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.

Carnegie Short-list Review & Mini Interview - Buffalo Solider by Tanya Landman

Buffalo Solider is an astonishing tale about a child who is born into slavery, survives the American Civil War, and grows up to become a solider riding into savage battles with native Indians.

 
Tanya Longman's short-listed, historical YA novel Buffalo Solider, is a fascinating tale which stretches from the period leading up to the American Civil War through the Indian Wars to the waning of the Wild West. What makes Buffalo Solider stand out isn’t just the impeccable writing and gripping voice but the perspective. Most books, films and documentaries about this period in US history usually centre on the political struggles in the exclusively white Washington or the battles between the Yankees and the Confederates. Few texts give heed to the people that the outcome of the war affected most or the ramifications it had on those who were enslaved. In Buffalo Solider, Tanya Langman has tackled this subject from the eyes of Charlotte, a slave on a plantation, whose world is ripped apart by war and the promise of freedom. 

Charlotte’s voice is compelling and uncompromising; showing a girl with great resolve and sprit who witnesses the horrors of war and soon discovers that freedom doesn't mean safe. With no home, food, or prospects and ever growing racial hatred, Charlotte takes extraordinary measures to keep safe.

‘What kind of girl steals the clothes from a dead man’s back and run’s off to join the army? A desperate one that’s who.’

Hiding in plain sight, Charlotte becomes Charlie and lives by man’s rules. She rises up the ranks in the new Black Army Legion, Company W, fighting the ‘savage’ Native American and negotiating the hostilities of the rival white legions.

“…I find that there aint nothing that makes you feel quite so alive as when you’re staring Death right in the face and every second might be your last.”

As Charlie, becomes a weathered solider and the role of the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ becomes more than just fighting Indians but moving them to reservations and rounding up any who flee, she beings to inwardly question the orders and motives of them folks back in Washington.

“The Indians got the army telling them they gotta stay put on the reservation, else they’ll be shot. But I seen with my own eyes that the food they been promised don’t show up the whole of the following winter and the whole winter is a long time to go without eating and them folks start to starve.”

Despite the horrors and injustice that Charlie see’s in her time as a buffalo solider it’s her personal nightmares that haunt her the most. The fear of boy from her childhood, with blue eyes and golden curls like an angel; Jonas. Charlie’s life becomes infinitely more difficult when Jonas becomes captain of Company W.

“The last thing I see Jonas do is point at me with one hand. He put the other to the side of his neck and clench it into a fist. Then he jerks it up sudden, cocks his head to the side, lets his tongue loll out like he’s been hanged.”

Landman has written and book that grips you from page one and doesn’t let go until the final line. Charlotte is a strong and empathetic protagonist that makes you want to see her rise out and find peace and contentment. The writing is well crafted with subtle and powerful metaphors, like the bear cubs that are kept for amusement then freed only to freeze to death or the stirring up the ants to make them battle…

“Ruben would take a stick and stir up a pair of ants’ nests. He’d get the red ones fighting the black.”

Buffalo solider looks at the issues or war, delving into the darkest traits of human kid, and question the notion of freedom, something that most of us take for granted. It is a triumph, a truly engaging read, although recommended for Young Adult readers due to subject and historical language.

Mini Interview with Buffalo Soldier author Tanya Landman

What is your Favourite thing about your book Buffalo Solider?

What I love about Buffalo Soldier is Charley. There are some characters you don't create - it's more like they're standing at your side telling you their story. Charley is one of those. I love her strength and her humanity.

When Mr Dog Bites – Carnegie Shadowing – review

This was the book I was really looking forward to reading for our shadowing for two main reasons – it seems to have been the one this year that has got everyone talking (and I always like to read books people are talking about).

Plus it had very high billing as a ‘Curious Incident’ for Tourette’s, which sounded very intriguing (if not extremely difficult to live up to).

Any award should include books interesting enough to get people talking, and this book has been controversial enough to make headlines. 

If you’ve already heard about this book you will probably know one thing about it – it is full of swearing.

So the question I really wanted to address was – was it on the list mainly as a book that would get children talking? Is it good enough across all areas for me to want it to win?

The concept of the book is that the main character, Dylan Mint (great name), has a very rare type of Tourettes that means whenever he is stressed he can’t stop himself verbally insulting people.

By far the best thing about the book is the really deep way that the reader engages with Dylan and his condition. You really feel for Dylan as he can’t help just going around being incredibly offensive, which, inevitably, causes lots of problems. 

It's an incredibly compassionate book that is presented in a fun and funky way rather than an overly emotional one, so will appeal to a different group of readers. Diversity and inclusiveness always get a big thumbs up from me.

Dylan is sixteen, but does have a very naive view of the world, which definitely makes the reader feel that as well as having Tourettes (basically a genetic illness of the nervous system which means the body tics and jerks) that he is in some way not fully developed mentally as a sixteen year old (is this part of Tourettes?). Not sure. Ultimately it's not really a story about Tourette's very much.

Dylan is trying to make sense of the world and care for his friends and his family. But he's a teenage boy, so he doesn't always do it in ways you might expect. His close relationship with buddy Amir is very touching.

Dylan has a close and warm relationship with his mum (his Dad is away in the army). They spend evenings together; he makes her soup, they comfortably share tv viewing. He misses his dad. Then Dylan accidentally overhears something he shouldn’t – he believes he has learned he has only months to live.

Having set up a great relationship between Dylan and his mum, you can't help but wonder why would he not want to talk to her about his imminent demise?

Knowing he will die, Dylan declares an intention of having sex, picking on a girl to whom he is mostly attracted by her trendy, branded clothing and accessories.

I liked this point and thought it skilfully made as the world is seen through Dylan’s eyes and he constantly wants people to see beyond his exterior (and that of his best mate, who suffers racist abuse rather than abuse about his disability).

The fact that Dylan himself makes many surface judgements about people was cleverly done.

The most touching scene in the book I felt, was where he discovers that he has learned to care for the girl, for who she is, flaws and all. As a book about love among disabled teenagers, the book was terrific. The disco scene is truly hilarious and the quality of the writing really shone here.

There were a lot of sub-plots. A lot. All of which were trying to tackle big issues and the book felt somewhat overloaded and relied heavily on plot devices and twists. 

There is a plot twist at the end where Dylan learns he won't die. (Mum and the doctor were actually talking about the fact that Dylan has a new baby sibling on the way.) Why the secrecy? Why does Mum not make any effort to try to prepare Dylan as much as possible for the arrival of babies into the house? 

We discover Dylan’s dad was an alcoholic, was booted out of the army, became a violent armed robber and was repeatedly violent towards Dylan’s mum and is actually in jail. I did struggle to reconcile the considerate and thoughtful Dylan, with someone who didn’t notice his mother was a victim of repeated extreme violence. 

The final twist is where Dylan’s Tourette’s symptoms are dealt with by Dylan being offered a miracle cure.

One of the best things about stories is their ability to allow you to step into someone else’s shoes.

And this is a very good book for that. 

The book is big on its ability for the reader to get under Dylan’s skin, but a bit light in its ambition in terms of dealing with some of its plot issues with the depth given to other parts of the book.

So.

You can’t discuss Mr Dog without discussing the swearing. At the start, Dylan’s swearing is mostly done with very good comic effect. Words are said unintentionally and without malice, although the words themselves are profuse and offensive, It does mean it is not a book you would recommend for some readers who would very probably otherwise enjoy it.

Not only does Dylan’s internal monologue and his dialogue start to be littered with swearing, all the children use foul language and are frequently vilely abusive to each other. Yet none of the adults ever swear.

In the end it was in danger of feeling more like a book about swearing than it did about anything else, but I was actually left feeling confused what the book was trying to say about swearing.

Author Brian Conaghan has set himself quite a challenge and he pulls off an appealing story for older teenagers about disability that is actually funny more often than grim.

Dylan is a warm and quirky character and the story of adolescent friendship and first love among the disabled made this, ultimately, an uplifting read.

There is lots here that is worthy of plenty of classroom and bookgroup discussion - absolutely a book that should and will get people talking. And I am always in support of‘difficult’ books – where would we be if everyone jumped on band-wagons and shied away from anything challenging or experimental?

For me, it would actually have been a whole lot better without half so much swearing.

My overall feeling is that ‘Mr Dog’ suffers from too many flaws for me to really have it as one of my ‘great’ books.

We asked author Brian Conaghan the question: ‘What is your favourite thing about your shortlisted book?’

"The favourite thing about my book is the friendship that exists between Dylan and Amir, it demonstrates how important having trusted and loyal friends around helps shape the person both boys become."

Many thanks to Brian - and we wish him very good luck with his original, heart-warming and thought-provoking book.

ANZAC Boys – Tony Bradman – Barrington Stoke - Challenged Reader Review

Reading Age 8

Interest Age 10+

The Anzac Boy’s is an emotional read, which although part of Barrington Stokes titles that have been published to commemorate the centenary of WWI is much more than a story of war. Tony weaves a story that comments on many things posing poignant questions about war and the treatment of vulnerable children, but its core is family.



The ANZAC Boys explores the complexity of family; loss, regret, hurt, hate and ultimately understanding and forgiveness, as it follows the path of two brothers Bert and Frank who at the tender ages of 12 and 9 have already lost much; both parents, their home, and soon their country as the orphanage where they reside ships them off to the new world. After the long journey the two boys are parted as The Church sends Frank to New Zealand and Bert to an orphanage in Australia. Bert is riddled with guilt for breaking a promise he made to Frank that he would take care of him, and over the next four years tries to contact his brother with no avail.

‘The cart I was in swung left, and Frank’s to the right. I watched in horror as Frank’s cart vanished into the gloom.

It was a week before they told me my brother had been sent to New Zealand.’

Tony has penned a book that within a frugal word count, really shows the atrocity of the treatment of the vulnerable children in the care of The Catholic Church, who were forced to work hard labour, sub-let out to farmer and ranchers with no pay or care for their welfare. As Bert grows into a man he begins to question the church’s methods and the merits of the education that it provides especially when he turns sixteen and he receives a letter from the intuition to tell him he must fend for himself.

‘I worked from dawn to dusk for a dour, mean farmer who treated me like a slave.’

‘Nobody cared if I lived or died. There were moments I wasn’t sure that I cared myself.’

Bert embraces his freedom and sets out to better his life and find Frank, despite contacting every orphanage in New Zealand he has no luck and with the onset of world war one joins the Australian Imperial Army. Whilst on his way with the rest of the combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the ANZACs, Bert is reunited with less than enthusiastic Frank, who is now grown and heading into battle too.

‘I was staring at one of the Kiwis, and he was staring back at me.

“I… don’t believe it,” I murmured. I felt like I was in a dream. “Frank?” I said. “Frank?”

The Kiwi knocked over his hair as he stood up. His face was white and hard with rage.’

As the brothers are sent to Gallipoi, Bert tries to win back his brother affection in a world of death and destruction. The ANZAC Boys explores many complex and difficult issues, with the details of horrifying situations are weaved together in a tactful and subtle way yet persevering the gravity and emotional impact.

‘The 25th of April 1915 was the worst day of my life, even worse than the day Mum died or the day Frank and I were separated.’

‘It was utter chaos – brutal and bloody and awful. ‘

The Anzac boys which is inspired by the real life and is a testament to the power of verbal storytelling which had preserved a very personal story for almost one hundred years, before Tony chose it as the basis of this moving story of family bonds and perseverance.

Review: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp & John Kelly

Anyone But Ivy Pocket is a delight; a laugh-out-loud cobweb of intrigue and mystery with a Dickensian feel, a dash of fantasy, and a heroine like no other.

We meet twelve year old Ivy Pocket, a self-proclaimed brilliant girl with ‘the natural instincts of a philosophy professor’. A ’lady’s maid of the highest quality’ she performs all her duties bringing order and cheer wherever she goes.

However, Ivy’s image of herself isn’t shared by her employer Countess Carbunkel who, after a ‘great disaster’ involving turtle soup and the cream of French society, flees Paris for South America for no other reason than to ensure that she never sees Ivy again.

“Calm yourself dear,” I said [Ivy to the Countess in front of all the guests] “Dribbling is no crime. I’m sure your mother was a dribbler and your father too.”

Ivy finds herself left alone in a city with little prospects until she is summoned to the deathbed of The Duchess of Trinity. The Duchess entrusts Ivy with a priceless Clock Diamond necklace that has mysterious powers, and employs her to transport it to England for a handsome fee.

“the stone does not deal in fantasy , child – only facts; what was, what is and what will be.”

The job is simple, take the Diamond and deliver it to the Butterfield estate in Suffolk and present it to the Duchess’s estranged childhood friends’ granddaughter ‘Matilda’ as a gift at her twelfth birthday. If Ivy completes the mission that she’ll be paid £500, but she must promise never to tell anyone about the Diamond, never let it leave her side, and NEVER put it on. 

As Ivy journeys to England she is befriended by Miss Always (dear, trusting, dim witted creature) who is fascinated by Ivy’s mission. Ivy learns that the Duchess was murdered moments after she left, and that the Diamond can bring visions. As her journey continues, mystery and peril follow her. Ivy is attacked, starts to see the deceased Duchesses ghost, and hears rumours of the Diamonds power and origins that hint of other worlds and a dangerous evil mistress. Will Ivy deliver the Diamond as promised?

“…you have the complexion of a boiled lobster, your skin is practically crying for moisture. Fear not, I have just the remedy.”

“…I scooped up a large heling of cheesecake and splattered it on the old bags face. Then another blob. Then another. She was making strange noises by that point – not unlike an injured piglet-which I took down to the soothing qualities of the cheesecake”

Anyone But Ivy Pocket is a funny, intricately plotted yarn, with masterfully crafted characters. With a Sherlock Holmes-esk self-confidence and arrogant flare, the real spark is Ivy, a heroine like no other. Ivy has a naivety and warmth that makes her a sympathetic and intriguing character which makes you want to follow her no matter what danger her know-it-all attitude may get her in as she blunders blissfully into situations missing all the warning signs.


This is an outrageously funny book, with lively illustrations by John Kelly and is a much recommended read.