He’s skinny, he rarely baths and he lives in a derelict house with the ultra-creepy Basil Tramplebone, but Measle Stubbs is the good guy of the story and beneath the patchy clothes and smelly exterior is a sharp intellect and brave heart. Just as well really because Measle has his fair share of adversity to deal with in Measle and the Wrathmonk by Ian Ogilvy (Oxford). For one Basil Tramplebone, his guardian, is a wrathmonk — the absolute worst kind of wizard. When Measle upsets the old meany by playing with his giant train set, Basil zaps him with a spell that shrinks him to a few centimetres high. Now Measle is trapped in the world of the toy train set where he befriends a host of characters who have shared a similar fate. The meat of the story lies in their staying alive by avoiding the thing that lives in the rafters, the foul-breathed wrathmonk and one enormous cockroach. Measle and the Wrathmonk is a quick and quirky adventure with just the right combination of wit, magic and feel-good factor.
By the end of the story Measle’s fate has improved considerably. He is reacquainted with his parents and a whole new story opens up in the form of Measle and Dragodon (Oxford). Ogilvy’s second book for young readers is a good 120 pages thicker than the first, leaving plenty more room for Chris Mould’s wacky illustrations — not to mention Measle’s wild adventures. This time around a nasty Dragodon and his gang of wicked wrathmonks cast a spell on Measle’s mom and dad. And guess who has to save them?
In The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse (Oxford), a wild child is rescued by coastguards between Cuba and Florida after having spent years living with a school of dolphins. The typography of the novel is used to clever effect by starting off in fluid italics to describe the girl’s thoughts while swimming with the dolphins. It then jolts into brazen, big type as the child (called Mila by her rescuers) struggles to learn to speak and grapples with human concepts. As she “develops” and her linguistic ability becomes more refined, the type decreases in size, only to increase again as she regresses. The Music of Dolphins is a gentle and emotional novel that explores more difficult human characteristics such as disappointment and betrayal.
For teens hungry for the next Harry Potter novel and not having their hunger fed, there is the first book of a new series, The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver (Orion). It is Wolf Brother, set in a distant age when the land was one vast forest, peopled by wolves and bears, demons and aurochs. Through the whispering spruce trees comes a terrible evil — a demon contained in the body of a great bear, intent on destruction. Twelve-year-old Torak is alone, wounded, terrified …
Set in a more recent past, Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful (HarperCollins) is told in the voice of a young soldier, accounting for 24 hours in his life at the front during World War I. The research is impeccable, the atmosphere is engrossing and the conclusion is moving.
The Dream Travellers by Sherry Ashworth (Simon & Schuster) is about how a mysterious lodger comes to live with 12-year-old Sam Kenyon and his family — kicking off a seriously spooky adventure. For Sam has seen the man before — in a nightmare.
Those who liked Jonathan Stroud’s bestselling The Amulet of Samarkand will be pleased that we’ve already got the second in the Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Golem’s Eye (Doubleday). In the first volume, young magician Nathaniel summoned the demon Bartimaeus, with dangerous consequences. But now he’ll have to do it all over again as he is sent on a secret mission to an enemy city.
Set in South Africa, Dawn Garisch’s Baby Shoes (Simon & Schuster) focuses on young David, who is studying desperately for his exams while his heavily pregnant mum and uncaring stepdad tear apart the house around him.
For the youngest of readers, Makwelane and the Crocodile by Maria Hendriks with illustrations by Piet Grobler (Human & Rousseau), is a story full of the rhythm of Africa. It’s about a girl, Makwelane, who wanted to visit her grandmother — and had to outwit a crocodile to do so.
Also for the youngest among us, and in all South Africa’s 11 official languages, The Rights of the Child (Kwela) provides essential information on just that — and with beautiful colour illustrations to reinforce the message.
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Ericsson Lindgren (Oxford) celebrates the 50th anniversary of first publication in English this year, but has miraculously managed to maintain her nine-year-old vigour. She is still the freckly, potato-nosed girl with startling orange pigtails that stick out horizontally and she still manages to find adventure in the most ordinary places. How many nine-year-olds do you know who could claim the following headings to the chapters of their lives?: Pippi plays tag with policemen; Pippi is a Turnupstuffer and gets into a fight; Pippi is visited by thieves; Pippi becomes a heroine. She is super-strong and feisty and when she first appeared on the children’s book scene in Sweden in 1945 parents feared that she was too independent for children (especially girls) to read. Her offbeat charm has, however, won over the sceptics and is still going strong 50 years on.