YOUNG FICTION
VIPER’S DAUGHTER by Michelle Paver (Zephyr £12.99, 256 pp)
CHILDREN trapped at home now have at least one reason to celebrate — the long-awaited return of the Wolf Brother series. torak and renn have been living together in the forest but suddenly, without warning or explanation, renn disappears. Accompanied by his loyal, spiritual companion Wolf, torak tracks her journey north towards the dangerous edge of the World as he attempts to understand the truth of her self-sacrifice for him.
With a dramatic reappearance of renn’s venomous dead mother, seshru, and a new deceitful demon, naiginn, this is immersive and gripping, with richly evocative descriptions of the natural world and Paver’s total control of her imaginary kingdom maintains the tension to the very end. Welcome back!
ROBIN HOOD by Robert Muchamore (Hot Key Books £6.99, 272 pp)
MUCHAMORE’s thrilling Cherub spy stories have entranced a generation of teens and now he’s launching an equally robust contemporary adventure series based on the robin hood legend. the town of Locksley, riven by unemployment and poverty, is run by wealthy criminal gang boss Guy Gisborne and his sidekick, sheriff Marjorie.
When robin’s dad is fitted up by Gisborne and arrested, 12-year-old robin flees to sherwood Forest armed only with his rare combination of skills: computer hacking and brilliant archery. he’s rescued by a band of refugees and rebels, led by Marion, who have built a forest counter-culture. they plot revenge and the action, flying with the pace of a speeding arrow. this is classic Muchamore: witty characters, clever twists and high-tech gadgetry. this scores a bullseye.
STORM by Nicola Skinner (HarperCollins £12.99, 400 pp)
SKINNER’s debut, Bloom, was original and funny and this second book is equally surprising and endearing. eleven-year-old Frances ripley was born on a beach in a cracking storm and has harboured a rage inside her ever since. But when her entire english coastal town is destroyed by a tsunami and everyone dies, she refuses to go quietly and hides out in her old home.
More than a hundred years later, it’s turned into a tourist attraction and a young boy who can see ghosts tricks her into becoming a poltergeist in his cruel father’s show.
But what Frances must learn is how to turn her anger into a weapon, to harness its power, accept herself for who she is and remember what made life worth living.