Review: Perijee & Me by Ross Montgomery

When 11-year-old Caitlin discovers a shrimp-like alien creature on the shores of her island home, she takes responsibility for teaching it about the world. Mostly, this just involved stopping little Perijee from eating everything! Caitlin becomes increasingly close to her alien friend, treating him like a brother.

There's only one problem - Perijee won't stop growing.

Then the authorities try to hunt him down and through his fear, Perijee disappears and starts causing trouble. Caitlin must leave home and travel across the country to try and convince Perijee to stop destroying everything before it's too late.

Perijee & Me is Ross Montgomery's third book for young readers and yet again he has struck gold. His first two books, Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door and The Tornado Chasers, are among me favourite children's books of recent years, and this third offering has now made it on to that list as well. All three books have something very special about them that I find hard to describe. I have the same feelings when I try to describe John Boyne's The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brockett and Noah Barleywater Runs Away. They are contemporary fairy tales, with fantastic character studies, humour, dark fringes, and magical fantasy elements (without the actual magic) and the kind of stories that I think the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen might be creating if they were alive and writing in the 21st Century.

Perijee & Me is an enchanting story that will especially appeal to any reader, child or adult, who has ever felt lonely or who has felt that they have fallen short of the expectations of others. It is about Caitlin, a girl with no friends and 'absent' parents who stumbles across something special, in much the same way as Elliott does in E.T. In fact, there are elements of Perijee & Me that pay homage to Spielberg's masterpiece, as well as one of my all time favourite stories, Ted Hughes' The Iron Man. 

After a particularly violent storm, Caitlin discovers a strange creature lying close-to-death on the beach, surrounded by thousands of festering prawns that have been washed ashore. Her attempts to protect her new friend Perijee from what we would know as exploitation are sadly unsuccessful, and there's this moment where, like in E.T. the authorities arrive on the scene, but that's where the similarities end. Perijee is no meek and fragile creature, and the armed men who storm Caitlin's house very quickly discover that they are woefully unprepared. Can Caitlin defy all the odds and save Perijee from the world, and possibly more importantly, save the world from Perijee?

I hope that Perijee & Me brings Ross Montgomery the wider recognition that he so deserves. Despite his debut being shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book of the Year Award back in 2013, he still falls under the radar of many people who buy books for children, whilst in my opinion he should be up there with likes of John Boyne and Frank Cottrell Boyce. I expect there will be a lot of readers who, on finishing Perijee & Me, will venture out to get their hands on his previous two books.

My thanks go to the lovely people at Faber for sending me a copy of Perijee & Me to read.

Review: The Tornado Chasers by Ross Montgomery

When Owen Underwood's family move to Barrow, it's because there's nowhere safer in the Valleys - and safety is very important. Especially when the threat of tornadoes, and giant bears, is constant.

But in Barrow, safety is taken to extremes. Children have to wear bright yellow at all times and are never allowed outside except to go to school. How can Owen face an entire summer of that?

In secret, Owen and his friends form the Tornado Chasers. Their mission: to get as close to a Grade 5 tornado as possible. It's time for them to face their fears!

And then... And then...

I described Ross Montgomery's debut, Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door as being "one of the most bonkers books that I have read in ages", and it was one of those books that took me completely by surprise by how much I enjoyed it. Above everything else, it was also of the most original books for Middle Grade readers that I had read in a very long time. I was therefore very excited in deed when a copy of Ross's second book, The Tornado Chasers, arrived from those lovely people at Faber.

The Tornado Chasers is not a sequel to Ross' s debut: it is a standalone story, although the world its characters live in is almost as crazy as Alex's. However, the craziness is The Tornado Chasers exists not because of the world itself, but more because of the attitude of the adults that live there. These parents, who have all moved their families to the village of Barrow, are incredibly safety conscious and averse to their children putting themselves in any kind of risk. In fact, main character Owen  sleeps under his bed, which is wrapped in chicken wire and surrounded by sandbags, just in case a tornado ripped off the roof of the house. Oh yes, and he has to wear a helmet at all times, even indoors. Owen's parents aren't the only residents of Barrow who live in fear of tornadoes (and, rather bizarrely, bears): one of the local laws decrees that children go straight home from school to the safety of their homes. This, and other seemingly ridiculous rules, make life for the kids of Barrow a somewhat dull affair, and if they break any of the rules, however bonkers they seem, they may finds themselves inmates of the forbidding County Detention Centre.

As the new boy in town, who also happens to have had grandparents who were tornado chasers, Owen very quickly becomes the catalyst for a minor rebellion. He and a handful of his new friends decide that they are going to follow int he 'footsteps' of his grandparents, and so set off on a rule-defying adventure that is surreal, thought-provoking, heart-warming and exciting. Like Ross's debut, it is a story that almost defies description, and really has to be read with as little knowledge of the plot as possible, if one is to fully benefit from the experience.

I guess one could describe the situation in Barrow as being dystopian, but with a difference. if the Monty Python team were writing Middle Grade or YA books today then this is the kind of dystopia I would imagine them coming up with. The story is very funny in a Monty Python crazy kind of way, but it also has great depth to it, especially with regards to its characters, very few of whom turn out to be how they initially seem. In fact, the whole story is a little like this as the plot twists and turns almost as much as the tornadoes of the title, and then, just as you finally think you have got everything straight in your head, Ross Montgomery drops yet another bombshell of devious and devilish twistiness. The 'I-didn't-see-that-one-coming' ending in particular is a perfect topic for discussion, and it would be well worth parents reading this alongside their children so that it can be discussed and dissected afterwards.

Ross Montgomery has fast become one of my favourite current writers of middle grade fiction and I have found myself checking online in spare moments for news of any future release from him. I do not think there is any other writer out there like him, and the closest I can think of when I recommend this book to others is that if you enjoyed the characters and situations of Louis Sachar's Holes then there is a good chance that you will enjoy The Tornado Chasers. Just like Holes, it sucks you in with a clever beginning, and messes with your mind as the plot is gradually revealed to be something you were certainly not expecting. 

Review: Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door by Ross Montgomery

Alex Jennings is a boy with a problem.

His mum's sent him away to boarding school because his father, the most famously failed explorer in the history of the Cusp, has escaped from hospital again, yelling 'squiggles'.

Make that two problems.

Now the evil Davidus Kyte and all his henchmen are after Alex, convinced he alone knows the meaning of the word 'squiggles'.

OK, make that three -

Alex Jennings is a boy with a lot of problems. But with the help of a talking dog and a girl with unfeasibly sharp teeth, he just might have what it takes to cross the Forbidden Lands, escape the evil Davidus Kyte, and find out what lies beyond the Cusp . . .

 

I'm trying my hardest to come up with some way of describing this story without giving away anything. It is so brilliantly bonkers that I think it is best read with little prior knowledge or preconceptions. However, to keep things simple, it is a story about a boy with a famous father (now literally barking mad) who has had to suffer the subsequent humiliations of a private boarding school. However, Alex's world is a little different from our own. Cloisters Boarding School for Boys is located in an area called The Outskirts. Adjacent to this is the heavily fortified and militarised Cusp, which itself surrounds The Forbidden Land.

This rather dramatically named area is one of great mystery as only one person has ever been able to enter it for any kind of lengthy exploration. That person just happens to be Alex's father, and his mental health has seemingly deteriorated ever since he returned. Everyone else who enters The Forbidden Land gets the immediate and totally uncontrollable urge to run home, no matter how far it is or what/who is in the way. This book tells the story of Alex's attempts to find his again-missing father, and ultimately discover the secret that lies at the centre of The Forbidden Land.

 

 

This is one of the most bonkers books that I have read in ages. It is perfect for kids who have grown up loving the sheer craziness of Andy Stanton's Mr Gum, but are now ready for something a little more challenging. It does not have the insane vocabulary of a Mr Gum book, but the story is definitely just as mad. As I was reading it and thinking about writing my review I was considering likening it to the unpredictability and madness of the comedy of Monty Python, and in particular their Holy Grail film. However, although I think that is still a fair comparison, I would suggest the comedy in Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door is not always quite as off-the-wall as that, and now I can't help but think that its surrealism, humour and feeling of 'I have no idea what on earth is going to happen next' remind me very much of one of my all time favourite films - O Lucky Man. I appreciate that this will mean little to any children reading this review, and probably a good number of adults too.

This is a truly fun adventure story, set in a crazy fictional world, with a subtle humour running throughout that will have readers giggling quietly, and with plenty of sudden laugh-out-laugh moments. Just like a Roald Dahl or David Walliams book it has the prerequisite pantomime-esque villain - greedy, egotistical, borderline insane - but due to the bonkers nature of his actions his parts in the story never feel clichéd. As with books by those aforementioned two authors, the adults in the story are pretty useless and it is the actions of Alex and his new friend Martha that are generally needed to save the day. And just like these other  authors, Ross Montgomery subtly weaves many other themes into his wacky tale, such as family, loss, bullying, friendship and loyalty.

I think kids of 8 or 9+ will love the crazy nature of this story. As well as being a funny and thoroughly enjoyable read, it will also feed the 'What if..?' nature of their imaginations that they use when they are doing their own writing: What if Alex's Headmaster was actually nice? What if that dog could talk? What if..... I'll leave it there as I don't want to reveal too much.

My thanks go to the kind people at Faber for sending me a copy of Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door to read (great title, by the way - it's almost as bonkers as the story itself).