When I was younger, I
loved Jacqueline Wilson's
books. I practically devoured them, reading and reading my dog-eared
copies until the spines split. I wanted to be
her characters: Eliza from The Bed and Breakfast Star, Ruby from
Double Act (although I was probably more a Garnet), Tracey Beaker in
the dumping group, and even Lottie from the Lottie project.
Now
I'm a twenty-something year old, I've obviously grown out of that. Of
course. Now, I've realised that who I really want to be is Jaqueline
Wilson herself.
This
was a really lovely and well-chosen collection of stories and
extracts about dogs and cats. I myself am more of a cat person than a
dog person, so I had a natural swing to enjoy those stories more. But
I still loved the dog stories, particularly the extract from “The
Incredible Journey.” It was really moving.
One
concern I had about this novel was that reading only short snippets
from stories would feel so incomplete that no satisfaction could be
gained. Luckily, I was mostly wrong with this feeling, as I knew most
of the books they came from: One Hundred and One Dalmations, Just
William, Dick King Smith... I haven't read Jean Ure's novel Ice Lolly
and this particular extract was unsatisfying for me. It left you with
too many questions; questions can be very good, but this was too
much. I was delighted to see The Cat That Walked by Itself; it has
inspired me to reread Just So Stories.
The
first story, Jacqueline's own, was lovely, and her oh-so-familiar and
comforting authorial voice shone through. I liked Leonie, and it was
a very complete short story – I wasn't left feeling cheated.
Amongst the old favourites were some unexpected surprises: I never
knew that Ian McEwan wrote for children! (Note to self: must find out
more!) I was also shocked to see the Patrick Ness' extract from Chaos
Walking, as the rest of the
stories were aimed at much younger children. I would feel
uncomfortable with a young child reading Ness' books because,
brilliant though they are, they are very violent. It seemed a little
out of place to me.
Nick
Sharratt's illustrations were similarly comforting, memories of
reading by torchlight in tents and gobbling down books in some vague
fear that they might leave if I didn't! It was odd to see Nick
Sharratt's drawings in place of the traditional pictures for some of
these stories (One Hundred and One Dalmations, Alice Through the
Looking Glass) but I enjoyed the change. I also loved the cover under
the dust jacket!
Overall,
a wonderful anthology, and for a very worthy cause. It will appeal to
animal lovers of nearly any age, anyone who knows about the bond you
can feel to a dog or cat. Very enjoyable. And a proportion of royalties all go to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home - you get to feel virtuous through reading!
Now,
excuse me while I go away to find a copy of Just So Stories...
Note:
I was given a pre-publication copy of this for free, but all opinions
expressed are my own.
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