In all the excitement of the build up to Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles heading towards publication, I completely forgot to mention that two new books I wrote for Egmont were recently published. They’re based on episodes from Ben 10 Alien Force, the follow-on series to Ben 10, which I wrote a few books about.
Click on the covers below to be taken to each book’s page on LoveReading4Kids.co.uk.
Lovely jubbly!
OK, here goes…
It’s never easy to tell someone you really don’t like something they’ve written. It’s even more difficult when you know that person. When you’re sharing an underground cave with them, surrounded by monsters? Then it’s a really unpleasant thing to have to do.
Luckily, then, I have to do no such thing, as CRAWLERS is perhaps the best book I’ve read this year.
Sometimes – very, very rarely – you come across a book that could have been written for you and you alone. Everything about it, from the initial concept to the execution of detail is exactly how you would want it to be, almost as if someone has reached inside your head, pulled out your mental wish-list, and set to work ticking off all the boxes.
For me, one such book is GONE by Michael Grant. Another – perhaps the only other – is CRAWLERS by Sam Enthoven.
A squirm-inducing schlock horror, CRAWLERS tells the story of eight children – four boys and four girls – who find themselves trapped in the Barbican Theatre by a horde of squidgy, slimy spider-like creatures. These horrible little beasties can latch on to a human host, placing the unsuspecting person completely under the control of the spider-creatures’ deliciously sinister queen.
Thrown together, the children must overcome their differences as they try to find a way to escape the theatre and avoid becoming slaves to the queen. But as tensions mount so their paranoia begins to grow, threatening to tear the group apart. Only two of the group – Jasmine and Ben – seem to have what it takes to pull the others through the ordeal, and they must do all they can to force the others to listen to them before it’s too late.
I read most of the book on the train to Newcastle last week, en route to the Reading Partners event at the Newcastle City Library (more on that soon, honest). I became so engrossed in the story that I didn’t once look up to even glance out of the window. That’s because this book is exactly like the creatures featured in its pages – it creeps up on you and sinks it hooks right into you. After that, it has you. Your will is no longer your own, and you must keep reading to find out what happens next.
What I love most about this book – and what I love about all of Sam’s books – is that you can tell how much fun he had writing it. I can actually picture him sitting at the desk, cackling excitedly to himself as he came up with increasingly horrific ways in which to torture his cast of characters. He’s a sick, sick man, and I for one am eternally grateful for that fact.
Part Alien, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 100% flippin’ brilliant. Be sure to catch CRAWLERS when it is published in April, because if you don’t the Crawlers may well catch you.
Over at Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books, his ‘Book Cover Wars’ competition has entered its third week. Each week, he posts four book covers and invites readers to vote for their favourite. This week sees Mr Mumbles put in an appearance, and he’s up against some very strong competition.
To see the four competing covers and cast your vote for your favourite, scoot along to this page right here.
I’ve long been an admirer of the work that specialist publisher, Barrington Stoke, does in supplying books for reluctant and struggling readers. I’m also a massive fan of Tommy Donbavand’s hilariously spooky Scream Street series. You can imagine my excitement, then, when I found out that Tommy was writing a book for Barrington Stoke entitled simply ZOMBIE!
Like all the publisher’s titles, ZOMBIE! is written in simple language, with short, easily digestable chapters. And, like all Tommy Donbavand books, it’s a fantastically funny adventure, with spooks and scares aplenty.
ZOMBIE! tells the story of Nathan and Olivia – a brother and sister who regularly visit the grave of their grandfather, who died several years previously. On one such visit, the siblings have a terrifying encounter with a walking corpse, and in many other books, predictably horrifying results would ensue.
However, Tommy has a knack of merging the macabre with the mundane to create characters that are both monstrous and inately human at the same time. Anyone who has come across his house proud bog monsters or surf bum zombies in Scream Street will know what I’m talking about, and he uses the same techniques here to brilliant effect.
Like the zombies in Scream Street, those in ZOMBIE! just want to party, and rather than running for their lives, Nathan and Olivia find themselves trying to help him shop for lemonade and party food. But when a zombie-obsessed supermarket security guard begins to close in on them, the siblings and their new undead buddy find themselves in terrible, terrible danger.
What struck me most about ZOMBIE! wasn’t the humour or the scares (I was expecting those), or the simplicity of the writing (I was expecting that, too). No, what struck me most was that the story – despite being about the living dead – has real heart to it. And no, I don’t mean a decomposing zombie heart, before you ask.
With just a few deft strokes, Tommy adds a note of tragedy to what is essentially a comedy romp. From the opening paragraphs with Nathan remembering the times he spent with his grandfather, to the zombie, Jake, realising how much has changed in the time since he died, there are moments throughout the book which are genuinely touching, without ever sinking into melodrama or soppiness.
In fact, without once resorting to using flowery, emotive language, Tommy managed to bring a lump to my throat with the final page of the story. This, combined with the humour, scares and fast-paced action, make ZOMBIE! a book I can’t recommend highly enough.
Thanks to Mr Ripley of the excellent Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books, I managed to get my hands on a proof copy of Charlie Higson’s new teen novel – The Enemy.
Look, here it is here…
I sat down to read this book last night, and didn’t move from that spot until I finished it some time after 3am. No matter how many times I told myself I’d read “just one more chapter”, I kept turning those pages, desperate to find out how the story ended.
But before I go into full-on gushing praise mode, here’s the official blurb:
Book synopsis
They’ll chase you. They’ll rip you open. They’ll feed on you… When the sickness came, every parent, policeman, politician – every adult – fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.
Only children under fourteen remain, and they’re fighting to survive. Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city – down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground – the grown-ups lie in wait. But can they make it there – alive?
The synopsis really only pays lip-service to the story, though, as there are several strands running throughout the books – some of which tie up at the end, while others are left wide open for future books (of which I hope there are many).
On one level, this is a zombie story for teens, packed with rotting flesh, shuffling cadavers, and some scenes of full-scale gore. At its heart, though, this is a story about what it means to be a teenager, finding your own way in the world, and learning exactly who you are.
It is populated by a large cast of characters – some instantly likeable, others just the opposite, but all well-drawn and three-dimensional – and their interactions as friendships develop (and often crumble) sets this book well above the average horror novel.
Characters die – real characters, you’ve come to root for – and tragedy fills almost every chapter, but there’s a rip-roaring adventure in there, too, which will have you cheering almost as much as it’ll have you gasping with shock.
This is without question one of my favourite books ever, and it if isn’t an instant smash when it is released in September, I’ll welcome the zombie apocalypse with open arms.
Don’t get excited by the title of this post – I haven’t won anything. I did, however, get to spend this afternoon with a group of winners – namely the winners of the 2009 Pushkin Prizes, a writing competition held for Scottish and Russian secondary school pupils.
Following a long drive along narrow roads in the pouring rain, I arrived at the Moniack Mhor writer’s retreat just in time for lunch. Handy, that. As I scoffed down salami by the fistful, I was introduced to the winners and their tutors for the week-long residential writing course.
During lunch, we discussed a range of varied and important subjects – like the difference between a trebuchet and a giant catapult, the best uses for cabbage and whether or not horses have ankles. (They do. I looked it up). Then, when the food was eaten and the plates were cleared away, we got down to business.
Well, kind of.
I’d known for weeks I was going to be talking to the prizewinners, and I kept meaning to plan what I was going to talk about. Oh sure, I knew it would be writing related, and that I’d be mentioning INVISIBLE FIENDS, but I had every intention of sitting down and figuring out exactly what I was going to say, so as to appear all clever and well-informed.
Unfortunately, things kind of got in the way. We moved house. My son had a birthday. I discovered a new species of newt*. Things kept piling up, and before I knew what was happening, I was sitting at the end of a long wooden table, with a dozen or more expectant faces waiting for me to speak.
I’ll admit it, I kind of waffled a bit. I spouted some stuff about the books I’ve done, spoke a bit about INVISIBLE FIENDS, then quickly invited questions. Fortunately, everyone else was much more prepared than me, and ten or more well thought out questions from the floor managed to fill out the rest of the session. I finished off by doing a reading from the first IF book – MR MUMBLES – and then dished out some free proof copies to all the prizewinners.
So all in all, despite me being woefully unprepared, the visit went really well. I’ve started working my way through the prizewinning entries, which are now available to read here on the Pushkin Prizes site. There is a lot of really great work in there, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some of the winners I met today go on to become the next generation of Scottish (and Russian) novelists and poets.
On another, related front, the shortlist for the 2009 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children’s Books has been announced. Full details are below. Good luck to all involved.
Early Years (0-7 years)
Manfred the Baddie by John Fardell (Quercus)
PinK! by Lynne Rickards and Margaret Chamberlain (Chicken House)
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Scholastic)
Younger Readers (8-11 years)
Dino Eggs by Charlie James (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
The Eleventh Orphan by Joan Lingard (Catnip Publishing)
First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don (Floris Books)
Older Readers (12-16 years)
Crash by J A Henderson (OUP)
Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (Random House)
The Reckoning by James Jauncey (MacMillan)
*This is a lie
I finally found time to finish SILVERFIN today, the first in Charlie Higson’s Young Bond series. I’m a latecomer to the series, solely because I never expected it to be any good. I’m pleased to report that I’ve been wrong all these years. SILVERFIN is a great read, full of action and adventure, and it definitely lives up to the Bond legacy.
In other news, I have decided to alter the way comments work on the site. Now, even if you’ve had a comment accepted before, any new comments will be placed in a moderation queue for me to approve.
This change has taken place because I have … wait for it … acquired a stalker! First Demi Moore had one, then Britney Spears, and now me. It’s an elite club I’m in. I wonder if I’ll get a membership badge.
Anyway, to the nutter who has been posting the messages – myself and Fiona are highly amused at how truly and spectacularly tragic you are. We found your messages entertaining, but on reflection have decided to pass them all onto the police, along with a list of all the many instances you’ve been on the site since 11th March.
We have also been in touch with your ISP – Tiscali – who are taking the matter very seriously indeed. If there’s anything you want to do online I’d do it now before your broadband access is disconnected. The police may well get in touch with Tiscali, too, or they may just come round and take away your Windows Vista computer for investigation.
Will you be arrested at this point? Will it just be a caution? Who knows? The excitement is almost too much to bear.
Of course, thanks to the wonder that is technology, we are all already fully aware of who you are, but it’s important to do these things properly, don’t you think?
So that’s that. Exciting times all round. Thumbs up to Young James Bond, thumbs down to loony stalkers with nothing better to do than post semi-literate threats on a website aimed at children. Shame on you.
Children’s books have changed a lot since I was a boy. In many ways I think they’re better now than they ever have been, and children also have a much wider range of authors, subjects and genres from which to choose.
I was always a big reader when I was young, although I actually skipped out a lot of children’s books and went straight into Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and the like. It’s only now that I’ve started reading children’s fiction that I realise what I missed out on.
There was one book, though, that left a massive impression on me as a child. It was an enormous hardback that I found in my school library one day – by far the biggest book I’d ever attempted to read. It was called The Hounds Of The Morrigan
I have vivid memories of curling up and reading that book – either in bed or on the couch – and I still remember the feeling of sadness I felt when I reached the end and had to say goodbye to the two main characters, Pidge and Bridget. I was eight or nine, but I still remember actually whispering “goodbye” to them when I closed the back cover, that’s how profound an effect the book had on me.
I suppose if I look back that was the first book that ever made me want to be a writer. I borrowed that book from the library at least half a dozen times, and while I never again whispered my goodbyes when I finished it, I never stopped loving the story.
If you’ve never read the book then you’re missing out. Click the link in paragraph three above to be taken to the Amazon page where it’s available insanely cheaply for the size and quality of the book.
I’d love to hear what your favourite book was when you were younger. Post a comment letting us know the title and author (or whatever details you can remember).
