In the new issue I also have a piece on young adult adventure books. It includes five different titles:
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater
The Flight of the Silver Turtle by John Fardell
Journey to the Blue Moon by Rebecca Rupp
The Whitby Witches (book 1) by Robin Jarvis
The New Policeman involves a trip to faerie, a search for leaking time and some fabulous fiddle music. As these are all things I find fascinating, this book was a huge hit for me.
The Neddiad read so much like a 1930s movie that I could not put the thing down. It is insane - accept that right up front - and it moves at a breakneck pace. But the dialogue is what really won me over; it snaps and twists and is hard and witty like Howard Hawks' best work. Reluctant readers will eat it up.
The Flight of the Silver Turtle is all things James Bondish - but in a retro sort of way. It's a sequel, but stands alone just fine. There's plucky kids, nefarious spies, a flying septugenarian, an old mystery, more than one cool aircraft and a castle. How can you resist it?
Journey to the Blue Moon is also about lost time, but this one involves flying into outer space with a bunch of rats. There's also some slightly daffy witch types (reminded me of Mrs. Whatsit, etc from A Wrinkle in Time) and a major nasty villianess. It's very smartly written, lots of twists and turns and for those who worry about these things (I'm one of them), the dog turns out just fine.
Finally, The Whitby Witches. Here you've got a couple of orphaned foster kids including a boy who sees dead people, plus a castle, a ghost or crazy nun (not sure which), a graveyard, creatures from the sea not like you or me and more than one dead little old lady. It zips along and is clearly the set-up for more books in the series. This is the sort of title I would have loved around age 11, and I'm sure it will do quite well.
Oh - also check out Matthew Cheney's interview with Nick Mamatas on his new YA SF novel from Soft Skull, Under My Roof.
April 3
2007
05:37 PM
I have been waiting for The New Policeman. I recently read The Third Policeman - wholly different.