The Times - UK - 04.12.2021

the times | Saturday December 4 2021 saturday review 19

Sisters of the Lost Marsh 9-11 years,

by Lucy Strange Chicken House, £7.99

The author of Our Castle by the Sea and

The Ghost of Gosswater has returned

with a dark story of six sisters who

live in fear of their father on a farm

surrounded by marshland. Throw in the

Full Moon Fayre, the Shadow Man (a

weird puppeteer) and a disappearing

sister, and you have the makings of a

middle-grade gothic classic from the

pertinently named Lucy Strange.

Young adult

Empress & Aniya 12+ by Candice

Carty-Williams Knights Of, £7.99

In her first book for teenagers, the

author of Queenie charts the friendship

between two black classmates.

Empress is unsupported

and often hungry, while

Aniya lives in a nice

house and has caring

parents. The story

takes a magical

turn when the girls

cast a spell and

switch bodies,

making Aniya

realise the truth

about her friend’s

home life. It’s a slim

novella, but it packs a

punch, with many comic

moments to relieve the

grim reality and message that

to thrive all children need to feel safe

and secure.

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town

14+ by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock Faber, £7.99

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, who came to

literary attention with her elegant debut,

that includes black Romans guarding
Hadrian’s Wall, an African trumpeter
who performed at the court of Henry
VIII, the black Georgians fighting for the
abolition of slavery, black soldiers fighting
the Germans — and on to Windrush.

The Beatryce Prophecy 8+ by Kate
DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie
Blackall Walker, £10.99
Kate DiCamillo, a two-time winner of
the prestigious American children’s prize
the Newbery medal, has written a moving
medieval tale about Beatryce of Abelard,
an unusual girl who can read and write,
and whom prophecy says will be king
even if she doesn’t want to be. DiCamillo
raises big questions about the education

of girls, the sort of world we want to

inhabit, how we should live in it and

what qualities one should have to lead it.

Arthur: The Always King 8+

by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated

by Chris Riddell Walker, £20

The legends of King Arthur have been

polished and sharpened until they gleam

thanks to the Carnegie medal-winner

Kevin Crossley-Holland and the former

children’s laureate Chris Riddell. All the

stories are there, from King Arthur’s

childhood to his final battle — the sword

in the stone, the quests of the Knights of

the Round Table and Merlin’s wizardry.

Pony 11+ by RJ Palacio

Puffin, £12.99

Twelve-year-old Silas Bird

sees dead people. We

are in the 1860s in

a fictional, rural

nowheresville in

America. Silas’s

mother died

shortly after his

birth and he lives

with his book-

loving father, a

photographer. When

a bunch of hard men

turn up at their house

on horses and take Silas’s

father away to help with

their counterfeiting, the boy begins

a quest to find him. With the help of a

ghost named Mittenwool, a craggy US

marshal, a sheriff and his deputy, and

Pony — an almost magical Arabian

horse — they hunt the baddies. A story

that will take many children on the ride

of their literary lives.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses,

mines the same ground — the weird and

wonderful lives of small-town kids. And

she does so with breathtaking skill in

this collection of interlinking stories that

dart from Alaska to California. Much

as with the work of Meg Rosoff and

Philip Pullman, adults will miss out if

they don’t read her books.

When Shadows Fall 12+ by Sita

Brahmachari, illustrated by Natalie

Sirett Little Tiger, £12.99

How quickly teenagers can fall apart —

and how fast they can heal. This is the

hopeful message from Sita Brahmachari,

a writer who mixes verse and prose to

tell stories that stick. Kai, Orla and Zak

grew up together, hanging out in a

green space in their concrete city. Then

Kai’s family suffer a loss, and the boy

is dragged into a more dangerous crowd

and excluded from school. It might

seem as though there’s no way back, but

Orla, Zak and their new friend Om are

bloody-minded about helping him to

carve a new destiny.

Shadow Town 12+ by Richard Lambert

Everything With Words, £7.99

If you like a dose of magical realism with

your gothic novel, this sprawling new

story from Richard Lambert (The Wolf

Road) is for you. In a dangerous land

enslaved by the cruel Regent, where the

Dreamers can turn dreams into reality,

Toby meets Tamurlaine, a peculiar girl

who has lost her memory. To uncover

the mystery of her identity and get Toby

back home, the pair must go on a

journey to the castle of the Regent.

The Edelweiss Pirates 12+ by Dirk

Reinhardt Pushkin, £7.99

This extraordinary story is based on

a true tale of a group of courageous

children during the Second World War.

Daniel, 16, makes friends with the elderly

Josef Gerlach, feeling that the old man

is haunted by his past. When Gerlach

gives the boy his teenage diary to read,

Daniel begins to understand: it tells how

Gerlach left the Hitler Youth to join a

gang of children called the Edelweiss

Pirates — motto: freedom! — who wore

their hair long and their clothes cool.

At first it’s all laughs, then they start to

plot missions against Hitler’s regime.

trunk call Above right:

Bandoola: The Great

Elephant Rescue.

Right: the YA author

Candice Carty-Williams

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STEVEN LENTON WILLIAM GRILL