern Literature, Gill decided to go freelance. Since then, writing has become a way of life. Her love of horses has resulted in eight of the Heartland titles for Scholastic Inc under the name of Lauren Brooke; she has also written a couple of Hodder Children's Books Animal Ark series as Lucy Daniels. A year spent commuting to Egypt led to the writing of Orphan of the Sun, Gill's first book for Bloomsbury.