Books for Christmas Part 3: Swish-capes, Mistakes, Misfits - Favourite Fiction for Younger Readers

We've had plenty of gift ideas for grown ups over the past few weeks (history and biography and some special editions) so this week is given over almost exclusively for children (although we have a sneaky suspicion that several of these books will end up in bigger people's stockings).

Some might argue we're living in a golden age of children's books at the moment, and this selection of our favourite books for younger readers aged 7-9 can only strengthen that argument. Here we go...

The Sleeper and The Spindle - Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell - £10.99

A thrillingly re-imagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of two of our absolute favourites, author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell - weaving together a sort-of Snow White and an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. Lavishly produced, packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink, this is a spectacular and magical gift. This is one of those books you have to come in and pick up to truly appreciate - so please do!

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories -Terry Pratchett - £12.99     

This collection of quirky, funny, delightful stories were started when Pratchett was just 17 years old, and give us an insight into the mind which went on to create the Discworld universe. With more than a hint of Roald Dahl about them, we learn the philosophy of the Joke Monks of Ben Drumlin, what happened when a very lazy Father Christmas goes to the job centre (on his days off), and the selfie-obsession of the Abominable Snowman. Great little stories for children, and a special treat for gown-up fans!

Goth Girl and The Fete Worse Than Death - Chris Riddell - £10.99

It's a Chris Riddell Christmas, with his second entry on our list. Preparations for the Ghastly-Gorm Garden Party and bake-off are under way. Celebrity cooks are arriving at the hall for the big event and, true to form, Maltravers, the indoor gamekeeper, is acting suspiciously. Elsewhere at Ghastly-Gorm Ada's wardrobe-dwelling lady's maid Marylebone has received a marriage proposal. Ada vows to aid the course of true love and find out what Maltravers is up to, but amidst all this activity, everyone, including her father, appears to have forgotten her birthday! The sequel to Goth Girl, and if anything even more witty, feisty and intelligent than the first book... 

Archie Greene and the Magician's Instruction - DD Everest - £9.99       

When Archie travels to Oxford to return a book to the Museum of Magical Miscellany, he meets family that he never knew he had - and discovers the world of the Flame Keepers, a community devoted to finding and preserving magical books. But the magical book under Archie's protection is extremely dangerous, and dark spirits hunt it out. With the help of his cousins, Archie must do everything he can to uncover the book's hidden powers and save the Flame Keepers from evil.

This is the first book in a thrilling fantasy adventure - and one of the most exciting debuts of the year. Find out much more about the author and book here when we took DD Everest to schools in Abingdon a few weeks ago...

Jet the Rescue Dog - David Long - £9.99       

Dogs, horses, cats (even birds, camels and elephants) have saved thousands of lives through instinct, intelligence, courage and devotion. Engaging, uplifting and deeply moving, these stories tell of these brave, silent heroes with sensitivity and gentle humour for readers age 8+. With black and white illustrations throughout.

Mysteries of Ravenstorm Island: The Lost Children - Gillian Philip - £5.99       

Molly and her brother Jack visit rich relatives on Ravenstorm Island, where eerie statues of children are dotted around the island. She's expected to be friends with her moody cousin, Arthur. But things become much worse when Jack disappears - and no one else on the island remembers he ever existed! Molly and Arthur must work together to save Jack.

Stinky & Jinks: My Hamster Is A Detective - Dave Lowe and Mark Chambers - £5.99

This is the sixth (and final) installment of the adventures of Ben and his hamster Jasper Stinkybottom (a creation of comic genius, trust us). This time Bruiser, Ben's neighbour's cat, goes missing, and at first Stinky the genius hamster is all ready to celebrate. But when Ben's sister's kitten, Delilah, disappears too, things start to look suspicious. It's time for tenacious twosome Stinky and Jinks to spring into action once more.

With sly literary references, nail-biting adventures and the world's most intelligent hamster, will appeal to even the most reluctant young reader (and you can learn more about author Dave Lowe when he flew halfway round the world to visit school children in Abingdon earlier this year!)

The Secrets of Flamant Castle: The Complete Adventures of Sword Girl and Friends - Frances Watts - £8.99

Fun and fantasy combine in this collection of six amusing stories about Tommy, a kitchen girl at Flamant Castle, who dreams of becoming a knight. When she is made the Keeper of the Blades, caring for all the swords in the castle armoury, it seems like her dream might come true. But trouble is never far away from Flamant Castle and the Keeper of the Blades is often in the thick of it. Luckily Tommy is both daring and curious, and has a cast of friends ready to help, including Lil the talking cat, the friendly Crocodiddle who lives in the castle moat and her best friend Jasper, the ghost of a young squire who inhabits one of the old swords.

Charlie Merrick's Misfits In Fouls Friends and Football - Dave Cousins - £5.99
Dave Cousins is a seriously funny author ('15 Days Without a Head' is a comic masterpiece for older readers) but this book for younger readers is the first in a new - and very funny - series about a football team (the inappropriately-named 'North Star Galaxy'). Charlie Merrick is the hapless team captain, and his long-suffering efforts to turn things around makes for a funny, gripping and surprisingly poignant story that appeals not just to football fans.

A three-wheel problem: Five questions with Dave Lowe and Jasper Stinkybottom

On Thursday, June 19, children's author Dave Lowe - author of the awesomely funny Stinky and Jinks books - flew halfway round the world to meet children at two Abingdon Primary Schools.

OK, that's not strictly true. Dave was born in Dudley in the West Midlands and grew up in England, so when we found out he was back in the country for two weeks visiting family, and given how we LOVE his books - including 'My Hamster Is A Genius' and 'My Hamster's Got Talent' - we convinced the publisher to get Dave to interrupt his family holiday, which he duly did...

Cue lots of hamster hilarity at Thomas Reade Primary and Carswell Primary Schools, as Dave explained how his own experience with pets (notably begging for a pet, and getting a baby brother instead) informed some of the ideas behind his books...

As a child, David did eventually get a hamster (after guinea pigs and various canaries with imaginative names) but of course Jasper Stinkybottom - the grumpy, brilliant hamster in Dave's books - is a fantasy of a child's perfect pet: a hamster who helps his owner Ben out of various maths-generated difficulties with his nemesis, teacher Beardy McCreedy. They are fun, funny and extremely well written - and Dave explained some of the secrets behind his writing style.

As Dave explained, writing a book is a doddle. He tends to get a first draft down pretty quickly (in fact, when asked how he writes, Dave explained that he just sits there with a pen and paper each day until *something* is written). The real problems come with the editing - working hard to polish, revise and find the right words. He will do 15-20 re-writes to make it more readable and funny, and it's very, very hard work.

As well as stories of his own pets, children were challenged on their own knowledge of animals, and whether they were "Smarter than a Hamster". We learned some incredible facts about whether or not tigers have striped skin, things you can tell about a whale involving earwax, and why you should never keep a penguin in a fridge...

The children were full of some great questions: what's the best thing about living in Australia (the weather) and to weight a whale, do you *really* use a 'Whale Weigh Station'?

Thanks very much to the amazing teachers at Carswell and particularly at Thomas Reade where classes had been reading the Stinky and Jinks books. Thanks to Dave - including his young family who must know the most about Abingdon for any Australian having spent a whole day in the town. And special thanks to Olivia from Templar who used her experience as a bookseller to keep the children entertained in the queue...

It was a fun, inspiring event - and of course we whisked Dave back to the shop to ask him a few more questions about his writing inspiration...

Five questions with . . . Dave Lowe's writing life

1.    What are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on a book for an older age-group at the moment, a fantasy-type of book for ages 8-11, a sort of Narnia type of book, which I'm about halfway through. But I'm also writing text for some children's picture books, so I'm sort of going older and younger from the Stinky and Jinks books!

2.    What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

(thinks hard) Well, if you are a budding writer, don't think of yourself as a budding writer, but instead as a *writer*. I always thought of myself as a writer, just one who had never been published. You work for years and years, getting better, so that when you are published there's a lot of 'back pay' for the work you already did! You payment is in the future, but there is no difference in terms of the product you produce - your writing.

3.    What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

The best thing is children's imaginations, they have amazing imaginations. And that means you don't have to pile adjectives and adverbs on top of each other, your reader will do the job for you, it all comes out of their brains. this doesn't work for adults, they need extra help - but for kids, they do the work for you, you just need to tell the story.

The worst thing is, once I've spent some time in a child's world, I find it quite hard to get back into the adult world. If you've just spent five hours with stupid jokes about pirates, it's kind of tough (and a bit of a shock) to have to, I don't know, go into a shop and talk to other adults.

4.    Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential before you can start work?

Well, I drink a lot of tea! I also write on very narrow, lined paper for my first draft. I'll then edit this, and usually write it out again entirely in longhand. After that, I'll get it onto computer. I always write out a draft at least once by hand - it takes ages! But for me, I feel that getting it onto computer feels like the book is in its final stage, so if I have stuff on the computer - and it's rubbish - I get very annoyed.

5.    What was your biggest breakthrough?

I wrote a book before the Stinky and Jinks books, and it was about a boy who discovered a book of his dead grandfathers's inventions, and he tries to replicate them. The joke was of course that his grandfather was a terrible inventor, and most of the inventions didn't work or ended up doing something totally opposite. That book didn't get published, but an agent took the time to write me a proper letter rather than a standard rejection (which I'd been getting up until that point). For me, it was a turning point, because although I wasn't taken on, it gave me encouragement that I was on the right path.

So I wrote another book, sent it out to ten UK agents, I get 3 or 4 really strong responses and one agent loved it. That was Madeline, my current agent, who is amazing.