Can you judge a book by its cover? Often, in children’s fiction. Set in the foothills of the Himalayas, Asha and the Spirit Bird (Chicken House) – the debut from Jasbinder Bilan, winner of her publisher’s children’s fiction competition in 2017 – hits you with lush tropical artwork: namaste, illustrator Aitch and designer Helen Crawford-White.
The words do justice to the pictures. If one of the gifts of fiction is to proffer unfamiliar footwear in which to walk a while, Bilan’s story is an eye-opening adventure, with one sandalled foot in atmospheric realism and a toe-hold in the mythical. To thwart the debt collector, plucky young Asha has to find her father, missing in the faraway city. As her desperation turns to real danger (policemen, blizzards, wolves) help is on hand in the form of the powerful lamagaia bird – known less atmospherically as the bearded vulture – and a green-eyed tiger. Could these be the spirits of Asha’s ancestors?
Equally saturated with sense-impressions is How High the Moon (Puffin), the debut by Karyn Parsons, who, having graced the small screen in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, now produces children’s animated films. In 1943, small-town South Carolina has its problems – segregation, distant war – but the creek is full of fish and the garden, corn; friends and church picnics abound.
All young Ella wants, though, is to be reunited with her jazz singer mother in Boston, and to quiz her about the father she has never met. Parsons is great at unfurling the pleasures of the freer northern states through biracial Ella’s eyes, but also adept at handling the subtleties of layered storytelling. Back in the south, meanwhile, one of Ella’s friends is framed for murdering two white girls. And might Ella’s father be closer at hand than she believes? The framing is a true story: 14-year-old George Stinney was the youngest person ever executed for murder in the US; in 2014, he was declared not to have had a fair trial.
Back in the present day, there are more tales of time travel and transformation. Agent turned scribe Sam Copeland is another debut novelist whose Charlie Changes Into a Chicken (Puffin) has been sold in 17 languages. Like Kafka’s man-roach Gregor Samsa and fly guy Jeff Goldblum before him, nine-year-old Charlie McGuffin transforms unexpectedly into a spider (and a pigeon and a rhino). It happens when he is in a flap, which he often is: the school play is nigh. Charlie’s quest to control his nerves is the best kind of silly: tricksily, Charlie never actually changes into a chicken (MacGuffin alert!). He does, though, turn into a “danger noodle – which, as everyone knows, is the actual scientific name for a snake”.
The Goldfish Boy author Lisa Thompson returns with The Day I Was Erased (Scholastic), one of two books here that plays with alternative futures. Anyone who has flounced about yelling “I wish I’d never been born!” might empathise with Maxwell, who leaves havoc in his wake. He’s not a great friend. His only confidant is an elderly neighbour whose memory isn’t what it used to be, and whose weird old trinkets aren’t what they seem, either. Maxwell’s misbehaviour sets off a chain of events that finds him never having been born. Getting back to normal entails resourcefulness and – crucially – empathy.
How awesome is Ross Welford? Consistently original, believable and filmable (please), the author of Time Travelling With a Hamster et al does it again with The Dog That Saved the World (HarperCollins) (just one caveat – the stereotypical shopkeeper). The promise and threat of science looms large here. Young Georgina’s life just gets more complicated: her new stepmum is allergic to the rescue dog Georgie loves. Then there’s the advanced VR rig she and her friend Ramzy are persuaded to test for an eccentric American IT renegade.
Things get very real when a deadly canine disease leaps from dogs to humans. To say more would spoil a terrific adventure, with all the suspense of a medical thriller.
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