Review: The Tin Snail by Cameron McAllister

This is the story of a brave little car that helped to win a war.

In the 1940s world of elegant, luxury automobiles, the Tin Snail is no beauty. But it's facing a tough challenge: to carry a farmer and his wife, a flagon of wine and a tray of eggs across a bumpy field in a sleepy French village - without spilling a drop or cracking a shell.

And then an even bigger challenge comes along - staying hidden from an officer of the occupying Nazi army, who is bent on stealing the design for the enemy!

The Tin Snail tells the story of Angelo Fabrizzi, who at the start of the book is living in Paris with his Italian parents. Angelo's father is a car designer going through a drought period as far as inspiration is concerned, until one morning Angelo makes a comment that causes the metaphorical light bulb above his father's head to light up like a supernova. Unfortunately for the Fabrizzi family, the car's unveiling at the 1938 Paris Motor Show does not go as planned, and the fall out puts even more pressure on Angelo's parents' already strained marriage. His father decides he needs to get away, and he and Angelo head off to the countryside for some breathing space. Before long they are working on improving their design for a people's car, using the meagre resources available in the rural location.

Initially, the local villagers view the Fabrizzis with mistrust, feelings that escalate as the war in Europe starts and then escalates as the Nazis invade France, given that Italy has allied itself with Germany. However, work progresses on the car, but rumours of Fabrizzi's have reached the German High Command, and they descend on the village in search of any prototype they can steal away to deliver to their own car designers. What was just a simple engineering project in a rural French barn becomes a local symbol of Gallic honour and the struggle against the German invaders.

Earlier this year I attended another of Random House's brilliant blogger brunches. As far as my blogging and reading life is concerned these are always definitely up there as some of the highlights of my year, as RHCP always have a fab list of books to tell us about, and even more importantly the team who give up their Saturday morning to welcome us so warmly are among my very favourite book-world people. Like many of the publisher events I attend, the focus was more on YA than 'middle grade' books, but as a lover of MG there were two books in their presentation that totally grabbed my interest more than any others. The first was Django Wexler's brilliant The Forbidden Library, and the second was this little beauty.

I'm always on the look-out for books like this: well plotted middle grade stories with great characters and plenty of typically British humour (yes, it is set in France, with Italian and French characters, but the writing is undeniably British). The publishers make mention of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dad's Army in their blurb, which covers the car aspect, the WWII setting and, to a degree the comedy, but this book is much more than that (and I am a lover of both of those). The humour is never slapstick or farcical (so no allusions to 'Allo 'Allo here whatsoever): it is subtle, heartwarming and intelligent and readers will find themselves grinning from ear-to-ear without even realising it.

The story itself is a fabulously well-plotted character driven piece, that uses action set-pieces and the tension of the villagers' anti-German 'resistance' to add to keep the pace moving and readers turning pages. It is one of my favourite books of 2014 so far, and Cameron McAllister writes with a voice that is reminiscent of the likes of Frank Cottrell Boyce and David Walliams. In fact, much as I am a great lover of Walliams' stories and their TV adaptations, if I had to choose it would be The Tin Snail that I would much rather see adapted for TV at Christmas this year.

Another great plus about this book is the 'is it fact, or is it fiction?' feeling that you get when reading it. At no point in the narrative does the author mention Citroen or the 2CV, but as readers we know there is only one car that is being designed by Angelo and his father. In his author's afterword McCallister gives us a very brief explanation about the event that inspired him to write about this special car, and as a reader who knows nothing about the history and development of the real Citroen 2CV, I loved the fact that at no point was I able to distinguish between what was a product of the author's imagination and what was something rooted in historical fact. Young car lovers will probably do exactly what I did on finishing this book - read up on the real history behind the development of such an iconic car.

I can't finish this review without also mentioning the wonderful black and white illustrations of Sam Usher that accompany each chapter heading, and also the lovely overall effort that the publishers have put into packaging this book. The Tin Snail comes as a lovely hardback edition, sans dustwrapper, and makes for a very attractive and enticing present for a reader, young or old. Yes, this is one of those rare books that will delight readers from 8 up to 80 and beyond, and deserves to become a much read family favourite in the future. My thanks go to the ever-wonderful Lisa Mahoney at Random House for sending me a copy to read.    

Guest Post by Craig Simpson (author of the Special Operations series)

I am a huge fan of Craig Simpson's Special Operations series. I had the luxury of discovering the series three books in, and so could read them all in one go, although this did then leave me waiting impatiently for the fourth book. You can read my reviews of the first three books here, and the fourth book, Dead or Alive, here. I therefore jumped at the chance to host Craig for a guest post, especially given the subject of why boys continue to find war stories so thrilling.

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Scary times! Why stories about the Second World War remain so popular with boys.

Seventy years on, young readers are still avidly devouring stories set during WWII, and every year new titles are published to satisfy their insatiable appetites. As a writer of such novels, I think I know why this is, and it comes as no surprise to me, despite the fact that we all know how the war ended! And I think the reasons go deeper than simply boys liking stories about war, armies, aircraft etc…

Post-war children’s classics such as Goodnight Mister Tom, Nina Bowden’s Carrie’s War and Robert Westall’s The Machine Gunners & Blitz Cat tended to focus on the ‘war at home’ in Britain. In fact, it might be said that in the immediate post-war decades (to the 1980s), children’s literature largely steered clear of the worst aspects of war. It was as if Anne Frank’s diary had the role of giving that kind of insight. And, of course, it does, but only to a point. This cautious approach was understandable to a generation of adults who’d lived and fought, were weary of war, and desperate to protect their children from such horrors. But, I believe they missed an important point.

I grew up in this post-war period but was fortunate to hear stories first hand; one of my teachers had been in the RAF and flown Pathfinders. I also heard stories about family friends; one of my godmothers had worked for the French Resistance. Later on in life, I was privileged enough to meet the wonderful Miep Gies who famously helped the Frank family while they were in hiding and who rescued Anne’s diary from the Annex. They were remarkable people.

In recent times, the nature of wartime children’s literature has changed. With titles like Mal Peet’s Tamar, John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, James Holland’s Duty Calls series, Robert Muchamore’s Henderson’s Boys, and my own Resistance & Special Operations series (just to name a few), stories have reached out into the heart of the conflict. Interestingly, readers often say to me that what they like about my books is that my characters get involved with the war, that they’re not just innocent bystanders. This aspect is important to me too, because it’s easy to forget that a whole generation of children lived through Nazi occupation and witnessed all aspects of war, and many did indeed get involved with resisting. In response to my books, I’ve even received correspondence from older readers telling me stories of when, as teenagers, members of their family had worked for the resistance, risking their lives. They tell me this with immense and justifiable pride. Vindication, I think.

At their heart, the majority of WWII stories explore some of the most powerful and appealing themes in storytelling; personal fears, danger and sacrifice, the struggle of good versus evil, the defence of freedom, and testing ones courage to the limit. To be fair, this is also true of many books of other genres (science fiction, fantasy). In fact, pick any fiction book from a library shelf and I bet it explores at least one of these themes in some way. But, there are key differences in the case of stories set in WWII.

Firstly, it was a world that really existed, is still recognisable to us today, and is within living memory for some parents and grandparents. It was also all-out war on an unprecedented and almost unimaginable scale, not witnessed before or since. The very worst aspects of mankind’s nature were exposed in its horrors and, yet, in the midst of the darkness, the very best of mankind shone through and triumphed.

It’s the fact that such a time really existed that I find so captivating, thrilling, and often extremely scary, and I think readers do too. As a writer I have no need to create some fantasy world, or one of evil monsters or superheroes to have the reader on the edge of his or her seat and biting their nails – the real world back then will do nicely. Put bluntly, it was the mother of all wars – accounting for an estimated 55+ million lives in just six years. And, yet, I don’t think the appeal to readers comes from the scale of the conflict, rather the complete opposite.

It is the stories of individuals caught up in it, the soldier wading towards the beach on D-Day as bullets fly past him and his comrades fall, the Spitfire pilot in the midst of a soaring dogfight, the family in hiding or being arrested and carted off to a concentration camp, the resistance fighter risking all when surrounded by the enemy, or the spy or secret agent on a dangerous mission. Through the eyes of such people (characters) the true nature of war is exposed. The choices and decisions they are forced to make challenge our very moral fibre, questioning our beliefs about who we are and what mankind is capable of. And, despite the fact most of us find war abhorrent, we also know that it can be justified – there are simply some things that are worth fighting for. It is exciting and very, very powerful stuff.

There’s a second element to the enduring popularity. It’s the fantastic ingenuity and courage of those involved. The war was a rich seam of astonishingly original ideas and rapid developments, of incredibly audacious missions and seemingly impossible achievements. Whether it was the evacuation of over 330,000 troops from Dunkirk, the brilliant minds of the code-breakers, the boffins who developed radar, the celebrated dam busters (Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb), or the brave citizens who became active members of resistance movements or who risked their lives while hiding people from arrest, all have truly jaw-dropping stories to tell. Some are well known, others have only recently been revealed as Top Secret documents are released or people have finally broken their silence. For a writer there is an almost endless source of inspiration. For the young reader there are plenty of thrills and spills as this most dangerous of times is brought back to life on the page.

C Simpson April 2012

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Huge thanks to Craig for taking the time to write this for The Book Zone. If your son is a reluctant reader then the Special Operations books could be the ones to get him hooked.

Review: Put Out The Light by Terry Deary

It is 1940 and war is underway. In Sheffield, England, a brother and sister set out to solve a mystery, brazenly believing that the air-raid signals are only false alarms. In Dachau, Germany, two boys come up with a bold plan to bring an end to the war and help a Polish prisoner escape. But when the bombs falling on Sheffield become a reality, and the German boys plan hurls them unwittingly into the midst of the action, the children's adventures swiftly become a terrifying fight to survive.

Terry Deary is a a writing god. His Horrible Histories books have turned so many children on to history, and I often wonder whether I might have been a little more successful in my O-Level history exam if those books had been my main source of information instead of the dreadfully boring teacher I have mentioned in a couple of previous posts. He is also the author of a host of fiction titles for young readers, and Put Out The Light is the latest of these (and, would you believe it, his 200th book). It was released at the beginning of September, on the 70th anniversary of the of the start of the Autumn 1940 Blitz.

Put Out The Light follows the lives of two different groups of children: in Sheffield we follow the story as narrated by young Billy Thomas, whilst in Dachau, Germany the story is told from the third person and focuses on Manfred and his friend Hansl. Billy is very much a typical schoolboy growing up in a difficult time, and the story starts off during the school summer holidays as he and his sister Sally run around their suburb of Sheffield as darkness falls, searching for excitement and making fun of the friendly Air Raid Precautions (ARP) warden as he does his rounds bellowing "Put out the light!" at any offending household. Meanwhile, over in Dachau, Manfred and Hansl are equally typical examples of boyhood, yet their society is even more difficult as they have to constantly think before they speak in order to toe the line of the ruling Nazi Party.

The book consists of a different storyline for each of the two key locations. In Sheffield the two siblings suspect that someone has been stealing small amounts of cash from many houses in the neighbourhood, whilst their residents are waiting safely in shelters whilst the air-raid sirens sound. This all becomes a big game for them, as they pretend to be like their favourite radio detectives, Sexton Blake and his assistant Paula Dane. Over in Dachau Manfred is playing a much more dangerous game as he is plotting to help a young Polish girl called Irena escape from the factory in which she is forced to work, and the concentration camp she must live in when she isn't working. Time is running out for Irena and her fellow Polish prisoners as it was around this time that the Nazis started killing more and more of the people they believed to be sub-human.

These two storylines are complemented by the narrative taking occasional short visits to focus on other secondary players, whose parts seem fairly unrelated at the beginning but become increasingly more important as the story progresses. We therefore witness the young RAF pilots on their training missions, or waiting with nervous and excited anticipation for the call that will have them scrambling in their Hurricanes to head off the Luftwaffe's bombers as they head towards Sheffield. We also spend some time with their German counterparts, the men who will just as bravely take to the skies, but theirs is an attack mission with the sole aim of dropping bombs on British factories and airfields. At no point do these excursions away from the two main storylines cause us to lose the thread of the overall plot - instead they give us an even greater sense of being there.

I found the two concurrent storylines very tense and engaging, although I have to admit that I preferred the Sheffield-based story. Part of this is because of the great voice in which this part of the story is told; Billy tells is exactly how it is, and his relationship with his sister is both funny and heart-warming. Sally is a great character - she is the typical annoying little sister whose mouth gets her and her brother into trouble time and time again - and she has most of the best lines in the book. I did struggle at times with Manfred's story as I found I had to suspend disbelief a little more and question whether a German boy would have risked all to save a Polish girl who he hardly knows. Despite this thought I still found their story very exciting and tense, and I think 9+ kids will love it. It is, after all, not supposed to be a historical documentary; it is a story about young people not really understanding the true nature of war and all the horrors it brings, and the courage and resilience they can show in these situations.

In my opinion, there aren't enough books set in this period published these days, although more recently we have seen the likes of John Boyne (The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas), Paul Dowswell (Auslander) and Craig Simpson (Special Operations series) addressing this situation and producing some excellent World War II stories for Young Adults. With Put Out The Light Terry Deary has produced a hugely enjoyable book for a slightly younger audience and I hope that other authors will continue this pleasing trend as it is such a fascinating time in which to set stories for young people, many of which will study this period at some point in their school careers.

Put Out The Light was published at the beginning of September and my thanks go to Annie Macfarlane at Yomego for sending me a copy to review. If you are a fan of Terry Deary, whether it be his fiction or his brilliant Horrible Histories books, then watch this space as I will soon be announcing a related competition with an incredible Terry Deary prize.