Coming Soon: U14's Only Month

YA seems to get all of the press but there are so many great books for younger readers being published every month. I have therefore decided to dedicate my November blogging to books for U14s (aka Middle Grade and below). I will explain more in my first post of November, but I'm currently looking for any authors, publishers or book bloggers who might be interested in taking part.

Do you have a favourite U14 book from your childhood that you want to write about?

Fancy writing a review for a recently published book that you have loved?

Perhaps you might just want to tell the world why you love books for this age group?

Pretty much anything goes as long as it fits the theme. if you're interested please tweet me or email me at the usual address.

Review: Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz

An international contract killer has been given his orders. His next target is a fourteen-year-old spy ... Alex Rider. The man's name is Yassen Gregorovich. He knows Alex well. The two of them share a secret from the past. As he considers his next mission, Yassen remembers the forces that turned him from an ordinary schoolboy into a hired assassin. What is it that makes someone choose to do evil? What would it take to make them kill? This thrilling adventure will be the deadliest yet...

This story needs little introduction as it is the book that Alex Rider fans have been waiting for years to read. It is the origin story of one of the AR series' most interesting and enigmatic characters, Yassen Gregorovich, assassin for hire and ruthless, cold-blooded killer. The story is largely told in the first person, with Yassen reading through a journal he has kept for many years, to kill time before he sets out to complete his latest mission - the assassination of Alex Rider.

The story takes us from the violent events that led to Yassen (or Yasha as he was originally called) fleeing from his village, through his time enslaved to a Moscow gangster and then on to his creation as a tool of destruction for Scorpia. We are also treated to the long-awaited first meeting with Alex' father, John Rider, and the relationship that developed between them.

I genuinely feel that this is the best Anthony Horowitz book I have read to date. I was 29 when the first Alex Rider book, Stormbreaker, was published in 2000, but that didn't stop me from picking it up and absolutely loving it. If I'm honest, I have to credit Anthony Horowitz, along with JK Rowling, as being responsible for my current love of YA and children's literature, and therefore this blog. Reading the early Harry Potter books and Stormbreaker and its sequels, prompted me to seek out other books for this age group, and suddenly my reading, which up to this point had been largely adult, was changed for ever.

Like most readers and movie lovers I have always been a fan of a well-created, interesting villain, and I have held Yassen Gregorovich up there with the likes of Darth Vader, Voldemort, The Joker and Miss Trunchbull. There was always those big questions left unspoken at the end of Stormbreaker - why did Yassen not kill Alex? And why the salute as the helicopter flies off? Finally, in Russian Roulette, Anthony Horowitz provides the answers.

We all know that Horowitz is one of this country's greatest writers for young people, so what makes this book so special? Firstly, this must have been one of the hardest books for Anthony to write - not only was he writing a book for long time fans of Alex Rider, most of whom will be in their 20s at least by now, but he also had to make it appealing and suitable for young people who are at an age to pick up his books for the first time, kids who may not yet have discovered the Alex Rider books. He achieves this in two ways: as well as being the kind of fast-paced action story that we have come to expect from the main series, there is also a great depth to this story, allowing older readers to dwell on the many moral questions that are posed by Yassen's story. This book would make such a great class reader in schools, as it would encourage students to debate over the rights and wrongs of Yassen's actions, as he grows into the adult assassin. Sadly, there will be schools where this will never happen, and it may even get banned in some libraries and schools (more likely in the US than over here) as blinkered adults make uninformed judgements about it being a story that glorifies the life of a contract killer. It isn't and it doesn't. End of!

However, for me the book's greatest achievement is in the way the author allows the reader to empathise with Yassen, without ever feeling guilty for rooting for a character who will become a vicious killer. We actually find ourselves wanting him to succeed, as we are able to see every event, however seemingly minor at the time, that leads to the creation of the final product. This is a boy who faces horrors that no child should ever have to face, and in comparison Alex Rider's life seems one of privilege.

Last week we were incredibly fortunate to be able to welcome John Boyne into school. During his presentation to our Year 8 pupils, he mentioned in answer to a question that he felt that there was very little (if any) rubbish being published for young people these days, whereas there was a huge amount of rubbish being published for the adult market. I found myself nodding enthusiastically in agreement - if more adults picked up books like Russian Roulette, or one of the many other brilliant books I have read in 2013, they might find their reading diets shifting quickly to YA, just like mine did back in the early 2000s. Sadly though, especially I think amongst male adult readers, there is this stigma against being seen with a book written for teens, and they would much rather continue reading tosh written for the adult market.

My thanks go to the lovely people at Walker Books for sending me a copy of Russian Roulette.

*** News: Steve Cole to take on Young Bond.

This morning it has been announced that Steve Cole has been selected by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. to write four books in the Young Bond series. These books will pick up the story of the young James Bond where Charlie Higson's By Royal Command left off, and I am more than a lot excited about this news. Steve Cole is one of this country's hardest working and most prolific writers for children and I think the future of Young Bond is in a very safe pair of hands.

The full press release is pasted below for your delectation:

‘A thrilling privilege and an exciting challenge.’ Steve Cole to take on Young Bond.

Random House Children’s Publishers will publish a new wave of authorized

Young Bond titles.

Random House Children’s Publishers (RHCP) are delighted to announce that Steve Cole has been selected by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd., the Fleming family-owned company, as the author of a new Young Bond series.

RHCP have acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in four titles from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown on behalf of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. and Curtis Brown will represent all foreign rights.

The author to accept this exciting mission is DOCTOR WHO and ASTROSAURS author, Steve Cole, has sold over three million copies of his RHCP books in the UK.

These new titles will pick up where Charlie Higson – the writer of the previous wave of Young Bond titles – left off and will follow teenage James in the aftermath of his expulsion from Eton. This time in Bond’s life has never been explored before and readers can expect all the thrills, action, glamour and tension that are the essential ingredients of a classic Bond adventure.

Cole’s first Young Bond novel will launch with a dynamic marketing and publicity campaign in Autumn 2014. It will be published in hardback on RHCP’s highly respected Jonathan Cape children’s imprint.  

Steve Cole says: ‘I first encountered Bond in print as a teenager, when I read From a View to a Kill. Fleming´s writing was so vivid and authentic, Bond and the world he inhabited seemed suddenly real to me – and the danger and glamour led me through book after book. It´s both a thrilling privilege and an exciting challenge now to be shaping a new era in the life of such an iconic character – with many firsts and surprises to come as James´s life in the dangerous 1930s develops.’

Philippa Dickinson, Managing Director of RHCP says, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Ian Fleming Publications to publish a new quartet of Young Bond adventures. The period when James Bond would have been a teenager was an extraordinary time – a perfect setting for thrilling storytelling for young adults.  Steve Cole is an exceptional storyteller with a wonderful ability to connect with his readers.  A winning combination.’

Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd., says, ‘Steve Cole is an imaginative and engaging author whose plots are addictive and gripping, so we were thrilled when he agreed to steer Young Bond through his mid-teen years. As publishers of Ian Fleming’s original Bond books and William Boyd’s new Bond continuation novel, SOLO, Random House are the perfect partner to work with us in bringing the next generation of Young Bond books to life. On behalf of Ian Fleming Publications and the Fleming family, I’d like to welcome Steve Cole to the exciting world of 007 – we can’t wait to see what scrapes James gets into next.’

www.ianfleming.com