House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

I couldn’t help wondering if Diana Wynne Jones’s inspiration for this book stemmed from a wish to be like Charmain, waited on hand and foot because it is “not respectable” to do washing up, laundry or indeed any household chore. At first I envied Charmain (going off on her own to house sit for a wizard while he is away being cured of a mysterious and life-threatening illness) until, through her eyes, I saw the state of a house whose owner had been too ill too long to care for it—dirty dishes all over the place and bags of laundry that keep multiplying. And to make matters as bad as possible Wizard Norland’s kitchen has no taps! There is an explanation for this but I won’t go into it. It doesn’t need much imagination to work out what a nightmare lack of even cold running water would be for someone used to washing up, never mind a girl who has never done any. One thing that wasn’t explained (or did I miss it?) was why a wizard who only had to tap the side of the fireplace and say “breakfast” for breakfast to appear couldn’t use magic to clean up the resulting mess and to do his laundry. But to complain about this is to be finnicky. The answer is probably that magic is finite and you can’t use it in one area of life without having to do without it in others. In other words, there is always a price to pay; and the price would probably be higher for a wizard who is seriously ill.

DWJ doesn’t miss the opportunity to use one of her greatest talents—her ability to create wonderful animal characters. In House of Many Ways it’s a little dog called Waif. I won’t spoil things by telling any more about Waif except to say that he is bound to steal any reader’s heart. While this book, like Castle in the Air, is described as a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, it isn’t a true sequel but rather a book set in the same world as Howl’s Moving Castle, just like Castle in the Air. Howl and Sophie don’t appear until at least halfway through the book and fans of the true Howl need to be warned he spends most of the book in a form that Sophie herself finds very irritating.

Like Howl’s Moving Castle, House of Many Ways is a wittily entertaining, fast-moving and often convoluted romp. Those who don’t think it’s as good as Howl’s Moving Castle are probably wishing it was a genuine sequel. The biggest problem with this is that DWJ would be writing about adult characters, married and with their own children. Such characters (as the main protagonists anyway) seldom work well in books for young readers. But maybe one day she will do it. If anyone can pull off such a feat it is Diana Wynne Jones.

The Truth Sayer by Sally Prue

Nian is a boy with a destiny. Taken from his home and family to live in the House of Truth, he must practise his skills of mind-reading, weather lore and manipulation of matter. Once he has achieved mastery, he will become one of the elect, a Lord of Truth. There’s only one problem. Nian doesn’t want to become a Lord of Truth. He just wants to get away. But his only means of escape is to step into another world. To be precise, into Jacob’s front room. In Essex. Just before tea time. Nian doesn’t speak English, he doesn’t know what to do with a toaster, and he’s got no idea what those roaring lumps of metal speeding down the road are. The truth is, this is going to be interesting …

This series is bound to evoke comparisons with Harry Potter, which is both unfair and unhelpful. The truth is that this type of plot (in which child protagonists find they are someone of great importance with immense power and an obligation to save the world or destroy something evil) had been done (some might say done to death) long before Harry Potter came along. In Nian’s case there are countless worlds threatened with destruction. It was a delight for me to find another book by the author of Cold Tom. I looked forward immensely to reading it and wasn’t disappointed.

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Truth Sayer: March of the Owlmen by Sally Prue

This is the second book in Sally Prue’s series featuring Nian, the Truth Sayer. At the end of the first book the ancient power of the House of Truth had been swept away (largely through Nian’s own powers) and this is where book two starts. The owlmen are all the more terrifying for being something as simple as what looks at first like drawings on the walls—something akin to graffiti. Even Nian, for all his powers, can’t make the first one go away. This book is every bit as gripping as the first. Sally Prue manages to create a fairly complex plot, set in a richly detailed world, in a mere 300 pages of relatively large type. After reading these first two books in the series I can’t wait to get my hands on the next, which I believe is called Plague of Mondays and may be the last in the series.

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Skellig by David Almond

Michael steps into the crumbling garage. What is this thing beneath the spiders’ webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only person Michael can confide in is Mina. Together they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael’s world changes forever …

I really should have reviewed this book ages ago when I first read it. I won’t spoil it for any young reader who has yet to discover it by divulging anything about the plot except the above quote from the back cover. it’s a touching story that could have been sentimental to the point of sickliness, but David Almond’s prose is both delicate and restrained. And this is the only problem about the book. We aren’t told the exact age of the narrator but he seems fairly young and even a boy of 16 couldn’t write with the lyricism of David Almond. Stories like this, told in first person and demanding prose that has lyrical qualities, need to come from the protagonist when he is at least coming on for middle age. But that’s just my opinion and it didn’t particularly worry me that the narrator didn’t sound the age I thought he was—except perhaps in the opening page.

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Shadowdancers by Sally Odgers

I was dreaming of a dancing figure—twirling, floating, leaping—she seemed to be trainaing for the Olympics, like one of those incredible gymnasts. She had dark, cloudy hair and pale skin. That’s how I knew it was me.

Pirry of Midpoint, Pirimba Rave. Two girls, living in two different worlds. They share the same beauty, athleticism and daring.When Pirimba is catapulted into Pirry’s world, she is faced with danger and an impossible choice. It is only with the help of ShuMar that she can survive.

Sally Odgers deals very well with the theme of a young girl being suddenly turned into a paraplegic with no hope of recovering: the girl’s own feelings and reactions and those of the family who will have to look after her for the rest of her life. It’s all very realistic and it could, of course, be extremely harrowing for the reader. And if that was all there was to the book it almost certainly would be. But this is a fantasy …

I don’t know if Sally Odgers plans any sequels to Shadowdancers but there is plenty of material here for at least another book. There are only about 233 pages but they contain as much action and richness of detail as many longer books.

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