Review: Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard

Darkus is miserable. His dad has disappeared, and now he is living next door to the most disgusting neighbours ever.

A giant beetle called Baxter comes to his rescue. But can the two solve the mystery of his dad’s disappearance, especially when links emerge to cruel Lucretia Cutter and her penchant for beetle jewellery? A coffee-mug mountain, home to a million insects, could provide the answer – if Darkus and Baxter are brave enough to find it …

 

Three was the magic number for Bob Dorough, Blind Melon and De La Soul, and it's also the magic number for these new style Book Zone reviews, as part of my seemingly endless quest for brevity when reviewing. So, here are three reasons to love Beetle Boy, by M.G. Leonard.

1. The Beetles

Forget the Fab Four*, this is more the fab four hundred thousand, as M.G. Leonard's debut, Beetle Boy, is overflowing with brilliant, benevolent beetles. Not since the hugely entertaining Joe's Apartment have so many incredible insects been used as a force for good in a fight against dastardly villains. I think M.G. Leonard must have had great fun researching this book: there are all kinds of species of cool and crazy Coleoptera, each bringing their own talents to help Darkus Cuttle fight the evil Lucretia Cutter and her minions. It's great to see insects as the good guys in a story!

2. Friendship

One of the reasons I love middle grade stories is the strong themes of friendship that many of them contain. Whether it's classics like Swallows and Amazons and The Famous Five, or more contemporary stories like the Harry Potter series and Robon Stevens' Wells & Wong Mysteries, friendship in stories is important for young readers. It helps kids understand that working with others towards a common goal is important, even if it isn't always easy, and how fun, happiness and strength can come from sharing with others. The friendships in Beetle Boy are both conventional (starting at a new school, Darkus makes friends with Virginia and Bertolt) and unconventional (boy makes friends with beetle).

3. The villains

Everybody loves a 'good' villain, and Beetle Boy has no shortage of them. From the truly heinous and inhuman Lucretia Cuttle to Darkus's bizarre odd-couple neighbours, Pickering and Humphrey and their somewhat unsanitary living habits, the villains in this story have just the right level of over-the-top-ness to make them easy to dislike and entertaining, without ever entering pantomime territory.

Beetle Boy isn't released until the beginning of March, so make note of this now and either pre-order it or set a reminder on your smart phone, as this is already a hot contender for my 2016 Books of the Year list. My thanks go to the fab people at Chicken House for sending me a copy of this little beauty.

*(yes, yes, I know they spelt their name differently)

Review: The Hidden World by Henry Chancellor

Tom is back at the Scatterhorn Museum, looking forward to spending some time there while his parents are away on one of their adventures. But an unexpected visitor called Pearl Smoot throws everything into disarray when she arrives with an incredible story. She says Tom's old enemy, Don Gervase Askary, has taken her father and brother - and what's more, she claims he has Tom's parents too. Together Tom and Pearl set out on a perilous journey to rescue their families - a journey that will take them in and out of time, to exotic foreign lands, and finally into the secret hidden world of Scarazand, stronghold of the terrifying Don Gervase himself....

If you have already read my musings on the first book in the Tom Scatterhorn trilogy ("The Museum's Secret") then you will be in no doubt that I was awaiting the sequel, "The Hidden World", with a large amount of excitement. I even made sure I had finished the book I was already reading so I could dive into this one as soon as it arrived on release day.

The synopsis had already created a feeling of heightened anticipation: new characters; more time travel; a new world with an exotic name; and, of course, the return of the sinister Don Gervase Askery and his creepy and increasingly psychotic daughter. I would like to be able to say that this anticipation was rewarded with a book equal to the first in the trilogy, but sadly I was left feeling slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong - it is certainly not a poor book and I would still strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first. I just felt that there was far too much crammed into the book, which is pretty hefty anyway at 500+ pages. This may cause easily distracted readers to give up rather than persevere through what is actually an exciting storyline overall.

Henry Chancellor obviously has an incredible imagination, and the lengths he goes to to provide vidid, detailed descriptions of the book's many eccentric characters and places like Scarazand and the creatures Tom and Pearl discover there really bring the story to life, but at the same time can lead to a feeling that sometimes the narrative is moving too slowly. So much so that I personally feel that this is more suitable for boys of 12+ which is a pity as the story would definitely have appeal to boys a couple of years younger.

Without giving too much away, the ending is darker than the previous book and leaves you with the promise of even more menace and adventure to come. If Henry Chancellor can just work at making the story move at a faster pace throught the middle section then the concluding book in this trilogy will certainly be a must-read. Personally, I am really looking forward to seeing how he brings the many strands of the story together to come to a final, satisfying conclusion.