Tag Archives: YA book

The High House by Honor Arundel

Posted on by
2

The High House by Honor Arundel was published in 1967 and I suppose it was aimed at young teenage girls. Although Arundel was born in Wales she married a Scot and set a lot of her books in Scotland. In The High House she wastes absolutely no time in getting rid of those pesky parents, as all good children’s authors do. At the beginning we’re told that the parents have been killed in a car crash. Their children Emma and Richard have never even met their Aunt Patsy before as she lives in London and they live in Edinburgh. Then Aunt Laura and Uncle Edward arrive from Exeter. The aunts are very different from each other.

The children are given the option of splitting up and staying with an aunt each or being put into a ‘home’ together. They can’t bear the thought of an orphanage. Emma plumps for Aunt Patsy and moves to Edinburgh. Patsy is very artistic and is a freelance designer. It’s not long before Emma thinks she has chosen the wrong aunt. Patsy is very untidy and disorganised, money is always a problem, it’s feast or famine as Patsy is always waiting for payment on her latest project. But the letters that Emma gets from her brother Richard make it clear that he’s not enjoying life at all with Aunt Laura  who has a boring son that he has nothing in common with, and she’s the opposite from Patsy, too tidy and controlling.

When Emma starts school in Edinburgh she decides not to tell anyone about her parents, she can’t stand the thought of everyone being sorry for her. It’s a very different atmosphere from her school in England. She’s horrified when she realises that the pupils can get the belt (tawse) from the teachers as a punishment. When Emma stands up for another girl who has been belted by the maths teacher it leads to a change for the better in the relationship between aunt and niece.

This was a very quick read at just 124 pages but it’s enjoyable and as it’s over 50 years old it’s a piece of social history now. Kids don’t get the belt in Scottish schools nowadays for one thing.

 

 

Digging for Victory by Cathy Faulkner

Posted on by
3
Digging for Victory cover

Digging for Victory by Cathy Faulkner is set in Devon in 1941. Ralph Roberts has just got his papers and will be joining the RAF, Two-Six-Six squadron. His twelve year old sister Bonnie is excited about that, Ralph has always been her hero and she feels that she has to do something for the war effort too. Something more than just growing vegetables.

With Ralph’s bedroom now being empty it isn’t long before the family has a lodger allocated to them. Mr Fisher is in an RAF uniform, but he doesn’t seem to do anything but sit around in the house during the day. When Bonnie’s schoolfriends realise this they begin to bully Bonnie. Her lodger must be a shirker, or maybe even some sort of spy. Mr Fisher never speaks to anyone, so there’s nothing that Bonnie can say in his defense. Her contribution to the war effort doesn’t get any more exciting than trying to grow stuff and collecting rags, she feels such a failure.

Eventually Bonnie realises that Mr Fisher’s work is being done overnight, while most people are asleep. It is of course very important and dangerous work but it’s completely hush hush, so Bonnie still can’t tell her classmates about it. But she and Mr Fisher have become friends and he’s teaching her all about circuitry and electronics, which all helps in the coming emergency.

This book is aimed at 9-12 year olds, and it’s a great way of them learning about World War 2 and the Home Front.

I was lucky enough to be sent a digital copy of this book by the publisher Firefly via NetGalley. Thank you.

Digging for Victory is due to be published on the 4th of May.

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff

Posted on by
Reply

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff was first published in 1958 and the setting is the Bronze Age around the English South Downs, which to my Scottish mind should really be called Ups as they are hills.

This is quite a domestic tale really as there are no wars or long adventures, but it’s still an enjoyable read.

Drem is a young boy looking forward to getting his scarlet warrior cloak and his mother is busy weaving scarlet coloured fabric, but his grandfather is less than encouraging. The trouble is that Drem’s right arm is badly damaged and he isn’t able to use it at all. When Drem overhears his grandfather saying that Drem will only ever be any good for looking after the sheep, the young boy is devastated. Before becoming a warrior the young boys have to kill a wolf using a spear, it doesn’t seem likely for Drem, but when he reaches the right age he’s determined to join the others in The Boys’ House where they’ll be training to be warriors.

There’s a lot more to this book, including a wee bit of romance and as ever with Rosemary Sutcliff the writing is lovely. The book is aimed at older young people but is well worth reading as an adult.

The Hideaway by Pam Smy

Posted on by
2

In The Hideaway by Pam Smy teenager Billy runs away from home. He just can’t stand staying there any more, he loves his mother but can’t stand witnessing her abusive relationship with her partner Jeff who has become controlling and violent. When Jeff starts in on Billy’s mother again he is ready, he has a plan.

It’s pouring with rain but Billy leaves home to camp out in an old World War 2 pill box which has been completely camouflaged by ivy over the years. The pill box is in an old graveyard and he thinks he can stay there undetected for ages, but in no time an elderly man has detected his presence, and so begins a friendship between the two.

The tale is told from two points of view, that of Billy, and his mother. She has been totally isolated from her neighbours, so when it’s known that Billy is missing she’s surprised and strengthened by their willingess to help look for him.

My only gripe with this book is that it makes a complicated and dangerous situation seem easy to overcome, with the police being so supportive, something that is even nowadays fairly unlikely. But obviously Pam Smy wanted to write an uplifting and optimistic ending.

I read this one on my Kindle, but I suspect that an actual copy of the book would have been a much nicer experience as the illustrations don’t show up so well in that format I’m sure.

Thank you to Pavilion Books who sent me a digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

If you aren’t sure what a World War 2 pill box looks like the photo below will give you an idea. This derelict one was built near a railway line in Fife, obviously if the Nazis had managed to get on Scottish soil it would have been used to defend the railway line. When I took this photo it was being used by a farmer for storage. Otherwise it could quite easily have disappeared under ivy and brambles.

Pillbox

The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively – 20 Books of Summer

Posted on by
5
The House in Norham Gardens cover

This is my second book from my 20 Books of Summer list.

The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively was first published in 1974. The setting is Oxford, a large rambling house at number 40 Norham Gardens, where 14 year old Clare Mayfield lives with her two elderly aunts. The 19 rooms in the house are stuffed with artefacts, nothing has ever been thrown away and the attic even has trunks full of her great grandparents’ clothes. Clare’s parents are dead and she has more or less become the carer for her aunts who are becoming quite frail. In the past the aunts had taken a lead in Oxford academic society and they have high hopes for Clare’s future which seem well-founded as Clare is a good scholar. However when Clare finds a strangely painted tribal shield in the attic it somehow preys on her mind. It must have belonged to her great-grandfather who had been a famous anthropologist. A combination of the shield and the money worries of running the household on a shoestring culminate in her schoolwork going to pot.

The aunts had previously agreed to having a lodger to help pay the bills and Maureen adds quite a bit of humour to the book. But more money is required and a young student of anthropology from Uganda moves in to the house too. John Sempebwa becomes a good friend as Clare shows him around Oxford and they visit museums, one of which exhibits tribal art.

This is a really good read and considering it was written 46 years ago it was way ahead of the times as it deals with British colonialism and the plundering of often sacred objects from other countries and cultures, something that academics are now arguing about and often unwilling to give up.

This book is set in winter and if I had realised that I would probably have saved it to read in winter, near Christmas maybe. It seems that Oxford suffers freezing cold and snowy winters. Poor Clare was often battling against snow and ice while on her bike. It helped cool me down during our recent mini heatwave.

The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff – The 1965 Club

Posted on by
6

Participating in The 1965 Club encouraged me to read The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff which I’ve had in the house for at least a couple of years. I would have read it sooner if I had realised that the setting is mainly in the exact place that I grew up – albeit some 2000 years or so earlier than when I was stravaiging about the land around Dumbarton Rock or Theodosia as the Romans called it, and Are-Cluta which is an ancient name for Dumbarton although it was more widely known locally as Alclutha. There is a handy map and glossary in my 1967 reprint of the book.

The Romans are in control of most of Britain and Phaedrus is a young red haired gladiator hoping to win his freedom after spending seven years as a gladiator. He does gain his freedom but a drunken night of celebration leads him into big trouble and imprisonment again.

He’s confused when he’s unexpectedly sprung from prison by a group of strangers, they had spotted how similar in looks Phaedrus is to Midris, their missing king. Eventually they talk Phaedrus into taking the king’s place and to try to eject the usurperer Queen Liadhan from Are Cluta (Dumbarton). Phaedrus will have to make the rest of the tribe believe that he is really King Midris. The real king has been blinded by Liadhan to make sure that he can never be accepted as their king again and he’s earning a living as a leather worker in the south.

While travelling north of the Antonine Wall to Dumbarton Phaedrus works hard at learning the history of all of the tribe so that he won’t be discovered as a fake Midris, and eventually a brutal battle ensues.

As you would expect of Rosemary Sutcliff this book is beautifully written, she does take some liberties with the geography of the area but not many readers would realise that. I was particularly pleased that she included an unusual character in the shape of a young warrior who just happened to be in touch with his feminine side when it came to clothes and jewellery. He was a bit of a fashion icon but the inclusion of Conory seems to have riled up the fundamentalist religious types one of whom cut her Goodreads rating right down to one star!!! for what she kept calling ‘content’. Honestly there is nothing in the least bit sexual in this book. Some people just go around their lives scouring everything for something they can object to, and if it isn’t there then they make up something that will feed their homophobia. I suppose it makes them feel superior somehow.
But we all know better don’t we?!

I’ll give it four stars on Goodreads. If you want to know what Dumbarton Rock (Theodosius) looks like have a keek at some of the posts on this link here.

For a much more detailed review have a look at Helen’s @ She Reads Novels
I read this one for The 1965 Club.

1965 club