Guest Review: Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray

Today on The Book Zone, as part of U14s Only Month, we are joined by Jenni (aka @JuniperJungle on Twitter). Jenni runs the fab Juniper's Jungle blog, works with kids as  Beaver leader and is also currently studying to be a librarian. Jenni wanted to write a review about a book she had recently and loved. It is a book that has been sitting on my own TBR pile for some time, but always gets overlooked as like Jenni I have never been a fan of talking animal stories. Based on Jenni's glowing review, I may now have to overlook this general dislike and give Atticus Claw a chance. Thanks Jenni for taking the time to write this for us!

Meet Atticus Grammatticus Cattypus Claw, the world's greatest cat burglar. He's a tabby who spells trouble. And he's been hired by the fiendish Jimmy Magpie to steal all the jewels in Littleton-on-Sea.

Atticus needs a temporary home - preferably one with lots of sardines provided. But when he adopts Inspector Cheddar and his family, Atticus starts to wonder, is a life of crime really for him?

When I was a child I read pretty much anything, but with only a handful of exceptions stories with talking animals did not please me. I'm so pleased I've left this particular reading quirk behind - I wouldn't want to think I might have missed out on reading this gem of a book.

Atticus Claw Breaks the Law is full of talking animals, and mighty fine talking animals they are. Well, Atticus Claw is mighty fine, the dreadful gang of magpies are downright villains that reminded me of the hyenas in The Lion King on more than one occasion. Regardless of whether they're on the side of right or wrong the animal characters in this book are all well created, vivid characters. 

The humans in the book are equally strong creations, the Cheddar family with Mrs Tucker the tall-tale telling childminder leap off the page - I frequently found myself imagining that I was sitting at their kitchen table with them, watching the events of the story unfold. The humans that made me laugh the most though were Lord and Lady Tofty, a pair of Hyacinth Bucket style aristocrats. They are ludicrous and caricatureish but in the best possible way.

The main storyline of Atticus being hired by the magpies to act out their revenge on the humans is well thought out and believable, the motivations of the characters are clear and understandable even when the double crossing begins. This plays neatly with the sub plot lines of Inspector Cheddar wanting to prove himself as a policeman and Mrs Cheddar trying to organise a tv antiques valuation day - you can start to see how the plotlines are going to twist around one another and the eventual payoff is incredibly satisfying.


There is loads of humour in this book, in addition to the obvious laugh out loud moments there are many instances of wordplay that left me absolutely delighted. I think this book would work really well as a read aloud book, both to a group of children or on a more individual basis. It has broad appeal, there is something for everyone to enjoy, and best of all it's the first in a series so there are plenty more adventures to look forward to (there are 3 so far with more to come).

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

edit: Rather embarrassingly, this is now a day late, and I've only just realised. Thanks a million Blogger and your occasionally rubbish scheduling facility! However, it does give me the opportunity to say I totally loved The Day of the Doctor. I think that Steven Moffat got it exactly right (for a change) and it was the perfect celebration of a TV series I have been watching since I was five or six. And Tom Baker too as the Great Curator - genius! 

Anyway, what follows is the post I wrote to be posted on the day of the 50th Anniversary:

Happy Anniversary Doctor Who! You have been a part of my life for nigh on 36 years (give or take, and apart from the wilderness years following Michael Grade's and Jonathan Powell's assassination of the show, when my only fix was the few episodes I owned on VHS) and whilst occasionally you have disappointed, I have been more than happy to stick with you through thick and thin.

I'm really not sure how old I was when I first started watching Doctor Who as in those days there must have been many reruns on BBC2, as I have definite memories of watching episodes featuring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton (both first broadcast before I was born) and Jon Pertwee, whose episodes were first shown when I would have been too young to watch them or remember them. Tom Baker, then, was MY Doctor and I have very vivid memories of many of his episodes, probably starting around 1976 (I definitely remember watching and possibly being a little scared by The Talons of Weng-Chiang). After that, it was pretty much must-watch TV in our household for many years after (yes, even through the Bonnie Langford years *shudder*) and I have memories of scaring the bejesus out of my little brother on many occasions following the final episode of The Keeper of Traken, as my sister and I would sister and I would jump out on him from dark rooms at any given opportunity, repeating The Master's words: "A new body... at last!".

However, not only did I watch a lot of Doctor Who, as a 9+ year old I was an avid reader of the books that were published at the time by Target. I had quite a collection (usually picked up from jumble sales), and I thought they had been lost/given away long ago until I found a pile of them in a box in my mother's loft last year (a few of them are pictured above). I would also regularly borrow piles of them from my wonderful local libraries, and chain read them, ready to take them back a few weeks later in exchange for more. I decided to celebrate the 50th Anniversary in my own way this weekend, by watching a couple of my favourite Tom Baker episodes, as well as reading a couple of these books. 

Do they stand the test of time? Well they date pretty well: Doctor Who and the Cybermen only falls a little flat because when compared with the amazing books written for kids today it is all action and no characterisation, but then again that is  how Gerry Davis wrote his Doctor Who books - his intention was just to recapture the story that had taken place on screen. Next I turned to one of my all time favourite Doctor Who stories, both on TV and in print - Doctor Who and the Daemons - and it still does not disappoint. Next, I'm going to dive into another favourite - the aforementioned The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

If you have an aged  9+ child who loves Doctor Who then you could do a lot worse then get your hands on some of these books. = In 2012 BBC Books re-released a good number of these classic Doctor Who stories that featured the first four incarnations of The Doctor (I'm not sure if they re-released any of the Peter Davison era books). These can each be bought off Amazon for less than the price of a couple of pints, and would make excellent Christmas stocking presents for young fans. Doctor Who books, both classic and more recent, are especially great for fans who are reluctant readers, as they aren't too challenging, but are invariably action-packed, fun reads that Under 14s will love.

There are a huge number of Doctor Who books published these days, and I have to admit that I stopped reading these some years ago. However, I was very excited recently to receive a wonderful volume of short stories, published by Puffin to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. It's called Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories and features shorts by the likes of Malorie Blackman, Eoin Colfer, Philip Reeve, Alex Scarrow and Derek Landy, and I am really looking forward to reading it over the next few weeks, as I dive in between other books.

Before I sign off I just want to make a quick mention about a very special project that is taking place in the Uk at the moment called Target Who. Target Who are a group of lifelong Doctor Who fans who bought 11,000 Target Doctor Who books in an ebay auction. This wasn't 11,000 different titles, but actually multiple copies of 36 titles, including classics like Doctor Who and the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Cybermen, which had been discovered wrapped up in some warehouse or something. Target Who did not purchase the books for themselves - they bought them in order to send free copies out to schools around the country. You can read more about the project here. So far they have sent out more than 4000 books to school libraries, and in doing so have inspired individuals to get involved, and so others around the UK (and possibly the world) have been donating individual copies to school libraries, thus ensuring that these classic stories live on. You can follow their amazing work on their blog, and also follow them on twitter as @targetwho.

*** Competition: WIN a Signed Copy of The Windvale Sprites by Mackenzie Crook

edit (02/12/13): This competition is now closed. The winner is Jane Clarke.


On Sunday I posted a review of The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth by Mackenzie Crook. Now, thanks to the lovely people at Faber, you have the chance to win a signed first edition hardback of its predecessor - The Windvale Sprites - simply by filling in your details in the form below.

  

The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win a copy of the book. The deadline for entries is 7pm GMT Tuesday 26th November. This competition is open to UK residents only.

Contest open to UK residents only.
Neither the publisher or I will be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.
I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.