Raspberries on the Yangtze
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by Fangorn is taken from Brian Jacques’ Lord Brocktree (Hutchinson, 0 09 176877 2, £12.99), the thirteenth title in the internationally best-selling Redwall series. Salamandastron, the ancestral home of the Badger Lords, is under threat from Ungatt Trunn, an enemy whose power would seem to be absolute and whose evil knows no bounds. The only hope for survival is the badger Lord Brocktree who is drawn to the fortress by an undeniable sense of destiny. Brian Jacques' masterful storytelling as always spins a web of high adventure that will enthral the reader from the first page to the last. Thanks to Hutchinson Children’s Books for their help in producing this September cover.
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Raspberries on the Yangtze
From the opening sentence ('It all began the day my brother and I decided to poison our mother') this novel takes us into a childhood summer past where high drama is mostly the stuff of children's fantasy. Nancy, her older brother Andrew and friends, play in a backwater of the Gatineau River in Quebec, enacting fantasies and swinging on the squeaky, sagging wire fence with wild raspberries on the other side, the fence making its 'Yang' sound - the Yangtze of the title. The misunderstandings, which begin with the opening line, extend into untangling the puzzles of adults and their world. Nancy has already deciphered the facts of life from careful observation and sells a booklet to the less knowing - 'Sexual intercourse takes place in cupboards. That's why all bedrooms have them. That's what cupboards are there for.' The mystery of sexuality surrounds Nancy in cleverly woven strands of plot neatly balanced against the richness of childhood play. A book to hang around with.
