Emma Carroll - Sky Chasers - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books (Chicken House)

A encounter with a boy dangling from the sky changes pickpocket Magpie's life forever. Like her, the boy dreams of flying over the rooftops of Paris. His family, the Montgolfiers, are desperate to be first to discover the secret of flight. Together with Pierre, Magpie is soon caught up in a world of inflatable bloomers, spies and a trio of unruly animals in a race to be the first to fly a hot air balloon - in front of the King and Queen of France.

Orphan Magpie can’t believe her eyes when she sees a boy swept off his feet by a kite … or something that twists and dances in the wind. She goes to his rescue only to find herself dangling in the sky. The world looks so different from on high and suddenly Magpie knows what she wants – to be the first to fly in a balloon above the King and Queen of France ...

Welcome, 2018. What literary delights will it have in store for you? My last post highlighted Chicken House Books and the handful of wonderful titles that have been produced by the golden chicken for the start of this year. Emma Carroll's 'Sky Chaser' is an example of one of these books. Hatching into magical existence, it will appeal to the middle-grade fantasy audience or lovers of historically inspired fiction.

This book is based on the winning idea submitted by Neal Jackson as part of the annual The Big Idea Competition. The story takes flight through the expert hands of Emma Carroll, a fantastic author of some really brilliant books in my opinion. The fantastic book cover has been produced by David Litchfield, whom I recently highlighted as my favourite illustrator of 2017. 

The story is based on the true story of the first hot air balloon flight over Paris in the eighteenth century. Most of the facts are in keeping with historical records of this time. The story swoops and seamlessly blends into a fantasy world that fits with this time period. It is well-researched and fantastically balanced with the background story. The setting, some of the characters and the time period are also factual and make for a hidden educational journey.

Emma Carroll has a lovely way of blending the narrative to fit the occasion. She wrote the story from the perspective of the French, which I really appreciated and felt that it made the story so much better. You will encounter many colourful characters through this family adventure full of scrapes and bumps as well as the occasional animal scrape, which will make you laugh. It is a story fuelled by friendship, hopes and everlasting dreams.

It is a great race against time in this all-out action adventure. It will transport readers back in time to when balloon flights were a mystical idea that held so many people captivated. I would truly recommend this book - an easy read in just one sitting. It really is a breath of fresh air that will have you soaring through the fantasy thermals of history and beyond. A great start to the new year.

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Guest Post - Sarah Baker - Eloise Undercover - UK Blog (5) Tour - MORSE CODE (Catnip)

ELOISE UNDERCOVER

France, 1944. 12-year-old Eloise’s father has not come home in over a week, and she is getting worried that something might be badly wrong. When the Germans occupy Eloise’s town, and the Nazi Kommandant moves into Maison de la Noyer, things start falling apart. Through a chance meeting, Eloise volunteers to join the Resistance. Suspense, secrecy and danger follow her as, inspired by her favourite detective fiction books, she tries to find her father. A hidden passage behind a tapestry, a deportation list and a race against time... Will Eloise find her father? And what other secrets will she reveal?

Read an extract from the book.

Published by Catnip Paperback, £6.99, 9 + year olds, ISBN: 9781910611135- OUT NOW.

--- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . 

Do you know that this says? 

It says Morse Code! 

(Pinterest photo credit) 


Morse Code is a series of dots and dashes used to send individual letters of the alphabet. If you use it over a short wave radio the long and short tones are referred to as dits and dahs. You could also use a torch!

(link to photo credit): http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/code/ei/w2-ei.html 


Morse code was used during WW2 because it was the simplest, most recognizable and understandable signal to send. Online encoding didn’t exist yet, so the safest way of making sure your message was secure was to encrypt it yourself, then send it. Someone at the other end would write down your message, feed it through the same manual decoding system in reverse and… voila! 


Could you be a covert code breaker? 


Here’s an example of a substitution cipher. Each letter of the alphabet has been substituted with a code letter. 

HINT: Sometimes it helps to work on the short words first (notice how NBY is repeated several times!) 


Here’s a question for you written in code. Can you crack it? 
QBUN QUM NBY ZCLMN MUNYFFCNY NI ILVCN NBY YULNB? 


Here’s the alphabet to help you. 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 

Got it? If so, congrats, you’re on your way to becoming a spy! If not, here’s the key: 


Question: 
QBUN QUM NBY ZCLMN MUNYFFCNY NI ILVCN NBY YULNB? 

Key: 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEF 

You can use random orders and patterns, but in this case the alphabet has simply shifted 6 places to the right. 


Question: 
QBUN QUM NBY ZCLMN MUNYFFCNY NI ILVCN 
WHAT WAS THE FIRST SATELLITE TO ORBIT 
NBY YULNB? 
THE EARTH? 

Answer: 
Sputnik 1 


If this was far too easy, try a harder cipher HERE or you can find out how much more you need to learn about being a spy by booking one of my school workshops HERE 



Big thanks to Education.com for the Code Breaker resources.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sarah Baker is a children’s writer based in London. Her previous book, Through the Mirror Door, has been very well received by bloggers, bookshops, and readers. Sarah has worked extensively in film, with roles at Aardman Features, the Bermuda Film Festival and as Story Editor at Celador Films. She writes guest features for a number of online magazines and blogs, including the popular #vintage baker finds pieces for Bristol Vintage. ELOISE UNDERCOVER is Sarah’s second novel.

Find out more at bysarahbaker.com<http://bysarahbaker.com/>  and follow Sarah on Instagram and twitter @bysarahbaker

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Sarah Baker - Through the Mirror Door - Book Review

Since the accident, Angela has been alone. When she is invited on holiday with her cousins, it is her chance to be part of a family again if she promises to behave herself. But secrets lie in the walls of the crumbling French holiday home and the forbidden rooms draw Angela in. Soon night-time footsteps, flickering candlelight and shadows in windows lead her to a boy who needs her help. To save him Angela must discover the truth about what happened in the house all those years ago . . . and face the terrible secret of her own past.

Sarah Baker has worked extensively in film, as a story editor, with roles at Aardman Features. She has now turned her creative hand from fashion blogging to the catwalk of writing books for children. Through the Mirror Door is a very good middle grade read that is incredibly immersive and well accomplished for a debut book. It will certainly attract readers of all ages, in my opinion. The eye catching cover is designed by Will Steele and illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle; it's very in-keeping with the story as it pulls out the mystery and leaves you wanting to find out more inside the cover. 

You get a really good feel about the plot from the very first page. The plight of the main central character is Angela. She is perhaps not the most well formed character and might need just a little more work around her to fully develop her personality. She is a troubled twelve-year old suffering from the death of her family when she suddenly finds herself embroiled into a mystery story that sucks her into the crevices of the French manor house, Maison de Noyer. 

EVERY HOUSE HOLDS A SECRET. 

As you arrive at the foreboding tall dark house, it looms over you in a crumbling state of dilapidated character and rural charm. Three floors, twenty-four shuttered windows, all in total darkness lead you into a world that will intrigue and spook you to the very core as you cross over the threshold. The question is: do you dare? 

Every door that you open, the more secrets you will find as you follow Angela on a twisty and turning adventure that will have you rooting for her. The climatic adventure turns into a pulse gripping race against time to save Julien, a boy, from 1898 France. You will be transported back in time to a time slip period adventure that vibrates into a tale of deceit and survival. It will work up the imagination and lead you down the path of a gripping fantasy novel. It will certainly flex the brain and entertain the sole as you follow the night-time footsteps, the flickering candlelight and a whole host of ghostly visitations. 

This book is essentially a huge atmospheric ghost story, which is layered full of mystery and dark intentions that I really did connect with. The narrative is one of my personal favourites.  You will soon be sucked into a cavernous story; a haunting and enchanted world that has a timeless classic feel. It is historically rooted which leads to pure escapism, but also has a dollop of romance and a big splash of friendship in a tale of hope and fear. 

This is a brilliant debut book and a highly recommended read. It is out now in all good book shops - published by Catnip Publishing.
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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Lydia Syson Q&A ( Liberty's Fire) Publication Day

I'm really pleased to be sharing with you the following Q&A with Lydia Syson, the author of three historical YA novels. Her new novel Liberty's Fire is being published today by Hot Key Books. 


Tell us a little bit about Liberty's Fire?

Imagine Les Mis, nearly forty years on. When the people of Paris rose to claim their rights in 1871, they were full of hope for the future – hope that was horrifically dashed. Liberty’s Fire is about four young people caught up a revolution that became a civil war, and the story takes place in palaces and opera houses, soup kitchens and cemeteries, on rooftops and in cellars, amid blossom and barricades. The book is full of music, photography, politics and passion.


How much of the book is realistic?

ALL of it! Quite seriously. Unbelievable as it sounds, there’s nothing that happens in Liberty’s Fire that either didn’t or couldn’t have happened in Paris in 1871, to the very best of my knowledge. It’s always a bit of a problem for writers of historical fiction – which I’ve written about before (http://www.lydiasyson.com/unbelievable/) - you’re drawn to the most extraordinary, incredible stories, and then people wonder if they could really be true.

Is travel an important aspect in your books?

Yes and no. I’d say a sense of place is hugely important, but I’ve not always been able to travel to achieve that. I’d already been to Spain quite a few times when I wrote A World Between Us, set during the Spanish Civil War, so to begin with I used a mixture of memory, maps, Google Earth, other people’s memoirs and then in fact we did a family housewap in the Basque country just before I was doing my final revisions and we all went to Guernica and Bilbau – though it was another year before I made it to the cave hospital. (http://www.lydiasyson.com/the-cave-hospital-at-last/) 

That Burning Summer was easy because we spend a lot of time on Romney Marsh and it’s the kind of place that gets under your skin. But for Liberty’s Fire I owe everything to an Arts Council grant – I really couldn’t have written the book without it – which allowed me both time to research and visit and revisit Paris, and that was crucial to getting all kinds of things right, from geography to atmosphere to point of view. As you might have guessed from the book, I’m a great believer in public funding for the arts.

Has your PhD influenced your writing style?

I think it’s influenced my research style more than my writing. It made me confident about using archives and academic papers and journals and following trails in footnotes, and taught me the value of tracing things back to their original source. But I can’t really do a before and after test because though I used to write stories all the time at school, I made the terrible mistake of stopping when I left. It took me decades to get the courage to write fiction again, which is why my best piece of advice to young writers is terribly simple: don’t stop!

Has your PhD influenced your writing style?

I think it’s influenced my research style more than my writing. It made me confident about using archives and academic papers and journals and following trails in footnotes, and taught me the value of tracing things back to their original source. But I can’t really do a before and after test because though I used to write stories all the time at school, I made the terrible mistake of stopping when I left. It took me decades to get the courage to write fiction again, which is why my best piece of advice to young writers is terribly simple: don’t stop!


What helps you to be creative?
Sometimes I think it’s pressure, and sometimes the opposite. I do respond to deadlines – probably because I used to be a radio producer, and if you were a second out you either ‘crashed the pips’ or ‘fell off the air’. But it’s also fantastic to be allowed space and time to write – see Arts Council Grant above! – and not to have to juggle too many different kinds of work at once. The support of my family, near and far, helps a lot. Other things that I find helpful in a refreshing kind of way include being outside regularly - running and gardening and wild camping – and other art forms, like theatre and exhibitions, which give me ideas and help me make connections.


Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?

I’m definitely more interested in meeting dead famous people than living ones, and right now it would probably be the legendary Communarde Louise Michel, also known as the Red Virgin of Montmartre. She’s not well known in this country but in France there are schools and streets and even a metro station named after her, a mark of the fact that ideas that might seem revolutionary to one generation can get taken for granted in another. I’d love to know what she thought of the state of the world now.

Author website: http://www.lydiasyson.com/ book published by Hot Key Books 7th May 2015. My book Review is HERE

Lydia Syson - Liberty's Fire - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Book Review

Book Synopsis: Paris, 1871. Four young people will rewrite their destinies. Paris is in revolt. After months of siege at the hands of the Prussians, a wind of change is blowing through the city, bringing with it murmurs of a new revolution. Alone and poverty-stricken, sixteen-year-old Zéphyrine is quickly lured in by the ideals of the city's radical new government, and she finds herself swept away by its promises of freedom, hope, equality and rights for women. But she is about to be seduced for a second time, following a fateful encounter with a young violinist. Anatole's passion for his music is soon swiftly matched only by his passion for this fierce and magnificent girl. He comes to believe in Zéphyrine's new politics - but his friends are not so sure. Opera singer Marie and photographer Jules have desires of their own, and the harsh reality of life under the Commune is not quite as enticing for them as it seems to be for Anatole and Zéphyrine. And when the violent reality of revolution comes crashing down at their feet, can they face the danger together - or will they be forced to choose where their hearts really lie?

Book Review: If you've ever walked the back streets of Paris, you'll know what I mean when I say about the sense of wonder and history that you feel. It's such an amazing place to visit; a cultural metropolis and one that I absolutely love. However, after reading this book (Paris 1871 setting) this brought my timeless memories crashing down on me.  

I was immediately transported back to the world, and time, when the Paris Commune was the radical municipal government elected to run the French capital (March 1871). This is a forgotten period in history which is brought to life through the magical words and detail used by Lydia. It's beautifully written and, in my opinion, both well researched and thought out. You can really feel the passion the author has for this period - the politics, the equality and rights for women. 

As you follow the four young characters along this compelling plot, it will leave you breathing and living both the sadness and happiness at this time. It depicts the seventy two days of madness, when Paris burned for a week and thousands of Communards were slaughtered on the streets of the city.  This is such a powerful telling of historical events that occurred that I really felt I was living them through the eyes of the characters. 

I felt both the romantic and naive side of the four main characters. They washed over me like blossom petals falling down from a tree on a warm summer's day. I felt every heartbeat through this winding tale of destiny - tragedy, violence and drama. It really made me think about current day life and freedom. This is a book that would be great to take on a trip to Paris as it will certainly open your eyes and connect you to this wonderful city. 

This book is a historical gem. It is a story that I would not normally read, but I'm really glad that I did! It would have been great to have incorporated some period photographs of the time perhaps, especially from the perspective of the lens of Jules. In my opinion, this would have just been the icing on the cake to what is already an amazing story.  

This book was tense, moving and written deeply from the heart. It is a great teenage/adult read that I think more people should be reading and talking about. As you follow the characters, you'll fall in love with the time, the place and them. Hope for a happy ending though as it may not come. Be inspired and read it....   

Paperback: 368 Pages - Publisher: Hot Key Books (7 May 2015) ISBN-13: 978-1471403675

Mr Ripley's Book Review - The Tin Snail - by Cameron McAllister

Imagine the following fantasy pot filled and boiling over with magical ingredients from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a slice of reality from Dad's Army and a dash of occasion from Back Home. If you can picture this, then you should be getting quite close to the magical experience that I had when reading this book.  
Loosely inspired by real events, this story focuses on the birth of the first economy car produced by the French car manufacturer, Citroën. Even today, this car is still classed as an icon with it's utilitarian unconventional looks. The Tin Snail transports the reader back to the 1940's; a world of elegant and luxury automobiles produced for the super rich, although the story initially begins at the 1938 Paris Motor Show. This is a super start to a wonderful journey undertaken by a brave little car. But it soon finds itself facing a tough challenge:

• to carry a farmer and his wife, 
• a flagon of wine and a tray of eggs
• across a bumpy field in a sleepy French village 
• without spilling a drop or cracking a shell

However an even bigger challenge faces the car as a Nazi officer is bent on stealing the design for the enemy!

In my opinion, this is a beautifully written story. I loved every minute that I spent reading this book. It is easily set to be a classic hit this summer. A fantastic family read; this is a story with a big heart based on an amazing idea. A poignant tale filled full of warmth, great characters and the coming together for the common good. 

With France being invaded by Nazi soldiers during the early forties, this story gives an interesting insight into war at that time. This part of the story particularly captivated me. It really made me think about the struggles and hardships during that time.  This could make a good classroom read, in my opinion, as it is sensitively told.

This is easily one of my favourite books so far this year - a brilliant and magical read that will stay with me until the day that I die. It is a great debut story with bags of drive and vroom. One that I could see working really well as a tv adaptation or film. 

I would like to thank Matilda for tracking down a rare copy of this book. I have been told that the finished copy will include a beautifully drawn map inside the front cover, as well as other wonderful illustrations from Sam Usher. 

Apologies for the early review as this book is not due to be published until May 2014 by Jonathan Cape. However I just couldn't wait any longer; I really needed to start talking about this wonderful book. I hope that you enjoy it as I much as I did.