Tag: #KeyStage2

The House of One Hundred Clocks by A.M. Howell

On By @f33lthesunIn Children KS2Leave a comment

It is 1905. After the death of her mother Helena finds herself moving to Cambridge with her father, a clock maker, and her precious parrot Orbit. Her father has accepted a job in the house of Mr Westcott. The job is a strange one, to keep all the clocks in the house ticking, never letting them stop and to never discuss any strange goings on. Helena finds this bizarre but then discovers other things that deepen her resolve to get to the bottom of the mystery. Just as she works out one puzzle, another one appears.

She befriends Florence, Mr Westcott’s daughter, and Stanley, the only servant left in the house. Together they try to work out why the clocks can never be allowed to stop, why Mr Westcott and his sister, Katherine, do daily clock inspections, what happened to Helena’s father’s predecessor, what is behind Katherine’s mysterious behaviour and why the clock keys disappear.

This is a well paced story with plenty of twists and turns. It also provides plenty of discussion points along the way, including the historical backdrop of the development of flight by the Wright Brothers.

The story has many themes, including loss, grief, superstitions, attitudes to females in engineering/academia at the time and that doing the wrong thing for whatever reason is not going to end well.

It is unusual to find end papers in paperback novels so I was excited to discover this book has them. Saara Söderlund has beautifully illustrated clues to different aspects of the story…clocks, books, hats and feathers.

Space Oddity by Christopher Edge

On By @f33lthesunIn Children KS2Leave a comment

Do you want Cosmic capers? UFOs? Alien Abductions? Killer Robots? Smelly aliens? Embarrassing dads? Zorbs?

Then this is the book for you.

It also has numerous references to Star Wars, Doctor Who and a certain David Bowie Song…”and there is nothing I can do”.

Space Oddity is a fast paced adventure. Jake thinks his dad is embarrassing (is that not the role of parents though?) and when asked at a dad and son space adventure weekend if he would rather have a boring dad or an out of this world dad, he really wants to say the first option. But then, when his dad is abducted, he will do anything to get him back.

This is a story about relationships, perception of others and how you feel others see you. It is also about songs and music but I won’t spoil that part.

There are, in my opinion, not enough sci-fi novels for children. This is an excellent entry to that category for 8+ to read on their own or, even better, to enjoy as a bedtime shared read.

Christopher Edge has also created an out of this world book soundtrack to go along with the book. You can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0gcbXz0uHZePqLDMermKyJ

Elsetime by Eve McDonnell

On By @f33lthesunIn Children KS2Leave a comment

Elsetime is a time travelling story that will suck you in. It is set in both 1864 and 1928, with a backdrop of the danger and loss of life possibilities of the Great Flood of London on 6th January 1928.

Needle is a creative mudlark who finds treasure and makes items from them for his mother to sell. He can “see” the history of the items, and their owners, when he holds them. His father has also mysteriously disappeared.

Glory is a 12 year old orphan, with only one hand, who pretends to be older to get work making fine items for the mean Mrs Quick, in Frippery & Fandangle Emporium, to help her sister pay the rent and buy food. Unfortunately they lack finesse and fall apart.

Neither know of the other’s existence (although they both know a helpful crow called Magpie/Dust) until Needle finds treasure that, being from the future, makes his hand burn. This leads him to discover a hag stone through which he finds he travels through time to a London that is both familiar but different.

Needle and Glory end up working together, thanks to the crow engineering their meeting, to try to save the people who they think will perish in the flood. This is difficult as no one seems ready or willing to listen to their wondrous tale.

We are taken on a journey with Needle and Glory through time as well as the development of their friendship, which is not without its misunderstandings, to a high octane conclusion on the night of the flood. A twist in the tail left me with lots to ponder once the reading was done.

I love endpapers in picture books and hardbacks. They are rarely found in paperbacks so it was a lovely surprise to find the crow illustrations by Holly Ovendon inside the cover. Holly’s cover and illustrations throughout the book are a joy.