Monthly Archives: January 2019

The Day I Was Erased

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The Day I Was Erased by Lisa Thompson

Book of the Week: 27 January 2019

Cover illustration by Mark Lowery

Maxwell’s mum and dad are always arguing, so Monster, the dog he saved from being squashed by an oncoming car when it was lying injured in the road, is a comfort to him when his home-life gets tough. His sister Bex escapes the rows by focusing on school work, but Maxwell’s way of letting off steam is being naughty at school. He often ends up in detention or arguing with his best friend Charlie Geek, whose real name is Charlie Kapoor. One evening, Maxwell ruins a big event at school that everyone was enjoying and runs away to his forgetful neighbour Reg’s house. There he plays with a wooden, egg-shaped, musical box and once Reg falls asleep, decides to go home. The problem is that other people are living in his house and no-one in his life seems to recognise him any more. Somehow, Maxwell has been erased from his own life. At first, it’s bewildering and frightening, but when Maxwell sees the results of his ‘non-existence’ on the people in his life, he resolves to find a way back to normality whilst making a few changes along the way.

If you enjoyed Lisa Thompson’s other books, The Light Jar and The Goldfish Boy this has all the same great qualities. Just like The Goldfish Boy had echoes of the film Rear Window, this one has something in common with the film It’s a Wonderful Life but with a style and content all its own.

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth

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Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Book of the Week: 20 January 2019

Illustrated by Steve Lenton

This week’s choice is a book you may have missed from 2016 when it was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Aliens are often depicted as spindly beings who wish to be taken to your leader, or tentacled monstrosities who want to take over the planet. They don’t often come disguised as dogs. Sputnik wears a kilt and goggles and is about the same height as Prez, who is the only one able to see him in this form. Everyone else, including the Blythe family who are looking after Prez, sees him as a different breed of dog. Prez is apparently the reason why Sputnik is visiting Earth. The planet is in danger of destruction and Prez must come up with ten things worth seeing or doing in order to prove the whole place isn’t worthless and deserving of obliteration. Sputnik mostly communicates through telepathy with Prez and by doggy handshakes with everyone else. Despite being worried about his Grandfather who can’t look after him like he normally does, Prez has no choice but to follow Sputnik’s instructions and limit the fallout from Sputnik’s exuberance. There is the memorable time that he gives five year old Annabel a working light sabre at her fifth birthday party and she manages to cut off her friends’ hair and fell a tree.

This is a funny and endearing story that, along with wild adventures and wisecracks, has a touching message about families and a sense of belonging.

Other stories that feature aliens:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams has a lot in common with Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth. Ford Prefect is an alien who is trying to save his friend Arthur Dent before Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyper-space bypass.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells – Earthlings are terrorised by an alien invasion from Mars.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham – Flesh-eating plants are free to dominate Earth after most people have been blinded by a meteor shower.

Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson – More satire than science fiction.

The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness – Human beings are the alien invaders of a planet inhabited by the Spackle.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey – Alien beings disguise themselves as humans hunting down the few survivors left on Earth.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore – A tiny number of alien visitors try to blend in and re-group on Earth but other powers are out to get them.

All the above are in stock in the School Library.

The Opposite of Loneliness

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The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan

Book of the Week: 13 January 2019

Cover photography by Joy Shan

In 2012 Marina Keegan wrote a piece for a special edition of Yale News. She was 22 and it was the eve of her graduation from Yale. The article, which was called ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’, reflects on what it is like to be leaving university and facing a future full of possibilities. Tragically, Marina died in a car crash five days after graduating and was never to explore her future of possibilities. Her article subsequently went viral online and her professor at Yale, with the cooperation of her parents, gathered together her writings for this book. It is a mixture of non-fiction and stories, from musings on how her 1990 Toyota Camry represented a chunk of her life, to undergraduate love stories and a story about people trapped in a submarine. Above all, it is a book about young people facing all the excitement and upheaval of the future whilst reflecting on the past. It would be a meaningful read in your final term of Year 13 before you leave school and start a whole new life.

The Skylarks’ War

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The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay

Book of the Week: 6 January 2019

Cover illustration by Dawn Cooper

‘More than one hundred years ago, in the time of gas lamps and candlelight, when shops had wooden counters and the streets were full of horses, a baby girl was born. Nobody was pleased about this except the baby’s mother. The baby’s father did not like children, not even his own, and Peter, the baby’s brother, was only three years old and did not understand the need for any extra people in his world.’

Reading the opening paragraph of The Skylarks’ War you may think you are starting a story similar to one of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books. There is, however, no magic in the form of talking animals or wicked witches, only the magic of some wonderful writing.

Clarry and Peter are being brought up by their neglectful and irascible father in Plymouth. I think he might be referred to these days as ’emotionally unavailable’. The warmth in their lives is provided by the housekeeper and friends and neighbours and, above all, by their grandparents and dashing older cousin, Rupert, with whom they spend their summer holidays in Cornwall. As the story moves on to 1914, Rupert signs up and goes to fight in the trenches of World War I. We are told a little about his experiences, with the emphasis on his desperation to hide the horror from everyone back home, but this is mainly a story about what it was like to endure the war back home in Britain. There is worry and poverty but also upheaval and excitement. Over the course of about twenty years we follow the lives of this small group of vividly drawn characters to a satisfying conclusion.

This book could be enjoyed by a wide age-range of readers, from those who like Michael Morpurgo’s wartime stories, to fans of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.