The Guardian | 30.04.22 | SATURDAY | 71Children and
teenagers
Gaia: Goddess of Earth
Imogen and Isabel
Greenberg
BLOOMSBURY , £14.99
For 6+ mythology fans ,
this story of the Greek
goddess who created
Earth – then watched,
dismayed, as generations
of gods ravaged it – is
thrillingly told and
illustrated in comic-style
panels, with the three
Fates commenting
snarkily from the borders.I Got This
Cara Mailey and
Chrissie Sains
S C H O L A S T I C , £ 6. 9 9
Erin has achondroplasia,
a form of dwarfi sm , but
there’s nothing small
about her singing voice- or her dreams. When
her favourite pop group
runs a competition
off ering a chance to star
in their new music video,
Erin is determined to
enter. But is her best
friend and video director
truly on side? Drawing on
Mailey’s own experience,
this bubbly tale for 8+
has a gutsy, appealing
narrator.
Skandar and the
Unicorn Thief
AF Steadman
SIMON & SCHUSTER, £12.99
Skandar has always
wanted to be a unicorn
rider, bonded for life to
a dangerous, glorious
steed. But a terrifying
revelation aboutSkandar’s magic, and
the theft of the island’s
most powerful unicorn,
soon catapult him into
an adventure even
more perilous than
his training. This
satisfyingly fat and
fast-paced novel revives
well -worn tropes with
compulsive readability:
9+ fantasy fans will
be hooked on sight.Ajay and the
Mumbai Sun
Var sh a Sh ah
CHICKEN HOUSE, £7.99
Ajay lives in a railway
station, but he’s
determined to become
a journalist – and when
he fi nds an old printing
press, he and his friends
seize the chance to start
their own paper. But
when the Mumbai Sun
speaks truth to corrupt
power – can it survive the
fall out? Never glossing
over the realities of
life for Mumbai’s
slum children, Shah’s
compelling debut is an
addictively lively and
heartfelt story for 9+.Truth Be Told
Sue Divin
PAN MACMILLAN, £7.99
On a residential trip in
County Down, Tara,
daughter of a Catholic
single mum, is shocked
to meet Faith , the child
of strict evangelical
Protestants – and Tara’s
exact double. Sifting
the secret of their
relationship will shake
up all their certainties
about who they are and
where they belong, not to
mention bringing their
own secrets to light.
Divin’s second YA novel
boasts all the power,
humour and heartbreak
of her Carnegie-
s h o r t l i s t e d d e b u t.Astral phenomena, Greek goddesses, deadly
family curses, the wonders of wildlife, and a young
journalist in Mumbai. By Imogen Russell Williams
observant about the objectifi cation
of Black men and women: Dimple’s
constant monitoring of her social
media presence operates as a form
of double consciousness built around
the performance of a personal brand
of idealised and racialised femininity.
When Kyron, her nasty ex-boyfriend,
ends up in hospital, the nurses
compare him to “a young Denzel
Washington” or “the one who plays that
detective. Always running around in a
suit”. “Kyron, who looked nothing like
a young Denzel Washington, or Idris
Elba, blinked his eyes open slowly.”
While People Person contains several
madcap plot turns and implausible red
herrings, it is anchored in emotional
realism and a hopeful warmth. The
novel is highly empath ic towards its
characters’ struggles to accept the
indelible failings and traumatic legacies
of their childhood and regain agency
over who they are and how they want
to be. Ultimately, this is a delightful,
uplifting and emotionally satisfying
novel about building new connections
in the face of deep-rooted abandonment
wounds and hideous disappointment.
The Pennington siblings may never get
the paternal love and approval they so
crave – but they have each other, and
that’s more than enough.
To buy a copy for £11.30
go to guardianbookshop.comI
t is four years since Cork writer
Danny Denton published his
debut , The Earlie King and the Kid
in Yellow. A gritty gangster tale set in
a post-apocalyptic Ireland and written
in a mishmash of experimental styles,
it was gloriously off -the-wall: think
Kevin Barry meets James Joyce meets
Blade Runner.
All Along the Echo, Denton’s second
book, is set in a more familiar Ireland,
some time in the near future. It follows
chatshow DJ Tony Cooney and his
young producer Lou as they embark on a
road trip across the country. The plan is
to award a brand-new car – and a year’s
supply of petrol – to one lucky listener.
The only catch is that the winner must
be among the many Irish who have
recently returned from London, fl eeing
the capital’s spate of terrorist attacks.
As the book alternates between“ON AIR” and “OFF AIR” sections, we
observe Tony and Lou in both personal
and professional modes. At work,
Tony is the confi dent, charismatic DJ
entertaining the nation; at home, he
is a dejected father of two, plagued by
a midlife crisis and pining for his fi rst
love. Meanwhile Lou – the calm, reliable
sidekick – is secretly crippled with
anxiety about her relationship and the
impending possibility of motherhood.
Alongside these two we encounter
Ann, an elderly cancer patient, and Jada,
a homeless teenager; we also hear from
the endless array of individuals who
phone in to Tony’s radio show. Here
they cover everything from racially
motivated violence and the legalisation
of sex work to the history of the English
language – all intercut with ads and
jingles and texts from other listeners.
Denton draws parallels between this
plethora of voices and the profusion of
graffi ti that adorns Cork city, examples
of which are replicated on the page.
Tony doesn’t see the connection,
dismissing the graffi ti as “just names,
slogans, rants, stupid things like that”- precisely the content his show
generates. For someone who has made
a career out of listening to others, he
can be surprisingly narrow-minded.
Although the world of All Along
the Echo may appear more familiar
than its post-apocalyptic predecessor,
there is also a recurring section in
which two disembodied voices from
the future exchange existential banter
whil e “listening in, trying to piece it
all together”. We are in the territory
of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape , as the
pair go back through the archives
and select choice instalments to
replay: “go on. give’s some more of
TONY and LOU and all those other
poor souls. i’m in the mood for it
today! [static]”.
The disembodied voices also
warn us: “ It all gets so confusing, this
business of living and imagining and
dreaming in the one skull.” All Along
the Echo does run the risk of confusion,
with its abundance of diff erent ideas
and threads. However, it is a credit to
Denton that he holds the book together.
Inevitably some sections work better
than others , but the energy and
invention are undeniable. Best of all,
amid the imaginative pyrotechnics,
there are moments of real tenderness
and emotional resonance. The shocking
violence of a shooting in a London
theatre will stay with me for a long time.
“People are like cyclones made
of words,” one character tells us. All
Along the Echo is a cyclone of a novel,
emulating the barrage of noise we
navigate every day in our “information
age”. It foregrounds the fundamental
human desire to be seen and heard,
as well as the tension between our
constructed “ON AIR” identities and
our private “OFF AIR” selves.
To buy a copy for £13.04
g o t o g u a r d i a n b o o k s h o p. c o m
revelationabout e
t r u a w m o D b h o smn
hsBOOKS OF THE MONTHAll Along the Echo
Danny Denton
ATLANTIC, £14.99A cyclone of words
Energetic voices
from a future Ireland
Ruth Gilligan
How to Count to ONE
Caspar Salmon
and Matt Hunt
NOSY CROW, £6.99
A sly, interactive
picture book that
tries, with transparent
duplicity, to trick its
small readers into
counting numbers
higher than one.
Bold colours, naive
images and a strong,
sustained shared joke
make for a counting
book with a delightful
diff erence.The Comet
Joe Todd-Stanton
FLYING EYE , £12.99
Nyla is sad when she
and Dad move to the
city, away from trees,
stars and the sound of
waves. When she sees a
comet race across the
sky, she feels a sense of
home – but will Dad
understand as she tries
to trace its path? A
luminously beautiful
picture book, full of
bittersweet feelings,
about learning to
welcome the new.Big Cats: A Day in the Life
Tyus D Williams and
Chaaya Prabhat
NEON SQUID , £7.99
Ideal for 5+ fans of Owen
Davey’s wildlife books ,
this fascinating look at
panthers, cheetahs,
snow leopards and
mountain lions strikes
the ideal balance
between gripping
factual text and
absorbing illustration.