Steampunk world for kids
Vashti Hardy: The Griffin Gate (Barrington Stoke 2020) Vashti Hardy: The Puffin Portal (Barrington Stoke 2021) Vashti Hardy, an English children’s book writer, has worked as a primary school teacher for a long time, but has always been interested in writing, especially creative writing and creating fantasy worlds. Her middle grade novels have been translated to many languages around the world. Her two most famous works, Wildspark and Brightstorm, have won several prestigious awards. I wrote more about the latter one here. Grace Griffin is a member of a special family: ever since her great-grandmother invented a map with portals on it, they have become wardens of the whole country of Moreland. If someone needs help, just call them and they will be there immediately through the portal. The red boxes they travel through used to be there for people where they made phone calls, now providing an even faster…
Dark Academia
Julia Nobel: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane (Sourcebooks 2019) The concept dark academia can also be interpreted both as a genre and as an aesthetic. As a genre, it includes the academic background of the plot (it takes place in some educational institution), the importance of learning and acquiring knowledge, secret societies, toxic friendships; it often takes place in the autumn season and usually there is a murder in it. As an aesthetic, vintage fashion (blazers, shirts, vests) appears. Its color palette is dominated by dark shades, autumn colors, brown, beige, gray and other warm earthy colors. Typical objects of the style are candles, books and pocket watches. Based on these, Harry Potter is a typical dark academia novel. But we can also list a number of classics here, such as the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a work by which the…
The Uncommoners
Jennifer Bell: The Crooked Sixpense (Penguin Random House 2016) Jennifer Bell: The Smoking Hourglass (Penguin Random House 2017) Jennifer Bell: The Frozen Telescope (Penguin Random House 2018) As a child, Jennifer Bell preferred listening to stories than reading. She loved films and wanted to be a film director, so she spent all her free time in the cinema, and she studied Film at the University of Kent after high school. After graduating from university, she was gifted the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini, which was the first book she really enjoyed. From then, she read lots of books and started working at the famous Foyles bookstore, where she specialized in children’s books. She wrote her debut novel, the first volume in The Uncommoners series here during the lunch breaks. Today, she works full-time as a children’s author. After the accident of their grandmother, Ivy and her brother, Seb, returning home…
Magical adventures are a suitcase away
L. D. Lapinski: The Strangeworlds Travel Agency (Orion Children’s Books 2020) L. D. Lapinski: The Strangeworlds Travel Agency – The Edge of the Ocean (Orion Children’s Books 2021) Many people say there is no magic in the world at all. But it could also be that we just don’t notice it or look carefully enough. However, the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, run by Jonathan Mercator, is a truly magical place. With the suitcases here, we cannot travel to faraway countries, but to faraway worlds. When 12-year-old Felicity (Flick) Hudson moves from the bustling city to the quiet Little Wyverns to finally live in a house with a garden instead of a flat, she’s not as happy about it as her parents are. Looking around the small town, she enters the Strangeworlds Travel Agency and her life changes in one fell swoop: she joins the Society, which deals with mapping and conserving…
The incredible train
P. G. Bell: The Train to Impossible Places (Usborne Publishing 2018) P. G. Bell: The Great Brain Robbery (Usborne Publishing 2019) P. G. Bell: Delivery to the Lost City (Usborne Publishing 2020) P. G. Bell was born and grew up in South Wales and raised in Greek mythology, ghost stories and Doctor Who. He had all sorts of jobs from a lifeguard to a roller coaster operator (no joking), but he was always most interested in writing. The Train to Impossible Places is his debut series for children which have won numerous children’s book awards since then. Suzy was always realist, and physics is her favorite subject at school. Now, however, something happened to her that could not be explained: a huge train arrived in her living room! And it is not an ordinary train: this is a magical delivery express to the Impossible Places. Suzy gets the chance and…
The moving castle
Diana Wynne Jones: Howl’s Moving Castle (originally published by Greenwillow Books in 1986) Diana Wynne Jones was born in London as a child of teacher parents. After the beginning of World War II, the family moved a lot within England. Diana and her two sisters grew up in great freedom (one sister later became a literary critic, the other girl an actress and children’s book writer). The author studied at Oxford, where she listened to J.R.R. Tolkien’s lectures. She has written more than 40 books in her lifetime, mainly in the children’s category. Her works have inspired many other fantasy and science-fiction writers such as Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling or Neil Gaiman. She was awarded by the British Fantasy Society for her significant impact on fantasy literature. One of her most famous books is the Howl’s Moving Castle, which really became famous when the Studio Ghibli made an animated…
Classics – Peter Pan
J. M. Barrie: Peter Pan (Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens 1906, Peter and Wendy 1911) The story of Peter Pan is known to everybody included those who have not read the book. Scottish novelist and playwright James Matthew Barrie staged the play in 1904, which formed the basis of the novels later. Since then, more than 300 different adaptations of the play have been made in the English-speaking world alone, including television and film versions, musicals, and perhaps the most well-known Disney cartoons. The well-known story is actually based on two novels: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. The first Disney cartoon follows the plot of Peter and Wendy and the second film also fits to the end of the original story. It’s worth reading the novels as they paint a much more nuanced yet serious picture of the story. The characters embody the types of people…
The legends of Eerie-on-Sea
Thomas Taylor: Malamander (Walker Books 2019) Thomas Taylor: Gargantis (Walker Books 2020) Everyone knows Eerie-on-Sea. Maybe you even went there. Of course, it was in summer. You must have been walking along the beach, eating ice cream, watching the seagulls and finding that funny shell too. And when you left for home, you saw the neon sign above the pier: Cheerie-on-Sea. Well, this is the place. In summer. But when the first winter winds break, the picture changes. Even the letters of the neon sign change: the C and H letters blow off – the remaining name is Eerie-on-Sea. Not many people visit Eerie-on-Sea in winter. Even the locals don’t venture ashore when the darkness descends. They are afraid of the local legends. Or rather from what the legends are about. Herbert Lemont was swept to this shore by the sea but has since been responsible for the objects found…