Results of search for [Philip Reeve]
Kjartan Poskitt and Philip Reeve
Pantsacadabra!
Scholastic (222 pages) 9781407104652
A whole book of 'magic' tricks involving pants has to be a hit - even if performance as such is not anticipated. A great deal of specific instruction is given in an easily accessible manner and with lots of simply organised diagrams and attractive drawings. The illustrator is one and the same as the award-winning writer - some people are horribly talented. Some of the pages are in graphic-comic layout and some are words alone. A joking introduction about a little known conjuror, The Great Gusset, leads in to forty sections with titles like 'A Flash in the Pants', 'The Knicker Nicker', 'The Bride of Pantenstein' and more. Let's hope there's a Poskitt/Reeve road-show, or even school visits. How about a volunteer, one of the teachers perhaps?
Kjartan Poskitt illustrated by Philip Reeve
Urgum and the Seat of Flames
Scholastic (294 pages) 9781407104331
Urgum the Axeman made his debut in a previous book. He is a savage: very big, very strong, very smelly and very, very proud of it. He has seven savage sons, a resourceful daughter and 'the wifiest wife' in Divina. The surroundings are filled with monsters and enemies and over and above it all are vultures hoping for something dead to feed on as combat is frequent. The book is a non-stop laugh egged on by the small drawings of Philip Reeve. There are a lot of odd creatures to contend with, a 'Savage of the Year' award, and much fun with painful underwear. Altogether this has every element to reach out to boys with 'read me' writ large. Extremely clever codswallop rules!
Philip Reeve
A Darkling Plain
Scholastic (533 pages) 9780439943468
Mortal Engines was the first book of this superb sequence and it certainly is worth reading them all in order. Together they are a magnificent achievement with this book as the crowning glory. Comprehension of the geography and physics of movable towns is achieved with ease by writing of such quality; the two central characters of Tom and Hester are just wonderful; the twists and turns of the plot, the dangers, the short-term obstacles and the longer-term consequences are fascinating, and the way in which disparate pieces slot one into another is breathtaking.
Philip Reeve illustrated by David Wyatt
Starcross
Bloomsbury (347 pages) 9780747589136
The drawings of David Wyatt are a fully integrated element of the storytelling in this sequel to Larklight. The setting is a Victorian-type age but with extraordinary space travel and complex machinery of all kinds. It is all non-stop action, witty invention, crazy opposites clashing, and has a habit of bursting into songs of the popular music-hall persuasion. Everything is brim-full with a wonderful sense of being seriously ridiculous, of melodrama and of dangers galore around every planet and in every domestic utensil. There are dryly off-beat remarks and a roundabout approach to all manner of matter and incidents. Phenomenally grand, but totally unpretentious, knockabout fun.
