Long list
I read hundreds of children's books each year but only write about a handful of them, those that have really excited me and that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Consequently, all the titles I have reviewed this year constitute a long list of my best books of 2018. They are all wonderful stories by staggeringly talented writers; if I did not consider them so, they would not be on my blog at all.
Of course there will also have been amazing new books that I have missed, or that are still waiting in my enormous reading pile. I very much hope that I will be able to catch up with many of them soon.
The best of the best
However, I have been able to pull out my ten favourite favourites without too much difficulty; they are truly outstanding. All of them are highly engaging, hugely entertaining books, but they are far more too. Each, in its different way, shows that originality and imagination, that richness of thought and language, and, above all, that depth of resonant humanity that makes for a truly great children's novel.
Some are from amongst the best-sellers of 2018 and alrighty heaped with accolades. Others are, as yet, perhaps less well known. I sincerely hope that recommendation here will encourage at least some of you to seek them out, if they are new to you. The richest of rewards lie in wait if you do
My books of 2018
Here they are then, not in any order of preference. If you wish, you can look up my full reviews in the blog archive.
The Endless King (Knights of the Borrowed Dark, Book 3) by Dave Rudden (Post April '18)
This final instalment of Dave Rudden's sequence is every bit as good as might have been hoped. There are very few more exciting, involving, terrifying or affecting reads currently to be found. His writing is masterly and this trilogy, crowned by The Endless King, is one of our finest examples of exactly what children's fantasy fiction can achieve.
Twelve Nights by Andrew Zurcher (Post April '18)
With its rich language and extended description, its long apparent diversions into older stories, its complex plotting and its extended metaphors, this is not a quick, easy book to read. But, then, what truly great book is? Andrew Zurcher weaves us a story that is breathtaking in its imagining, masterly in its realisation and profound in its resonance. We must wrap its fabulous fabric around us and live for a while cloaked in its enriching mysteries.
Station Zero (Railhead Book 3) by Philip Reeve (Post May '18)
I am tempted to say that Station Zero is by far the finest book of a very fine trilogy. But it is more that. It is the work that brings its predecessors into full focus and illuminates the greatness of the whole trilogy. Many works of children's fiction centre on their protagonist discovering their own self. Railhead, rather, is about discovering how many selves we can be. Those who read Railhead, with its superb culmination in Station Zero, will be left with a head filled with multiple worlds, multiple lives, and, always, the image of those incredible sentient trains. I promise you that nothing could be further from Thomas the Tank Engine.
The Storm Keeper's Island by Catherine Doyle (Post July '18)
Catherine Doyle's is one of the most devastatingly exciting new voices in children's fiction that I have encountered in a long time. Her protagonist, Fionn, is not quite a Harry Potter or a Percy Jackson. He is far more. His story is deeper, richer and more genuinely dark. It is linked to the power of an island, to the power of the elements, and resonances with the power that lies within us all as human beings. His story is a great fantasy, and is surely the opener of a great fantasy sequence yet to come.
The Turning by Emily Whitman (Post August '18)
There have been many children's novels about Selkies. There have been even more about a young person's journey towards finding their true self. There can have been few of either more affecting than this one. It is a work of rich imagination and superlative language, a very fine novel indeed. It is about anyone who has two identities, two lives, which are both their true self. As the author says in her own final note: 'We've all got the ocean inside us. beautiful, mysterious, and untamed. Like Aran we are two everythings.'
Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay (Post September '18)
This is not only a gripping read, but a hugely important book too. It is also an exciting, terrifying, moving and deeply disturbing one. It is a story that made me reflect profoundly on the world in which we live, where it has come from and where it is going. It took me to a place I have never been, a culture I have never known - and it helped me to realise, with shock and with grief, that all along it has been part of me, and I of it.
The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky (post September '18)
This author is my discovery of the year, a world class children's writer that I am only just getting to know. Her latest book is not an easy read, but it is a revelation. No book relating to the Second World War and its horrors has moved me more . Although those horrors are only conjured obliquely, through metaphor, they are no les affecting. It is not a particularly long book, but it is one that needs to be read slowly, to relish its captivating detail, to pick up its delicate nuances, and to spot the rare glimpses of the elusive blue cat amidst the seemingly commonplace experiences of a war-haunted childhood.
Dragon Daughter by Liz Flanagan (Post October '18)
Some books you can wrap yourself in, like a cozy duvet. There is something very special in the idea of a dragon hatchling imprinting on a human child, and of the two developing a lifelong, emotional, almost physical, bond. I think it is, perhaps, a perfect metaphor for the desire in all of us to bond with the world of fantasy, of imagination, of magic; to discover its power and its freedom; to fly our own dragon through life. Liz Flanagan capitalises upon our need for such a dragon as convincingly and captivatingly as any children's writer I have encountered.
Bluecrowne by Kate Milford (Post November '18)
Kate Milford is one of my all-time favourite children's writers and the world she creates across her several linked novels is truly wondrous, original, imaginative and deeply compelling. This title, formerly only available as an e-book, is not only an engrossing read in its own right, but also a key link between her other books. It is therefore a truly wonderful thing to at last have Bluecrowne in book form. Hopefully it will attract many new readers, not only as a follow up to the very popular Greenglass House books, but also to her other fascinating works.
The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay (Post November '18)
This book is a fine commemoration of WWI and a telling reconstruction of what it meant to grow up through that deeply troubled period of our recent history. It is about many other important things too. However, more than being about the Great War and its terrible waste, more than being about girls' abilities, rights and needs, more than being about the rights and needs of sensitive, emotional and gay boys, this book is about how kindness and love can transcend even the most grotesque of horrors. And that is a wonderfurl message for any children's novel. It is truly heartwarming - and a real gem of a book.
And to round off
In finishing, I would like add two final recommendations, that are, in a sense, more retrospective. Alan Garner is one of the finest ever children's writers as well as one of the most innovative. First Light (post June '18) is a remarkable anthology in which a whole host of contemporary writers pay tribute to his remarkable genius and helpfully elucidate some of his often challenging work.
The most recent publication by the author himself, a short memoir, Where Shall We Run To? (post August '18) is far from a major work, but nevertheless a fascinating example of deceptively simple writing conveying remarkable human truths. Both books provide invaluable insight into the author and his work and are surely essential reads for any interested in children's literature, past or present.
