Australian authors
I have written before about Australian authors and their works (Jessica Townsend, Jaclyn Moriarty, Jacqueline Harvey). I have brought more authors this time. Anna and Barbara Fienberg: Tashi (Allen & Unwin 1995) When Anna Fienberg was a child, her mother, Barbara, read many tales to her. Now they’re co-writing Tashi’s stories so the kids can go through more and more adventures with the little elf and his best friend Jack. Now, more than 20 books and related activities have been published in more than 1 million copies. The tales are brought to life by the illustrations of Kim Gamble. Andy Griffiths: The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow (Pan Macmillan Australia 2008) Andy Grriffiths has won more than 30 children’s book awards in Australia. With Terry Denton, he has worked on more than 10 children’s books. In this story, we can follow the adventures of Keith, Ed and Daisy and…
From winter to summer with Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie: Midwinter Murder (HarperCollins Publishers 2020) Agatha Christie: Midsummer Mysteries (HarperCollins Publishers 2021) Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920, and since then the author has become the Queen of Crime. Her works have been translated into 103 languages and, with 2 billion copies sold, she is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Her plays have already been played 25,000 times and Mousetrap holds the record for the longest running drama in the world. During her life, she wrote 66 detective novels, 14 volumes of short stories, 17 plays, 3 volumes of poems and 2 autobiographical novels. She is also the author of romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Hundreds of TV shows and movies, radio plays, comics and even video games have been born based on her works. Most of the murders she wrote were poisoned and three-quarters of her…
Adventures on trains
Sylvia Bishop: The Secret of the Night Train (Scholastic Ltd. 2018) M. G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman: The Highland Falcon Thief (Macmillan Publishers Limited 2020) Now, I’m writing about two stories that take place on trains and the protagonists solve mysteries aboard those trains, plus we can visit well-known European locations while reading them. Sylvia Bishop studied politics and then did social science research, but during her university years she met the improvised comedy, which allowed her to invent stories. She also uses her ability to improvise while writing books. Today, her stories have been published in 15 languages, of which The Secret of the Night Train is the third. Max Morel has never left France, but now, before the winter break, she is called by her great-aunt, Elodie, to ask her to be with her as she recovers. So, Max sets off on the big adventure with a bag,…
The secret of the record store
Zsolt Bernáth: Lemezbolt a Szent János utcában (Record Store at St. John Street*) (Cerkabella Könyvkiadó 2021) Many thanks to Cerkabella Könyvkiadó for sending me the book! Zsolt Bernáth is known as a film director and writer also. His work is very diverse: he is one of the prominent representatives of Hungarian independent film, but he has also worked as a journalist and editor, and has written many short stories, poems, tales and essays. The Record Shop at St. John Street is his first middle grade novel. Our protagonist, Orsi, is spending a not-so-exciting summer in Malta, as his historian father is studying the history of the Order of Malta in the Valletta Library, while his mother works as an assistant director at a theater in Budapest. The two obsessed parents don’t have much time left for the little girl. One night, Orsi meets Joel, a local boy, who invites her…
Travels with Michael Palin
Travel books by Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, Himalaya, New Europe, Brazil, Erebus, North Korea Journal Michael Palin is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for Monty Python’s Flying Circus show and his traveling series, which has had a big impact on travelers around the world and has drawn so much attention to exotic destinations that the process has been named as the ‘Palin impact’. In addition to the tv series, the stories were also published as books. Although he has previously contributed to a series of BBC travels, his first real big adventure was “Around the World in 80 Days” in 1988. 150 years after Phileas Fogg, he traveled around the world on the route and means of transport Verne dreamed of. Surprisingly, this type of voyage (without airplanes and cargo ships) is not significantly shorter…
Night Garden
Erzsi Kertész: Éjszakai Kert (Night Garden*)(Cerkabella Könyvkiadó 2020) Many thanks to Cerkabella Könyvkiadó for sending me the book! Erzsi Kertész graduated with Psychology major from Eötvös Loránd University and started writing tales only after the birth of her children. Since then, however, she has been one of the most popular authors in Hungarian middle grade literature. Perhaps she is best known for her series of adventure novels, Panthera. Réka Zsoldos made the fantastic illustrations for her mystical fairy tale entitled Night Garden. The two best detectives in the town are commissioned for the same mysterious case and clues lead to the eerie Night Garden. No one comes here to walk, because even the street is gloomy and dark, as the night seeps out of the Garden even during the day. The two detectives will witness more and more bizarre stories through their volunteer leader. The book is a work of…
You are what you eat
Muriel Barbery: Gourmet Rhapsody (Une Gourmandise originally published by Gallimard 2000) Many thanks to Geopen Könyvkiadó for sending me the book! Pierre Athens is the world’s greatest gastronomic critic, who can decide on glory and fall with a single line draw of his pen. He can relentlessly judge whether or not to give eternity to the restaurant. But what is the power worth now that he has 48 hours left to live? What can one do who thought he holds eternity in his hands when the end is so close? He is not frightened by death, but to not remember the taste that defined his entire life, which he tasted before he learned to analyze food, that frightens him. This man who has been chasing pleasures all his life and putting himself in front of everyone is now just lying and remembering. Not just the tastes, but the experiences he…
Magician School at Óbuda
András Petőcz: Óbudai Mágusképző (Magician School at Óbuda*)(Napkút Kiadó 2016) Many thanks to Napkút Kiadó for sending me the book! The School of Magic and Magician Training (in short: Magician School) is not only special in its name: here, in addition to the usual subjects (mathematics, history, literature, etc.), special subjects such as invisibility, magic or football were taught (because in addition to magic and sorcery, football also plays an important role in the story). András Petőcz has written novels and poems for children and adults alike. He has dealt with magicians before, and in this middle grade novel we can read three stories about magic. Our protagonist, Antal Tajtékos, goes through wonderful adventures on the border of magic and reality. The novel was based on the writer’s own school experiences, so some of his characters, such as Tibi Hanzély and a teacher Bagyula, exist. The story is an exciting,…
Illustrators – Sarah Warburton
Dominique Valente: Starfell – Willow Moss and the Forgotten Tale (HarperCollins Publishers 2020) Sarah Warburton is a children’s book illustrator. In Hungary, we can see her drawings in the first volume of Dominique Valente’s Starfell series, but she has already worked with lot of well-known authors and publishers. You can read more about Dominique Valente and her books here and here. Sarah Warburton spent her childhood in North Wales and currently lives in Bristol. According to her own admission, her style changed a lot: as a college student and in the years that followed, she turned to darker tones. She then began to illustrate various textbooks where she could try out a large variety of techniques. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, her drawings began to become softer and her colors got more vivid. She is perhaps best known abroad for her illustrations in Caryl Hart Princess series, and…
Around the world with 80 stories
András Földvári: Elmentem világgá (Run Away*) (21. Század Kiadó 2020) András Földvári: Ez az én világom (This is My World*) (21. Század Kiadó 2021) Many thanks to 21. Század Kiadó for sending me the books! People can collect a lot of interesting things. András Földvári, for example, collects airports. His passion for flying and meeting with new things and other cultures is rooted in his childhood when he first started learning languages. At the age of 17, he flew with his parents for the first time to Poland, where he also fell in love with flying and the Polish language. After college, he worked at Malév, where, thanks to his language skills and kind nature, he made lifelong friendships all over the world and began to “gather” all the countries of the world. Let’s get the numbers: he’s been to a total of 203 countries (even those that don’t officially…