A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes

 

2002 (first published 1929)

fluent reader, upper primary, Key Stage 2, ages 9-11, Hughes Richard, historical,  classic, pirates,

A group of children are sent from Jamaica to England after a hurricane strikes and ruins their home.  But on the way their ship is captured by pirates. The children befriend the pirates who later hand them over to a passing steam ship with an elaborate story that the pirates actually rescued the children. The children collude with the pirates about this.   

I’m not a great fan of trigger warnings but I will post a few here. There are some very dark sides to this story.

·       One child remains missing.

·       The parents are wrongly informed that the children have died – and seem indifferent about this.

·       A girl murders a man.

·       The pirates make mild sexual advances to the children but the children don’t realise that’s what they are.

However, there are many arguments that children should be exposed to the darker side of life. There is a little of the style of the Lemony Snicket books in this. Of course it is a much earlier text.

Robert Hughes really captures the point of view of the children. However, he seems to be writing to an adult rather than another child.

The language is quite advanced, even for the fluent reader.

This may be a text that could lead to an interesting set of discussions. It will give the discerning young reader plenty to think about.

The text is blocked in the paperback version of the novel and uses a serif font and has difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s. It is 195 pages long.

Thursday’s Child by Noel Streatfeild

 

2020 (first published 1970)

Margaret Thursday was abandoned as a baby, on a Thursday. Hence her name. She was left with “three of everything “of the finest quality. Every year a bag of money is left for her upkeep – until one year it runs out. So, she is sent to an orphanage where she discovers that everything is run very badly. There she befriends two boys and their older sister who obtains work as a scullery maid in a nearby big house.

The Lord and Lady at the big house suspect that the orphanage is not well run. They arrange an intervention but it comes a little too late.

The older boy, Peter, has “borrowed” some books and Margaret fears that he will be arrested and imprisoned. With the help of Jem, one of the stable boys, Margaret and the two boys escape and go and live with Jem’s family on a canal boat for a while, before joining a travelling theatre company.

Lord Corkberry recognises the boys and reunites them and their sister Lavinia with their grandfather.  The grandfather offers a home to Margaret but she refuses. She must find her own way in life. There is a sequel.

  The text is blocked and uses a serif font and has difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s. It is 321 pages long.

The Horse and His Boy by C S Lewis

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 2007, first published 1954  

We have a familiar fairy tale trope here:  a prince is abducted and brought up by a poor family. Shasta meets talking horse Bree.  They set out for Narnia, meeting another talking horse Hwin and her rider, the runaway princess Aravis.

Eventually, Shasta is mistaken for the Prince Corin. Later we establish that Shasta is really Corin’s twin brother,  Cor.  Cor is the rightful heir to the throne and he is the one that was born first. Corin is full of fun and often takes unnecessary risks that land him in trouble. Cor is more cautious but less experienced in battle.

Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan are still kings and queens in Narnia.  Susan escapes marriage to Rabadash.  Lucy, Peter and Edmund are active in the battle with the Calormens. Susan waits behind at the castle. Is this a hint that she is already growing too grand for Narnia?

Aslan appears again.  He guides Shasta along a ledge and protects him from falling and he scratches Aravis’s back to show her how a slave girl who was punished because of her would feel.

The four children use a strange language. Are they as Susan will claim in a later novel just playing some sort of fantasy game about Narnia? Also a little odd, they  freely drink wine and sometimes stronger alcohol. There is much talk of marriage. Can we interpret this as an archetypal fairy tale?

The book is 240 pages long, in an adult font that is slightly larger than normal. The text is blocked.  There are some line drawings which illustrate.  There is a map at the beginning of the book.

The Last Battle by C S Lewis

 

 

 

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2009, first published 1956

In this novel we met all of the people from our world who have travelled to Narnia – except for Susan who dismisses  the earlier adventure a s child’s play and who is now more interested in stockings and lipstick. Narnia‘s world ends and they enter a new world. We should feel sorry for Susan. It seems that her brothers and sister have been killed in a train accident and gone to - heaven?

Before that happens, though, first Jill and Eustace, later joined by Peter, Edmund and Lucy, have to have a real adventure in the original Narnia. They have to a battle with the perhaps unfortunately named Darkies –a brown-skinned race who attack Narnia and try to deforest it.

The story starts off in a comic way.  A talking ape and his friend, a donkey, find a lion skin. The ape dresses the donkey in this and pretends it is Aslan and that Aslan approves of what he is doing with Narnia’s enemy.

There are echoes of Plato; the dwarves are enclosed in a stable and can’t see the wider world beyond the stable. Even when they are let out they still seem to be in the dark. They are offered splendid food but only understand it as basic roots and tasteless mush.  Fine wine becomes to them polluted water.

Adult readers, even Christian ones, may find some of the religious symbolism troubling.  Younger readers may find it puzzling.

Nevertheless this is an engaging adventure with an upbeat ending.

The book is 268 pages long, printed in blocked text in an adult font. There are several monochrome illustrations and maps at the beginning of the book.           

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S lewis

 

 

 

 

 

2009, first published 1951

Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan are evacuated during World War II and have to stay with a strange professor and his dour housekeeper Mrs Macready.  Lucy hides in the wardrobe one day when they are playing hide and seek and stumbles into Narnia. No one believes her - and even Edmund, who follow her there on the second visit, denies Narnia’s existence.  Mrs Macready takes visitors on tours of the house and the children have to keep out of tier way. They all hide in the wardrobe and end up in Narnia, where it is always winter but never Christmas.  However, once thy have been there a short while, the snow and ice begin to melt and Father Christmas arrives.

Edmund becomes involved with the witch who resembles Hans Christian Andresen’s snow queen. On his first visit he has eaten Turkish delight and is addicted.   The other three have to get him free from the witch’s power.

There is some Christian symbolism that is uncomfortable for some readers:  the lion Aslan gives his life that Edmund might be saved. He rises from the dead.

Also, much seems predetermined.  A prophecy says that Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve will rule Narnia. Have the four come to Narnia merely to fulfil that prophecy?  Clearly this is why the witch wants to be rid of them all.  She wishes to rule over Narnia.

This is the first book that C S Lewis wrote in the series though chronologically it is the second story. The language is somewhat fresher in this novel than in the others and though there is still an omniscient author he is slightly less intrusive than in subsequent texts.

The book is 208 pages long, in blocked text with an adult but slightly larger than normal font. It is accompanied by line drawings.    

The Magician’s Nephew by C S Lewis

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2008, first published 1955  

fluent reader,  ages 9-11,  upper primary, classic, Lewis C S, classic, Narnia, fantasy, Christian,  

Digory’s strange uncle works away in his attic study. As Digory plays with Polly, a neighbour, they find their way into his uncle’s study.  Uncle Andrew has been dabbling with magic. Digory and Polly get involved and find themselves being transported to other worlds.  Because of Digroy’s curiosity, they manage to wake a witch whom they accidentally take with them first to their own world and then to the birth of Narnia.

Digory wonders whether the magical properties of Narnia can help save his dying mother.  But Aslan points out to him that he has already brought evil to the land of Narnia.  Aslan sends him on a mission to recover a fruit that will grow into a tree that will protect Narnia to some extent. The witch tempts him to return to his own world and use the fruit on his mother.

He resists this temptation as he knows he has already caused some problems in Narnia. His reward is that he does get to take some fruit home which cures his mother but does not make her immortal as it has the witch.  She only eats a small slice of it.  

He plants the rest of the fruit in the garden.  The tree grows rapidly and seems to have a connection with Narnia.  One day, by the time he is quite an old man, it falls down in a storm.  He makes a wardrobe from it.  We all know which one!

Christian symbolism is here as in all of the Narnia stories.  We have a creation story.  There is the fight between good and evil.  Digory is tempted by the witch to use the fruit for his own purposes.   

Polly’s role is understated. She does support Digory throughout even though at times there is tension between them.     

The book is in blocked text and uses an adult font.  A few illustrations are peppered throughout it. Though this is the first Narnia story chronologically it was the fifth and penultimate to be written.  The language in this one is very engaging and C S Lewis really communicates with his reader.