Oxfordshire countryside, James is soon aware that something very strange is going on. His dog barks at thin air, cups crash to the floor for no reason – and now he has found a note, scrawled in spidery writing with his own red pen: ‘I like not this quille.’ It goes on to tell James how to solve the mystery of his father’s missing pipe.
James doesn’t have a particularly good track record behaviour-wise, so it’s not surprising when the blame for these mysterious goings-on gets pinned on him. And when the same antiquated scrawl turns up on the blackboard at school (‘I have been about the towne and I am much displeased . . .’), the teacher jumps to the same conclusion. But when the meddling poltergeist that is Thomas Kempe – a 17th-century apothecary with some loose ends to tie up – starts scrawling ‘wyches’ over doorways and setting fire to houses, James knows he needs to find a way to send Kempe packing once and for all. Kids who find themselves cast as the scapegoat unfairly will find this story cathartic – and a catalyst for being proactive about proving their innocence.
SEE ALSO: fair, it’s not • lying • punished, being
boarding school
Some think it’s all sleepovers and tricks on the teachers. Others that it’s all cold showers and no hugs. Cheer up your reluctant boarder with the stories on our first list below – and sober up a wannabe midnight-feaster with those on the second.
THE FIVE BEST BOOKS FOR REMINDING YOU HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO BE AT BOARDING SCHOOL
THE FIVE BEST BOOKS FOR PUTTING YOU OFF GOING TO BOARDING SCHOOL
SEE ALSO: bed, wanting to go to before someone else • homesickness • loneliness
body hair
To explain to a younger sibling the strange and alarming new hair sprouting on the body of an older sibling, bring in the trusty Babette Cole. Not one to beat around the bush,8 she’ll tell them everything they need to know without anyone getting embarrassed.
Older girls should put themselves in the hands of the great Louise Rennison, the doyenne of all the joys and horrors of changing bodies; while boys will find solace in the frank and touching diary of 14-year-old Joseph Calderaro in Kimchi & Calamari who, having been set a school assignment to research his ancestry, wonders which genes will dominate – his smooth-skinned Korean or his hairy Italian?
SEE ALSO: adolescence • body odour • hormones, raging
body image
Most children start off having lots of fun with their bodies – but it only takes one insensitive comment for all that to change. If self-consciousness arrives early – or looks like it might be passed down from an older sibling to a younger – we recommend Cinderella’s Bum, featuring as it does a big sister who doesn’t like her bum, and a little sister who can’t see anything wrong with it. ‘I think it’s lovely,’ the little sister says, beaming up at her sister’s backside admiringly – while her big sister scowls at herself in a full-length mirror. The little sister proceeds to point out that well-padded bums come in handy for ‘crash landings’ and sitting on a throne – and anyway, why not focus on a body part that you do like instead? That the big sister has actually been attempting to squeeze herself into the wrong swimming costume all along makes for a lovely twist.
Young Adult fiction tackling this sensitive issue must tread a careful line, portraying the positive potential for change without inadvertently triggering a crisis (see: eating disorder). Chris Crutcher manages to do this with grace in his intriguing Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Chubby Eric and his friend Sarah Byrnes put a school newspaper together as a way of getting back at those who have made them the butt of their jokes. They call it ‘Crispy Pork Rinds’ – Eric being the ‘pork’; Sarah, who has terrible burns on her face and body, being the ‘crispy’; and rinds because they’re ‘the parts that are left . . . that nobody pays attention to’. Their self-described bond as ‘terminal uglies’ brought them together in first grade; but over the years they’ve realised they have more important things in common, including their sense of humour and a passion for words. When Eric discovers a talent for swimming, they begin to drift apart – especially as he starts to lose weight as a result. Out of solidarity with Sarah, he tries to keep the pounds on so he can remain the freaky fat friend of the freaky charred girl. But his metabolism betrays him, and he decides the next best way to ‘stay fat for Sarah’ is to refuse any invitation that doesn’t include her too. When, in their final year at school, he discovers that Sarah’s burns were not caused by an accident as she’s always claimed but inflicted deliberately by her father (see:
