Pike - Anthony McGowan - Feature - Author Interview

Back in 2013 we were very luck to have run a 3D review of Anthony McGowan's Barrington Stoke YA novel Brock. As part of the feature we interviewed Anthony [press here to read]. This summer the sequel to Brock, Pike was published, so we have caught up with Anthony again, to ask him about writing sequels.

Do you find it difficult to reprise the voice of a novel when writing a sequel?

I found it pretty easy. I'd come to know Nicky better than almost any other character I've created, and he was very very real to me. He isn't actually much like me (being honourable, courageous, kind, and patient), but I became him while I was writing, and the skin was waiting, ready for me to don it again...

Brock and now Pike are both written in first person from the perspective of Nicky, did you find that Nicky had evolved or grown between writing the first book and the second?

In Brock, Nicky is almost saintly - he hardly ever loses patience with Kenny, and heroically copes with all the problems in his life. In Pike, I wanted to add some complexity, making him a bit more human and flawed, without losing the fundamental decency that makes him special. And in Pike there's a sort of reversal, in that Kenny is more active, and at times behaves like the older brother he is, despite his learning difficulties.

How hard is it fitting back story from the first book, Brock, into the second, with the tight word count of a Barrington Stoke novel?

Rather a lot happens in Pike - as well as the basic treasure hunt plot, there's a lot of family and character development, and it was quite taxing fitting it all in. Luckily Barrington Stoke have given me a few more words than they normal allow. As for the back story, I wanted the book to stand on its own, as well as working as a sequel, and it's always a challenge in that situation to get the balance right, whatever the word-count.

In Pike, you see both Nicky and his brother Kenny develop, and their family story unfold. Will be seeing more of Nicky and Kenny in future novels?

After I finished Brock, I knew that I wanted to revisit Nicky and Kenny and their world. I had a vague idea for the plot almost straight away, and was champing at the bit to tell it. I don't feel quite the same now. I'm certainly not repelled by the idea of going back to them for the third time, but, at the moment, I don't have a 'story' for them to tell. It's probably worth pointing out that the Pike and Brock actually form a sort of loose trilogy with The Fall - the main character in The Fall plays a minor part in Pike, and achieves a kind of redemption in it for his earlier sins.

What is your favourite thing about Pike?

Obviously it's the relationship between Nicky and Kenny, which is perhaps the thing I'm most proud of creating in my career as a writer. But the setting is also very important to me. It's based very closely on the small town/large village where I spent most of my childhood - Sherburn in Elmet in North Yorkshire. It's not a beautiful place, and has taken a battering over the years, but it has character and resilience. And pubs! The Bacon Pond is a real place, as is the little wood where Nicky and Kenny rescue the badger cub in Brock. And the library and librarian are drawn from life.

3D Review - Brock – Spotlight on Writing.

Anthony McGowan’s Brock is a chilling and gritty read for teens. It is refreshing step away from the lion’s share of YA literature which centres on middle class teenagers focusing instead on Nicky and Kenny from a disadvantaged family. The voice is strong, tough and yet sympathetic and has an instant impact of a child that has been forced to grow up before his time.

Reading Brock transported me back to anther read, one I read as part of the school GCSE syllabus that have a similar gut wrenchingly tough voice and a protagonist from a working class background; A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. In our interview with Anthony early this week (press here to read) he sighted A Kestrel for a Knave as a strong influence for Brock, and on his web site (press here) he lists the film adaptation KES as one of his favourite films. This indeed shines through, yet Brock is distinct in its uniqueness.

A Kestrel for a Knave was published in 1968 and follows Billy, showing his relationship with his abusive half-brother, his disinterested mother living in the hard and desolate north, with his kestrel Kes being his only friend. The influences on Brock are clear, with Brock protagonist Nicky coming from a broken no-income home, but Anthony bring his tale in to the twenty first century.

A Modern Family is just as likely to be a single parent where it’s the father present, Brock reflects this, Nicky and Kenny’s mother walked out on them, and their father is unemployed, and in trouble with the law possibly facing prison. With their father being despondent it’s Nicky who steps up and takes on the parental role, looking out for himself and his brother Kenny. Whereas in A Kestrel for a Knave the sibling relationship is based on abuse and hate, Brock’s is bases on love, and tackles the difficulties subject of learning difficulties.

Kenny has learning difficulties, due to oxygen starvation when he was born. Nicky’s view on Kenny is touching, and is a real testament to Anthony's skilful writing.

“…he [Kenny] isn’t always trying to work out the angles, or how to stitch you up. He thinks other people are as kind as he is, and he only has one idea at a time…. I think ‘simple’ is a better and kinder and truer than talking about ‘difficulties’ or ‘disabilities’”

Nicky’s affection and parental nature is event throughout the book, with him always looking out for Kenny making sure he’s wearing warm clothes and has been fed, although the frustrations are also clear. Anthony has explored the issues of learning difficulties, single parent Families, and child careers seamlessly without turning the story into a heavy Issue’s book.

As a writer I'm always amazed about how other authors weave their stories juxtaposing narrative, action, emotion and description. What I found particularly intriguing in Brock is the sparse character descriptions. This makes it easy for a challenged reader, as coming away from the action to read a beautiful description of a person can make you lose the story thread and put down the book (and after all in real life you don’t look at someone you know and describe them in your inner-monologue!) In Brock Anthony, has skilfully adopted the Fairy Tale method of describing someone with a Name. Yes a NAME can be powerful enough to evoke an image in your mind, Sleeping Beauty, Ugly Step Sisters. In Brock, The human character names all congers up the right image especially in combination with the nougats of information that Nicky provides, like Jezbo (remarkably similar to ASBO) who has two dogs called…

“Satan and Slag. That told you all you needed to know about Jezbo.”

Brock is a sophisticated story written in an obtainable way for challenged reader that deals with difficult subjects whilst managing to deliver a happy ending that inspires hope. Despite it’s subject Brock has a reading experience which seem more like a roller-coaster; exciting, and quick and easy, which I strongly urge you read, challenged reader or not.

We have a copy of BROCK to giveaway!
Just e-mail  with your name address and Brock in the subject line to
SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com

Good Luck!

3D Review - Brock - Reviews

Review by Cameron who is 13 and also dyslexic.

Brock is about a boy called Nicky, whose brother, called Kenny has a disability because, he didn't have enough oxygen when he was born. One morning Kenny wakes up Nicky and takes him to a forest that everybody calls the Corpse. When he gets there Kenny is very excited because some people called Jesbo, Rob and Rich say that he is going to play with badgers. They end up digging up the badger set and killing some.

They find a baby badger and a dog called Tina and take them home to live in the shed. In the end the badger is released to its set and Kenny is allowed to keep Tina the dog.

My favourite part of the book is when the badger is returned to its home and the mean people, Jesbo, Rob and Rich have to do community service. Also another part I enjoyed juice six months later when Nicky and Kenny's dad finds a girlfriend and they go to where the badger set is and they meet the badger that they set free six months earlier.

I think that: the thick coloured paper is much easier to use because you can't see through their page to what's on the other side; The pages don't flick around so much therefore, it's easier to keep your page; also, the book isn't very long so I can easily read it in a day; the text is large and well-spaced out so it's hard to get the words jumbled up when you are reading, this is why it is easy for dyslexic people to read.

I think people should read it because it is easy to read and it has a very clear plot and you're constantly thinking about what's going to happen next. So you're never going to get bored. Also all of it is possible and it could happen to you. It tells you what is right and what is wrong to do in life.

Brock - Adult review

At SOTB we like to look at the book as a whole, the story is the most important thing, but we believe if you’re reviewing a book, you need to review the whole package, so with that in mind I’m starting with the cover. Brock has an amazing cover – you don’t need to read the blurb to know what to expect, the cover says it all. The photograph is bleak yet hopeful and on top of that it's aesthetically pleasing. Then you open the page to thick tactile paper printed with large easy to read print (which to me being dyslexic really made the reading even more pleasurable), this is accompanied by a lovely countryside illustration which instantly sets the scene.

So once wowed by the cover, pages and text and quite frankly feeling a little envious that Barrington Stoke weren’t about when I was a challenged teenage reader, I began to read. WOW! What an opening chapter, starting with...

'The Old Male shifted in his sleep. He was fighting again those long-ago battles, back in the days when his teeth were still sharp.'

When the old male wakes to the sound of dogs and the chapter concludes you know he’d going to his last battle.

'Yes, there was still one last fight in those old bone.'

Chapter two leaves the badger behind and effortlessly transports you into the life of Nicky, as he woken in the cold dreary morning by his brother Kenny. Within the first paragraph you know these boy’s lives aren't easy.

‘I wanted to stay in bed where it was warm. Ever since the boiler bust the morning had been hell. In the night your breath would freeze on the inside of the window so you could write your name in it …’

Nicky voice is hard yet sympathetic; he talks tough but he’s a good lad. Anthony show’s this beautifully through Nicky’s relationship with his ‘Simple’ brother Kenny, and how he takes on a parental role, looking out for him, and following him into the middle of a copse in the early hours of the morning.

This is where we catch up with chapter one. The next few chapters are the harrowing scene of Nicky watching helpless as Kenny in his naivety helps village bad boy’s Jezbo, Rob and Rich (and their dogs) bate the baggers. The scenes are purposely brutal and written expertly to show the horrors of bating and the complexities of bullying and fear. This is an exhilarating and at times uncomfortable read due to its raw emotions and relenting honesty, which expertly balanced to portray the grizzly scene.

With the bating past, and Jezbo, Rob and Rich long gone, Nicky and Kenny find wounded Jack Russell, Tina, and a single badger cub snuffy. The brothers take the two vulnerable creatures and nurse them to health. Whilst Nicky works on a plan to reunite snuffy with his family, Kenny’s naivety attracts the wrong kind of attention from Jezbo, Rob and Rich.

The story is plotted in way that leads to an exciting and fulfilling ending, reaffirming family values in age of broken homes and recession.

We have a copy of BROCK to giveaway! 

Just e-mail SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com with your name address and Brock in the subject line.

Good Luck!

3D Review - BROCK - Editor Interview - Mairi Kidd

We at SOTB know it takes more than writer to make a book, so we have an interview with the editor of Brock, Mairi Kidd, who is also the MD OF Barrington Stoke.

What was your favourite children’s book as a child?

I don't know that I had one - I was more concerned with quantity than quality when it came to reading. I remember gobbling up Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, the Green Gables books, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume and - like any self-respecting Scottish child - The Broons and Oor Wullie. I also read my mum's childhood library, which included two long-forgotten series I loved, one about Nicholas Thomas the naughty kitten and the other about a crime-fighting nurse called Cherry Ames.

What is your favourite children’s book as an adult?

Again, so hard to answer! If I had to choose, then my favourite picture book would be a tie between Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are' and Jon Klassen's 'I Want my Hat Back', and my favourite novel between Sonya Harnett's 'Silver Donkey' and Alan Garner's 'Owl Service'.

What do you think makes children’s books so inspirational?

At the younger end, I think the visual aspect of children's books is hugely appealing and I'm delighted to see 5-8s and 8-12s using more illustration and more imaginative design. I wish there was more of a market for picture books for older children as the examples that do exist are so wonderful. I think that there is a sense of fun in children's fiction that is lacking in publishing for adults, and in more serious works there is a tendency to be quite direct in emotional terms. Children's books don't pull their punches, and I think that's something adults respond to.

What do you love about Brock and what makes it stand out?

First and foremost, I love Kenny. As soon as I had read the first chapters, he was firmly lodged him in my head as a real person. I had the clearest picture of him. And I love the dynamic Anthony creates between Nicky and Kenny, the combination of fondness and frustration Nicky feels. It reminds me a little of the relationship between the two brothers in the Lasse Hallstrom film 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?', which is one of my all-time favourites.

I don't think Anthony is fully with me on this, but I reckon that one of his great strengths is the humour he can inject into gloom. Nicky's aside as he faces the local hard-case and his terrifying dogs is a case in point. '[They were called] Satan and Slag. That tells you all you need to know about Jezbo.'

Ultimately, I think 'Brock' stands out because Anthony McGowan is one of those really special writers who can nail a sense of place and a character's voice so completely that the physical book seems to vanish and the reader is transported to somewhere else entirely.

What made you want to work in children’s publishing? What, more specifically, made you want to work for Barrington Stoke?

My parents both worked in education and I think I'm hard-wired to want to work with and for children as a result. We're also a very bookish family, and so publishing was an obvious choice, although not my first - I worked in arts development and broadcasting first, usually in my 'other' language, Scottish Gaelic.

I first got to know Barrington Stoke books when I worked in Gaelic-language publishing for schools. It's hard in a minority language to offer children enough experience of text to achieve reading fluency, and as a result their reading ability in the minority language tends to be weak. I was delighted to discover that there was a company out there actually producing books for less able readers that were still satisfying reads, and I promptly commissioned a number of translated editions. When I decided that I wanted to relocate to Edinburgh after years in the Western Isles, I had the incredible good fortune to be approached by Barrington Stoke to join the company, and I still can't believe my luck. The only thing better, in my opinion, than publishing books for children who love to read is publishing books for children who don't... yet.

Barrington Stoke books are designed for challenged readers. Does this impact how you edit Barrington Stoke titles?

Very much so. In addition to the standard editorial processes every good publisher uses, we carry out a specialised edit for accessibility. On the one hand this is a very technical process involving specific attention to syntax and incorporating fairly complex reading and language theory. On the other hand, it requires creativity and intuition to ensure that we don't prioritise the needs of our readers to the detriment of the text.

How do you find authors to write Barrington Stoke Title, do they approach you or do you commission them?

A bit of both. We've been supported by an amazing range of authors from the off, but we're always keen to build our roster of authors as we know that challenged readers desperately want to fit in by reading the same well-loved authors their peers can access. Some wonderful writers have come to us with ideas; others have joined us after downright pestering on our part!

Are there any challenges / rewards when editing a Barrington Stoke book?

The big challenge is carrying out the accessibility edit without losing the author's voice. It can feel like vandalism to take a text that reads beautifully and request changes. Luckily our authors are without exception gracious and willing to work with us to reach a version with which we are all comfortable. Working with the authors is a huge reward in itself - I sometimes have to pinch myself. But the biggest reward comes in the postbag - the flood of letters we receive from parents telling us that our books have broken down the reading barrier for their children. That's what it's all about, in the end of the day.

We have a copy of BROCK to giveaway! 

Just e-ail SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com with your name address and Brock in the subject line.

Good Luck!

3D REVIEW - Brock - Anthony McGowan Interview

This month with have super 3D Review of the Barrington Stoke published, Anthony McGowan penned novel, Brock.

Barrington Stoke publishes books written for and designed to be accessible to challenged readers; printed on special thicker cream coloured paper with dyslexia friendly font. The books are written by top authors and are read by dyslexic children and people learning English as a foreign language.

Anthony McGowan is a multi award winning author with Catalyst award and Booktrust Teenage prize in his pocket, and a film adaptation of his book The Knife That Killed Me, in production.

So we start the 3D review of Brock, with an interview Anthony. We've also got an interview with his editor and MD OF Barrington Stoke, Mairi Kidd, a review form me and a teen reviewer plus our spotlight on writing. All this and a book giveaway as well!

Anthony's Interview...

What was your favourite children’s book as a child?

The Lord of the Rings – a teacher gave it to me when I was 9 – too young for it, really… I learned how to read novels by working my way through it. It took two years!

What do you think makes children’s books so inspirational?

It's all about the characters. Create compelling and sympathetic characters and everything else falls into place.

Why did you start writing for children?

When I first became a writer I never thought of myself as writing for children. My first book, Hellbent, was originally intended for adults, But when it was finished I realised it was really a teen book. Later on I had children and began to write for them …

What was the inspiration behind Brock?

The setting for Brock – a small town in Yorkshire – is closely based on the place where I was brought up – Sherburn in Elmet. The plot was strongly influenced by A Kestrel for Knave by Barry Hines – a truly great book.

What is your favourite aspect of writing for children?

When a child or teenager loves a book, they love it with an incredible intensity and purity. It's wonderful being part of that.

How did you get the opportunity to write for Barrington Stoke?

I met someone from the company at a book awards several years ago. We got talking and I was totally won over by what they do, and I really wanted to write something for them. And I think at the time they wanted someone to write grittily realistic stories for older teens, and that turned out to be me.

Are there any challenges / rewards when writing a book of Barrington Stoke?

The reward is getting reluctant readers to pick up a book. At an book prize ceremony in Coventry last year they showed a film of a teenager talking about my book, The Fall. He had never before thought that reading was for him, but he'd loved it. I got quite emotional hearing him speak. In terms of challenges, I don't approach a Barrington Stoke book differently to the way I approach any other writing project. I simply write the best book I can. It then goes through some fairly rigorous editing, which irons out any problems that might make the book difficult for a dyslexic or reluctant reader to to understand.

Questions from Cameron our teenage reviewer . . .

How long did it take you write Brock?

It only took me a couple of weeks to actually write the book, but I'd been thinking it over for about a year, getting the plot and characters sorted out in my head.

When you were writing Brock did you use a dictating program like Dragon?

I've tried Dragon, but I just didn't get on with it. When I write, it's almost as if my fingers are doing the thinking, and changing to a dictation programme broke that physical bond that I seemed to need.

Are you dyslexic?

No, but I'm a terrible, terrible speller …

What is your advice for someone with dyslexia about how to get things (thoughts) onto paper?

It's just a matter of practice. Keep doing it, keep writing, keep thinking and dreaming. There are plenty of wonderful dyslexic authors – like Sally Gardner - so, although there are clearly obstacles, you can overcome them. 

We have a copy of BROCK to giveaway!
Just e-mail  with your name address and Brock in the subject line to
SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com

Good Luck!