Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth - Frank Cottrell Boyce - CILIP2017

Prez has a problem, in fact, Prez has several problem. His grandfather has become worryingly forgetful and can't look after Prez any more, so Prez is looked after at the Temporary where all the homeless children end up. 

Prez has also lost the ability to speak, although he discovers he can communicate with one person who arrives at the chaotic but friendly farmhouse where Prez has been invited to spend the summer.

That person is Sputnik, a lively alien determined to discover all about earth and finds something to be enthusiastic about in everything from chips to buses. Most humans see him as a dog, which means he can get away with a lot - quite handy when Sputnik's approach to most tricky situations is to make things go really, really fast, or ask if he can eat them.

Frank Cottrell Boyce is brilliant at tapping into kids' wish fulfilment. Who wouldn't love it if an alien dog 'fixed' your toy light sabre at a party so it slices through everything from girls' plaits to metal bars.

Sputnik can surf gravity and can fly a digger to 'fix' Hadrian's Wall.

Frank Cottrell Boyce is an absolute comic genius, but he doesn't use his brilliant comic writing to create a book full of gags. His humour is used very cleverly to deflect all the bad things that are happening.

Prez is so full of optimism, so accepting, that it takes a while to sink in just how bad his situation is, especially as he learns Sputnik's real purpose is to write a report on what is worth keeping about the world so it won't be destroyed - if he can't find enough good things to say about Earth, soon no-one will have a home.

And although the story is funny and full of madcap wishes coming true, at its core it is a wonderfully compassionate story about how the kids with no homes of their own need fixing most of all.

With any funny story it is easy to be swept along and lulled into thinking of this as a light read. But as with all Frank Cottrell Boyce's books, there is a serious story at its heart. It's only when you look at how many other writers attempt to tell stories about such serious issues and decide to do it with such brilliant humour that you even begin to appreciate how difficult it is to tread such a fine line. To come up with a book that delivers its serious message in a way that simply feels like great entertainment? Frank Cottrell Boyce is really in a class of his own.

This is a brilliant book from a brilliant author. The book also has enchanting illustrations from Steven Lenton.

Frank Cottrell Boyce won the Carnegie medal with his first book for children 'Millions'. If you think the best way to tell a story full of hard-hitting truths is to do it with humour, then this should be the one you want to win.

The Bone Sparrow – Zana Fraillon – CLIP Carnegie 2017 - Shadowing Review

The clocks have jumped forward, the days are getting longer, the blossoms are blossoming, spring is well and truly sprung- which can only means one thing – it’s time for SOTB’s annual CLIP Carnegie shadowing!

First up is The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon, which has gone straight from the 2016 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize shortlist and on to the shortlist for this year’s Carnegie medal. The Bone Sparrow is engaging, empathetic, enlightening and harrowing; in short it is a work of poignant beauty that shines a light on a very contemporary humanitarian crisis: refugee camps.

Just the cover speaks volumes, the illustration depicting an open toped birdcage surrounded by barbed wire, with a sparrow flying to freedom, along with best tag line in this year’s shortlist; ‘hope can set you free,’ promises a tale about hope.

The Bone Sparrow is told from two viewpoints, predominantly in the first person by Subhi, a nine year old boy who was born in the camp. The second being told in the third person following the adventures of Jimmie, a curious girl from the other side of the fence.

Subhi – or ID-DAR-1 is an endearing child whose outlook on life is optimistic as he finds hope in stories; ones other tell, ones he makes up; ones he dreams, and ones he draws. Having no experience outside the fences of the compound, these stories are Subhi’s; history, identity and aspirations for the future.

In a place where everything is rationed; water, clothes, food, toilet roll, and hope, the resident’s mortal rapidly starts corroding, and unrest begins to cloud the air. The ominous feeling is exacerbated by the presence of a sparrow inside Suhbi’s tent, and people whisper that the bird is an omen, a precursor of death. Subhi is taken under the wing of ever so slightly older, street wise entrepreneurial Eli, who shares his black market business with Suhbi, literally keeping shoes on his feet. Together the best friends navigate the dangers of life in the camp, from other restless angry youths to bad food, and the trigger and fist happy warden Beaver. When Eli is moved from the family compound to Alpha where the adult men are housed, Subhi takes comfort from his new friend Jimmie.

'May you forever bring us luck and protection, and may you carry our souls to freedom.'

Jimmie, is curious about the people behind the fence, breaks in, and soon becomes friends with Subhi , sharing food, and Jimmie late mothers stories that Subhi reads to her. Subhi is practically interested in Jimmies necklace, an heirloom from her mother; a sparrow pendant carved from bone, which protects her family. Despite the pair being from completely different worlds, they are kindred spirits, and when in the midst of chaos with the camp, Subhi risks everything to save his friend. But as he does so the question is on his min;, is the sparrow a guardian or an omen?


With The Bone Sparrow, Fraillon, shows the hardships, indignities and dangers of life within refugee camps, without shying away from the realities and yet keeping it censored enough for the audience. It is perfectly balanced; revealing just enough to open our eyes but not so much to make it unreadable or inappropriate for the audience, whilst interweaving a deeper fabric of tales creating a rich, multi-facetted unique tale about hope. Both hope of individuals; like Subhi’s unfaltering optimism, and larger hope; the hope that society can change and humanity will prevail.

Dragons Green by Scarlett Thomas - review

‘Dragon’s Green’ is one of those books that feels instantly like an absolute treat to settle down with. Firstly, it features a library, which turns out to be magical, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better it has the most brilliant contest with a dragon to save a princess.

When Effie Truelove’s grandfather is attacked and a sinister book-buyer is desperately keen to get his hands on his library, Effie feels powerless, until she is plunged into a parallel world of magic.

She is helped by unlikely schoolfriends who start to discover their own special magical ability and together they form a team formidable enough to defeat the nasty book eaters who are intent on stealing all the magical power from Effie's grandfather’s books.

There is so much to enjoy in Scarlett Thomas’s boldly imaginative first book for children. As with all of the best children’s books, it can be enjoyed on many levels. 

The writing is smart and playful, full of literary allusions, including a group of existential thinkers guarding the underworld who challenge those who want to cross to swap quotes. Characters rely on quick thinking and verbal jousting as much as fights and magic (note great battle to defeat the dragon).

It is also full of sharp observations on books and the publishing world in general. Not only are the main baddies, the Diberi, evil book destroyers, there is fun to be had with an evil publisher trying to banish stories and encourage everyone to read self-help and useless diet books instead. And newly-emerged witch, Raven Wilde, being the daughter of a very famous writer of magical fiction who has no idea magic really exists. Splendid fun.

The magical world-building is also satisfying (How does someone actually cast a spell? Is magic unlimited? and just what can be discovered in the pages of a magical book?). I can see children loving learning the power of magical objects ‘boons’ and wondering about their own magical skills.

Effie dashes between worlds, some of which can only be found in the pages of books, and the plot weaves in enough complexity so you must keep your wits about you. The fact that it is demanding yet tremendous fun means it will appeal far more widely than to its 9-12 year old core readership. So settle down for a treat.

In fact there is so much to enjoy it is my favourite children’s book of the year so far – and it will take some beating.

Nicki Thornton

The Night Spinner by Abi Elphinstone – review

A welcome return for the intrepid Moll Pecksniff who takes on fantastical enemies and riddles that can only be defeated by magic in The Night Spinner, the final part of this thrilling trilogy of monsters and magic.

Following on from her earlier successful adventures, Moll has discovered a set of sinister enemies who want to shut out good magic and replace it with the bad and there is  danger and adventure at every turn as all manner of foes are sent to fight her. 

Moll now has just three more Shadowmasks to defeat. But can she do it in time to stop the old, good magic being banished forever from the world?

Moll travels north, with only a cryptic note from the oracle spirit to guide her, she begins her search for magical objects she will need to defeat the many, unknown obstacles that will stand in her way.

As readers who have loved the first two of this series will expect, Moll encounters non-stop threat from the magical monsters who have been sent by the evil Shadowmasks to try to stop her reaching and killing the ultimate Shadowmask called Night Spinner.

From an early assault by witches, Moll encounters a wonderfully trickster goblin called Kittlerumpit, a Gollum-like figure, living underground in a system of tunnels, dishing out riddles and surrounded by cages and mirrors. But Moll also finds friendly giants and new-found Highland helpers including a selkie as she quests to find and destroy the Night Spinner.

Yet one of the strongest elements of this part of the trilogy is where Moll starts to have doubts. Her arrows stop flying so truly and she begins to fear failure. As Moll is a character marked by certainty and unstinting bravery and a fearless fighter, Moll is floored by these feelings of self-doubt. But this builds to one of the highlights of the story where she discovers the real reason she has faltered – and it is all down to those evil Shadowmasks again. They have been stealing her hopes and dreams and bottling them to dwindle her energy and resolve. A really great twist as Moll has never faltered before and she fights her way to regather all her strength and belief.

If you haven’t read them yet it is worth starting at the beginning of these Abi Elphinstone’s adventures with ‘The Dreamsnatcher’. 

The jeopardy is constantly thrilling and imaginative as Moll draws on magical objects to defeat her enemies in a wonderful collective rollercoaster of fantastic enemies and ingenious ways to defeat them. 

Moll is a heroine for our times and manages each encounter with a brave heart and a clear head. She is a great heroine, never short on resilience and a stout heart to see her through the worst of troubles.

A brilliant ending for a brilliant trilogy and with everything from a strong jacket design to a strong heroine these deserve to become a classic for every bookshelf. Here's hoping this won’t prove to be the last we hear from Moll.