Black Cockatoo

Black Cockatoo was an immediate cover buy for me as soon as I saw it long listed for the CBCA Awards earlier in the year. I'm not having my best reading year and I think that this is the only book I've read from the longlist, and I didn't even make my usual post about all the long listed books. Now it's Book Week and the winners will be announced tomorrow.

Black Cockatoo tells the story of Mia, a thirteen year old girl living with her extended family in a remote Kimberley town. I really wasn't expecting the brutal start. 

The hit came hard, sending the young dirrarn black cockatoo reeling from his roost in the large gum tree. The boy approached cautiously, shanghai dangling from his hand, to inspect his catch. The dirrarn lay sprawled amongst the smaller birds he'd been using as target practice. 

The boy is Mia's older brother. Jy is 15, and loosing his way as many teenage boys do, he's not respecting his elders, or his country. He's killing birds for fun, not going to school. Mia rescues the bird and looks after it in her room. 

Mia let her mind wander to all the places she had dreamt of seeing. No one in her family had ever left the west coast, let alone travelled over oceans. In days past there was no need to, the family had everything they needed on their country. She imagined soaring high above the coastline, red cliffs below, as the waves crashed onto golden shores- even in her imagination she could not fly out over the waves. 

I don't think that I've ever read a book set in a remote Western Australian town like this one. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. I've never even travelled to that area, these are stories and lives I've never encountered. I enjoyed learning more about Aboriginal family constructs. I knew that elder women would be called aunty, and men uncle, and that family is a very inclusive term. But I'd never heard of cousin-sisters and cousin-brothers before. 

I enjoyed the themes of family, country, tradition and freedom. Of course with any story like this the Stolen Generation is never far away. 

Jawiji had met Mia's jaja on the station when they were teenagers. Her family had been rounded up and forced to live there. Jaja rarely talked about the little sister her family had lost when the government and police rounded up the lighter-skinned kids. One the rare occasion she did, the pain was raw in her words and plain across her face. 

Black Cockatoo is as beautiful inside as it is out. Each chapter has a stunning full page illustration by Dub Leffler- an illustrator that I need to see more from. There is a sprinkling of Jaru and Aboriginal English/Kriol words throughout the text as you can see in my quotes, and they have supplied a glossary at the end (although I aways think these should be at the front). I've read a couple of books from Magabala Books  now, they're always impressive, and well worth seeking out.

Mrs Whitlam

Who can resist the lure of a book about a Clydesdale horse named after the wife of a former prime minister? Certainly not me. As soon as I saw this on the CBCA Shortlist this year I knew that it would be one of the books that I would search out. I'm so glad that I did.

Mrs Whitlam is a lovely slip of a book, a mere 77 pages. Local Aboriginal girl Marnie Clark is horse crazy and dreams of having a horse of her own, but her father is out of work and her family can't afford it. When a girl from her school dies her grieving mother finds that her daughter's horse and riding things are too painful to see, too powerful a memory to keep, so she gives Mrs Margaret Whitlam to Marnie. Marnie and the horse form an immediate bond. 

I pressed my face into Mrs Whitlma's neck, tears rolled down my cheeks. I was hoping they were for Vicki but really, I knew most of them were for me. 

Set in western Victoria Mrs Whitlam is a simple story, well written. Bruce Pascoe writes beautiful descriptive prose. 

The track was firm but damp and Maggie's hooves made a rhythmic sound like someone whacking a hot water bootle with a stack wrapped in lamb's wool. I could hear it echo faintly off the trees on the other side of the river. It sounded like a hostly rider was keeping stride for stride with me on the other bank. 

This little book fits in a lot, it deals with small town racism both towards Marnie and her family, and also the local immigrant families. It also deals with notions of family, class and bitchy pony club girls. There is a gentle warmth to the book, and a lovely humour in the dialogue. 

Bruce Pascoe was a new author to me. I'd seen his previous book Fog a Dox around a bit the past few years, but don't really know anything about it and haven't read it, and indeed I didn't actually put two and two together for a while. Bruce Pascoe was born in Melbourne and has Bunurong and Tasmanian heritage, he writes fiction and nonfiction, and has been a publisher and editor. I look forward to reading more of his work. 

Teacher Notes

Don't Call Me Bear

I do love the opportunity to read a new Aaron Blabey book. He has a particular, and sometimes peculiar point of view. Aaron Blabey's books are funny, and lots of fun too. 

Don't Call Me Bear is a simple book, told in lovely rhyme pointing out a fact that we all know- that koalas are not intact bears, even though they often get called koala bears. 

Warren is a rather angsty koala who doesn't like being called a bear. 

Picture Source

Don't Call Me Bear has a wonderful laconic, Australian tone. Highly recommended. 

Aaron Blabey is so prolific that it's really hard keeping up even though most of his books are picture books! I haven't read all of his books, but I do think that Thelma the Unicorn will likely remain my favourite.  (see my review)

Squishy Taylor and the First Three Adventures

I'd never heard of Squishy Taylor or any of her Adventures until the first story, Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters, was nominated for the Readings Prize this year. Then Squishy and her Bonus Sisters turned up as a Notable Book for the CBCA Book of the Year Younger Readers list. Squishy definitely needed to be checked out.

Squishy Taylor is a new(ish) series from Melbourne writer and acrobat Ailsa Wild. There are six books in the series now I think. I read a volume that combines the first three books. Each book is about 120 pages, and involves Squishy and her sisters solving a mystery. 

Squishy is an 11 year old girl who lives with her blended family in a rather crowded Melbourne apartment. Her mum lives works for the UN in Geneva, and she lives with her dad, her stepmother Alice, her two bonus (twin) stepsisters, and her half brother Baby. That's some complicated family logistics right there. Squishy is of course a nickname, her real name is Sita which is her In Trouble name. Squishy is mixed race, her mum is Indian and her father caucasian, while her step mother and step-sisters are Asian.

In Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters Squishy finds a boy living in the basement car park of her building. In Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust there are diamond thieves about in Melbourne, and in Squishy Taylor and the Vase that Wasn't a valuable Chinese vase disappears from the apartment building and it seems a Chinese-Warrior ghost took it. 

All three stories are very fun, and a breeze to read. The text is broken up by words or phrases in a bigger different font (I've tried to find what that is called- it must be called something?), and there are fabulous illustrations throughout by Ben Wood. Ben shares how he designed Squishy here. 

The Melbourne setting is great. The girls travel about on the tram quite freely. In the first book Squishy hasn't really settled in with her step family yet since she moved in seven and a half weeks ago. She doesn't get along with her twin stepsisters, because "they are about 95% annoying and 5% really, really annoying" which is awkward when all three share the same room, and indeed a triple bunk bed. The girls do come together over their first adventure, and then share the exploits in the following books. It's a great idea to have Squishy live in a large apartment building, there's always a lot going on, and kids always notice the comings and goings of other resident, and know who's who in their surroundings. 

The Squishy Taylor series is a fabulous new series for young readers. I guess the covers will appeal to girls more as there is quite a bit of pink but there is plenty to appeal to boys too, with regular rock climbing, ninja tricks in and out of bed and plenty of action and often quite daring stunts required to solve the mysteries. 

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CBCA Book of the Year Award Shortlist and Notables 2017

I always look forward to the CBCA list every year, it's such a great forum for celebrating Australia's rather prodigious talent amongst our authors and illustrators for young people. Lot's of books you may have read, or at least heard of, but always something new, something unfamiliar and yet very tempting. 

This year is really a bumper year, the long list- or Notables as they are called, is massive.

Book of the Year Older Readers Shortlist

Waer - Meg Caddy
Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
The Bone Sparrow - Zana Fraillon
Yellow - Megan Jacobson
Frankie - Shivaun Plozza 
One Would Think the Deep - Claire Zorn

Book of the Year Older Readers Notables


The Hounded - Simon Butters
My Best Friend is a Goddess - Tara Ellington
Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club - Alison Goodman
Becoming Aurora - Elizabeth Kasmer
The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
Ocean of the Dead (Ship Kings #4) - Andrew McGahan
The Stars at Oktober Bend - Glenda Millard
A Toaster on Mars - Darrell Pitt
Our Chemical Heart - Krystal Sutherland
Forgetting Foster - Dianne Touchell
Everything is Changed - Nova Weetman
The Invisible War - Ailsa Wild

Book of the Year Younger Readers Shortlist

Rockhopping - Trace Balla  
Within These Walls - Robyn Bavati
A Most Magical Girl - Karen Foxlee

Dragonfly Song - Wendy Orr

Mrs Whitlam - Bruce Pascoe (see my review)

Captain Jimmy Cook Discovers Third Grade - Kate & Jol Temple

Book of the Year Younger Readers Notables

Cybertricks - Goldie Alexander

Blueberry Pancakes Forever - Angelica Banks

Magrit - Lee Battersby
Yong - Janeen Brian

Freedom Swimmer - Wai Chen

The Family With Two Front Doors - Anna Ciddor

The Pearl-shell Diver - Kay Crabbe

Wicked's Way - Anna Fienberg

Fizz and the Police Dog Tryouts - Lesley Gibbes

Toad Delight - Morris Gleitzman

Iris and the Tiger - Leanne Hall

Daystar - Anne Hamilton

Daughters of Nomads - Rosanne Hawke

Lily in the Mirror - Paula Hayes

Fail Safe - Jack Heath

The Unforgettable What's His Name - Paul Jennings

Theophilus Grey and the Traitor's Mask - Catherine Jinks

When the Lyrebird Calls - Kim Kane

Ruby Wishfingers Skydancer's Escape - Deborah Kelly

Ruby Red Shoes Goes to London - Kate Knapp

Elizabeth and Zenobia - Jessica Miller

The Lost Sapphire - Belinda Murrell

The Twins of Tintarfell - James O'Loghlin

Pocket Rocket - Ellyse Perry & Sherryl Clark

The Other Christy - Oliver Phommavanh

Wormwood Mire (Stella Montgomery #2) - Judith Rossell

Artie and the Grime Wave - Richard Roxburgh

Lizzie and Margaret Rose - Pamela Rushby

Tommy Bell Shoot-out at the Rock - Jane Smith

What's in a Name - Myles Walsh

The Secrets We Keep - Nova Weetman

Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters - Ailsa Wild (see my review)

The Shark Caller - Dianne Wolfer

Book of the Year Early Childhood Shortlist

Go Home Cheeky Animals - Johanna Bell (author), Dion Beasley (illustrator)

All I Want for Christmas is Rain - Cori Brooke (author), Cori Brooke (illustrator)

The Snow Wombat - Susannah Chambers (author), Mark Jackson (illustrator)

Nannie Loves - Kylie Dustan

Chip - Kylie Howarth

Gary - Leila Rudge

Book of the Year Early Childhood Notables

Zelda's Big Adventure - Marie Alafaci (author), Shane McGown (illustrator)

Oh Albert - Davina Bell (author), Sara Acton (illustrator)

Where is Bear? - Jonathan Bentley

Pig the Winner - Aaron Blabey 

Little Chicken Chickadee - Janeen Brian (author), Danny Snell (illustrator)

The 12th Dog - Charlotte Calder (author), Tom Jellet (illustrator)

The Cat Wants Custard - Paul Crumble (author), Lucinda Gifford (illustrator)

Ducks Away - Mem Fox (author), Judy Horacek (illustrator)

Little Bear's First Sleep - Lesley Gibbes (author), Lisa Stewart (illustrator)

Bear Makes Den - Jane Godwin & Michael Wagner (authors), Andrew Joyner (illustrator)

Home in the Rain - Bob Graham 

Bird and Bear and the Special Day - Ann James

Hello Little Babies - Alison Lester 

Smile Cry - Tania McCarthy (author), Jess Racklyeft (illustrator)

Dream Little One Dream - Sally Morgan (author), Ambelin Kwaymullina (illustrator)

Joey Counts to Ten - Sally Morgan (author), Ambelin Kwaymullina (illustrator)

Twig - Aura Parker  

Molly and Mae - Danny Parker (author), Freya Blackwood (illustrator)

Agatha and the Dark - Anna Pignataro

Wild Pa - Claire Saxby (author), Connah Brecon (illustrator)

The Whole Caboodle - Lisa Shanahan (author), Leila Rudge (illustrator)

Ten Little Owls - Renee Treml  

My Perfect Pup - Sue Walker (author), Anil Tortop (illustrator)

Take Ted Instead - Cassandra Webb (author), Amanda Francey (illustrator)

Together Always - Edwina Wyatt (author), Lucia Masciullo (illustrator)

Picture Book of the Year Shortlist

One Photo - Liz Anelli (illustrator), Ross Watkins (author)

Mechanica - Lance Balchin (see my review)

Home in the Rain - Bob Graham 

My Brother - Oliver Huxley (illustrator), Dee Huxley and Tiffany Huxley (authors)

The Patchwork Bike - Van T Rudd (illustrator), Maxine Beneba Clarke (author)

Out  - Owen Swan (illustrator), Angela May George (author)

Picture Book of the Year Notables

The Sisters Saint-Claire - Tamsin Ainslie (illustrator), Carlie Gibson (author)

Desert Lake The Story of Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre - Liz Anelli (illustrator), Pamela Freeman (author)

Circle - Jeannie Baker (see my review)

Colours of Australia - Bronwyn Bancroft  

Where is Bear - Jonathan Bentley

Blue Sky Yellow Kite - Jonathan Bentley  (illustrator),  Janet A Holmes (author)

Don't Call Me Bear - Aaron Blabey  

Molly and Mae - Freya Blackwood  (illustrator), Danny Parker (author)

Hattie Helps Out - Freya Blackwood  (illustrator), Jane Godwin and Davina Bell (authors)

Something Wonderful - Karen Blair  (illustrator), Raewyn Caisley (author)

The Fabulous Friend Machine - Nick Bland  

Reflection Remembering Those Who Served in War - Robin Cowcher (illustrator), Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg (author)

Captain Sneer the Buccaneer - Gabriel Evans  (illustrator), Penny Morrison (author)

A Patch From Scratch - Megan Forward  

Somewhere Else - Gus Gordon  

On the River - Roland Harvey

Mr Chicken Arriva a Roma - Leigh Hobbs  

Grandpa's Big Adventure - Tom Jellett (illustrator), Paul Newman (author)

Blue The Builder's Dog - Andrew Joyner (illustrator), Jen Storer (author)

Welcome to Country - Lisa Kennedy (illustrator), Aunty Joy Murphy (author) (see my review)

A Soldier, A Dog and A Boy - Phil Lesnie (illustrator), Libby Hathorn (author)

Archie No Ordinary Sloth - Heath McKenzie  

Melbourne Word by Word - Michael McMahon  

Snail and Turtle Rainy Days - Stephen Michael King

Pandamonia - Chris Nixon

Crusts - Matt Ottley  (illustrator), Danny Parker (author)

Spark - Andrew Plant (illustrator), Adam Wallace (author)

Smeck - Ben Redlich

Milo - Tobhy Riddle  

Gary - Leila Rudge

Dog Lost - Brian Simmonds (illustrator),  Jan Ramage (author)

Chooks in Dinner Suits - Craig Smith (illustrator), Dianne Jackson Hill (author)

Stanley - Colin Thompson  

Small Things - Mel Tregonning

Cyclone - Bruce Whatley (illustrator), Jackie French (author) (see my review)

New Year Surprise! - Di Wu (illustrator), Christopher Cheng (author)

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Shortlist
Spellbound Making Pictures with the A B C - Maree Coote

A-Z of Endangered Animals - Jennifer Cossins

The Gigantic Book of Genes - Lorna Hendry

Fabish The Horse that Braved a Bushfire - Neridah McMullen (author), Andrew McLean (illustrator)

Amazing Animals of Australia's National Parks - Gina M Newton

William Bligh A Stormy Story of Temestuous Times - Michael Sedentary (author), Bern Emmerichs (illustrator)

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Notables

Circle - Jeannie Baker (see my review)

Resource Stories of Australian Innovation in Wartime - Jennet Cole-Adams & Judy Gauld

Socks Sandbags and Leeches: Letters to my Anzac Dad - Pauline Deeves

Desert Lake - Pamela Freeman (author), Liz Anellia (illustrator)

Boomerang and Bat - Mark Greenwood (author), Terry Denton (illustrator)

Chooks in Dinner Suits - Diane Jackson Hill (author), Craig Smith (illustrator)

Hello! - Joanna Karmel (author), Tony Flowers (illustrator)

Australia's Nightingale: Nellie Melba - Cassy Liberman & Sara Carter Jenkins (authors), Emma Borghesi (illustrator)

The ABC Book of Food - Helen Martin & Judith Simpson (authors), Cheryl Orsini (illustrator)

Degas An Art Book for Kids - Kate Ryan (author), Cally Bennett (illustrator)

Aliens Ghosts and Vanishings Strange and Possibly True Australian Stories - Stella Tarakson

Crichton Award for New Illustrators 2017

A Patch from Scratch - Megan Forward

Mechanica- A beginner's field guide - Lance Balchin (see my review)

Melbourne Word by Word - Michael McMahon

Small Things - Mel Tregonning

The Patchwork Bike - Van T Rudd (illustrator), Maxine Beneba Clarke (author)

Welcome to Country - Lisa Kennedy (illustrator), Aunty Joy Murphy (author) (see my review)

Now that's a long list! Not surprising when there were 443 entries. 

I have read a dispiritingly small number of these books, but it certainly gives me something to strive for. I do love that you can name a horse Mrs Whitlam! I must read that one, and soon. It's an interesting short list this year with many debut and even self published authors making the grade. 

As usual I've somewhat randomly predicted my winners for each category. The true winners will be announced Friday August 18 at the start of Book Week. 

This year's Book Week theme is Escape to Everywhere. It has beautiful artwork done by Freya Blackwood.

The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

I vaguely remember this book being published in 2009. I remember some intriguing reviews, and  liking the cover. Then I bought a copy of the audiobook at a used book sale in the Blue Mountains at least a year ago. Recently I found the audiobook again and one day popped it on in the car. I don't usually like listening to fiction. I find I get distracted and in fiction that matters more than nonfiction. But I (mostly) paid attention to The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen read by the talented Lucy Bell. Perhaps I'm getting better at audiobooks of whatever format. 

Twelve year old Aurelie Bonhoffen lives with her family on Gribblesea Pier. The Bonhoffen family have been running the fair on the pier for 100 years. But it is falling on hard times. The pier is in need  of major repairs and her family are struggling to keep up. 

I was in from the very start.

The girl lay in her coffin with a faint smile on her powder white face. She had been carefully laid out.  Gentle hands smoothed down her white silk dress, combed her soft curls, and brushed on her make up so that her cheeks looked like two faintly pink cherry blossoms. 

It's an intriguing start. The book is peopled with such wonderful Dickensian names- To and Fro the trapeze artists, Aurelie's school principal Mrs Farnhumple, and her teacher Miss Miel, surely a nod to that most lovely of teachers- Miss Honey from Roald Dahl's Matilda. The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen is a modern story set in England, but it is almost timeless, just a few mentions of cars to give it a modern feel. 

The Bonhoffen Seaside Pier location was inspired by Brighton Pier. Aurelie's family have lived on the Pier and worked the amusements there for 100 years. Time has taken it's toll though and the Pier has become a bit run down, and their are forces in town that would have the Bonhoffens removed from the Pier. 

It's beautifully descriptive but with action too. 

She stepped away from Argus' office and walked past the amusement arcade with its painted castle facade.  She noticed the flags were frayed and torn. One of the turrets had been worn through and was now home for a family of pigeons. Her eyes drifted to the merry-go-round. The noses of the horses were chipped, and so were their bellies where shoes had kicked into them from the stirrups. 

This book was published as The Ghosts of Gribblesea Pier in the US. I think The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen to be a vastly superior name. I'm not sure that I would have wanted to read it so much if I had known that this was a "ghost story". I feel that I outgrew ghost stories some decades ago. Having said that I ended up really enjoying it all even the ghostly aspects of the story. 

This is my first read of Deborah Abela, but I know it won't be my last. I'm very much looking forward to reading more of her work. 

Teachers notes for The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

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Hating Alison Ashley

Hating Alison Ashley is an iconic Australian childrens book. Released in 1984 I've only been aware of it for the past few years I guess. Erica Yurken is in Year Six at Barringa East Primary School. She's witty and a bit of a hypochondriac. 

The sick bay was my favourite place at school. It was exciting to lie hunched up and pretend that your appendix had burst when kids stickybeaked in through the window. And also, it was the best place in the school for gaining classified information. 

Barringa East is a disadvantaged area in suburban Melbourne.  So it's a bit of a surprise when Alison Ashley shows up one day because of a change in school zoning. Alison Ashley is a bit too perfect, and she's perfectly easy to hate. 

She was wearing this soft blue skirt, and a shirt the colour of cream, with not a crease or a wrinkle nor a loose thread anywhere. Expensive-looking plaited leather sandals. Long, pale gold hair caught back with a filigree clasp, and tiny gold roses, the size of shirt buttons, in her ears. Her skin was tanned and each cheek had a deep, soft dimple. Huge navy blue eyes, the colour of ink, fringed with dark curly lashes. She was the most beautiful, graceful, elegant thing you ever saw in your life. 

So easy to hate. Then she opens her mouth.

She turned out to have a reading age of 14.6 years. She knew all the rivers of northern New South Wales in perfect order. 

Erica is used to feeling pretty superior at Barringa East, and she doesn't like the feelings that Alison Ashley stirs in her. 

My feelings of inferiority swelled into dislike, and the dislike into absolute loathing. 

All by lunchtime! Hating Alison Ashley is just as funny as when it was written more than 30 years ago. It's truly deserving of classic status. I believe that Hating Alison Ashley is still taught in Australia high schools, which is a bit of a shame, not that it shouldn't be still taught, it should. But I think it's much more suitable to kids in upper primary. 

I'm really glad to have read Hating Alison Ashley at long last. Sure, some of the references may be a little dated now, but it's really very few, and over thirty years down the track but the characters are timeless- we all went to school with Barry Hollis, the school bully, and with Alison Ashley. We might even have been Erica Yurken.

Shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year 1985

There are play and movie versions of Hating Alison Ashley- I haven't seen either. 

305/1001

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Feeling Sorry for Celia

Sometimes you're just in the mood for an epistolary read, it's a form I really like but don't find them that often. The urge had been building for some time and I knew I had this book lying about the house, and happily I had enough free time in November to allow me to dig out Feeling Sorry for Celia. And I'm very glad I did.

Feeling Sorry for Celia is an epistolary novel with multiple points of view. Both favourite styles for me. 16 year old Elizabeth Clarry lives in the suburbs of North West Sydney with her Mum, and the two communicate a lot with notes. At times this reminded me of Life on the Refrigerator Door which I read a few years ago. Elizabeth's parents have separated and Christina's Mum is busy with work and her Thursday night poetry club. There are also notes in italics from groups such as The Association of Teenagers, The Society of Talented and Interesting Correspondents and COLD HARD TRUTH ASSOCIATION. It took me a while to work these out, but they're fun and often rather funny. 

Elizabeth goes to Ashbury, her local private school and her English teacher assigns the class a task to write to a student in the neighbouring public school, Brookfield, which is only a block away.

I'm only writing it because of Mr Botherit. He's our new English teacher and he seems really upset that the Art of Letter Writing is lost to the Internet generation, so he's going to rekindle the joy of the ENVELOPE. Next he's going to bring in a club and a sabre tooth tiger and rekindle the joy of the STONE AGE.

If Mr Botherit was upset by the Internet generation of 2000 just imagine how upset he would be by them now! Elizabeth's pen pal is Christina Kratovac. Naturally the girls talk about their families, their school, the boys who sit at the back of the bus. 

A VERY IMPORTANT THING for you to know is that I'm NOT a nice private school girl. And I know I'm not, cause most of the other girls here are like that. They take clarinet lessons and go to pony club. And they do this things whenever I'm talking to them where they blink their mascara'd lashes really quickly as if they need to take lots of little breaks from looking at me. 

They also talk about Elizabeth's best friend Celia who is a troubled soul and often prone to going missing, and indeed Celia is missing for much of the book. 

He also says there used to be a fairy princess girl, with long feathery blonde hair, who used to sit with you, only he hasn't seen her for ages. Is that Celia? He said he used to watch you two, and Celia always looked tiny and not-quite there, like she was just about to float through the bus window and fly away like a kite.

I really enjoyed Feeling Sorry for Celia and whizzed through it in just a few days- I think that's one of the reasons I really like epistolary novels- they are often super quick reads which is good for a slow, plodding reader like me.  I had thought that Feeling Sorry for Celia was a stand alone book when I read it. It was at the time it was written I think, but it came to be the first of four Ashbury/Brookfield books- though the four books are loosely connected and don't have to be read in order! As if. 

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Pagan's Crusade

I’ve been wanting to read Catherine Jinks for quite some time. I saw her talk at my local library quite a few years ago now- it must be more than 5- and have been keen to read her work ever since. A friend is a fan and especially enthusiastic. Although I must admit that this title in particular wasn't really in my sights, and the cover doesn’t really do it for me. 

Twelfth century Jerusalem is really an odd choice of setting for a kids book isn’t it? It did put me off a bit, but then I really wouldn’t want to read adult books covering this era either. It’s also not a setting or time that I know an awful lot about, and I presume most kids wouldn’t either. Although my copy published in 2000 shows it was reprinted 7 times since 1993, i.e. roughly once a year, so it must have been quite popular. 

So, our story starts with 16 year old Pagan Kidrouk joining up to become a squire with to Lord Roland Roucy de Bram, a Templar Knight. It’s clear that Pagan needs a job quickly and is in some sort of difficulty. Pagan describes himself as “godless mercenary garbage”. Pagan was raised in a monastery and has the rare skill of being literate and educated in a time when most people aren't and even Lord Roland himself cannot read. 

'My lord, with all respect, you shouldn't take my learning too seriously. It might look impressive to be able to read, but that's because you can't read yourself. When you learn to read, all you can do is read.'

The story is told in three parts, each quite separate really, occurring over several months in 1187, with the mounting threat of invasion by Saladin- a real historical person and event, but who I'd never heard of before, and it felt a little Lord of the Rings to me (not that I've read that, only watched the movies).

It's a peculiar feeling- like a cold wind on your heart. The fact that it's actually happened. It's actually happened. You live with it all your life, like a cloud on the horizon, and suddenly the storm is overhead. They've come at last, after all this time. The Infidels. Practically on the doorstep. And it's not a surprise. That's what's so awful. Everyone born here- we all knew they would come. Everyone born here is born waiting. 

Pagan's story is told in his first person rather modern voice, which I think I found a bit discordant to start with but by the middle of the book I was almost swept up in the story, and did find it quite humorous. I do really like Catherine Jinks’ descriptions. And this one of an alley is astonishing.

It’s like entering someone’s intestines. Narrow, slimy, smelling of dung. A cloud of flies settling like a cloak over your head and shoulders. Bones. Rats. Sludge from the nearby tannery. 

I ended up enjoying Pagan's Crusade much more than I expected to, settling in enough to find the humour, especially in the middle pages, and found it a bit evocative of Monty Python's Holy Grail in places. Pagan has an oft repeated refrain "Christ in a cream cheese sauce" which I found really odd. Would they have had cream cheese sauces in medieval Jerusalem? I suspect not. Indeed why call your main character Pagan? Would people have been called Pagan then? Did it mean something else? Catherine Jinks is very clever, it must mean something, and I'm just not clever enough to work it out. 

There came to be five books in the Pagan series, so these stories of medieval Jerusalem clearly had a broader appeal than I would have thought. I do think that if I read Pagan's Crusade again that I'd like it even more. I'm very glad to have dipped my toes in Catherine Jinks' work, and look forward to reading more of her in the future. 

302/1001

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