Paperbacks for children reviewed by Christine Madden and Orna Mulachy.
Waiting for Mermaids. Sue Welford, Oxford University Press, £4.99
Either I'm slipping, or Welford is a jolly good crafter of mysteries - some of her previous books fall into this category, so she's no ingenue - because I never saw the second plot twist coming. Jack has arrived at Summertown with his family for a late week's holiday in September to forget an unnamed great trauma. He encounters a enigmatic girl, Emma, who befriends him despite his misgivings about her cryptic manner and speech. Her story emerges when a lonely couple visit the beach, and end up bringing moral support and faith to Jack's parents. Welford's language is highly visual and poetic, and she manages to keep an undertone of tension thrumming through the entire narrative, creating a thoughtful and melancholy, but ultimately positive story for 10-12-year-olds about life and working through the gaping sadness it sometimes presents. CM
Eating Candyfloss Upside Down. Ed by Carousel Magazine, Puffin, £5.99
To celebrate its 25th issue since 1995, the magazine Carousel: the Guide to Children's Books has published a companion volume of commissioned short stories and poems on the subject of - guess what? - carousels and fairs. Give the subject to a clutch of acclaimed writers of children's fiction and poetry, such as Jacqueline Wilson, Dick King-Smith, Gillian Cross and Joan Aiken - paired with illustrators such as Quentin Blake, Anthony Browne, Helen Oxenbury, Tony Ross, Ruth and Ken Brown and many others - and a broad palette of styles, tones, and themes emerges. The work seems geared to a range of ages - some of the poems would appeal to younger readers, while some of the stories are cleverly tongue-in-cheek, and would have adults reading them on the sly. CM
The Giver. Lois Lowry, Collins Modern Classics, £5.99
It's one of the scariest places imaginable, the future, and countless writers have given us glimpses of what it might be like when the machines take over. The Giver is a truly gripping story of how it could all go horribly wrong. The Community is a place where people live in colourless, neutered harmony. Chosen couples are allocated children, while birth mothers are relegated to the factory line or the fields once they have delivered a certain number of newborns. Feelings are restricted to a narrow band that does not include love, and teenagers swallow pills to eliminate "stirrings" that might lead in that direction. Not so Jonas, who is chosen to guard the collective memories of the Community. Escaping won't be easy, but he's determined to find Elsewhere. His brave escape will keep readers of any age reading late into the night to get to the end of this superbly eerie story. OM
The Nature of the Beast. Janni Howker, Walker, £4.99
Be glad that you don't live in Haverston, a grim place somewhere in the north of England where the men have been let go from the local mill and the women have their hands full keeping families together on a dole cheque. There's worse to come though because out there on the moors there's a terrible beast that devours sheep, and precious hens on the allotments. Bill Coward, who lives with his dad and grandad, Chunder, sets out to photograph the beast so as to win a prize for the local paper but does anyone believe them when they get the picture? Of course not, which leaves Bill no choice but to set out alone with his air rifle to deal with the thing. In this old-fashioned adventure story with a modern twist, Howker uses the big black monster as a handy metaphor for the system that pulls the very heart out of a community by shutting down its sole industry. OM
The Call and Other Strange Stories. Robert Westall, Oxford University Press, £6.99
Just what would it be like to step back in time, long before the olden days your parents remember, right back into history? That's what happens to the boy in 'Uncle Otto at Denswick Park' one of the scalp-prickling tales in this collection. The past doesn't turn out to be a friendly place, and it seems as though the original occupants of the grand old mansion Denswick Park, don't like the brand new bungalows that have been built in its gardens - so they set the peacocks loose and start throwing garden statuary around. It all has something to do with Uncle Otto who's passionate about history. Winner of several prestigious childrens' fiction prizes Robert Westall rolls out several more slightly freakish characters, like the boy with strange eyes and mysterious powers, and the man who learns to read by deciphering tombstones. Unsettling stuff! OM
Triss. Brian Jacques, Puffin, £5.99
For worldwide fans of the Redwall books, the Happy Meal-version of Tolkien-like sagas taking place in fantasy medieval worlds, the arrival of the 15th volume is most welcome. This is the story of the brave and resourceful squirrelmaid Triss, who flees the evil kingdom of Riftgard with her friends, always a step ahead of the malevolent "pure ferrets". In another plot thread, Sagax and his companions from the badger kingdom of Salamandastron slip away in search of adventure. All converge at Redwall, where a new evil threatens the abbey. Jacques writes fluidly, completely comfortable with his fairy-tale world, making great use of poems and local dialect and vernacular. But is giving the bad guys German accents really accurate in 2003? To adapt to the times perhaps Jacques should give them Middle Eastern accents - or, more aptly, Texan ones. CM