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Wednesday, 8 October 2025
New Children's : Dirk Jones is NOT the Chosen One - Gatlin Perrin - Firefly Press Ltd
Tuesday, 18 July 2023
The Best Children's Book Picks JULY 2023 - US Post - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Rob Renzetti - The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things - Published by Penguin Workshop (July 18, 2023) - ISBN-13 : 978-0593519523 - Hardback - Age: 7+
From the creator of My Life As a Teenage Robot comes a middle-grade horror story about a horrible bag, the spine-chilling world hidden within it, and a terrifying adventure into the world of GrahBhag.
When Zenith finds a strange, unsettling bag at his front door, he's not sure where it came from or who sent it to him. He knows better than to expect his overprotective older sister Apogee to help him figure it out, because ever since she became a teenager, she's been acting more like a parent to him than a sibling. But he certainly did not expect for a horrifying spiderlike creature to emerge from the bag, kidnap Apogee, and drag her inside to the equally horrifying and unsettling world of GrahBhag.Zenith sets off into the bag to bring her back but soon finds a bizarre realm where malicious forests, a trio of blood-drinking mouths, and a sentient sawdust-stuffed giant are lurking within the seams. And from every corner of the world come whispers of the Great Wurm, an eldritch horror with a godlike hold over the creatures of GrahBhag, who seems to have a dark, insidious purpose for Apogee. With the help of a greedy, earwax-nibbling gargoyle, Zenith will have to save Apogee from the Great Wurm and help them both escape the horrible bag before it's too late.
With a combination of dry, absurdist humor and no-holds-barred horror, Rob Renzetti has crafted a delightfully imaginative fantasy world that will hook readers as surely as it will send chills down their spines.
Marius Grey hunts Monsters. He's not supposed to. He's only twelve and his job as a Cemetery Boy is to look after the ghosts in his family's graveyard. He should be tending these ghosts and–of course–going to school to learn how to live between worlds without getting into trouble.
But, Marius has an expensive goal. He wants to bring his mother back from the dead, and that takes a LOT of mystic coins, which means a LOT of Monster Hunting, and his mother’s window to return is closing.
If he wants her back, Marius is going to have to go after bigger and meaner monsters, decide if a certain flesh-eating mermaid is a friend or foe, and avoid meddling Demons and teachers along the way. Can Marius navigate New Orleans’s gritty monster bounty-hunting market, or will he have to say goodbye to his mother forever?
Jacqueline Davies - The International House of Dereliction - Published by Clarion Books (July 18, 2023) - ISBN-13 : 978-0063258075 - Hardback - Age: 7+
In this not-so-scary ghost story from Jacqueline Davies, bestselling author of the Lemonade War series, quirky, tool-wielding Alice Cannoli-Potchnik begins to repair the dilapidated mansion next door—only to discover the old house is home to ghosts, and they need mending, too!
Home is where the heart is. But can a house have a heart of its own?
Ten-year-old Alice is moving for the eleventh time.
She’s lived in so many houses, each more broken than the last, that home to Alice is nothing more than a place you fix and then a place you leave. After all, who needs a permanent home when you’re a whiz at fixing things?
But when Alice arrives at her new home, she can’t take her eyes off the house next door, the stately dark house that hulked in the dimming light. The once-grand mansion, now dilapidated and condemned, beckons Alice; it's the perfect new repair job!
As Alice begins to restore the House to its former splendor, she senses strange presences. Is there a heartbeat coming from the House’s walls? Is someone looking at her? Soon she realizes she’s not alone. Three ghosts have been watching, and they need Alice’s help to solve their unfinished business.
Will Alice be able to unravel the mysteries of the House and find her forever home . . . before it’s too late?
Summer Rachel Short - The Legend of Greyhallow - Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (July 18, 2023) - ISBN-13 : 978-1665918879 - Hardback - Age: 9+
Disney’s Enchanted gets a Lord of the Rings twist in this fantastical middle-grade adventure about two siblings who must close the portal to a magical realm that inspired a popular movie franchise before their own world is conquered by emerging foes.
Twelve-year-old Ainsley Galloway and her ten-year-old brother, Tobin, have just moved to the small, picturesque mountain town of Lowry. The town is famously the setting for the blockbuster Legend of Greyhallow trilogy and there are traces of the films wherever they go. Ainsley’s parents even bought the film director’s former home, which they dream of turning into an inn that caters to fans eager to check out the local Greyhallow Movie Festival.
But when Ainsley and Tobin are fooling around in the attic of their new home, Ainsley unleashes something. Something she doesn’t quite understand. And suddenly, purple mist is flooding the town, she’s receiving cryptic messages from strangers in medieval garb. Oddest of all, the enigmatic director of the Greyhallow movies, who’s been missing for years, has a message for them.
Ainsley and Tobin have opened a passage between the very real magical world of the movies and their own. In a swirl of shifting loyalties, capricious creatures, and movie trivia, Ainsley and Tobin have to figure out what to do—and who to trust—in order to save them all.
In this magical and chilling Coraline-esque retelling of the Japanese folktale “The Melon Princess and the Amanjaku," one girl must save herself—and her loved ones—from a deceitful demon she befriended.
Melony Yoshimura’s parents have always been overprotective. They say it’s because a demonic spirit called the Amanjaku once preyed upon kids back in Japan, but Melony suspects it’s just a cautionary tale to keep her in line. So on her twelfth birthday, Melony takes a chance and wishes for the freedom and adventure her parents seem determined to keep her from.
As if conjured by her wish, the Amanjaku appears. At first, Melony is wary. If this creature is real, are the stories about its destructive ways also real? In no time, however, the Amanjaku woos Melony with its ability to shape-shift, grant wishes, and understand her desire for independence. But what Melony doesn’t realize is that the Amanjaku’s friendship has sinister consequences, and she quickly finds every aspect of her life controlled by the demon’s trickery—including herself.
Melony is determined to set things right, but will she be able to before the Amanjaku turns her life, her family, and her community upside down?
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
The Best Children's Book Picks UK - July 2022 - Picked by Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Carrie Hope Fletcher (Author), Davide Ortu (Illustrator) - The Double Trouble Society - Published by Puffin (7 July 2022) - ISBN-13 : 978-0241558904 - Hardback - Age: 8+
What do you get if you mix together two best friends, a witch's curse and a haunted house? A spell-binding mystery from acclaimed performer and bestselling author Carrie Hope Fletcher - star of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella.
They say children who are born on Friday 13th are immune to evil spirits. Whilst Ivy and Maggie liked to believe that was true, it didn't stop them checking for monsters under their bed each and every night.Ivy and Maggie have been best friends ever since they were born at exactly the same minute twelve years earlier. They're always on the look-out for a new adventure but unfortunately Crowood Peak is officially the most boring town in the world. Or at least it was until children start to mysteriously disappear and, even stranger, none of the grown-ups seem to have noticed . . .
It's up to the Double Trouble Society to work out what's going on. All the evidence points to the old mansion next door with strange green lights in the windows and a new owner who looks suspiciously like a witch!
Can Ivy and Maggie solve the mystery of Hokum House and rescue their friends or will they be next on the witch's list of victims?
When Darren Devlin is arrested for destroying his school with his bare hands, it's not just the police who are after him. Enter Marek Masters, 14 years old, 19% alien, and the most intelligent, most wanted "almost human" alive. Marek is here to tell Darren the truth - he is 21% monster, and together they must take down the secret organisation that created them.
Darren and Marek are wanted, powerful and dangerous. And now it's payback time.
Fin is a foundling growing up in the Hackney marshes, living in a tiny attic and selling leeches for a living. When she accidentally discovers she is the long-lost child of a rich Polish family called the Kaminskis, she is swept up into a supernatural adventure where she has to use everything she has learned on the streets of London and deep in the marshes to stay alive.
For the Kaminskis are haunted by an ancient evil - and Fin is the key to stopping it forever . . .
A brilliantly funny story of what happens when a galactic princess moves in next door and almost brings about the end of the world. Exciting new fiction from the bestselling, award-winning author of My Brother is a Superhero.
Gavin's got a new neighbour and she's really annoying. Niki follows him everywhere, bosses him about, and doesn't care that her parents will obliterate Earth with their galactic warships if she doesn't stop running away from them. Can Niki and Gavin sort out the alien despots (aka Mum and Dad) and save the planet? Possibly. Will they become friends along the way? Doubtful...
'David Solomons represents the best in contemporary comic writing for children' -- Guardian
A hilarious new story from the author of My Brother Is a Superhero, winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the British Book Industry Awards Children's Book of the Year.
Monday, 27 June 2022
David Solomons - Author Interview (Q&A) - A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the Galaxy - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books #27
- A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the Galaxy is your new book, please could you sum up this book in the craziest way possible?
Space opera in the suburbs. It’s that old story of boy meets girl next door. Girl turns out to be heir to the galactic throne who’s on the run and hiding out on earth from… ah. No spoilers.
- After writing five fantastic books in My Brother is a Superhero series, what challenges did you have starting with this new book? Did fresh ideas flow from the very first page?
Thank-you for the compliment! I find that ideas flow in much the same way that blood does from an open wound. There’s a lot of them, but it’s a painful process. On the first question, enough time had passed since I’d closed the final chapter on the My Brother series that I didn’t feel those books hovering at my shoulder and peering at what I was doing now. Although, as I write this, I realise that everything I’ve ever written is shelved three feet behind me and could be said to be looming over me judgementally.
- Are laughter and humour always going to be David Solomons's key writing ingredients? Do you feel it is important that readers engage through laughter when reading your books?
I don’t set out to write funny books, it’s just the way they come out. I’m an inveterate noodler when it comes to funny scenes – I find myself going over and over them like some mad scientist – word choice, sentence rhythm, electrodes – in an effort to draw out the maximum lols. I can’t envisage writing a book that doesn’t contain humour; to do so would require a level of self-restraint that I have thus far failed to demonstrate in my life. Though I would say that, in my own mind anyway, I pay as much attention to the other elements. I challenge myself to make the stories funny and exciting, funny and poignant. It’s a tricky balance. For example, putting a snarky line into a character’s mouth at the wrong time can undercut what could and should be a dramatic moment. After years working together my editor, Kirsty Stansfield at Nosy Crow, is very good at reigning in my overenthusiastic tendencies!
- Most of the characters you write about have a superpower, what is your superpower?
I can bend time so that deadlines just bounce off me.
- Everybody loves an evil villain, which villain would you love to have a real-life conversation with and how do you think it would go?
First one that comes to mind is Darth Vader, but it would be Eddie Izzard’s version of him from the legendary Death Star canteen routine. In which case our conversation would probably end with him killing me. With a tray.
- Which of your books would you like to see being turned into a film and why?
Any of them! And as for the reason, are you hoping for something more meaningful than fame, glory and a thumping great first day principal photography fee? I’ve been endeavouring to get my books into development/production for years, with a modicum of success. Steve Coogan’s company optioned My Brother is a Superhero, and I wrote a script for a proposed TV series, but that went away. I continue, Charlie Brown-like, to put my work in front of producers. In my other career as a screenwriter, I’ve written the screenplays for three films, including a version of Five Children and It, which I’m pleased to say continues to enjoy a life long after its debut.
These days I write screenplays mostly with my wife, Natasha. And they’re mostly adaptations of her books (for grown-ups). So, the other answer to your question is I’d like to have a film made purely to justify all the hard work we’ve put into the process.
- How important do you think it is to get children to read for enjoyment?
I have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old. For them there isn’t any other kind of reading. By which I mean they’ll only read if the experience is enjoyable. Our eldest is going through an interesting reading phase. I’m in the fortunate position that I’m aware of what’s brand new in the world of children’s fiction. It used to be I could put anything in front of him and he’d read it, but from hoovering up every kind of book, reading three or four a week, he’s slowing down. Still reading and enjoying, but I get the sense that he’s starting to form his own likes and dislikes. He’s happy to reject dad’s suggestions! The six-year-old is just finding her reading feet, but she already has strong opinions, especially when it comes to line readings. At bedtime, when Natasha or I are reading to her, she’ll make us stop if she thinks we’ve flubbed a line. Then she’ll read it the way it ought to be performed.
To go back to the original question, it makes my heart ache. Our whole industry ultimately relies on enough of these little people wanting to pick up a book. It’s why I get so angry when some publishers foist substandard fiction on them. Kid reads average book with huge marketing budget and shrugs: I’ll go back to YouTube thanks. Yes, publisher gets immediate sale, but what about the long-term? Is that kid going to turn into a lifelong reader if her early exposure to books is so flawed? I know it’s not as simple as that, but it doesn’t help.
8. What question were you hoping to be asked in this Q&A and why?
Is the author who appears in ‘My Cousin is a Time Traveller’ based on you?
So, in the last of the Superhero series our heroes get an author visit at school, a dismal presentation from a sweating, under-rehearsed children’s writer. I was quite emotional, writing the last of this series, and I knew I was saying goodbye to characters who’d had transformative effect on my life. So I wrote myself into the story in order to say goodbye to them ‘in person’. However, since I pantsed much of that novel (i.e. made it up as I went along) my character turned out to have a bigger role than I’d intended. Thanks for asking. You can buy HERE.
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
James Harris - Author Interview (Q&A) Happytown Must Be Destroyed - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books #25
- Happytown Must Be Destroyed is the title of your latest book; it is a fantastic title. In what ways does the story live up to this amazing title?
Why thank you! I actually came up with the title first, about nine years ago, and it’s taken me this long to come up with a story that is worthy of the name.
- What comical capers do the characters get up to and why is everybody so happy?
Well, everybody is happy because there’s aliens in their heads making them happy, that’s the problem! And Leeza is the only person who can save the world, but she’s really terrible at making decisions. So there’s a lot of indecision, a ton of running around, a fair amount of aliens schlurping up peoples’ noses, some heavily-armed ice cream men firing freeze rays all over the place, a colossal dance routine, some top-notch arguments, a small jar of pickled onions… something for everyone, really!
- The last book was about biscuits, is this book still good to read with a cup of tea?
Yes, but as always remember: dunk the biscuit, not the book!
- How important is it that readers find the story funny? Is this something that is important to you?
When I write stuff, whether it’s alien invasions or giant orange monsters running round town, it just turns out funny, I can’t help it. A lot of people say my books are “bonkers” but the planet that we live on is pretty bonkers generally, so to me that’s realistic.
- I see you are a filmmaker, a performer, and also a pole-vaulter. How has each role contributed to you becoming a children's author?
Apart from the pole-vaulting, which is just a big fib, everything I’ve done: making films, comics, zines, sketch shows, animations – they’ve all involved writing, so it was all practice. All the little things I have written over the years, for fun, have all helped me be the writer I am today. Keep writing, that’s my advice!
- When you were last interviewed you were just coming to the end of writing this book. Did it all go to plan or did the Aliens and the allergies get you?
Oh, it took a couple of goes to get it right. It’s all about juggling the aliens, and the allergies, and the ice cream, and the friendship, and the action and the emotion… it took me a while to keep all the balls in the air for a whole book. Did I manage it finally? Read it and find out!
- Are you going to make a short pointless film for this book? I really think you should!
Oh go on then! I should, shouldn’t I?
- What question do you wish you had been asked as part of this Q&A and why? How would one of your characters have responded to this question?
Ooh, well they’ve all been good questions… You could have asked “Should everyone buy this book?” and I would have said “HECK YES”, of course, but Leeza would have said “hmm… but there are so many other books you could buy… I don’t know. Yes, maybe?” and her best friend Ishy would have burped the alphabet and jumped over a bin. Does that help?
Monday, 6 June 2022
Hannah Moffatt - SMALL! - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
This is one of the most original stories you will read this year. Small! is the debut book by Hannah Moffatt and will be published by the giant story machine (Mikka) from Everything with Words. It will be available to buy from the 16th of June 2022. This book is a masterclass of storytelling; it stands tall with its humour, silliness, and total chaos. It is a story about Harvey (a small boy with a big heart in a GIANT world) who is expelled from school after accidentally setting fire to his headteacher's trousers.
ARE YOU READY? It's time to strap on a pair of STILTS and walk into the swamp and the land of giants, although you might need to hold your NOSE first! Harvey has to look for a place where he can belong. He finds himself in the strangest of places - Madame Bogbrush's School for Gifted Giants. This book is a GREAT adventure story; a MAHOOSIVE mystery riddle needs to be solved to save the school from being closed by THE BEASTLY SCHOOL BOARD. However, it is also a journey about finding friends in the most UNLIKELY of places.
I loved every page of this book. It has a BONKERS plot that will entertain everyone. In fact, as I write this book review, I have an infectious smile glued to my face as I reflect on the crazy storylines. It is a great family read to enjoy and savour over a cup of bogweed tea and SWAMP FISH sandwiches. The book is a great illustrative delight due to its black and white illustrations by Roy Walker. They work in perfect harmony with the story by adding a new dimension.
This book tackles issues of friendship, bullying and how to deal with parents who divorce or separate. It is sensitively done and just adds a little emotion to a big story that is high on laughs and first-rate rule-breaking. It's a delight to read a creative, heart-warming, and imaginative story that also contains massive amounts of silliness.
This book has everything you need to make it a favorite read for everyone. It contains a fortune teller in the cellar, a giant's guide to grunting and the great ring mistress of the unspeakable circus. It stands out from the crowd and on the bookshelf because even though the title on the book cover is SMALL! the text is so SOOOO BIG. Anyway, it's time to join the party and have a big guffaw so grab a copy this summer and enjoy one of the best reads of the year.
Monday, 30 May 2022
David Solomons - Author Interview (Q&A) - A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the Galaxy - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books #21
- A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the Galaxy is your new book, please could you sum up this book in the craziest way possible?
Space opera in the suburbs. It’s that old story of boy meets girl next door. Girl turns out to be heir to the galactic throne who’s on the run and hiding out on earth from… ah. No spoilers.
- After writing five fantastic books in My Brother is a Superhero series, what challenges did you have starting with this new book? Did fresh ideas flow from the very first page?
Thank-you for the compliment! I find that ideas flow in much the same way that blood does from an open wound. There’s a lot of them, but it’s a painful process. On the first question, enough time had passed since I’d closed the final chapter on the My Brother series that I didn’t feel those books hovering at my shoulder and peering at what I was doing now. Although, as I write this, I realise that everything I’ve ever written is shelved three feet behind me and could be said to be looming over me judgementally.
- Are laughter and humour always going to be David Solomons's key writing ingredients? Do you feel it is important that readers engage through laughter when reading your books?
I don’t set out to write funny books, it’s just the way they come out. I’m an inveterate noodler when it comes to funny scenes – I find myself going over and over them like some mad scientist – word choice, sentence rhythm, electrodes – in an effort to draw out the maximum lols. I can’t envisage writing a book that doesn’t contain humour; to do so would require a level of self-restraint that I have thus far failed to demonstrate in my life. Though I would say that, in my own mind anyway, I pay as much attention to the other elements. I challenge myself to make the stories funny and exciting, funny and poignant. It’s a tricky balance. For example, putting a snarky line into a character’s mouth at the wrong time can undercut what could and should be a dramatic moment. After years working together my editor, Kirsty Stansfield at Nosy Crow, is very good at reigning in my overenthusiastic tendencies!
- Most of the characters you write about have a superpower, what is your superpower?
I can bend time so that deadlines just bounce off me.
- Everybody loves an evil villain, which villain would you love to have a real-life conversation with and how do you think it would go?
First, one that comes to mind is Darth Vader, but it would be Eddie Izzard’s version of him from the legendary Death Star canteen routine. In which case our conversation would probably end with him killing me. With a tray.
- Which of your books would you like to see being turned into a film and why?
Any of them! And as for the reason, are you hoping for something more meaningful than fame, glory and a thumping great first day principal photography fee? I’ve been endeavouring to get my books into development/production for years, with a modicum of success. Steve Coogan’s company optioned My Brother is a Superhero, and I wrote a script for a proposed TV series, but that went away. I continue, Charlie Brown-like, to put my work in front of producers. In my other career as a screenwriter, I’ve written the screenplays for three films, including a version of Five Children and It, which I’m pleased to say continues to enjoy a life long after its debut.
These days I write screenplays mostly with my wife, Natasha. And they’re mostly adaptations of her books (for grown-ups). So, the other answer to your question is I’d like to have a film made purely to justify all the hard work we’ve put into the process.
- How important do you think it is to get children to read for enjoyment?
I have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old. For them there isn’t any other kind of reading. By which I mean they’ll only read if the experience is enjoyable. Our eldest is going through an interesting reading phase. I’m in the fortunate position that I’m aware of what’s brand new in the world of children’s fiction. It used to be I could put anything in front of him and he’d read it, but from hoovering up every kind of book, reading three or four a week, he’s slowing down. Still reading and enjoying, but I get the sense that he’s starting to form his own likes and dislikes. He’s happy to reject dad’s suggestions! The six-year-old is just finding her reading feet, but she already has strong opinions, especially when it comes to line readings. At bedtime, when Natasha or I are reading to her, she’ll make us stop if she thinks we’ve flubbed a line. Then she’ll read it the way it ought to be performed.
To go back to the original question, it makes my heartache. Our whole industry ultimately relies on enough of these little people wanting to pick up a book. It’s why I get so angry when some publishers foist substandard fiction on them. Kid reads average book with huge marketing budget and shrugs: I’ll go back to YouTube thanks. Yes, publisher gets immediate sales, but what about the long-term? Is that kid going to turn into a lifelong reader if her early exposure to books is so flawed? I know it’s not as simple as that, but it doesn’t help.
- What question were you hoping to be asked in this Q&A and why?
Is the author who appears in ‘My Cousin is a Time Traveller’ based on you?
So, in the last of the Superhero series our heroes get an author visit at school, a dismal presentation from a sweating, under-rehearsed children’s writer. I was quite emotional, writing the last of this series, and I knew I was saying goodbye to characters who’d had transformative effect on my life. So I wrote myself into the story in order to say goodbye to them ‘in person’. However, since I pantsed much of that novel (i.e. made it up as I went along) my character turned out to have a bigger role than I’d intended. Thanks for asking.
Sunday, 9 January 2022
The Best Children's UK Book Picks January 2022 - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Lucy Brandt (Author), Gladys Jose (Illustrator) - Leonora Bolt: Secret Inventor: BK 1 - Published by Puffin (20 Jan. 2022) - Paperback
'Fizzing with fun, friendship and fabulous inventions!' - Maria Kuzniar
WARNING: EPIC INVENTIONS AND SECRET SOCITIES AHEAD . . .Leonora Bolt spends her days creating incredible inventions in her TOP SECRET laboratory, under the watchful eye of her terrifying uncle.
Everything changes one day when a strange boy washes up on an inflatable lobster and reveals that Uncle Luther has been stealing her inventions and selling them on the mainland. Leonora, armed with her most important inventions, must leave Crabby Island for the first time EVER to embark on an unforgettable journey that will test her brainpower to its limits.
With the help of an otter with a special skilll, a questionable cook and a singing sea captain, can Leonora dream up an invention that will defeat her evil uncle once and for all?
Ross Welford - Into the Sideways World - Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books (20 Jan. 2022) - Paperback
When twelve-year-olds Willa and Manny hear of a mysterious animal prowling their town, they are determined to prove it is real. Following the creature into a cave one full moon, they are swept into an alternate, ideal, world – one where pollution and conflict have been conquered decades ago and even their own families seem happier.
But when they return, no one believes them. So, with a global war looming in their own world, their quest for proof of the Sideways World becomes ever-more urgent, in a nail-biting race against time.
And Willa and Manny will have to make an impossible decision: because once you find a perfect world, can you ever leave it behind . . .?
The hilarious tale of a family coming to terms with its ghosts - literally.
Greta Woebegone did not believe in ghosts until the day she was knocked over by a car and almost died. Then everything changed...
Now Greta can not only see the spirits that haunt her ancestral home, she can talk to them too - from her grumpy Grandpa Woebegone and Percy the poo-pushing plague victim to the sinister spook in the cellar.
Can Greta help the ghosts avoid being exorcised (a fate worse than undeath)?
Can the ghosts help Greta stop her beloved Grandma being put in a home?
And can they all help each other overcome the pain in their past that's holding them back from the future?
History and myth entwine in this atmospheric tale of freedom and friendship from bestselling author Lucy Strange, and acclaimed illustrator Pam Smy.
Bess has left the London workhouse behind for a job at a rural cotton mill. But life at the mill is hard and cruel– a far cry from the fresh start Bess hoped for. The only way to survive is to escape, but the mill is like a prison, with no way out. Meanwhile, rumours are spreading about a vicious creature that lurks in the millpond. Bess is sure it’s all nonsense, until one night she sees something stir in the murky water. But is it really a monster that lives in the depths of the pond? Or a creature trapped and alone, just like Bess, desperate to escape?
Thursday, 21 October 2021
Lenny Henry (Author), Keenon Ferrell (Illustrator) - The Boy With Wings - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Actor and comedian Sir Lenny Henry has written a children's book. The Boy With Wings was published by MacMillan Children's Books on the 14th October 2021. The book has a personal meaning as 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. It’s sad to think that the young Lenny Henry, and of course many other children, have not found this in the characters they’ve been reading. This must have impacted on their engagement with and opportunities to fully immerse in stories because of this. Therefore, we need to make sure that current literature for children doesn't continue to exclude and preclude children but to ensure that there they have a rich diversity to ensure stories are a brilliant place for every reader.
In this rocket-fuelled adventure, I believe he has nailed every aspect he has set out to do. It starts out with an ordinary kid, Tunde, who is surrounded by characters that most readers will be able to relate to. The book covers subjects of loneliness, friendship and bullying whilst wrapping the plot up with intelligent and fitting humour. This is something that only a great comedian can pull off and he does so with style. The story is imaginative and involves everyday family and school life but it also ventures into a warp-speed fantasy mission about saving the world from a devastating alien war.
The book is spectacular in that it has a great message, a quirky plotline and lots of stuff that both kids and adults will relate to as the story works on so many levels. There are different interpretations of the narrative through the marvellous black and white illustrations by Keenon Ferrell. There is also an added bonus of a small illustrative comic book included at the back of the book which enhances the creative experience. This has been produced by the wonderful comic creator, Mark Buckingham.
The book is emotional and thought-provoking. It’s a booster breeze with a winged superhero who runs faster than Usain Bolt, jumps higher than Michael Jordan and scores better goals than Marcus Rashford. It’s a fast-paced adventure with video game-like qualities that will have you immersed with all the baked treats of a Masterchef getting the ingredients wrong. Watch out for the magpies as they have very sharp beaks and the flying feline cats. What more can you want from a read?
This book is a feast for the senses and one of the best books of the year. Innit? A modern marvel for all the family. Grab a copy and read it today!
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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Favourite Children's Book Picks - FEB 2026 UK
Philip Reeve - Bridge of Storms (A New Mortal Engines Novel) - Published by Scholastic Press ( 3 Feb. 2026) - ISBN-13 : 978-154613...
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The first book published in 2019 by A. M. Howell was Garden of Lost Secrets. It is a deliciously enchanting tale that has been loved by ... -
We have been spoilt for choice this month with so many fantastic children's bo oks having been published. One of them is A. M. Howel...