In the wake of Margaret Mahy winning the coveted 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Author Award we thought it would be a good time to indulge in a spot of kid-lit. We have a review or two, and the news that your child or children have but a month to go to vote in the Childrens Choice section of the NZ Post Book Awards. (To vote online, hit the ‘Vote now’ button on the top right of the screen). What happens if the book you love is not on the list of twenty finalists? Dunno – I suppose you could send Booksellers NZ an email…

Anyway, now to reviews. My friend Percy's Magical Gym Shoes, by Ulf Stark, from Gecko Press ($14.95) has been reviewed by leafsalon’s friend and neighbour, Debbie, who is a primary school teacher and has three children of her own. She liked their previous book The Fox Hunt but gave this one a bit of a bollocking:

‘With a title like 'My friend Percy's Magical Gym Shoes', chapter titles 'Naked Ladies' and 'Running in front of cars' and a cute little sketch on the cover Ulf Stark's children's book had promise even for prudey old me.

But after reading about the Finnish nurses who go out of their rest home workplace during the lunch hour to topless sunbathe, much to the delight of the young characters in the story, it had begun to lose it's appeal and believability to me. I did think though that perhaps it had potential to appeal to any middle age bachelor who never matured past the mental age of 12 still living at home with Mum.

The story built up slowly but steadily to Ulf, the main character being given the magical gym shoes. With the reader full of high expectations of what was going to happen when Ulf finally got the shoes the story sort of died away.

I was left wondering if this story had lost some thing in the translation or if it was the cultural difference but sadly this story didn't do it for me.’

And here’s one from the LeafSalon family: Uncle Jack (Trapeze, $19.99) by the formidable team who brought us the superb Clubs: A Lolly Leopold Story. Hmm. First impression was that the black, brown and white illustrations were a brave departure from the norm – quite creepy in a good way. But the text had me scratching my head and wondering where it was aimed. My six year-old took one look at the almost-monochrome palette, said yuk and switched off, which was interesting in itself – obviously she’s colour-conditioned. The 8 year-old Lolly Leopold fan was quite intrigued, but a bit lost by the relentless cleverness. I must confess to thinking that this was really a book to impress parents and that, unlike Spongebob Squarepants, Kate forgot to include the bit that kids would relate to. However, this is what Alex, the eight year-old said:

‘At the beginning I liked the way the author described what Uncle Jack wore [‘a navy-blue duffle coat, a ninety-year-old pork-pie hat and scuffed gumboots painted with lightning bolts.’] but I’m not sure the book is very sootable [sic] for kids. It was quite hard for me to understand. I think the illustrator put quite a lot of effort into the book though. The words bring you into a different world and the pictures are very imaginative. I liked the way they were black and white and brown. It sooted [again, sic] the book a lot and made me think of a theme park at night with everything popping out at you. However, I think they should think about making it a bit more interesting.’

Well, there you go. Not quite sure where exactly, but I think it’s important to get kids’ views on kids’ books. More on the way – once again I've got our local primary school on the job and we should soon have some reviews for Margaret Mahy's Portable Ghost and Kelly Gardiner's Ocean Without End.