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One Beastly Beast by Garth Nix (view source)
Revision as of 14:08, 26 August 2020
, 14:08, 26 August 2020no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=One Beastly Beast
|author=Garth Nix
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=224
|publisher=Harper Collins Children's Books
|date=2 April 2007
|isbn=978-0007234097
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0007234090</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0007234090|aznus=<amazonus>0060843195</amazonus>
}}
Garth brings his Nixiness to newly confident readers for the first time in this collection of four imaginative tales. In ''Blackbread the Pirate'', a kind of Time Bandits skit, young Peter finds himself drawn down through the sewers into the Neverworld, as he tries to retrieve his DVDs, stolen by a ragtag bunch of piratical rats. In ''The Princess and the Beastly Beast'' Princess Rinda does battle with a monster that is scarier on the outside than it is on the inside, while her royal but ever-distracted parents are variously composing music and spells. In ''Serena and the Sea Serpent'', it takes super-brainy Serena to cut through the mercenary scheming of foolish adults and sort out the sea monster "problem" once and for all.
... just begs to be read, don't you think?
The stories all have the trademark Nix combination of realism and magic. My favourite, ''Bill the Inventor'', is set in a childrens children's home as the young protagonist waits for a family who will like him enough to adopt him. But nobody even blinks when prospective parents include pirates, wizards and aliens with thirty -three eyes. Serena gets on everybody's nerves with her precocious, miss know-it-all ways, but nobody is surprised when a penguin comes home for tea. This blending of preposterous events in realistic settings appeals greatly to newly confident readers, as does the child-as-hero motif. There's a level of ever-so-slightly naughty humour there which allies itself to the fantasy role -play games four to eight -year -olds love, and Nix has tapped into it exceedingly well.
There's nothing so ambitious that children will need to stretch too much to read, but there are some clever touches which will advance their understanding of the possibilities of language. For instance, when Hodges, the Rats Royal Navy Armourer, brings Peter his uniform, he recites a mnemonic to himself within the text, using the familiar rhythms of doggerel and nursery rhymes:
''Here's a coat of best superfine with one -inch brass buttons on a nautical line; a linen shirt somewhat patched with a detachable colar collar that's practically a match; a pair of double-seated britches made of wool that sadly itches; two pairs of stockings, one silk, one not; a pair of sea -boots with holes where they've been shot; a broad leather belt with steel buckle showing faint remains of gilt; and a broad-brimmed hat of salt-stained felt.''
Genius.
My thanks to Harper Collins for sending the book.
Newly confident readers who enjoy the slightly surreal could also try Joan Aiken's [[The Winter Sleepwalker]] and, of course, Roald Dahl's [[George's Marvellous Medicine]]. We also enjoyed [[To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix]].
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{{amazonUStext|amazon=0060843195}}
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