Reviews of U.K. Children's Laureates

Quentin Blake | Anne Fine | Michael Morpurgo | Jacqueline Wilson

Quentin Blake Reviews

Quentin Blake, illustrator  Tell Me a Picture
    128 pp. Millbrook/Lerner
    Reviewed 7/03
Blake re-creates the experience of the 2001 exhibit at London's National Gallery, where he chose paintings, drawings, and prints that would inspire viewers to wonder about the story behind the image. Each image is given a wordless double-page spread, and Blake's illustrations feature a motley crew of museum-goers reacting to the preceding image and introducing the next picture. Blake's sense of fun and superb art choices make the experience fly by.

Quentin Blake, illustrator  Clown
    32 pp. Holt
    Reviewed 7/96
In a wordless book, a toy clown is discarded in the rubbish bin along with his stuffed animal friends, and he starts on a quest to find them all a new home, finally succeeding after some unfortunate adventures. Only Blake's remarkable skill as an artist could produce such a touching, endearing story, told entirely through the postures and actions of lively, scratchy, almost cartoonlike figures.

William Steig  Wizzil ; illus. by Quentin Blake
    32 pp. Farrar
    Reviewed 7/00
In this tale of mischief, revenge, and redemption, old Wizzil the witch turns herself into a fly to torment retired farmer DeWitt Frimp, but the two end up falling in love. Steig's language is utterly unfettered, with alliteration so thick you could spread it, and packed with savory words and phrases. Blake's illustrations, full of energy and humor and movement, are sublime.

John Yeoman  The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor; illus. by Quentin Blake
    119 pp. McElderry
    Reviewed 3/98
The retelling by Yeoman is smooth, literate, and very readable; the illustrations by that old master, Quentin Blake, are perfect in their way. His usual scrawly, cartoonlike drawings are exactly adapted to wild storms at sea, horrifying and hungry serpents, and the grisly giants encountered by Sinbad and his friends. An admirable edition of a classic for children.

Anne Fine Reviews

Anne Fine  Flour Babies
    178 pp. Little
    Reviewed 9/94
A class of boys reluctantly joins in a child-development project, in which each receives a bag of flour to tend for three weeks. Usually mischievous Simon determines to be the father that he never had, since his father left when Simon was just six weeks old. His quest to understand what happened in his family gives this humorous story a poignant edge. Numerous messages about the responsibilities of parenting are tempered by hilarious one-liners and situations that result in farcical misunderstandings.

Anne Fine  The Jamie and Angus Stories; illus. by Penny Dale
    110 pp. Candlewick
    Reviewed 1/03
In six tales about Jamie and his beloved stuffed bull, Angus, Fine has a pitch-perfect ear for the dialogue between Jamie and his parents, between Jamie and his maverick youthful uncle, and, most especially, between Jamie and Angus, who is silent, although the reader is sure he says lots. The tone is natural and sentimental in only the right ways. Dale's pencil portraits of boy and bull are worthy of this charming collection.

Anne Fine  Jamie and Angus Together; illus. by Penny Dale
    102 pp. Candlewick 2007.
In the first story, preschooler Jamie tries to prepare his stuffed Highland bull Angus (The Jamie and Angus Stories) for the visit of a little girl who plays too roughly. Jamie comes up with a childlike but successful solution. Throughout the six stories Fine always maintains Jamie's complete believability, conveying his perceptiveness and empathy side by side with his limited perspective.

Anne Fine  The Tulip Touch — A Novel
    149 pp. Little
    Reviewed 9/97
Natalie's exclusive friendship with the thrillingly reckless Tulip becomes increasingly dangerous, and she must decide to save herself even as she acknowledges her troubled friend's terrible desperation. The talented author cuts to the emotional bone in this novel of friendship, truth, and the uneasy weight of human responsibility.

Michael Morpurgo Reviews

Michael Morpurgo  Kensuke's Kingdom
    164 pp. Scholastic
    Reviewed 5/03
In 1988, a British schoolboy is sailing around the world with his parents when he's swept overboard into the Coral Sea. Cast ashore on a remote island, Michael meets Kensuke, an elderly Japanese doctor who has been living there alone since the bombing of Nagasaki. Michael's clear-eyed first-person narrative offers the elements of a good survival story while quietly tracing the evolving friendship between two disparate characters.

Michael Morpurgo  On Angel Wings; illus. by Quentin Blake
    48 pp. Candlewick
    Reviewed 11/07
Morpurgo's exhilarating Nativity story features traditional elements but also takes startling departures. A colloquial tone doesn't feel irreverent; the familiarity of the characters' interactions makes the boy's adoration of the baby Jesus even more powerful. The small trim size emphasizes the intimate nature of Morpurgo's story; still, Blake's watercolors can rise to glorious heights, especially when depicting the heavenly host.

Michael Morpurgo  Private Peaceful
    202 pp. Scholastic
    Reviewed 11/04
An ironically named soldier, Private Thomas Peaceful, spends a sleepless night recalling his boyhood in rural England at the turn of the twentieth century with his older brother, Charlie. Exquisitely written vignettes explore bonds of brotherhood that cannot be broken by the physical and psychological horrors of the First World War in a novel that comes to a shattering, unexpected conclusion.

Michael Morpurgo  Waiting for Anya
    172 pp. Viking
    Reviewed 7/91
An action-packed historical novel that takes place during World War II in Vichy, France. Young shepherd Jo discovers that Widow Horcada's son-in-law is hiding Jewish children at her farm and smuggling them over the border into Spain. A gripping, clearly written story, giving readers much to ponder.

Jacqueline Wilson Reviews

Jacqueline Wilson  Candyfloss; illus. by Nick Sharratt
    339 pp. Brodie/Roaring Brook
    Reviewed 9/07
Pre-teen Floss adores her down-on-his-luck dad and decides to stay with him when Mum, stepfather, and baby brother move to Australia for six months. Some hair-raising adventures, happy coincidences, and a wish-fulfillment ending ensue. Wilson mixes familiar situations and concerns with a brisk pace. Comic-strip panels introduce each chapter, setting tone, illustrating Floss's feelings, and extending the action. Glos.

Jacqueline Wilson  Girls in Love
    183 pp. Delacorte
    Reviewed 10/02
When her best friends Magda and Nadine each get their first boyfriends, Ellie pretends she has a boyfriend, too — but really he's only Dopey Dan, the odd-looking but surprisingly funny guy she met on holiday. British language and setting flavor this humorous look at the anguish of starting high school, living with a blended family, dealing with puberty, and deciding it's okay to just be friends.

Jacqueline Wilson  The Lottie Project; illus. by Nick Sharratt
    214 pp. Delacorte
    Reviewed 11/99
For a school project on the Victorians, eleven-year-old Charlie creates a diary written by Lottie, her nineteenth-century alter ego. Chapters alternate between Charlie's chatty, opinionated narrative about school, home, and her mother's boyfriend, and domestic servant Lottie's earnest journal entries, which offer a different perspective on Charlie's problems. This is a gentle endorsement for using one's imagination to work through change.

Jacqueline Wilson  The Story of Tracy Beaker; illus. by Nick Sharratt
    137 pp. Delacorte
    Reviewed 9/01
Tough-talking ten-year-old Tracy, in and out of foster homes, finds herself back in a children's home once again. An aspiring writer, she strikes up a friendship with a journalist who visits the home to research a story. The diary format works well and provides a surprisingly well-rounded picture of the seemingly callous but lonely young girl. Sharratt's cartoon drawings help lighten the tone.

More on U.K. Children's Laureates | List of all reviews on this site