The Snake-stone
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Cover Story
This issue's cover is a photograph of Anne Frank whose diary is discussed by Michael Rosen fifty years after its first publication. Following the arrest of the Frank family and their companions, the secret annex in Amsterdam where they had been in hiding was locked up and everybody forbidden to enter it, since Jewish possessions became Nazi property and were carted away. Before this happened, the young woman, Miep Gies, who had provided those in hiding with food and who had a second key to the annex, risked herself once more by entering it. Miep retrieved Anne's diary from the devastation together with the Frank family photograph album.
Thanks to Penguin Children's Books for help in reproducing this cover.
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The Snake-stone
The story of the adopted child who sets out to find her/his 'real' parent is a popular one in children's fiction. Rarely, however, is the theme tackled with such compassion or control as Doherty brings to it. James is a young teenager determined to trace his birth mother and this gives rise to the central narrative of the novel. The details of James's quest are skilfully interwoven with revelations of the circumstances which had led to his being abandoned as a baby; in turn, these strands co-exist with his growing prowess as a diver, potentially set to win national recognition in the sport. Linking all of these is the talismanic 'snake-stone' which, in both its literal and metaphorical manifestations, comes to cast its significant and compulsive spell on James and reader alike. In its presentation of a fascinating journey of discovery the book represents another fine achievement for its author.
