Illustrated: Pam Smy
In anticipation
Here is a book well worth looking out for.
This is a new Barrington Stoke title, with an interest level of, I would say, around 9-12, but a reading age of 8. However, like many of their offerings, it not only provides accessibility for less confident or reluctant readers but a great deal more besides.
I suspect that it is particularly difficult to craft an engaging, serious story for this age-range whilst keeping vocabulary, syntax and overall comprehensibility in the required range. But this is exactly where Lucy Strange’s writing ability and experience allows her short novel to shine. She has already penned several full-length, historically set novels, including The Ghost of Gosswater, Our Castle by the Sea, and Sisters of the Lost Marsh, all outstanding reads for confident young readers. She also has one fine Barrington Stoke title to her name, The Mermaid in the the Millpond.
Mine author
The Storm and the Minotaur is a tale of coal mining in the early Nineteenth Century, of its serious dangers and especially of the plight of young children who worked down in the dark tunnels. Lucy Strange sensibly begins with enough factual information to give the story context, but not so much as to be off-putting. She also cleverly threads through her story references to the myth of the Cretan Minotaur, which protagonist, George, has come across in a precious book. Again, she retells enough of the tale to explain what George has read, but briefly enough not to be tedious.
Colours
Her limited language palate in no way restricts the emotional and thematic colours with which she is able to paint. Nor does her story have any less impact for the straightforwardness of its telling. In fact probably more. Within a simple, though very dramatic, story structure, the author’s secret is to focus on exactly the actions, words and thoughts which give real depth to her characters and especially their relationships. The feelings exchanged between son and father are particularly strong and affecting, as is George’s response to his dead uncle, an attachment strong enough to change the Minotaur of the original myth into a benevolent guardian.
So often, the potency of this writing is in the very specific images.Time after time, Lucy Strange includes a telling detail that brings her story to vivid and compelling life. Coal dust in the creases around a miner father’s mouth, hundreds of thunder bugs tickling a bare arm, a cap dunked in a cold stream on a scorching day; these are little things that ignite vivid pictures in the readers’ minds and lure them deep into vicarious experience.
She also manages to work into her narrative a wonderfully positive shout out for books and reading. This is both welcome and appropriate for her audience. Factual information, added at the end, also helps to heighten the impact and relevance of the narrative, but is probably best assimilated at this point, after reading the story itself.
Hi-lo
This title is certainly very successful in meeting Barrington Stoke’s important ambition of ‘high interest, low ability’. However, the best of its titles, including this one, will make very satisfying short reads for more confident readers too.
Additionally, this novella provides an object lesson for young writers (and indeed older ones) in how to tell a story concisely but powerfully.
A real bonus here is provided by Pam Smy’s illustrations. This talented artist has already authored and illustrated outstanding books in her own right.* Now, she adds strong, evocative images which not only support comprehension for less confident readers, but also contribute strongly to the the impact of the story.
* Particularly Thornhill and The Hideaway.
