The Giraffe and The Shoe: a story

There was once a rather tiny giraffe.

Having failed to meet the basic requirement of being a giraffe, he felt small and ashamed.

It was for this reason that he hid in a shoe. It wasn't a particularly nice shoe. To be sure, it was made from leather - but the leather had become cracked. On windy days gusts would whistle through the cracks. George the giraffe did not appreciate this. He had never been musical. But the shoe was home to George.

Now George had been living in the shoe for around 12 hours when the sock arrived on the scene. The sock rudely barged into his home whilst George was combing his hair. It was all puffed up with self-importance and a foot and it crushed poor George.

Bruised and afraid, the small giraffe managed to squeeze his head out between two of the sock's toes. 

'HELP ME'

he bellowed at the top of his neck.

'HELP, HELP!'

He paused for breath and blew some fluff out of his nose. It seemed that no one would answer his cry of distress. He was going to have to take matters into his own hooves.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth wide and clamped his teeth down on the littlest toe. There followed the loudest, most inhumane scream George had ever heard. He quickly let go of the toe just as the sock exited the shoe, and all was quiet.

Without stopping to collect his crushed belongings, George hurriedly took his leave, scuttling away to safety behind a fridge.

Hostage Three by Nick Lake

'I close my eyes, and wait to be killed. My name is Amy Fields. But the men call me Hostage Three.'

Dragged along on a so-called trip of a lifetime, Amy Fields is the victim of her Dad's mid-life crisis. His workaholic tendencies have pushed the two of them apart ever since her mother's death, but when Amy intentionally flunks her last exam at school, he decides it's time to act. Sailing around the world for a year should give them plenty of quality time together, right? Only trouble is, there's some extra baggage abroad in the shape of her Dad's young girlfriend. Cringe!

Baring a touch of seasickness and an amorous captain, the trip is a snoozefest until their boat is attacked by pirates. Yes, pirates. The real life kind with AK-47s, GPS and multi-million pound random demands. Not a cutlass in sight. And just like that, the passengers become prisoners in their own luxury home.

You've been warned: this novel is difficult to put down. Nick Lake's talent for suspense make it all too easy to keep turning the pages. Amy is a refreshing heroine, with real flaws and a healthy dose of teenage angst. Her tempestuous relationship with her father adds richness to the tale, and her mother's story slowly unwinds as the novel progresses, allowing the reader to better understand Amy's mood swings.

The setting is unique and the plot inventive, but the real page-turning element comes from Amy's irresistible tension with the pirate Farouz. Predictable maybe, but the genuine tension and affection between them is brilliantly drawn. Whilst the feminist inside me groaned at this stereotypical romanticizing of the hostage situation, the romantic was cheering them on. What can I say, I'm a sucker for chemistry.

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones

Roddy Hyde lives in an alternative world called Blest. It's much like the UK, the road are terrible and there's no trains, but it's a slightly different shape. Oh, and magic exists. Which is fine, until the wrong people begin to manipulate it and Roddy and her small sidekick Grundo are the only ones to notice. As the magic of Blest begins to unravel and their loved ones start disappearing, Roddy and Grundo are forced to call in some help.

Nick Mallory is stuck on plain old earth but is desperate to escape and explore other worlds. After all that longing, when he's suddenly whisked away it feels like a dream. Within a few hours it turns nightmarish as he's threatened by a hugely powerful wizard, stalked by a Panther, chased by police and bothered by a starving goat. 

Then Nick meets Roddy. Which is good because she's a bit of a looker, but bad because she wants him to help her save Blest. Having hoped for some more experienced help, Roddy resigns herself to working alongside Nick. It would just really help matters if Nick could just work out how to get to Blest...

Diana Wynne Jones is such a talented storyteller that she immerses you in these alternative worlds from the word go. Nick and Roddy's monologues are distinct, but are woven together effortlessly as The Merlin Conspiracy progresses. It's a long novel for a children's book, but there's enough action to keep a keen reader enthralled. The main characters are cleverly drawn with authentic voices. They don't always get on, but they're not constantly at each others throats. It felt real to me, with the gentle tension of a long family holiday. It's just one of the ways in which Diana Wynne Jones' ambling pace pays off.

Nick, Roddy and their unlikely band of followers have a hard task ahead of them in saving Blest, with only a small handful of adults to help them. With good on their side, and The Merlin Conspiracy being a children's book, the reader has a sneaky suspicion that they'll succeed. Diana Wynne Jones skilfully keeps the suspense alive, despite avoiding the temptation to throw in the multiple, sudden plot changes of a Sophie McKenzie novel. The intelligently elaborate plot will charm adult and children magicians alike.

The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan

'The knife that killed me wasn't a special knife at all. It didn't have any runes on it. It's handle wasn't made of ivory or rhino horn, but cheap black plastic. It was a kitchen knife from Woolworths, and it's blade wobbled like a loose tooth. But it did the job'.

Paul Vanderman never set out to carry a knife. It doesn't suit him at all. But when the school tyrant Roth plucks him from anonymity and commands him to pocket one, Paul is unable to refuse. Roth's hypnotic influence over the entire school drags them all into an all out war with the neighbouring school, Temple Moor. In a world where adults are either absent or powerless, any resistance to Roth is going to have to come from a fellow pupil.

Step up, Shane. King of the alternative kids, Shane is a refreshing leader. Self-possessive and calm, he does his best to repair the damage Roth causes to the school. But his friendship isn't enough to save Paul from Roth's dark attraction. And when Shane is hospitalised it seems there's nothing to stop events hurtling towards Paul's apparent death in a knife fight.

I read this book with a teen book group. They're aged 13 and I was initially worried about their reactions to the knife scenes. Roth is a nasty piece of work and Anthony McGowan describes his twisted behaviour in graphic detail. The humiliations he dreams up for his enemies are downright horrific. Paul describes these with a helpless horror, compounding the sense that the events of the book have been predetermined.

Adults are noticeably either absent or useless in The Knife That Killed Me. Paul's parents barely surface from the TV and the teachers in the novel are either pathetic or terrifying. It's a bleak depiction of school life from Anthony McGowan. Hope is offered by Shane, and the well-meaning teacher Mr Boyle, but they can't combat Paul's secret fear that Roth's aggression lives on in himself.

Despite the building tension, The Knife That Killed Me seemed to falter at the very last hurdle- the ending. The general consensus from the teens was that it was cheesy and an anti-climax. It just didn't seem to sit with the rest of the book which, aside from the passages looking ahead to Paul's death, had been straightforward and authentic. Nevertheless, an intelligent and gripping drama on a topic that is too often ignored in fiction.

A Time for Silence by Thorne Moore

In a gloomy corner of Wales a wreck of a cottage holds the secrets of Sarah's family. Keen to renovate her Grandmother's old home as a weekend retreat, Sarah isn't prepared for what she will find. Her grandmother Gwen was the epitome of dutiful housewife, Gwen's husband John was the pride of the village choir. As Sarah brings the cottage back to life, she hopes to recreate a sense of this unknown family. A mother playing the piano, children dutifully gathered around her knees. A father returning home after a hard day's work in the fields.

As Gwen's voice begins to be woven through the narrative, we soon gather that Sarah's nostalgia grates awkwardly against the truth. The family's quaint cottage was the site of a murder. Sarah's grandfather was shot in his own home. But who was the murderer, and why were they never caught? And why was this kept secret from Sarah for so long? 

Desperate to reveal the truth and keen to avoid confronting her coming wedding, Sarah launches a full-scale investigation. In much the same way, Gwen willfully ignores the dark truths in her own home, determined to show a united, honourable front to the world. Can Sarah solve this mystery alone? And is she ready for what it will reveal?

A Time for Silence is a gripping family drama published by Honno Welsh Women's Press, which strives to promote local female writing. My copy was given to me by my godmother, as Thorne Moore is an old friend of hers. Aware of her natural bias, it took me a few weeks to begin reading. But after a few short chapters I was hooked by the simplicity of the women's voices. 

Thorne Moore captures the importance of the everyday details, conversations and daydreams that make up our lives. Piece by piece, she builds these women's lives until they sneak into our affections. This is especially true for Gwen, a character whom I have next to nothing in common with. The most chilling part of Thorne Moore's skill is the way that she represents evil. Far from a distant, unknowable and easily hated quality, evil exists in the everyday. By documenting the growth of this within a seemingly perfect family, Thorne Moore emulates real life. 

The good news is that she sets this all in the past, soothing the reader with the brightness of Sarah's home improvements. This foray into family research ultimately strengthens Sarah, allowing her to approve the future having learnt from the past. But for me, this didn't lessen the important truth within the novel: that evil is most corrosive when it's buried in everyday, seemingly normal lives.