| Alison Prince | ||||
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Children’s
Books
These four books for younger ones are seen from the viewpoint of the animals who belong to rather odd owners, like music-mad Ernie and Mrs Piffey the hairdresser, who goes off to Turkey. And of course there is Rosie, who thinks all furry creatures are sweet, and at the last count has a cat, a dog, a hamster and 27 rabbits. The animals do their best to make sense of this batty lot, and the results should keep you laughing. Very funny drawings by Doffy Weir and Kate Sheppard.
Fran, who lives on a Scottish island, is thrilled to hear that Del is coming from Glasgow for a holiday under a scheme to give a break to disadvantaged children. It’ll be so great to have a real friend, to share everything – or so she thinks. But the bedraggled girl who staggers off the ferry on a wild afternoon is not what anyone expected. For teenagers or younger, as are the next three books.
The black
bird was staring in. Not just looking, but staring. Con, in the
great, dusty sitting room of the house his parents are about to buy,
is unnerved. But it’s nothing to what’s waiting for him.
This thriller, set in East Anglia, is partly supernatural and partly
all too terrifyingly real.
Mick Finn is 14, and as he says, is quite good at crossing roads - but his mother is suddenly full of worry that he’ll be knocked down by a bus. A fortune teller has told her he will die. As other predictions start to come true, Mick grapples with the idea that his life may suddenly end, and decides he can’t bear the suspense. If it’s going to happen, he’d rather it happened now. He decides to do something so dangerous that it gives fate a chance to kill him.
This is a special book to me. It was written in 1986, during two terms of work with the children of a small primary school in Lincolnshire, who shared in all the work of writing it. Due to a suggestion from one of them, it’s set in the Second World War. The children researched it meticulously, helped by the old people of the village, and I threw in my own childhood experience as an evacuee. The book was a runner-up for the Smarties Prize, and was filmed by the Children’s Film Foundation, which in turn was the subject of a BBC documentary. Teachers find it extremely useful because of its authentic WW2 background.
For teenagers, this is a thriller set in the London of 1836, full of the reek of stewing eels, filthy drains, coffee stalls and oranges. Joey, a costermonger boy who knows there is something strange about his background, finds himself suspected of murder. Packed with atmosphere and suspense, this book won the Scottish Arts Council’s Children’s Book of the Year Award, 2002, and was short-listed for the Angus Book Award.
This book has the same historic setting as Oranges and Murder, but at the heart of its story is Lucy, whose warm, safe life crumbles when her widowed father gets into debt. Seeking to help him, she is soon guiding a very sinister blind man round the streets and alleys that huddle along the Thames. And that’s not the end of it. Lucy’s father is arrested for the death of a tenant, so she joins a frightening gang of people in order to find out the truth. Before she’s finished, Lucy will have to be braver than she ever thought possible.
This is a diary written by
an invented girl called Eva de Pueblo. She came from Spain as the friend
of 16-year-old Catherine of Aragon, who
is of course very real, as are all the events that Eva gets involved
in. Catherine married Arthur, the Crown Prince of England, but he was
a sickly young man who died six months later. And in any case, Catherine’s
true love was Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, who became Henry
VIII. Eva, watching what happens, is both touched and appalled.
In the same format as My Tudor Queen, the diary writer here is Elinor, daughter of Eva, who in the previous book recorded her life with Catherine of Aragon. Elinor reluctantly finds herself serving Anne Boleyn, with whom Henry VIII has fallen in love although he is still married to Catherine. Her diary records the dramatic years that culminate in Anne's short-lived triumph as Queen of England. She watches with dismay as disaster looms, and sees the terrible end to the story as Anne is beheaded on Tower Green.
This story of Kelly, a Glasgow girl who wants to rob the rich and feed the poor as Robin Hood did, won the Guardian Children’s Book Award and is still extremely popular. Just for fun, I put in a rather satirical description of myself as the visiting author who talks about making a story out of your own experience, and starts off more than she could ever have imagined. About 8-upwards.
This book is currently my favourite. I wrote it because I know children can do wonderful things, far more exciting than most people suspect. It's about a writer who is stuck for ideas and gets rescued by some children who are in the first place just curious about what he's up to. They start supplying him with ideas, and the story they write becomes gripping and terrifying. It also has something to say about their own lives, and by the end, nobody is quite what they were when it all started. Real children helped to write this book. They were from the school where How's Business had been co-authored 16 years ago, and we had a brilliant time together.
My cat, Henry, was largely responsible for this book. It had started out to be a history of the teenager, but I feared it might be boring. Better, perhaps, to have a very fed-up girl recklessly get mashed up in a road accident and then, being almost detached from the real world, go on a guided tour of the past. Henry, black and glossy and beautiful, became Jacoby, the cat-guide. With weird irony, Henry was killed on the road a day or two before Jacoby’s Game was published. But the book lives on – and yes, I have a new kitten
Have you ever tried to get a horse into a lift? And have you ever wondered what it might do while it's in there? Dermot, Maeve and Winnie know all about this. Dermot thinks his sister and her friend are mad even to think of it, but then, pony-mad girls might do absolutely anything. And Dad is not going to be pleased. Here's a book that's easy to read and full of laughs.
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Cat
Number Three
