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BfK No. 123 - July 2000

Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Monkey Puzzle. Written in rhyme, this agreeable story has butterfly helping little monkey to find his mum. Scheffler’s distinctive, entertaining and strongly characterised illustrations make good use of the page as little monkey meets lots of jungle inhabitants before being reunited with his mum. Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books for their help in producing this July cover.

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Space Race

Sylvia Waugh
(Bodley Head Children's Books)
208pp, 978-0370326719, RRP £10.99, Hardcover
8-10 Junior/Middle
Buy "Space Race (Ormingat Trilogy)" on Amazon

The plot may sound familiar: father and son aliens come to Earth to observe us humans. But the way the story develops is very much Waugh's own. For we find Thomas and his father just at the moment their mission is supposed to end. At first 11 year-old Thomas, who has grown into his human shape and life, resists. Then, in a bizarre accident, he is separated from his father, and time is running out for them to find one another and reach their spacecraft. While Waugh does what is necessary to make the science fiction work, she is rather shakier on the contemporary street and school life of 11 year-olds. Never mind, the drama is in the race against time; and the emotional interest is in the relationship of father and son, their loyalties to one another, and their separate hopes and obligations. Here, Waugh is sure-footed, and will keep 8-10 year-olds on the edge of their seats, as their sympathies swing back and forth, and the outcome remains in doubt to the very end. It is a pity the book does not have a more exciting title and cover.

Reviewer: 
Clive Barnes
3
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