Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret – DD Everest - 3d-review – editor interview

Alice Swan, Commissioning Editor, Faber Children's, was longlisted in this year's Branford Boase Award, set up to reward the most promising new writers and their editors, as well as to reward excellence in writing and in publishing. 

The Award is made annually to the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first time novelist. Alice Swan was nominated for her work on 'Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret', which we are featuring this month on Space on the Bookshelf.

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

Our family didn't have a television growing up so we did A LOT of reading, especially when it was winter and we couldn't go out and play all evening. I find it very hard to name a favourite book, but I do remember a summer holiday where I was obsessed with Joan Aitken and read everything she'd written. 

I think Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is definitely up there. We read Northern Lights as a family, with my mother and father taking it in turns to read to me and my three younger brothers and sisters. 

When it came to The Amber Spyglass I was too impatient to wait until story time so I devoured it myself over a few days. I remember thinking that I had read some profound work of philosophy - I was empowered by the fact that I understood the metaphor - and I couldn't wait for my dad to read it so I could discuss it with him. 

We were also obsessed with audio cassettes as children as we used to go on long driving holidays around the campsites of France or Spain and it was here I discovered favourites such as The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. 

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

Every book I edit has a place in my heart because when you work on something that closely you feel like you know every word. It's also a joy to discover classics I didn't read as a child such as Noel Langley's The Land of Green Ginger. 

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

The books I read as a child were often my first experiences of a particular emotion or feeling. Melvin Burgess's Junk made me think I was streetwise, for example. I'm sure all young readers feel the same way - your protagonists are your heroes and they can shape your views and widen your horizons. You can find friends in books, too. 

What do you love about ‘Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret’ and what makes it stand out?

I am the biggest fan of magical books and I always have been. What's so special about Archie is that you can imagine being that boy, leading a normal life, and then WHAM you suddenly discover that your family are the secret guardians of the world's magical books. That's a very exciting premise, right there. 

As a reader you want to feel like you could be right there inside the book - that it could happen to you - the closer it is to the real world, the easier it is to imagine. DD Everest has an amazing talent for world building and this is a book with a lot of depth. 

There are so many details to get excited about, such as the magical instruments in the Museum and the ancient practice of magical book upkeep. Archie and his cousins are very normal, grounded characters, not to mention cheeky, and they're instantly likeable. It's the sort of book that you can really immerse yourself in, escaping the real world and getting to know a more exciting one! 

How many people worked on this book from arrival of manuscript to finished book on shelf?

Lots! I co-edited it with Antonia Markiet, the US editor, but besides us there is the publisher, the desk editor, the typesetter, the copyeditor and the proofreader. Not to mention the designer of the cover, the production person who arranged the printing, the marketing and publicity teams, the sales team that get it on the shelf in the first place...   

Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret – DD Everest - 3d-review – author interview

We welcome Des Dearlove (aka DD Everest), debut author of 'Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret' to Space on the Bookshelf. 

We talked to him about how the magic of fantasy books that he started to love as a child has led to him creating a world where books are very, very magical indeed . . .

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

The Hobbit! I must have been about nine when I first read it and I just loved it! I can still remember the sense of adventure it inspired in me. There’s something very special about the world that Tolkien created and the idea that small people like hobbits can have very big adventures. When I opened that book, I was Bilbo Baggins leaving home without even a pocket-handkerchief!

Other books I enjoyed were the Norse and Greek myths, which had a big influence on me, and stories about boarding schools, especially as I didn’t go to one. I devoured the Billy Bunter books.

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

The Lord of the Rings -- it’s the Hobbit for grown ups! It is such an epic story and so perfectly constructed.

Treasure Island is another book that I have grown to love as an adult. My dad read it to me when I was young, and as I get older it has a very special place on my bookshelf because he read it to me. I can still see him sitting at the end of my bed! That’s the power of reading to children – they never forget.

Some of the more contemporary children’s fantasy is brilliantly imagined and written as well. I love the Harry Potter books for bringing together the worlds of boarding school (Bunter) and wizards (Gandalf).

Terry Pratchet’s Discworld novels are also favourites because they can be enjoyed by children of all ages.

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

The audience – the fact that they are read by children! For an author it is brilliant because you have an audience whose imagination is still wide open. It allows you to become a child again. And the themes most children’s books deal with are the great themes of life: loyalty, love, trust, the battle between good and evil. What else is there?

Why did you start writing for children?

I’m not sure I ever did start writing for children, not consciously anyway. I write what appeals to me. I still love books about magic -- and unlikely heroes like Bilbo Baggins. I still yearn for worlds that are more exciting than my own. I’m very happy to be a children’s author. But I didn’t set out to write a children’s book. In fact, I am still surprised by it – and that people so young can follow my plot when some adults struggle with it.

What made you want to write this book?

I found books magical as a child because they allowed me to explore a wider world. They were like doors to exciting places and adventures. That was the inspiration for Archie's world. I just thought wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were books that contained magic that spilled out when you opened them. Or books that drew you into their stories, which is what happens to Archie. 

Then I thought where would you find the most magical books in the world? And the answer was obvious: in the greatest library the world has ever seen: The Great Library of Alexandria! So the mythology behind Archie’s world became very vivid very quickly. That makes it very rich to write about and I hope gives it extra depth and interest for the reader.

What is your favourite aspect of writing for children? 

I love it there are no limits to their imagination. So, for a writer, it is the biggest canvas of all. But, at the same time, children are very perceptive so they will find any flaws or holes in what you create. So, on the one hand, you are challenged to make a real leap of the imagination; and on the other, you have a great responsibility to make it as vivid and compelling as possible. That sets up a really exciting creative tension challenge that the writer has to try to rise to.   

'Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret' will be published in paperback on June 4.

Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret – review – DD Everest - 3d-review

There is something fundamentally appealing about thinking there may be a magical world that lurks just behind the real one we can all see - if only you could find a way to get there.

In ‘Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret’, when Archie receives a very old book for his birthday, little does he know that it will lead to all sorts of adventures and the chance to step inside a world he never knew existed - and one that is different and more dangerous than the one he was brought up in.

Archie has instructions to take the book to an address in Oxford. There he discovers a place his parents tried to keep from him. A world where ancient magic is kept alive. He meets relatives he didn't know he had and before he knows it he is apprenticed to a secret library and discovers that some books aren't simply content to sit on shelves all day.

It's a story with plenty to fire the imagination. Archie discovers he is descended from a series of magical folk who have a very special quest – to recover and look after magical books.

He must train in a very unusual and particular skill. He must learn the craft of the secret folk who work preserving and restoring magical books and investigating their magic.

But dark sorcerers want to get their hands on certain books and an attack on an apprentice makes Archie realise that magic can be dangerous and that the library is no longer safe – for the people who work there, or for the precious books.

While he quickly tries to learn the history of the enchanted library, and its magical folk, he also begins his training to protect the books. And he secretly tries to work out who is scheming to undermine the library and the whole magical world.

What stands out about Archie Greene is that the magical world is terrifically well created; done so it never holds up the action, yet we are rapidly introduced to a whole imagined world, a colourful cast of characters, plus the lore of the magical folk in a really short space of time.

The fact that it all seems very real, just ready for us to step into, but full of crazy, unexpected instruments and tasks we must understand, is what makes this such a treasure of a book.

Writing fantasy for younger readers must surely be challenging - creating a whole make-believe universe with a far less generous word-count than you get for older readers is a real skill. DD Everest does a wonderful job, deftly bringing the whole world of magical books to life and handling a complex plot that is accessible for young readers.

From magical creatures, history, lore, warring collectors and book thieves to riddles and secret codes – there is much Archie must understand and solve and the reader is taken on a great journey along with him. 

Archie and his cousins want to ensure that the world Archie has only just discovered is not going to be destroyed forever.

It’s a thoroughly absorbing imaginative, but gripping adventure as Archie tries to discover how he can best help the books calling on his new-found friends and talents.

'Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret' is a very welcome addition to fantasy stories that will appeal to readers from eight upwards - with more adventures to come this autumn.

Review from Alex,  aged 10

Archie Greene in an exciting adventure story about a boy who discovers he is magical. But that is not the only secret he finds out along the way.

He meets his two cousins, who are magical too, and they show him around and introduce him to a secret world hidden beneath a bookshop in Oxford. It is the world of the Museum of Magical Miscellany and it is full of all sorts of magical books. His cousins help him on his journey to greatness!

But the museum is under attack and although Archie must protect the books he discovers he has a rare skill and can hear the books talking. That’s when he learns that not all books need protecting – some are not to be trusted and some are even full of dark magic. Then attacks on the library begin.

So I really recommend this book. You can never put it down and it is full of magic, adventure and excitement.