What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Haruki Murakami
In my opinion, Murakami is one of the most incredible writers of our time, and / or he has an uniquely talented translator. The novels he writes are original, thought-provoking and haunting, often leaving you with more questions than answers (I recently read Kafka on the Shore as part of the OSA book club). But the fact that his stories often conclude with many lose ends is forgivable due to the brilliant of his style, his ability to portray life in a way like no other.
I hadn't realised that Murakami was such a keen long distance runner. This book accounts for his thoughts around his writing but mainly his running in a period of just over one year. He describes his progression into running and his development as an amateur athlete. Alongside this, Murakami explores some of the overlaps between being a runner and being a writer - the stamina and dedication needed, the prerequisites required, and the importance of seeing past the suffering and challenges.
It has taken me quite some time to read this book - in between various other novels and collections, I got stumped by the un-Murakami-ness of this Murakami memoir of sorts.
Water Born
Rachel Ward
Frome, Chicken House, 2014, 275p
I have been saving this book, knowing that I would love it. It is the sequel to The Drowning and comes from the author of Numbers, all of which I have devoured.
Nic is a passionate swimmer, but her overprotective father drives her a little mad. She can't understand his fear about water, especially when she starts to become more successful in the pool. Somehow, she finds the inner strength and focus needed to beat the best of the girls in her club; but as time goes on, the voice in her head starts to scare her.
This disembodied voice is not hers, and when she turns to her father, she finds more questions than answers. Amongst other things, she finds a list on her dad's computer of girls who look just like her who have drowned.
It has been some time since I read The Drowning, meaning I had forgotten some of the detail. What I love about Water Born is that it is a brilliant stand alone book, as well as a dramatic continuation of Ward's most recent series.
The story is haunting and modern, a perfect contemporary horror story. I can see similarities with the Numbers trilogy, but the genius Rachel Ward has found clever new ways of throwing the reader off the scent and allowing the mystery to unfold very gradually. All the action seems to happen within a few final pages, and you are gripped throughout.
I am definitely not patient enough to wait for the next one!
Charlie Merrick's Misfits
Dave Cousins
Oxford, OUP, 2014, 201p
With a new cohort of eager year 7s, I have been trying hard to keep up with the latest publications for boys of this age (girls typically find it much easier to find a book they enjoy). I saw Dave Cousins talk about his new books at the SLA Conference back in June, so when they were delivered last week, I got reading!
Charlie Merrick's football team is made up of those who stayed behind when all the good players moved to the rival team, Goldbridge Colts. When Jack starts at school, fresh from an academy club, North Star are eager to snap him up, so Charlie tells Jack he will put in a good word with his sister, Emily. Unfortunately, things do not go according to plan, and as Charlie struggles to convince Jack to stay, it seems the rest of his squad are falling apart.
Charlie isn't a flawless protagonist - in fact, as the novel goes on he realises that he has been responsible for the low morale in his team. He will put it before everything, even his friendships.
Cousins has created an elaborate and original format within this book, which included written passages, illustrations, scenes in comic book form, snippets of fantasy commentary, and match player cards detailing strengths and weaknesses of each character. Personally, I struggled to take everything in, with so much going on, but I can definitely see the value in the variety for the more reluctant readers.
I wish I had had this book during the World Cup, but I am glad there is still momentum in school for students to read in this area. And regardless, with humour and relatable characters, I know many junior boys who will love this.
Extra Time
Morris Gleitzman
London, Puffin, 2014, 224p
It is a rare thing for me to enjoy a football orientated book, but there is so much more to Extra Time than sport.
Matt and Bridie Sutherland are very close. Matt is a skilled soccer player, and Bridie acts as his manager - and she does a brilliant job! When Matt is spotted by an English club and given the chance of training with their academy, the siblings leave their parents behind and travel to London with their uncle for the opportunity of a lifetime. But at premiership level, football isn't as friendly as it is when played on the field by their house in Australia.
Bridie is a wonderful story-teller - very observant and intuitive, able to read exactly what her brother is thinking and to articulate his feelings to the reader. She has a huge heart, and it breaks when she sees Matt changing under the pressures of the academy training routines. In the practice sessions, the young players are expected to demonstrate their best skills, even if it involves hurting others on the pitch. Friendship with team mates seems impossible, but Bridie and her uncle are determined to rectify this.
I adore the relationship between Matt and Bridie in this novel - in fact, I am a little jealous - they are loving and honest through and through, and not in an annoying way! For Bridie, family and friends come first, and she is always seeking ways to make people happy, even if it proves to infuriate the mean-faced academy coaches.
In Extra Time, football is just a means through which Morris Gleitzman can demonstrate the importance of family and friendship. The sport element will attract many boys or reluctant readers, whilst the beautiful protagonist will appeal to young girls. At the end of the novel, you feel a better person for reading it, rediscovering the value of love.
Ghost Stadium
Tom Palmer
Edinburgh, Barrington Stoke, 2013, 88p
I could not put this book down. And that is not just because it is short and I knew I could read through it quickly - no, this book is haunting, action-packed and completely brilliant.
School's out, and Lucas, Irfan and Jack have a great plan for the first night of summer. They are going to break into the old Northface Stadium, abandoned since the closure of the club five years ago. They are going to break in and camp out, reliving the memories of the old football team. But years ago, someone lost his life within the stands, and now he is out to avenge his death.
I don't think I have ever read such a gripping Barrington Stoke novel - it is hardly recognisable as a dyslexia friendly book because it is so fast paced and scary. The chapters are short and succinct, but each ends with something that makes you want to turn to the next page. Every sentence is carefully crafted to entice you to read on, as you get deeper and deeper into the mystery and horror.
Although there are no illustrations, Ghost Stadium is very visual, drawing on classic Gothic tropes and common phobias - you feel like you are there with the boys, seeing strange things in the corners of your vision.
I cannot get enough of this new wave of engaging, high interest level fiction for reluctant and low ability readers. Now if only they could make some romances for my girls...
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Roy App
London, Franklin Watts, 2013, 47p
My Book Trust school library pack arrived in the post this week, and I have been plotting great things to do with the sets of six books after half term.
As well as the book club packs, this year's box included a selection of short read titles and several short story collections. Amongst them was this - the biography of Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Written in the style of a piece of fiction, this book outlines Ennis' rise to success from her first introduction to competitive athletics as a young teenager in Sheffield to her victory at the London 2013 Olympic Games.
Because of the nature of Ennis' story, some of the language in this text is a little complicated for less able readers, including the athletics related terminology. The book could have benefited from a glossary, though it does contain pictures to illustrate some of the content.
This biography is part of the Dream to Win series - tales of success from comtemporary heroes ti inspire young readers. In terms of style, Franklin Watts have hit the nail on the head. The font is adequately large and the sentences are short and well spread out. It is a formula you see in every one of their short reads, which make them ideal for our reluctant readers.
The Maze Runner
James Dashner
Frome, Chicken House, 2011, 371p
Hailed as a must-read for Hunger Games fans, The Maze Runner is currently being adapted into a movie franchise. When Thomas wakes up, he finds himself in a darkened lift, unsure who he is or where he is being elevated. When the lift stops, he is in the Glade, a microcosm of young boys abandoned to their own devices. They have set up a society in which everyone has a role and order is law.
But there is no way out. Beyond the Glade is the Maze - an ever-changing mess of alleyways infested by deadly creatures. For two years, Runners have mapped the Maze, searching for an escape, trying to avoid the Grievers: gooey mechanical monsters that scratch, sting and kill. Thomas can't remember anything about his life before, but he knows he wants to be a Runner.
This novel is sickeningly thrilling, all because of the horrendous Grievers. The Maze is rather difficult to visualise, but Dashner details the monsters like something from his nightmares. He is not afraid to be graphic in scenes of violence, with pain and death being a constant threat to this group of boys. And, with Thomas and his companions having few or no memories, the reader is constantly guessing, wondering what is next and what came before.
That element of mystery is what kept me gripped. The pace is quick from the first page, but begins to lag at the half-way point, when the path the plot will takes seems inevitable but frightening. But the uncertainty is a constant, with hints of revelations floating before you and then being pulled from beneath you. Nothing is obvious - you cannot tell good from bad, safe from danger, truth from lies - but it all feels terrifyingly possible.
Arguably, this is a story that has been told a million times before - an amalgamation of everything from The Lord of the Flies to the Hunger Games - but it feels original. It may not be flawless (in particular, I didn't feel any strong connections to any of the characters, though all had been well developed), but it is thrilling and intelligent, keeping the reader eager for more.
The Kick Off
Dan Freedman
London, Scholastic, 2007, 172p
It is not often that I enjoy books about sport. Often, the jargon makes me loose interest, and I struggle to relate to the characters. But with Dan Freedman's series, football is made interesting.
The Kick Off is about Jamie Johnson's dream to be part of the first team at school. Unfortunately, he has a terrible time at the end of term trials, so commits himself to spending the whole summer improving his skills.
What is particularly nice about this series is the fact that the football plot is not the only thing going on in Jamie's life. He is struggling to focus at school, and with slipping grades, his mum stops him from spending all his time at the park practicing football. Also, he has managed to offend his best friend, and cannot work out how to make amends. Jamie is like any teenage boy - he has a big heart, but sometimes forgets how to use it.
Freedman makes Jamie's ambitions into something that anyone can relate to - he could have just as easily written about a boy who wanted to be an astronaut or a girl who wanted to be the Prime Minister. Football jargon is avoided, so the matches come to life through a more simple use of language. Jamie's ambition is endearing and consuming. Of course, these books are aimed to engage those more reluctant boy readers, but the themes are universal, so could be attractive to many young readers.
Robot Goalie
Roger Hurn
Stevenage, Badger, 2011, 32p
Badger Learning recently sent me a small box of short, low level books, which are part of their First Flight series. They are also part of the Accelerated Reader reading scheme, which our library has just implemented. Whilst setting up AR, I found our library lacked books at the lower levels of the reading program, so have been ardently searching for something my students might be interested in.
Robot Goalie is a tale in which two siblings find plans for their Great Uncle's inventions, and bring his design to life to create a robot goalie, in the hope of winning a penalty shoot-out competition. The book is short, but the story is well paced, maintaining the reader's interest.
Throughout the First Flight series, the books seem to have a similar structure. They contain a list of a few key words at the beginning, giving the reader the opportunity to look up a definition before embarking on the story. This is particularly helpful for readers with limited vocabulary, and works well alongside AR, which aims to expand students' comprehension. At the end of the book, there is a page of facts - in this case, facts about inventions. There are also some questions about the plot, so teachers and parents can test the children's understanding.
The words and paragraphs are well spaced throughout the book, and the pages are broken up with illustrations. These factors, I feel, help the reader follow the story by setting the pace.
According to the AR Book Levels, this story is at the lower end of the scale, but should be of interest to "middle years" students, typically aged between 9 to 13. I feel that this is an accurate estimate of the interest level.
Unfortunately, the concern in my library is that there are very few books at a low reading level with high interest level. Many of the 11-year-old students I know would prefer to read more racy, exciting books, even if they have a low reading level. I am concerned that there is a gap in the market caused by an assumption that less able students like to read less interesting books.
