Barrington Stoke at its very best

A round-up of titles from Barrington Stoke …

In this week's Blog, reviewer and teacher Simon Barrett rounds-up and reviews a selection of some of Barrington Stoke's excellent titles...

Barrington Stoke's latest publications offer great reads for young people with a reading age of eight.  There are a number of books aimed at young readers from eight to twelve years old.  As ever, it includes new stories by great authors, this time including Jonathan Stroud (The Ghost of Shadow Vale) and Terry Deary (The Hat Trick), not reviewed here but certainly recommended reads. 

A book I do want to tell you more about is written by Tony Bradman and tells the story of the legendary king, Harald Hardrada in Harald Hardnut.  Harald had fled Norway when he was fifteen, using his sword to carve out a fierce some reputation.  With his comrades-in-arms Ulf and Haldor, Harald became a bodyguard to the Emperor himself, before winning the hand of a Russian Princess.  Upon becoming King of Norway, Harald eventually became bored of court life.  Then, he accepted one last challenge, to take the throne of England.  Harald couldn’t have been happier than meeting Harold, son of Goodwin in battle at Stamford Bridge in 1066.

In addition there a number of books of interest to teenagers: Dream On, The Return of Johnny Kemp and The Devil's Angel and The Diary of an (Un) teenager.

In Dream On, Baljit dreams of being a football star.  His teacher thinks he is good enough even to go for trials at Leicester City.  Baljit’s parents however want him to stop dreaming.  They think he should focus on a doing well at school and getting a good job.  Then his cousin Mandip comes up with a brilliant idea of a school trip to fool Baljit’s parents, allowing him to go to the trials.   Baljit however will have to overcome racism off and on the pitch if he is to prove he is the better player.  It also means lying to his parents.

Dan, in The Return of Johnny Kemp, is in deep trouble.  The school bully – Johnny Kemp – is back and Dan is the one who was responsible for him being excluded for two weeks.  The message from the Baxter brothers and all his classmates is that Dan is a dead man.  No one seems to listen and no one is on his side.  So it is up to Dan to face Johnny.  There can only be one winner.  This is a brilliantly written story about school bullying with one surprising twist at the end.

The Devil’s Angel by Kevin Brooks explores the growing friendship between Jack and new bad boy in town, Dean.  In an intense summer, involving drink and drugs, Jack and Dean seem to relish the rock and roll life, until Dean picks a fight with the wrong people.  It is an interesting story of a band nearly making it and an unlikely friendship, beginning and then drifting apart.  This book will interest teenage readers with a reading age of 8.

Spencer is in shock.  His best friend Zac turns thirteen and changes into a skater, complete with a hoodie and a skateboard.  Spencer is thirteen in a few weeks, but vows to not change.  He is going to be an (un) teenager.

Diary of an (Un) teenager by Pete Johnson is the hilarious story of Spencer refusing to change.  His lego and model airplanes are firmly staying in his room.  Neither is he going to buy new trainers, when his old (and slightly smelly) ones are perfectly suitable for a kick about in the park.  Spencer's resolve is however fully tested when he receives an anonymous birthday card and a badly drawn heart in the corner.

Spencer is back in Return of the (Un) teenager.  This time Spencer has to contend with the fact his voice is breaking and that his best friend Zac has made loads of new friends on Facebook, including his new girlfriend Sarah.  Spencer's relationship with Emily is not going very well. Return of the (Un) teenager is another comic story of miscommunication.

The anniversary of WWI has inspired a number of novels from Barrington Stoke.  The two latest books by Alan Gibbons and Tony Bradman fictionalize their own personal, family histories relating to WWI and WWII.

Street Corner Dad by Alan Gibbons tells the story of Jimmy and his sister Molly who are forced to meet their father secretly on a street corner when a family tragedy tears the family apart.  Their Dad’s promise that nothing will keep them apart in this world or the next seems ill-fated as news arrives that his ship has been torpedoed.  This is an excellent story aimed at a reading age of 7 and an interest age of 7-12 years old.

ANZAC Boys by Tony Bradman is based upon the lives of his Grandfather Bert and his brother Frank.  Orphaned, the boys are transported by priests to the otherwise side of the world.  Upon arrival Bert’s promise that he will always look after Frank is quickly broken as Bert is sent to Australia and Frank to New Zealand.  Bert tries with no success to find Frank, until remarkably, they meet up by chance preparing for the WWI battle of Gallipoli.  Sadly the reunion is not the happy one Bert intends.  This is a story for a reading age of 8 and interest age of 9+.

Also published is a new story by Malorie Blackman illustrated by Matthew Griffin entitled Robot Girl.  The author brilliantly subverts the genre as Claire becomes jealous of her father’s new creation.  Once again he is spending hours in his laboratory, working on a new project to create an artificial intelligence, using Claire’s own brain patterns without her permission.  Claire’s new friend Maisie is the only person who seems to understand.  The story is intended for a reading age of 8 and an interest age of 8-12 years old.

Quite a selection so hopefully something for everyone and a great variety too!

Books to Lift the Spirits

January is such a long month, we had the pleasure of Christmas, the excitment of new year, we have had promises of snow (Surrey has had none) gale force winds, rain and much else besides, we are now all looking for signs of Spring, well I can give you one, my two new hens have both started to lay!  However to help banish those January blues how about some great books to read, get lost in another world and forget this one for a while!

What am I looking forward to in 2015? Plenty!

First there is the brilliant, funny, in fact laugh out loud, Love Bomb by Jenny McLachlan.  If you didn't read Flirty Dancing I want to know why not and demand you go and find a copy to read now after all you need to in order to read Love Bomb. Well I suppose you don't really but it would make sense to!  Love Bomb is brilliant, it tells Betty's story, Betty is one of the group of girls who were once best friends.  Finally Betty is about to have a chance to fall in love but is she ready and what will it feel like?  A great reminder of that hilarious first kiss moment for some readers and a way to break the ice for others.  This is my first recommendation for the year!

On the subject of love and romance there is also Malorie Blackman's latest anthology, Love Hurts (Penguin Books) is in time for Valentines and is in fact more cheering than it sounds but more than that it is filled with brilliant short stories by a group of fantastic writers.

What about a book for young readers?  I adore 15 Things NOT To Do With A Baby by Margaret McAllister and illustrated by Holly Sterling (Frances Lincoln). This is not only perfect for new parents or those children new to being a sibling it is also a fun, funny picture book that everyone will love for its great pictures and warm text.

Oh and not forgetting non fiction titles there is the brilliant Baby Animals colouring book from Buster Books, not only hours of fun colouring in but also learning about lots of different animals, their names and their appearance.  Educational colouring at its best!

So there we are, some of my first suggestions for the year. This weekend I am off to tea with Scholastic then next week it's the Chicken House Big Breakfast so there will be plenty to report after those. Coming up I also have a launch for the 50th anniversary of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Malorie Blackman's Love Hurts, Daisy Hurst's The Girl With a Parrot on Her Head. Phew, its going to be a busy time and that will just be all the reading I'll be doing.

Interveiws with John Burningham on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Lisa Williamson on The Art of Being Normal are promised too so watch this space...!

Keeping the 'Adult' in Young Fiction

Monday 17th June, Waterstones Piccadilly, Malorie Blackman - new Children's Laureate, Melvin Burgess and Lucy Mangan in conversation about keeping teen literature alive, loving life, death and reading!

Lucy, questioning her panel of Malorie and Melvin dove straight into the evening by asking both authors what is was that drew them to YA writing, why was it different she asked?  Malorie began the discussion by explaining that she loved to write for all ages and tackle the subjects and themes close to her heart and the heart of her readers.  She explained that as a writer she asks lots of questions, not necessarily having the answers, her books are therefore open to debate and challenge the reder - this is why she enjoys writing for Young Adults but also for all ages.

Melvin bagan writing when there was little for teens, he remembered the music, the books of his own teen years and so decided to write new things to entertain the modern teen - to him there is a gap because adults are traumatised by teens, they distrust them, show them as negative stereotypes yet it is a fascinating stage of life.

As you can probably tell the stage was now set for a fascinating discussion not only around the books written by both Malorie and Melvin but around the concept of teen literature what it involves, who it engages, why and how.


The audience were certainly hanging on every word and why not - here were two greats from teen fiction writing, they were thought provoking and entertaining, opinionated too and that is not bad thing!  At times it seemed as though Lucy wouldn't have a chance to get her questions in for every question she asked there was so much to say ... but a good interviewer always knows a good time to drop into the discussion and Lucy did just this, letting both speak and then challenging them again ...

The discussion verged on radical at times with suggestions that writing for teens was an art which disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed.  It should not talk down to its readers but serve them well, raise debatem create strategies for dealing with situations and create an empathy.  Melvin also felt it should be subversive, pushing, questioning and genuinely serve its audience.

The discussion turned to politics, not party politics but society politics - the have's and have not's.  For Malorie is is abut balance not taking sides, make the book enticing but serious (the politics comes in here), have a breadth of subject matter and question.

MAlorie's latest book, Noble Conflict is politicaly inspired by the STI issues among blacks in America between 1932 and 1972.  the appaling way in which they were treated but not treated inspired her to write yet her book has nothing to do with these issues, it was just inspired by them.  The issues inspired her to ask on behalf of those who did not ...

The subject then changed to the inevitable questions about Malorie as Laureate, as rightly it should when she has taken on such a significant role.  As Laureate she explained her aim is to engage children in stories, stimulate a creative response and drive an online storytelling initiative to ensure that no-one is embarrassed by their reading rather they are encouraged to continue - if they love Twilight give them Frankenstein for example, if they love the beano give them graphic novels and so on.  Above all else make sure that no-one is just normal, all embrace difference and love who they are.

A thoughtful moment and a powerful message followed by a light-hearted consideration of what makes an author tick, what inspires them - apparently it is mostly listening in to the conversations of others and remembering who you were, your aims, ambitions and desires at the same age - so watch out for you never know who might be listening but at the same time try to remember who you are, in may come in useful in the future!

Finally the discussion opened to Q & A from the audience who wanted to know what was more accessible the film or the book - as you can imagine it is the book, in the minds of these great authors, but not because they see that as more educational or of greater value, no it is because a film is supplementary, it can never be the book, it is  a different mindset for a different audience and if the author does not want that they should not sell the rights - simple!  Books have their own life, they break new ground and innovate, they progress.  Films and Hollywood like a sure thing, a definite if not always happy ending, they are a comfort zone whilst books challenge.

As for boys and reading? - give them anything was the message here.

School libraries and librarians? - essential for transferring curiosity and putting books into the hands of children.

The final message? - read to all children, whatever their age, hook them in and keep them there...