The Thief Knot by Kate Milford

Illustration: Jamie Zollars

‘“How big does a crew have to be before it needs a name?” . . .

“I think if we hit five, we start talking names.”’ (p 86)

Just one favourite?

In a world where wonderful children’s fiction flourishes and authors in many different countries are providing rich entertainment and life-enhancing experiences for young readers, it seems rather meaningless to pick out a single author as my top favourite. Yet we all have our own tastes and preferences and what thrills me most of all is truly original imagination combined with rich exploration of what it is to be a child. So, if pressed to make a choice amongst children’s (MG) writers, I would probably say that my top favourite is Kate Milford. I certainly look forward to any new book of hers with eager anticipation - and have not been disappointed yet.

After the hurly burly

She is one of a trio of quite superb US writers for young people that I tend to think of as the ‘Weird Sisters’. The others are Anne Ursu and Laura Ruby*. I hasten to add that I do not mean this description (totally my own - if you don’t count Shakespeare) to be in any way derogatory. I am sure they are all truly lovely people. The parallel with their Scottish antecedents is not intended as literal. I don’t even know if they ever make arrangements to meet again, hurly burly notwithstanding. Rather these three authors create  books that brim with devastatingly  original, startlingly weird and truly wonderful imagination - each in their own style, of course (or it wouldn’t apply would it?). They also all explore the experiences of childhood in a way that is deep and rich, without ever being heavy. Ask me on a different day, and it could well be that one of these other two come out as favourite instead. It probably depends which of their books I have read most recently. But today it is, Kate Milford, because I have just been blown away by The Thief Knot.

Connections 

This new title is billed as ‘A Greenglass House Story’, Greenglass House being one of the author’s earlier and, I suspect, best selling books. Its story does not however take place in that particular building, not is it very directly connected. It does have many tangential connections though, through characters, previous events and experiences, themes and what you might call ‘back stories’. But then so do all Kate Milford’s books have such interconnections. They are sometimes blatant, sometimes more subtle, but always there. Her overall creation is a rich and complex world, related to, but not quite our own, with a history related to, but not quite our own. Within this, each of her books, usually more or less complete in itself, nevertheless adds more dimensions and greater understanding of, her uber-credible, hyper-incredible world. The whole thing, often centring around an imagined city called Nagspeake, I find an almost indescribable joy.

Mystery wrapped in enigma

The Thief Knot is itself a brilliant children’s adventure, where the ‘knot’ is a crew of somewhat disparate kids (more than five, and therefore worthy of a name) who come together to solve a kidnapping mystery. It is a story of puzzles and intrigue, or clues and cleverness, even of magic (but of the take-a-card-any-card variety, not the ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ sort). Led by young Marzana, the child of a former smuggler captain, and her lawyer husband, their exploits, entertaining amusing and exciting, draw the reader enraptured through the ever-twisting narrative.

Yet this, for me at least, is not the principal delight of the book. The whole tale develops in, and indeed because of, the most incredibly imaginative setting: one where, for example, ‘old iron’ can transform itself into different patterns and even structures; where ghosts exist alongside perfectly naturalistic characters; where in a mind blowing  glass museum, ‘radioactive tea’ is always laid for exactly the correct number of arrivals; where a highly eccentric school building is discovered to give access to a whole, apparently abandoned, underground rail system. You just have to read about this world to appreciate it. I can think of little to which the phrase ‘weird and wonderful’ better applies.

Slow but sure 

Kate Milford tells her story slowly. And that is not a bad thing, at least for someone who writes as compellingly weirdly as she does.  It means that, as a reader, you can live through every moment  of time with Marzana and the compatriots in her ‘knot’. It means that you can get to know them, to be with them, think and do and feel with them. For, in the case of Mars herself, this is more than an detecting adventure; it is more than a discovery of things she never knew about the place where she lives, or, indeed, about the family to which she belongs. It is a journey of self discovery too for a child who finds social communication an almost insurmountable challenge, I would be tempted to suggest she might be a child on the autistic spectrum, except classification would be grossly unfair to both Marzana, and to Kate Milford’s book. Marzana is who she is, and who she is is a vital part of her world, and a vital part of all of us. She is on the human spectrum.

The other thankful advantage of the slowness of Kate Milford’s storytelling it that it gives us some chance, as readers to fit together the multiple pieces of the tale. And this certainly needs time. For this story is a complex puzzle about complex people in a complex world, that is in itself a subset of a complex ‘suite’ of  separate but interrelated novels. And that whole complexity is just totally divine. It is tingling, thrilling, children’s literature paradise.

A shout out for Jamie Zollars

Once again this volume is gloriously enhanced by Jamie Zollars evocative illustrations. I love the way that, on the jacket picture, the wondrously eccentric building of Marymead School is swathed with multiple strands of mystery and intrigue. That is just how I feel it. The chapter head vignettes are a delight too. But my favourite is the stunningly detailed frontispiece of the ‘knot’ of children in the bookshop. My only regret is that many more full-page illustrations of this quality have not been included.

First time visitors to Nagspeake

For those wanting to explore the wondrous world of Kate Milford’s imaginative creation, this is probably not the best place to start. The Thief Knot is an essentially self-contained story, but it is, to my mind at least, all the more enjoyable with some knowldge of the back story, and an ability to see the muli-layered links to earlier  explorations of ‘Nagspeake’. You could start with Greenglass House itself, or the much earlier tale of its genesis in Bluecrowne, or even go back to set yourself up for deeper resonances in The Boneshaker or The Broken Lands. Whatever, don’t miss out the opportunity along the journey to go early nineteenth century seafaring in The Left Handed Fate. You have quite some literary adventure in store. 

Please Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Clarion Books)

And, finally, a heartfelt plea to the publisher. You did a great job in bringing out Bluecrowne, but we are still one vitally important Kate Milford back title missing. Her whole oeuvre is an enormous contribution to children’s literature, now and for the future. But there is still a big gap on her section of our shelves. Now that we know what a great writer she is, please can we have a hardback edition of The Kairos Mechanism to go with all the others. Her wonderful creation to date is incomplete without it. 

Note:

*Great news that the final part of Laura Ruby’s brilliant York trilogy is published soon. Once I get reading this one, it could very well be that she is my favourite after all.

The Apprentice Witch Series by James Nicol

Cover illustrations: Daniela Terrazzini

Late to the party

I somehow missed these books as they came out, but they were discovered for me when my young granddaughter (and her mother) met the author, James Nicol, in their local library. And what a fortunate discovery it was, for the books are truly treasurable.

Young characters who are apprentice witches, wizards, and the like provide enormously fecund ground for children’s literature. The fantasy of developing magical ability resonates with many children and is, I think, part of their natural desire to feel special, to discover their own power and importance in a world where almost all of it seems to reside with adults. Yet children realise well enough that they are not there yet, and learner magicians provide points of identity at many levels. Young readers warm to these fictional role models when they make a mess of things just as much, perhaps even more so, as when they save the world. 

A classic example is Wart in T. H.White’s The Sword in the Stone. More recently, the whole concept has been made delightfully accessible to young children in Jill Murphy’s deservedly popular series about Mildred Hubble, The Worst Witch. Of course there is always the adored Harry Potter too, but my own favourite by far is Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching, in The Wee Free Men and its sequels - just brilliant, in every way. Whilst adding his very own special magic, James  Nicol’s books carry echoes of each of these illustrious predecessors. More than anything, though, they feel to me like  a most welcome, younger readers’ take on Joseph Delaney’s YA Spook’s Apprentice series. Young Arianwyn, the apprentice in question here, like the older Thomas Ward, has to learn to defend the people of her allotted domain against everything from annoying house sprites to horrendous monsters of dark magic. 

First rate entertainment  

James Bicol really does press all the right buttons for effective junior fantasy of his chosen type. Whilst revelling in many of the tropes and conventions of this genre, so beloved of this audience, there is much in these books that is both original and imaginative too. The world-building is colourful and engaging, a small-town setting that is almost contemporary, but with a sufficient smattering of old technology to give it a period charm. Into this setting the acceptance of magic and the coexistence of a whole host of spooks and spirits fit easily,even if not, in the latter case, comfortably.

His characters are beautifully drawn and tremendously likeable (apart, of course, from those that are truly hateful); his young protagonists are sensitively conjured and the adults, although more cartoon-like, are convincing in context, and frequently highly entertaining. Although we first meet Arianwyn when passing out of the school stage of her training, the author manages to incorporate some of the friendship and rivalry elements found in many school stories, and this makes his narrative all the more accessible. There is much in this, and in his protagonist’s lack of self-confidence, as she struggles to grow into both her new position and her own abilities, with which it will be easy for his young readers to identify. 

His easy flow of storytelling is compulsive. It is by turns intriguing, touching and amusing, and builds towards its thrilling climax compellingly. It leads too, of course, to a heart-warming resolution that is just right for its audience. There is absolutely every reason to think that Arianwyn Gribble will become a much-loved treasure, just as Mildred Hubble has already become for so many. 

Read before you watch

I don’t often do if-you-loved-this-you’ll-love-that recommendations. Reading taste is harder to predict that some think, and sometimes the comparisons you see made are ludicrous anyway. However this one really should hold. The apprenticeship of Arianwyn Gribble could well be be just about perfect for readers who enjoyed Michelle Harrison’s equally delightful Widdershins sisters (A Pinch of Magic, A Sprinkle of Sorcery), or, of course, vice versa. 

For any coming new to The Apprentice Witch, there is the bonus of two splendid sequels already in waiting. A Witch Alone and A Witch Comes True extend and develop Arianwyn’s story in a completely magical way. And for those who have already started to follow her gripping adventures . . . well . . . what are you waiting for? That the stories are soon to be made into a TV series comes as little surprise,  but get in there first and snuggle into the books themselves. They will comfort like a warm blanket, and bring just as much happiness.

Finally a word of praise for Daniella Terrazzini’s cover illustrations for the UK paperbacks. I love the way they provide strong images of Arianwyn, without defining her ethnicity.