Armadillo reviewer
and avid reader Bridget Carrington gives us a taste of three very different but
equally excellent titles for the week ahead...
Swarm:
Operation Sting
It’s a race against time for SWARM to locate and
retrieve a dangerous weapon before the thieves crack the encryption code
protecting it… but just who are SWARM? The clue’s in the title of this new
series by Simon Cheshire – they’re robotic insects used by the Secret
Intelligence Agency to outwit villains. They may be robots, but they can squabble
and moan just like us, but when things become serious they maximise their
individual talents (or talons…) and act together to support each other. Packed
with detail, easy-to-read, and accompanied by trading cards detailing the
skills of each member of SWARM, this is a highly enticing series, particularly
for boys who prefer games to books. Fans of Saxby Smart and Jeremy Brown
stories will recognise the style, which Cheshire describes as ‘action packed
comedy’, and look forward eagerly to the forthcoming titles in the series.
The
Kingdom of Beautiful Colours
A collection of seven folk tales by Isabel Wyatt, a
twentieth-century teacher, storyteller and collector of stories, which she
retold in numerous books to resonate with the Rudolf Steiner philosophy in
Waldorf schooling. Steiner’s views on education are a million miles from those
of Michael Gove (for a start Steiner’s ideas reflected his observation of how
children learn, and what makes a rounded human being…), and Wyatt’s stories add
much to this enrichment, filled with a corresponding morality, wonder and
beauty. This is just one of the new inexpensive Floris republications of
Wyatt’s stories, and I would urge readers to seek out the other six volumes.
Scarlet
Ibis
Gill Lewis is a vet, and her three earlier novels
have resulted from her passion about practical conservation. She doesn’t just
concentrate on the animals though, she is equally concerned about the humans
who must interact with the animals, and in her latest book she looks at what
the natural world can do for vulnerable humans. Scarlet looks after her
severely depressed mother, and her autistic-spectrum brother Red, and she’s desperate
to evade the intervention of their social worker. Red’s deeply focussed life
revolves around his collection of bird feathers, and the baby pigeon on his
windowsill. When the family gets split
up following a fire in their flat Scarlet has a plan to prevent her brother
being taken into care, a plan which has a far-reaching effect. In this powerful
novel infused with respect and empathy, Lewis highlights the plight of those
who are old, homeless, mentally ill or just different from us, people who at
best we often fail to understand and help, and at worst deride and bully.
We'd love to know what you think after you have read any or all of these books so do leave us your comments ...
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