| Re: May's (Mostly) Marvelous Literary Musings
Just finished Jon Berkeley's The Palace of Laughter. I would place this in the 9-13 year old fiction bracket, but I enjoyed reading it as an adult for several reasons. He has a nice rhythm to his writing for a start. I loved the way he started each chapter with a matching sentence, and his chosen subject was fascinating - I've not read many stories based around a spooky circus ... well actually this was the first!
It had some great and unusual elements to it: the null (a yeti like creature that was particularly nasty); storm angels; song angels; a delightfully evil ringmaster; a teddy bear who comes to life; a nutty old rich woman who lives in a tree house with hundreds of cats; and last, but most definitely not least, a talking tiger. I loved the talking tiger! What a great character!
If you like reading fiction for younger readers, you could do a lot worse than to give this a go. It's certainly different.
Next: Magyk by Angie Sage. (It's been on my 'to read' list for nearly 2 years!) |