Tag Chicken House

Naeli and the Secret Song

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Naeli and the Secret Song
Jasbinder Bilan
Chicken House

Naeli’s passion and her greatest talent is playing her treasured violin given to her by her father. An English doctor, he returned from India to his homeland years back when his own father was seriously ill, since when nobody has heard from him. So when her mother dies from malaria, Naeli is left completely alone, except for her ayah, Vanya, and spends her time playing her violin and learning the sitar.. After a year, she still misses her mother every day,.

Then one day her ayah brings her an unsigned letter with the name Naeli Harwood on the envelope. Inside the envelope is some money, a ticket to travel to London and instructions to bring her violin. Has her father made contact at last? Determined to find out she knows she must undertake the three month long journey from Calcutta port. As she boards the ship, she encounters a boy who introduces himself as Jack; he’s on his way to his hated boarding school and soon becomes Naeli’s friend.

On arrival Naeli is hoping to get a carriage with Jack but she’s met by a man saying he’s been instructed to take her to a lodging house and she’s put to work in a pie shop. Eight days later Naeli is sent to her Uncle Daniel’s home and on his return he tells her that her father went missing some time back and is presumed dead. This uncle, she discovers, was the person who sent her the ticket and he’s extremely interested in her violin and even more interested in hearing her play it. over and over and over. until she can’t play any more. Naeli is very frightened by his behaviour; she flees her uncle’s home and goes to Westminster School to seek out Jack.

She persuades him to go with her to her ancestral home in Northumberland. What they discover there is almost unbelievably shocking but they’re determined to try and get sufficient evidence to prevent a terrible miscarriage of justice from prevailing. The problem is that it’s exceedingly dangerous especially when Uncle Daniel appears on the scene – a real-life adventure – as Jack says in the penultimate chapter of this utterly compelling historical novel.

With its themes of identity and grief, it will surely appeal to older readers with an interest in history, adventure or music; and with lots of personal connections with India, I absolutely loved it and read it in a single sitting.

Antigua De Fortune of the High Seas

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Antigua de Fortune of the High Seas
Anna Rainbow and Oli Hyatt, illustrated by Paola Escobar
Chicken House

A riveting read is this piratical adventure. It took me a while to get drawn in, but once caught in its tentacles, there was no getting out until the final page.

Antigua de Fortune (preferred name Tiggy) is high-born, has to wear pretty frocks and attend balls and dance with the ghastly Salvador, but her dreams are of adventure on the high seas. Despite Tiggy knowing that the high seas are not the place she should go, she’s drawn by thoughts of mermaids and pirates. In contrast her best friend, Marina, suspected daughter of a selkie, would love to be in Tiggy’s position.

Now with the approach of the Blood Moon, the age-old mystery of the Pirate King is once more in people’s minds. Has the wicked curse-wielding, boy stealer truly gone or does he lurk somewhere ready to strike and ruin the celebrations.

When the Bloodmoon celebrations are under way, the Pirate King strikes again, kidnapping all the boys including Tiggy’s younger brother. Tiggy decides it’s time now for her to seize her destiny, take to the ocean and along with Marina and a band of ex-pirates attempt to rescue the boys; something that must be achieved before the end of the Bloodmoon eclipse.

For sure this has a twisting, turning plot; forTiggy it’s a voyage of self discovery as well as a salt-tinged mystery to solve, teamwork and friendship being crucial to the success of the mission.

From two debuting authors of primary fiction, this is a cracking book.

Panda At The Door / An Escape in Time

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Panda At The Door
Sarah Horne
Chicken House

Pudding Panda is Edinburgh Zoo’s Star Attraction. She’s been happy with making the zoo visitors smile at her antics but now longs for a family of her own. Then she learns from keeper Gerald that she’s to be sent to China.
Maybe the answer is emulate her heroine Mary Poppins and become a nanny. Gerald thinks not, but then fails to lock Pudding’s cage …

Over on the other side of the city meanwhile, Callum is having a bad time: he’s being bullied; his parents are arguing – again – and performer Dad’s gone awol (something to do with bacon), plus, his little sister Tabby is intensely annoying. It’s Cal’s ninth birthday and all he receives is a measly certificate of adoption for a panda with instructions on how to email if there are any questions. Yes, he certainly has questions, the most pressing being, ‘when will I be happy again?’ Shortly after hitting SEND he falls asleep.

Next morning, DING DONG! who, or rather what, should be standing at the door? Not his missing father but a large panda offering to help. Mum’s reaction is to faint on the spot, but what better way to revive her than a timely spoonful of sugar?

Then the zoo puts out a message offering a huge reward for the safe return of a panda; everyone in the house, and even worse bully Mike Spiker, passing outside, hear the radio announcement. 

Now it’s not only Pudding in deep trouble, especially as Mike Spiker passes on the news to his dad. It’s up to Cal and his family to look after Pudding and keep her safe from the dastardly Spikers; but they also need to find Dad.

With mission ‘Going on a Dad Hunt’ successfully completed, can Pudding save the day? If she and Dad team up perhaps panda-monium can become a wonderfully clever panda-mime.

Dad’s punning predilection not withstanding, this is a thoroughly engaging story. Developed from an original idea from Vikki Anderson through the Big Idea Competition, the thought-provoking book was written and illustrated by Sarah Horne. The characterisation is great and the Mary Poppins quotes add to the fun.

An Escape in Time
Sally Nicholls, illustrated by Rachael Dean
Nosy Crow

By means of the mirror in their aunt’s hallway, brother and sister Alex and Ruby find themselves in a different historical period and in each story, have a task to perform before they can return to the present.

This their third time-slip adventure in this smashing series sees them plunged back to the Georgian era 1794/5, the time of the French Revolution and faced with having to help a far from happy French Countess escape the guillotine and find a safe home in Georgian England. 

But there’s a whole lot more that needs sorting out too in what proves to be a pretty chaotic situation that’s full of danger (not least for Ruby), romance (among the hymn books), heroics, the odd misunderstanding, not to mention some exceedingly uncomfortable Georgian underwear sans knickers though, if you’re female; oh! and plenty of stewed cucumbers!

As is characteristic of these Sally Nicholls stories, readers will enjoy plenty of humour, a pacy plot, a cast of highly colourful characters and a wealth of historical information along the way; not forgetting Rachael Dean’s smashing black and white illustrations.

Both books are great for KS2 either for solo reading or class read aloud.