Monthly Archives: May 2019

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black

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Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black by Marcus Sedgwick, Julian Sedgwick and Alexis Deacon

Book of the Week: 19 May 2019

Illustrations by Alexis Deacon

Harry and Ellis Black were close when they grew up together in the Shropshire countryside, but now Harry is a firefighter and conscientious objector and Ellis is in the forces and feels his brother is a shirker in the fight against the Nazis. One evening, they meet in a London pub. When Harry leaves, a V2 bomb hits the pub and Harry’s bus is overturned in the blast. Ellis is believed to have been killed, although his body isn’t found. Harry sets out to explore under the rubble with the help of Agatha, a young Jewish refugee from Germany, who is searching for her parents.

Interleaved with this story is a poetic commentary from Orpheus and excerpts from Harry’s sketchbook for a book he is illustrating called ‘Warriors of the Machine’ where he envisages a world in which killing and destruction have been enabled by sophisticated machinery.

This cleverly-told story may not be for everyone, but it is poignant and passionate about the horrors of war.

The Gifted, the Talented and Me

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The Gifted, the Talented and Me by William Sutcliffe

Book of the Week:12 May 2019

If you are a sucker for a funny book and have enjoyed the likes of The Private Blog of Joe Cowley, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole or Socks Are Not Enough, this is a must-read. More than the comedy-of-cringe, it speaks to all of us who have felt out of our depth and away from our comfort zone.

Sam’s inventor Dad has sold his business for enough profit to propel them from their ordinary life in a modest house in Stevenage to one of privilege in North London. His arty and aspirational Mum enrols Sam, his seventeen-year-old brother Ethan and art-mad, younger sister Freya in a school for the gifted and talented or, as Sam thinks of it, ‘the North London Academy for Exactly the Kind of People I Instinctively Hated’. It is a school where teachers may be called by their first names and where you might be asked to perform an improvised dance about conflict resolution in front of the class on your first day. Amongst all his glitzy classmates, Sam feels lonely and out-of-place, even more so once Ethan and Flora start making friends and fitting in. Then he develops a crush on the gorgeous but aloof Jennifer, makes an enemy and gets involved, against his better judgement, in the school play. The author offers insights into the power of drama to alter your perceptions, plenty of identifiable scenes of family life and manages it all by making us laugh.

I’m not sure why, but this line resonated with me:

‘Mr Duverne was shouting at us for not listening, but I didn’t really hear what he said because I wasn’t listening’.

We have a book list full of suggestions for funny books fans here.

 

High-Rise Mystery

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High-Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson

Book of the Week: 5 May 2019

Cover art by Wumi Olaosebikan

Nik and Norva live on The Tri estate with their Pap who is the Head Caretaker (‘Single dad, sadly. Dances so, so badly’). It is a baking hot summer when resident Hugo Knightley-Webb fails to turn up for Art Club, prompting Nik and Norva to use their detective skills to try and find him. Nik describes their partnership like this: ‘Norva shouts theories and says seemingly stupid stuff. I then organise those words, and think about them critically.  This is, according to Norva, teamwork. According to her, she’s the Gut and I’m the Nut.’ When they discover Hugo’s dead body in the refuse area of one of the buildings, they are not only devastated but determined to find out who did it. This is the refreshingly sparky beginning to a new series that should please readers who enjoy a well-worked-out mystery.

If you have enjoyed The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, The Guggenheim Mystery by Robin Stevens, Murder in Midwinter by Fleur Hitchcock, or Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard, then give this a try.