A BIG Space on the Bookshelf Congratulations to the winner of The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2014!

We at Space on the Bookshelf LOVED all of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize shortlisted books this year, (to be fair we loved the longlisted one too!) Reviewing the shortlist was a pleasure [press here to read our reviews], and so we can empathise with the judges that picking a winner must have been a difficult task. 

But without further a'do we would like to congratulate all of the shortlisted authors, and ultimately say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the winner ...

...Piers Torday for The Dark Wild! 

Guardian Children’s Fiction Award 2014 - reviews: The Dark Wild, The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses, Phoenix

Continuing on our shadowing of the this years Guardian Children‘s Fiction Award short list after Nicki's previous post and review of 'We Were Liars’ by E Lockhart [press here to read], here is our reviews of the other three exciting short listed books...

The Dark Wild by Piers Torday

Reviewed by Claire

Twelve year old Kester can't speak to most humans, but he can talk and listen to animals. Not that there were many animals left, after an evil corporation wiped most of them out with a virus, so that humans would have no choice but to buy their food-substitute. In the first book in this trilogy Kester saved many of these animals. In this second book, he discovers that there are other animals in an underground city, who are preparing to rise up against humans. It is only Kester who can stop them.

The Dark Wild has some of everything. A rollicking adventure. Set in a dystopian future. Important theme of humanity’s attitude to our environment. And perhaps most importantly to its readership, a large cast of loveable (and not so loveable) animals that come alive on the page.

This series is marketed as 9+, but it is a challenging read, both thematically and in tone, for that age-group. 11+ seems to me like its natural readership, especially those able readers who are starting to lose interest in other middle grade fiction. There aren’t enough books in that gulf before teen fiction so I was pleased to discover this.

The final book in the series will be published in 2015.

The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses 

by Kate DiCamillo

Reviewed by Sally

Have you ever wondered what would happen if…a twelve year old natural born cynic and a squirrel with super powers and a talent for writing poetry got together? If so then, The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses is for you. If no, then you should read this book to find out why you should have asked yourself the question.

The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses is a quirky and intelligent read for middle grade, centring around the adventures of twelve year old comic fanatic Flora, who resurrects a squirrel who has been vacuumed up by the neighbours top-of-the-range Ulysses 2000. The squirrel, Ulysses after his near death experience develops super strength, the ability to fly and advance cognitive abilities (which he channels into typing poetry). The pair instantly bond, and begin on series of gentle, funny and profound adventures as they try to outwit Ulysses’s arch enemy, Flora’s Romanic novelist mother, who has plan for the bald squirrel that novel a shovel and a sack!

The real strength of The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses, is the writing, Kate DiCamillo, delivers a gentle haft warming story with plenty of action and laughs, which deliver positive messages about trust, friendship and acceptance, in an uncondescending way. DiCamillo use of language is beautiful, weaving together words in beautiful way, and not compromising on her choice of words, creating a challenging read which will be particularly suitable to advance readers. I myself had to consult the dictionary on a few occasions. To add to the quirky humour sections of the book have the action told not in words but with sequential narrative, with delightful grey scale comic strip illustrated by K G Campell.

The messages and themes of the books, are all woven together in a subtle way, as the group of eclectic and lonely characters bond together with their shared mission to keep Ulysses safe. The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses, is a book that will make you laugh and cry (or maybe that’s just me) and illuminate you on the profound nature of squirrel poetry.

Phoenix by SF Said

Reviewed by Claire 

Phoenix is a science-fiction story set in the far future amidst a highly populated galaxy. This description doesn’t make it sound like the type of book that is usually nominated for prizes, but Phoenix is beautiful on so many levels - even poetic, in parts - and I’m thrilled that it is getting the recognition it deserves.

This is a hugely accessible book for many reasons. It has intriguingly eerie illustrations by Dave McKean, which somehow don’t feel like an overthought - the words and pictures fit together perfectly. The story gets cracking quickly, moves fast and never sags. And then there’s the characters: A boy called Lucky, who dreams that the stars are singing. His mum, who for her time in the story proves to be about as cool a mother as any kid can hope for. And Bixa and the rest of her family, who are aliens with hoofed feet living aboard a spacecraft. It has a clear message of love towards our neighbours, however different their outward appearance may initially seem.

I originally bought this book without knowing much about it, purely based on its genre - my children, like so many others, love both speculative science and space travel, and there is far too little of it on offer. It shot to the top of my reading list when my ten year old son read all 487 pages in one evening, and couldn’t stop talking about it. His favourite part, he told me firmly, was what happened to Lucky in the ending. When I read it, I was surprised by this, for whilst hugely uplifting, it is not a conventionally happy ending for children’s fiction. But in a mind-blowing book like this, conventions fly out of the spacecraft hatches, and really it’s a far better read because of it.

This is a future classic and, having read all of the finalists, it remains the one I would very much like it to win.

So here we are a mixed bag of exciting books, role on November 13th, when the winner is announced!

Look ahead to Guardian Children's Fiction prize

With the Guardian children’s fiction prize shortlist due to be announced any day soon, I am jumping in with a review of one of the longlisted titles. Otherwise I might lose an excuse to tell you about it (as I am frankly terrible at predicting what’s going to win prizes) and it was too good an opportunity to miss telling you just how good this book is

Firstly, the longlist. (The winner will be announced on November 13.)

The longlist was selected from 169 books submitted for the award, and is the only award judged by fellow children’s authors, which is probably what makes it my personal favourite award - I think authors perhaps have a different appreciation of craftsmanship and general quality and inventiveness in storytelling and look for something different in the way they judge books.

The judges themselves have been specific about what they were looking for - the books have been selected as ones that have made ‘make believe seem real’.

Judge Frank Cottrell Boyce, a former winner of the prize, said that while many of the books on this year's longlist "tackle dark themes, they do so in bold,  unexpected ways that take us way beyond the confines of the current fad for teenage misery lit".

This year he is joined on the panel by the Waterstones award-winning author Katherine Rundell, who said: "The longlist has wit and heart and bite; taken together, the books show how intimidatingly good are the children's writers working today," said Rundell.

Here it is: the Guardian children's fiction prize longlist:

The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby: Flora in Love by Natasha Farrant (Faber)

Phoenix by SF Said (David Fickling)

Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (Walker)

The Dark Wild by Piers Torday (Quercus)

Shine by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling)

We Were Liars by E Lockhart (Hot Key Books)

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)

The Lost Gods by Francesca Simon (Faber)

We’re going to be doing our annual round-up of books shortlisted for the prize soon, but I wanted to get with a review of ‘She Is not Invisible’ - so here it is.

She is Not Invisible is a thriller – thus a bit of a departure for author Marcus Sedgwick in that most of his books are historical, and often historical with a fantasy twist.

But this is a straightforward contemporary thriller (in as much as anything that Marcus Sedgwick writes could ever be described as ‘straightforward’).

The story starts when Laureth suspects her dad is in trouble, but she can't get anyone to believe her. When Laureth gets an unexpected clue that Dad is in New York and in trouble, Laureth and her younger brother, Benjamin, put into action a plan to sneak onto a plane to go and find him.

As they struggle to follow Dad's weird clues about where he might be, they must stay one step ahead of the law and the baddies who have possibly kidnapped Dad.  But this is more than just a straightforward missing-parent or road-trip thriller.

It’s probably a bit of a plot spoiler (although not much of one as you do find out fairly early on), but the main character is blind. Marcus Sedgwick is brilliant at weaving this disability subtly into the story – and people’s reactions to it.

All the description is done through Laureth’s eyes, so although you can easily conjure up mental pictures of where they are – none if it is done through visual clues. Noise, touch feel are the senses that Laureth gets a sense of her surroundings.

And she has also learned that people will make big deal of her being blind, so she has learned to conceal it. Taking note of little details such as always looking towards a person when they are speaking to you. And note the reaction of the boy Laureth is getting on so well with when she confesses she can’t see. It’s this sort of detail that lifts this story into something else.

As an adult, I read plenty of children’s books as we do a lot of recommending in my shop (and I have to keep up otherwise all my customers would be way ahead of me). But there are a few authors whose books are just so enjoyable even for an adult to read in their own right. And I think it probably comes down to layers – I really enjoy those books which are about more than just the plot that you can read on a surface level.

This is a book I’ve recommended plenty of times and have found it a very successful choice for ‘disaffected’ readers – people in their early teens who used to be big readers, but haven’t found much to inspire them of late. I put this down to the fact that Laureth is no trained ninja warrior, she has no hidden magical past and powers that will come to her rescue – in fact she has a great big disability. But she also has her own guts and her own brains and her bravery to keep her from harm and I think she’s a brilliant character people can relate to.

I won’t even get started on the whole coincidence theme and the numbers that are all part of the clues Laureth has to solve. Novelist Dad is obsessed with coincidence and unravelling the clues takes the reader into unexpected territory as you follow Laureth into the scientific thinking of Jung and some number puzzles. It all make this a highly original and thought-provoking read.

If you care to look, Marcus Sedgwick has used the number that Laureth’s dad is obsessed with repeatedly throughout the novel. For anyone with geek tendencies – try to spot things like the chapter numbering and length. I love the fact that he’s so confident in his writing that he can be so playful with it, but in a subtle way that doesn't detract at all from the plot - more of an in joke. The way the author presents ideas to children through impeccable story telling is truly impressive.

This book works on just so many levels it will be a crime if it doesn’t win some sort of major award this year. But that is out of my hands. But I can at least urge you to read it.