A very special writer
Here is another brief digression from my usual 'magic fantasy' theme, but for good reason. Even as an avid reader, it is relatively rare for me to be totally captivated by a book, from the first page to the last. But I was with The Explorer.
Katherine Rundell is developing as a very special kind of writer. There are a number of children's authors, some of them highly popular, who make a career of continually writing variations of essentially the same book. Others become involved in writing series titles or at least books that end up constituting trilogies or quartets. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and the group contains many of our finest writers for children. Others effectively specialise in a particular style or genre of book. However, there are a small number of outstanding children's authors who generally write one-off books, each one very different in character and content. These writers establish highly deserved followings not by producing more of the same but by their consistent quality of writing and imagination over many different offerings. One author who comes immediately to mind as having achieved this over many years is the wonderful Geraldine McCaughrean*. Katherine Rundell is now firmly establishing herself as a writer of exactly this ilk too.
A very different book
The Explorer is a very different book, and a different feeling book, from any of The Girl Savage (USA: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms**), Rooftoppers or The Wolf Wilder. But, just like these other titles, its sheer quality of writing, and the reading pleasure it offers, shines out like a beacon. A Katherine Rundell beacon.
This time, what this fine writer has produced is very much a 'classic' adventure, if continually striving for survival can indeed be called an adventure. In The Explorer three children, Fred, Con and Lila, burdened (often quite literally) with Lila's five-year-old brother, Max, are stranded together in the midst of the Amazon jungle, following a plane crash. Now, this type of scenario is not completely original as a fictional plot. In this case, though, the subsequent events are rather closer to an adventure that the Swallows and Amazons might have pretended to have than they are to those of the Lord of the Flies choirboys. Nevertheless, when Katherine Rundell's young quartet face all the problems of finding food and shelter, making fire, and avoiding dangerous creatures, it is very much for real. They must survive for long enough to find a way home, as well, of course, as finding a way of getting there.
There are many superlative qualities in her book which bring these perhaps predictable scenes vividly and engagingly to life. Not the least of these is the strength and credibility of her young characters. Although it emerges that each has a fair few 'issues' in their upbringing, it is clear that they are all very bright, literate and articulate children. They may be naive and immature in many ways, but they are completely unique individuals whose thinking and language is often highly sophisticated, at times almost adult. This means that their continual bickering and banter is a constant delight. They can be witty and sarcastic, surprising and shocking, but are always richly endearing.
Also quite beautifully brought to life is the way their relationship develops. Without heavy exposition but rather through their actions and interactions Katherine Rundell brilliantly reveals the group's gradual evolution from virtual strangers, who cooperate only to survive, into a tight-knit group of loyal and trusting friends who, in totally appropriate ways, show real love for each other.
Then, when, around half way through the story, the children meet ' The Explorer', the book makes a further lurch towards greatness. Here, again, there is little underlying originality in the storyline of an old curmudgeon who gradually develops gruff affection for young charges with whom he has been unwillingly landed. However, the character is so skilfully drawn and the developing relationship so subtly and poignantly painted, that the whole emerges as one of children's literature's finest and most memorable stories. In its different way, this is every inch on a par with Goodnight Mister Tom.
There is also one further main 'character' in The Explorer. It is the beautiful, awesome, dangerous, fragile Amazon jungle. The whole book is a paean to one of our world's most important wild places. And a fine thing too.
Wonderful words
Equally remarkable is the stunnngly crafted and startlingly imagined language with which this whole story is told. The quite breathtaking quality of writing itself begins with the opening lines and just goes on and on. As a retired primary school teacher, it makes me long to return to a classroom just to be able to immerse children in the wonderful effectiveness of its deceptive simplicity. Examples abound. Here is just one:
'The fire seemed to breathe in, and then exhaled a cough of flames. Max whooped. Lila held out a sheaf of twigs. The fire caught at them, made five burning fingers, ate them whole. It belched upwards.
'More!' Said Max. . . 'Feed it more!' '
The Explorer also embodies important themes and messages. In human terms, it teaches that true courage is about being frightened and still doing something anyway, that there are more important things than fame and recognition and that true exploration does not require a trip to the Amazon. In environmental terms, it presses home the importance of wild places and the damage that intrusive humans can do both to the places themselves and to the indigenous people who live(d) there. These messages too have been said before and in many ways. Yet they do need to be communicated afresh to each generation, indeed to each yearly cohort of children. The subtle and and effectively communication of books such as this will, I am sure, convince many young people of their importance far more effectively than any amount of crude preaching.
A book so well written, and with such articulate, witty characters inevitably abounds in quotable quotes. I particularly loved it when little Max attempts to tell The Explorer what to do and receives the withering repost:
'I applaud you decision to move commandingly through the world, but you have vulture poo in your hair, which dents your gravitas.'
Delicious.
A very special book
More than anything this is a book with heart. There is no maudlin sentimentality here, just a great warmth and depth of human feeling, on the part of both the author and her creations. Her small number of main characters are essentially good people. They are not simple ones, for people are not simple. Nor are they flawless ones, for people are not perfect. However, despite ther constant insecurity, their frequent superficial selfishness, their quibbles and quarrels, they are fundamentally good at heart. Yet any thoughts that this would make them uninteresting story characters is gravely mistaken. These are people you come to care about deeply, just as they come to care about each other.
In the end all turns out well for them. The tale's resolutions are certainly not achieved easily, for life is not easy, but they are simply, thankfully and warmly happy. Which is exactly as every reader will wish for them. This is a feel good book in the very best sense.
The writing of The Explorer is masterful in every aspect, language, structure and content. Its text could easily stand alone. Even so, Hannah Horn's lush, intricate illustrations, which creep across and around the dust jacket and so many pages, help to reinforce its jungle setting quite magically. The whole volume is indeed most beautifully produced, to stunning effect.***
On finishing the book, one just wants to say to Kathleen Rundell, and the to the whole team behind its publication: Great job.Thank you.
'I liked it that it might be all right to believe in large, mad, wild things.'
This is one of those rare books which will become a memorable part of childhood for countless children for many years to come. That makes it the strongest possible recommendation for all KS2/MG teachers too.
Notes:
*I have her latest, Where the World Ends, on my reading pile and hope to write about it soon.
**This is a much better title, by the way.
***A hardback well worth buying in this format for its aesthetic as an artefact, as well as for its considerable potential as a valued treasure in the future.