SJ Bolton made me "Dead Scared". #ALLD13

Aylesbury Library is holding its first ever Literary Day on 30th November, which will be host to several great local authors. One of them is award-winning, bestselling crime-writer SJ Bolton...

Some crime novels are as cosy as tea and cake by the fireside; where everyone ends up happy (except for the deceased, presumably), and the world is a happy, bubbling place. And then there are crime novels that snare you like a fishhook to the mouth; where you know you shouldn't continue reading past dark, but you just can't put it down. Books where no one survives unscathed, and the world is a fearful place that ends ultimately in death.

Guess which sort of book SJ Bolton writes?

I was thirty pages into my first SJ Bolton book, when I realised I should have paid more heed to the title: Dead Scared. You know a writer is good when a table covered with pine cones is enough to give you goosebumps.

Dead Scared sees a surprising number of young, attractive and fragile Cambridge students committing suicide in a number of ghoulish and inventive ways. Student councillor and psychiatrist Evie Oliver is suspicious that these deaths are more than they appear - and she's also certain that someone keeps breaking into her house...

Lacey Flint, a young police officer with a past, is drafted in to pose undercover as a student so that she can observe the campus, and keep an eye out for any secretive suicide death cults. Of course we know that things don't go to plan - in fact, Bolton makes that plainly clear by her prologue: Lacey standing at the top of a building, dead-eyed and suicidal. And about to jump. The rest of the story is a countdown to this ending, and each new day in the story gives a heading of how many days to go to this cataclysmic event.

This is a modern gothic thriller that really knows how to deliver both the thrills and the chills in the story. It feels as if the story has been well-researched (hopefully not too deeply researched), and Bolton has a good understanding of the effects of the both media and social media. The characterisation is good - Lacey and Evie particularly have distinct, believable personalities and voices. Both characters had appeared in previous SJ Bolton novels: Lacey in Bolton's previous novel, Now You See Me (no magians here, but a Jack the Ripper copycat fixated on Lacey) , and Evie in Blood Harvest (a disturbing thriller revolving around the discovery of two children's bodies). Despite this, you don't have to have read the previous books to enjoy this one - and you learn Lacey and Evie's backstories as you get to know them better. As Evie pines for her lost love Harry, there's a good building romance between Lacey and her DI, Mark Joesbury, who's clearly in love with her. All the recurring characters are truly human, and are still dealing with the fallout from the earlier novels. 

But it's as a crime nasty where the book really stands out. The inventive suicides (I won't spoil them for you here, but one in particular was jaw-dropping), the pervading sense of fear and dread (I had to make sure my door was locked and the curtains were pulled tightly across the window!) and the clues, red herrings, and plot twists work really well. Of course, savvy crime readers watch out for the red herrings, but there was one clue in particular that I just couldn't decide upon. Some of the scene-setting descriptions were exceptionally creepy, and I couldn't help but repeat it out loud to my fellow library ninjas. Lines like, "The January chill comes drifting over the Fens and wraps itself across the city like a paedophile's hand round that of a small, unresisting child." And a villain who clings to her boyfriend "like a bad smell around rotting meat." The book opens with a graphic, detailed description of what happens when a person falls a long distance to their death, and despite the factual, deadpanned tone, I can imagine SJ Bolton cackling with glee as she wrote it. This is an author who knows how to scare people, and likes it.

If you don't like being scared, then keep away from this book. But if you like authors like Mark Billingham or Phil Rickman, or are on the lookout for a well-written, original thriller, then SJ Bolton is a must read.

I'm currently reading her latest novel, Like This, For Ever. It's about a serial killer targetting ten year old boys, and draining their blood. I don't think it's going to end well...

Don't forget, you can meet SJ Bolton at Aylesbury Library this Saturday (30th November), at 12.50, where she'll discuss the art of a good scare. Her Twitter page (@AuthorSJBolton) describes her as "Nice Author. Nasty Books. (Or should that be the other way round?)" I sure hope not, because if she's as nasty as her books, I don't think I'd survive meeting her!
Literally.

Ben's Best Picture Books of 2013!

There's just a few weeks to go until Christmas, and if you're wondering which Lego set to get the kids, or whether to buy a Furby instead, [helpful hint: don't] I'm offering my choices of the best picture books released this year, in case, y'know, you think they'd like a nice book too. My criteria - as a library ninja, and above all as a Dad - is that it looks good, it reads well, it's fun, and um, it's not overly long. (You know the sinking feeling you get at the kids' bedtime, when you're dying for a cup of tea, and they get out a rubbish, over-wordy picture book tome!) Oh, and they must be ones that stands up to re-reads, obviously. And preferably ones you can do good voices to!

My stand-out favourite is Cheese Belongs to You, by Alexis Deacon and Viviane Schwartz. It's a really simple book, that explains that This is Rat Law: CHEESE BELONGS TO YOU. But what if there's a bigger rat? Or a stronger rat? Or a faster rat? Then the cheese belongs to them. The calibre of rat keeps on escalating - but who will get the cheese in the end?

The text and pictures combine to make an erratic, messy marvel of a picture book. It's quirky. It's bonkers. And it's pitch perfect.

A close second is Very little Red Riding Hood, by Teresa Heapy and Sue Heap. Traditional retellings of fairy tales have gone out of fashion, but as this story shows, a twist done well is a good tale indeed! The major change here is Very little Red Riding Hood herself. No longer a meek, rather stupid girl, she is transformed into a bold, charismatic, irrepressible little girl, aged two or three. Foxy - I mean, the Big Bad Wolf - doesn't stand a chance. Great fun, and definitely one to read aloud.

You may think that my five year old boy liked Cheese Belongs to You with the squabbling rats, and my two year old girl liked Very Little Red Riding Hood, and not the other way round. But both children were really taken by both kids, and enthusiastically chose them multiple times.

Here are some other really good books from this year...

If you're looking for something charming, try these three:

The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara. If it's 'charming' you want, then you can't get better than Kazuno Kohara, whose books are ridiculously lovely. It features a library that's open every night for the woodland animals. The little librarian and her three owls will do whatever it takes to serve their borrowers. Sweet, and perfect for library lovers of all ages!


The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat by Julia Donaldson and Charlotte Voake. As the title suggests, this story continues the tale of the Owl and the Pussycat, told in the same verse structure as in Edward Lear's original. Julia Donaldson is a master of verse and rhyme, and takes Lear's mantle seamlessly. In my opinion, Charlotte Voake is at her best when illustrating animals, and the result of this collaboration is a really lovely book.

Abigail, by Catherine Rayner. Abigail the giraffe loves counting, but everything keeps moving! Will she ever be able to get her friends to do some counting with her? This is a really nice story - counting 1267 stars made my son go "Woh!" - but with Catherine Rayner, her gorgeous animal artwork is the true star.

If you're looking for something a bit raucous and anarchic, try these four:


Aunt Amelia, by Rebecca Cobb. Mum and Dad are away for the night, and the children are dismayed that Aunt Amelia is looking after them. She even has a list left by the parents: don't let the children get muddy, don't let them play by the pond. Only, Aunt Amelia is a crocodile, and the lists of Don'ts make good inspiration for a fun day out! Rebecca Cobb is a fairly new author/illustrator, but has already worked with some big names, such as Helen Dunmore, Richard Curtis, and Julia Donaldson, for last year's The Paper Dolls. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of her.

Ding Dong Gorilla, by Michelle Robinson and Leonie Lord. This absolute hoot of a story is a boy's explanation to his parents of the bad news about the pizza they ordered for dinner. Because when the doorbell  ding-donged, the boy answered it, but it wasn't the pizza - it was a gorilla! The gorilla causes chaos in the house, making mess after mess. The story builds up to the punch line about the bad news. The fun-filled pictures are a perfect match for the text, written very much in the boy's voice. Read it, but eat your pizza first.


Too Noisy! by Malachy Doyle and Ed Vere. Sam and his family are Bungles, and are always making loads of noise. But Sam, the middle child prefers to sit quietly and daydream and rhyme. So he wanders off into the woods. But when he can't find his way back, he realises that a bit of noise is a good thing! The text of the story is full of good noises for reading aloud, and Ed Vere's artwork is, as ever, great fun.

Primrose, by Alex T Smith. Primrose is a princess who wants to have fun; climb trees, play dressing-up, and bake cakes. But she's always told that "Princesses don't act like that!" The King and Queen don't know what to do with her, so they ask the prim, bossy Grandmama to help. Grandmama knows just how to fix things - but not in the way the King and Queen expect! This book has proven very popular with my daughter, in particular.

So there's my selection for the year - of course, there's still plenty of time to discover lots more lovely picture books! Have you discovered any good picture books this year? If so, let me know!

"Slated" by Teri Terry - British Dystopian Teen Fiction #ALLD13

On the 30th November, Aylesbury Library are having their first Literary Day, playing host to loads of great local authors. One of them is teen author - and ex-Princes Risborough librarian - Teri Terry...


Think of the modern trend of (often excellent) dystopian thrillers, you'll think of The Hunger Games (The film of part 2 - Catching Fire - is out in November). You may think of Divergent (film out next April), or Wool (film on its way). What you don't normally think of is the Buckinghamsire countryside! But that's what you get in Slated, the first of a trilogy by Bucks author Teri Terry. And yes, it's begun the long process of being made into a film, too.

Slated is set fifty years in the future, in a Britain where child and teen criminals have their memories wiped - slated - and are given a second chance in life. They have to relearn to walk, talk and re-adjust to life, and are given a new name and a new family. 'Slateds' are naive, trusting, incurious. They are happy, by and large - and a good thing too, because they wear levos, which monitor their mood, and causes blackouts and even death if the count drops too low.

A 16 year-old girl is slated, renamed Kyla, and given to a new family (in the Chiltern countryside). But Kyla finds she is not like other slateds - she has terrifying nightmares that may or may not be old memories. Extreme anger should make her black out, but it doesn't. And she begins to question things that mustn't be questioned. What happened in her old life? Why was she slated? These are dangerous questions, for the country is policed by the ominous Lorders, agents who bundle away undesirables, and the slightest misstep could see her "returned" - whatever that means.

Kyla soon finds that her questions are as dangerous to those around her as they are to herself. She quickly grows close to slated heartthrob Ben, and her indignant curiosity sparks changes his accepting nature, taking him on a path Kyla can't control.

The book is at its most intriguing when Kyla is trying to sort out the puzzle of her mind and her identity. The book explores muscle memory - her body knows how to do things she can't consciously do, and subconsciousness, and by the start of Fractured, it's sequel, it is dealing with something akin to multiple personality disorder. Kyla, herself, is fractured.

It's a lazy comparison to call Slated a British Hunger Games, and inaccurate for several reasons. The world of Slated is actually a lot more lifelike than most dystopias. It's governed by the Central Coalition (sound familiar?), and the changes within Britain are ones you could genuinely see become an issue, if we had the technology. But also, Slated is more of a slow burner than Hunger Games and the others. This isn't exactly a criticism, but it doesn't have the epic-ness of some other dystopian fiction. Not because it tries but fails, but because so much of the story is about what's going on within Kyla. Slated's climax is insular to Kyla - it will be intresting to see if they pull it off in the film (assuming - and hoping - it gets made). But be in no doubt, this is a great piece of fiction. It's clever, it's original, it's engaging. Slated sows the seeds for Fractured, which has more action in, and is bigger scale. And I can't wait to see how it all turns out when the final part of the trilogy, Shattered, is released next year.

And don't forget, you can meet the author Teri Terry as she discusses the books and the role of dystopian fiction in general at the Aylesbury Library Literary Day on 30th November!

"More Than This" - the new book by Patrick Ness

A teenage boy is alone in the wild sea. The furious waves drag him under, and the biting cold steals his strength away. Yet still he fights. Fights to live.

He dies.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that this is the second book I'm reviewing on The Library Ninja that's written by Patrick Ness. I wrote about The Knife of Never Letting Go some months ago. Maybe I'm just unimaginative! Well, before you start getting judgemental, let me tell you that I read the two other Chaos Walking books, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men, and I held back writing. Same with A Monster Calls, and with his recent adult novel The Crane Wife. I didn't want to repeat myself. (Yes, this is my sixth Patrick Ness book this year, and to be honest, I'm starting to develop something of a man-crush on him!) But More Than This is a new release, and it deserves to be written about. And it's quite simply a stunning piece of fiction.

More Than This begins with death, and moves on from there. Seth, a teenage boy, dies alone in the turbulent sea; his body dashed against the rocks, and his bones shattered. Some time later, he awakes in the worst place possible. Not Hell - not an obvious Hell, anyway - but the home of his childhood. Seth grew up in Britain until the age of ten, when the tragedy that tore his family apart - a tragedy that is somehow his fault - prompted them to uproot themselves and move to America. But this is not his neighbourhood as Seth remembers it: the entire area is deserted. Grass and weeds have grown as tall as him. There's a crater in the middle of the high street. What is this place? Is it his real childhood home, or something that his mind has somehow recreated? Is any of it real? And why are his dreams as vivid as real life? Could it be there was more to his life than he had ever fully realised?

Ness is a master of creativity, plot twists and ambiguity. You never know what's coming next. If you're worried this could be a heart-warming, life-affirming drama (perish the thought!), it's not. This isn't Mitch Albom, or Paulo Coelho, or It's a Wonderful Life. The story is painful and biting. Through Seth's dreams, we relive his life, and see what led to this point. But what is this point? Now THAT'S the question! Is there More Than This, and what is the 'more' that Seth has perhaps arrived at? The answer is one of the most breathtaking, boldest novels of the year.

What's With all the Royal Baby Books?

Prince George (the Baby of Britain) is being christened next week. Hurrah and huzzah! I'm assuming you've bought the plates, the £6,400 coin worth £5... the knitting pattern (from the author of the cult hit Knit Your Own Royal Wedding)...
After spending all that hard-earned dosh on royal knickknacks, why not read some royal baby books? You can always save the money, by borrowing them from the library!

Alexandra the Royal Baby Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Hot on the heels of topical bestseller Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy, 'Rainbow Magic' is back. Fairyland is so excited about the coming of the new royal baby, but when it goes missing, Alexandra recruits loyal fairy friends Rachel and Kirsty to help find the vanished tot. Hmmm, I wouldn't be 100% surprised if that pesky Jack Frost has something to do with it.

Now, for (in my opinion) two rather more charming royal baby books...

Baggy Brown and the Royal Baby by Mick Inkpen

Mick Inkpen, the creator of Wibbly Pig and Kipper, and the illustrator of Percy the Park Keeper, is practically picture book royalty himself, and any story by him is  him is a sure joy. This one was actually originally released five years ago, simply as Baggy Brown, but has been cunningly repackaged to fit with the birth of Prince George. It features the teddy Baggy Brown, who is born at Better Bears Ltd as the ultra-special edition teddy Number One, who is to be presented to Princess Sophie, the new Royal Baby of Thingland. But due to a mistake, a factory worker gives it to his son Alfie. When Alfie discovers the Number One bear has gone missing, he knows he has to return it - whatever it takes.

It's a fun, sweet novel that, in a turn of events, has Princess Sophie marry Alfie years later. Sophie - who is in fact a toddler for the bulk of this novel - is not the royal baby on the front cover. That's their son Jack. With that in mind, it has been slightly shoehorned in to fit the occasion, but it's still a warm, comfy fit.

The Royal Nappy by Nicholas Allan

In The Queen's Knickers, we learnt that the Queen has knickers for all sorts of occasions. If she has an important meeting, she'll have knickers to match. If her plane crashes, she's got the knickers to deal with it! The Royal Nappy (by the author of previously reviewed Heaven) is a sequel of sorts to The Queen's Knickers. Here, we discover all the different nappies that royal babies need, with the right flags for meeting heads of state, or super-slippery ones for skidding about Buckingham Palace when seeing his Great-Grandmother. We also learn that royal nappies are produced at the Royal Mint - and that sometimes, that can cause problems!

Unlike Baggy Brown's kingdom of Thingland, The Royal Nappy makes no attempt to hide the fact that this is Britain, and our royal family. The baby's father even looks like William! This is bonkers, laugh-out-loud funny, and as with The Queen's Knickers, it's one that's sure to make children laugh for a good many years to come. Of the royal baby books, this is my favourite, I think. I liked seeing the First World War royal baby in a pram-tank.

I haven't read any others, but The Royal Baby, by the Two Tonys (I mean, Tony Bradman and Little Princess creator, Tony Ross) is bound to be good. And Shhh! Don't Wake the Royal Baby! by Martha Mumford and Ada Grey looks fun too.

Is that enough royal baby books? It's not? Fine, have Ruby and the Royal Baby, from the Princess Katie's Kittens series, and have done with it!

Tea with Terry Pratchett

A couple of weeks ago, I had a cup of tea with Terry Pratchett at Beaconsfield Library.

OK, I'll come clean... there was Terry and me - and about a hundred other people there, all eagerly gathered to see one of the greatest names in modern British fantasy. "I can tell by your shining faces that you're fans", he quipped as he arrived on stage. For many of us there, Terry's link with Beaconsfield Library was familiar: he grew up in the area, and spent many happy hours as a child in the library. As a teenager, asked if he could work a few hours there every week in return for borrowing some extra, adult books (which normally wasn't allowed at the time). There was a very real sense that this was a homecoming for Terry, and he seemed quite moved to return to the library where he spent so much of his childhood. I actually wondered at one point if he was going to shed a tear.

He was accompanied onstage by his personal assistant Rob Wilkins, who gave Terry a hand every now and then, and provided several Terry-related anecdotes that they shared. It was fun seeing him wince every now and then when Terry said something gleefully un-PC, such as the time he charged at a bully at school and smashed his face in, or how the Luggage (one of Pratchett's barmiest creations - a travel chest on legs) was perhaps inspired by experimentation with marijuana! Well... who didn't suspect?


For a while now, Discworld has been an increasingly modern fantasy land. It's seen telegraphs, stamps and bank notes. The wizards at the Unseen University have built themselves a computer; albeit one made out of an ant colony, a mouse and a ram's skull. And Pratchett's next book, Raising Steam, features the Disc's first steam engine. We were lucky enough to hear a reading of part of it, much to the excitement of one eight year old train lover in particular!

Terry took questions from the audience, and I felt a rush of adrenaline as he answered mine. I asked him about his recent collaborations with sci-fi heavyweight Stephen Baxter in their Long Earth series. Inspired by Pratchett's short story The High Meggas written thirty years ago (and recently published in A Blink of the Screen), it explores the discovery of millions of parallel Earths, and mankind's attempts to travel them. I asked him what drew him back to the story after all that time, and why he worked with Baxter. He replied that he always thought the story had legs, but didn't feel he had the sci-fi chops to handle it. Fortunately, Baxter liked the story, and was happy to work with Pratchett. They must have enjoyed it - a second has just been released, with two more to follow. He then elaborated on his most famous working collaboration: working with  Neil Gaiman on Good Omens. Apparently Gaiman was reading through a draft of the novel, and laughed out loud at a passage, which he complemented Pratchett on. "But I didn't write that!" Terry said. "I thought you did."


We learnt who Pratchett's favourite Discworld character is: Tiffany Aching, the star of the relatively recent mini-series, featuring a young trainee witch, and her adopted protectors the Nac Mac Feegle (they're small, blue, violent and (seemingly) Scottish - like Smurfs crossed with Trainspotting). Tiffany's clever, brave, and carries the powerful pragmatism shared by Pratchett's other great characters, Granny Weatherwax and Sam Vimes. [Actually, my favourite Discworld line is hers. It's from Wintersmith, after her mentor has died: "Tiffany sat on a stump and cried a bit, because it needed to be done. Then she went and milked the goats, because someone had to do that too."]

Terry told us about the books that shaped him as a boy at the library. The Wind in the Willows and The Moomins were particular favourites, as well as the 19th and early 20th Century back catalogue of Punch magazine, which he says taught him everything he needed to know about being funny. He was dismayed to learn that the library no longer stocked Punch, but that wrong was righted when a lady from the audience returned to the library afterwards to donate her late husband's collection! What a lovely lady. Another very kind donation came from Terry himself. When asked which charity he wanted the proceeds from the ticket sales to go to, he replied that it was all to go back to Beaconsfield Library - all £600 odd of it!

Speaking to Rob afterwards, I asked about the mooted Ankh Morpork City Watch TV series, based on mini-series featuring the wonderful Sam Vimes. He confirmed that it is going ahead, and that it fills the crime-of-the-week format, rather than being a straight adaptation of one of the stories. There's a lot that's uncertain at th
e moment: they were on their way afterwards to London for a meeting with the TV studio about it. He couldn't tell me who they were, but said they'd announce it in October. It'll presumably be a year's wait at least before we can see it, but it'll be worth the wait, I've no doubt of that!

Of course, Terry Pratchett isn't just known for his writing anymore, sadly. He's the Famous Author With Alzheimer's, and an outspoken advocate of the right to die. I saw him speak eight years or so ago, a good couple of years before he was diagnosed, and it was truly sad to see the ways he's deteriorated in that time. He needed helping getting on the stage, and frequently took a little while to gather his thoughts before answering. But one thing was certainly clear: his mind is still sharp and gleaming as a knife, and as funny as a... really good joke. Pratchett's still writing one or two books every year, and by jingo, he's still got it. He hopes to return to Beaconsfield one day, and I hope he does too! In the meantime, I'll keep reading everything I can of his.

I'm a librarian because I'm passionate about books, particularly fiction, and particularly fantasy and children's fiction. That probably doesn't surprise you, seeing that I write this here blog. But Terry's... special. I'm not yet thirty, but he's been a part of my life for over twenty years! (Yes, longer than my wife has!) So what I'm trying to say is, Terry... thanks for the stories.

His newest book, The Long War, co-written with Stephen Baxter is out now, and his next Discworld book, Raising Steam is out on 7th November.

Great book for 6-11s... "The Abominators and My Panty Wanty Woos!"

I run a children's book club at my library, and recently, we were lucky enough to have a visit from a great up-and-coming children's author, Jenny Smith. She's the author of The Abominators, a really funny new series for 6-11 year olds that is perfect for fans of Horrid Henry or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The Abominators are a gang of the naughtiest children in school. There's Mucker, Boogster, Cheesy and Bob (she's the girl), and they love nothing more than to play practical jokes on the teachers, and cause mayhem throughout the school. But their lives are turned upside down by the new boy at school: Cecil Trumptington-Potts, the poshest - and nicest - boy they've ever had the misfortune to meet. He's polite, he's odd, and he wears frilly, girly "panty wanty woos"! Cecil immediately wants to befriend the gang, and will do anything to be allowed to join.

And that's just as well, because he can't join unless he completes three near-impossible challenges. The Abominators are sure he won't manage it, but they don't know Cecil...

The Abominators may get the series title (and fair enough, because it's a good name!), but they never really became fleshed out in the first book, to my mind. Each character is summed up in a couple of sentences, and don't really progress from there. But that's alright, because their main roles are to be foils for Cecil, as well as people for him to aspire to - and it's Cecil that the books belong to, because he truly is laugh-out-loud comedy gold. Cecil owns (and wrestles ) a pet bear named Boris. His father is a bankrupt aristocrat with the longest beard in the world. And the pair of them make the story zap with comic energy.

The stories are enriched by brilliant illustrations by Sam Hearn, whose work I can imagine adorning many more book series before too long. They're full of madcap humour of their own, and compliment the story perfectly.

I've only read the first story so far - The Abominators and my Panty Wanty Woos (I read it all in one day during my breaks at work, but my afternoon break ended with about five pages left! So at the very end of the day, when everyone else was just about to get their things ready, I snuck into the toilet so I could finish it! Thankfully no one saw my panty wanty woos!) - but the sequels, The Abominators in the Wild, and The Abominators and the Forces of Evil have also been released this year, and I'm looking forward to reading them. But what really matters is that several of the kids from Chatterbooks have read the series, and absolutely love them. Not just because they've met the author (though they're thrilled about that, too), but because the series is really REALLY FUNNY. Just in case you hadn't got the message.

Oh, and when she visited Chatterbooks, Jenny Smith made us randomly pick words to get a new name for ourselves. Mine was Silly Bongo Thunderpops.

You can find out more about Jenny Smith here, and read her own lovely comments about the Chatterbooks visit here.

Update: Having read the two sequels, I can very happily say that they both improve upon the already really good first novel. You get to know each of the Abominators much better, and the laughs don't stop! I'd thoroughly recommend them.