Uncommon quality
These books are already more than popular enough, and lauded enough, not to need my recommendation. However, I promised to write about Jenifer Bell's delightful new series, The Uncommoners, as soon as I had caught up with this, its second incarnation. So . . .
The Crooked Sixpence
What is, apparently, intended as an eventual trilogy has already got off to an exciting start with one of the most enchanting and original new fantasy books for children recently published.
The core idea of the book, a situation where any number of everyday objects - spectacles, belts, lemon squeezers, even toilet brushes - have 'uncommon', magical properties, might seem initially a little unpromising. But Jennifer Bell develops the idea with such wildly imaginative flair, and builds around it such a rich and vivid world that it becomes not only credible, but totally captivating. Ivy Sparrow, together with her brother Seb, are drawn into this world when they find themselves in, Lundinor, a vast subterranean market, situated beneath the actual London, where uncommon objects are traded. The author conjures up different areas of this sprawling location quite beautifully and at the same time throws her protagonists into a helter-shelter of an adventure trying to locate magical objects, uncover secrets and effect rescues.
Jennifer Bell also peoples her underground world with a cast of fantastic and fascinating characters, and Ivy's developing relationship with her emigmatic outlaw 'friend' Valian is a real highlight. The Dirge, a shadowy cabal of dastardly villains, with the code names of deadly poisonous plants, adds electrifying darkness and tension to the narrative, without it ever becoming seriously disturbing. The particular focus of this this malevolence, Selena Grines, provides as entertainingly hateful a 'boo! hiss!' figure as any White Witch or Cruella De Vil. Ivy's quest through the many challenges, frights and escapes of this fantastic world drives the narrative engrossingly. And. as this first story unfolds, her gradual recognition of her own uncommon powers sets up much promise for future development. Subsequent startling discovery of a disturbing relationship between her own family and the Dirge add further layers of intrigue and foreboding.
Overall, then, the book combines a veritable riot of imaginative invention with a fantasy adventure of the most compelling kind.
The Smoking Hourglass
Despite a very dramatic opening, this second novel does initially have something of the feel of a 'Return To Lundinor'. Our protagonists, this time accompanied by their somewhat mysterious Granma, are pitched back into the world of Book 1 on what feels like a somewhat contrived pretext, whilst their parents are conveniently 'away'. A little too Narnia, perhaps? But, once they have arrived, this clever author quickly enough launches an exciting narrative to get away with it. This story is possibly slightly darker and more driven than the first. And it is utterly compelling. Jennifer Bell also develops the world of Lundinor itself by giving it a new 'Spring' look, which freshens it considerably. It also makes way for many more of the vivid descriptions, which hugely enrich her storytelling without ever seeming to slow it. Whilst Ivy and Seb, and their intriguing friend Valian, battle to save this special world, and perhaps their own, the author continues with her almost manic invention of 'uncommon' objects, characters and locations, strewing delights, laughs, surprises and shocks like confetti at a wedding. I can think of few writers to beat her in this respect. Playing 'spot the allusion' in respectof a variety of rhymes, tales and traditions, mostly London based, remains great fun too
Uncommon pleasure
The Uncommoners books are not profound literature. They are not even particularly deep as children's fiction goes. They do not provide great insight into people or situations, nor do they resonate powerfully with archetypal myth and legend. But it does not matter. They do not aim to be or to do any of these things. And if they sometimes have more imagination than logic then that does not matter either They are the kind of book which many children enjoy enormously, and understandably so. The prominance of both boy and girl characters and their grounding in contemporary life, in, for example, their ready use of mobile phones, means that there are plenty of inroads to identification for today's young readers. These reads have many of the qualities which made the seminal Enid Blyton so popular for earlier generations - particularly in titles like The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair - although they are infinitely better written. They have much of the same charm of such true classics as The Borrowers or Sylvia Waugh's The Mennyms, although combined here with the far greater energy of the fantasy quest. They take the enchantment of 'Diagon Alley' and turn it into a whole new world of its own. They are exciting, absorbing adventures, perfect entertainment reads. Children need and deserve books in which they can joyfully lose themselves. If they provide a little visceral thrill of behind-the-sofa fear as well all the better. Jenifer Bell's emerging trilogy delivers all of this in spades, feeding young minds with richness in both invention and language. Like the best children's books, they also celebrate simple, but vital, qualities like goodness, family and friendship in a completely magical way. For many children they will be at the heart of what reading for pleasure truly means and, I am sure, they will remain hugely popular for years to come.
Roll on Part 3.
