Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
November 1, 2011/in Fiction 10-14 Middle/Secondary /by Angie Hill
BfK Rating:
BfK 191 November 2011
Reviewer: Geoff Fox
ISBN: 978-1906427467
Price: £6.99
Publisher: Chicken House
Genre: Fiction
Age Range: 10-14 Middle/Secondary
Length: 400pp
Buy the Book

Ravenwood

Author: Andrew Peters

The remote, tree-covered island of Arborium is far more valuable than its population knows. Wood has almost disappeared from the planet, but here forests thrive. Ark Malikum and his family live with their fellow Dendrans up in the treetops, a mile above ground, in a kingdom of scaffolded walkways, hovels and palaces, paupers and princes. Or, in Ark’s case, plumbers.

The story is driven by greed; devious outsiders want Arborium’s timber and ruthless insiders want to topple old King Quercus and grab power. (The chief baddie is called Grasp.) Young Ark and his burly mate Mucum get tangled up in the struggle and long tracts of the book are taken up with the boys being hounded by a couple of lumbering thugs called Silex and Alnus (close kin to the Broker’s Men); when these two are not on the scent, the lads are being hunted, more dangerously, by the overweight Petronio, Grasp’s ambitious and distinctly nasty son.

Peters can tell a cracking story, no doubt. But – maybe it is the performance poet in him – he insists on an obvious, often scatological humour which his story and his young readers really don’t need. The pages are covered in squit, poo and doo-doo, and there’s a good deal of action involving drains, soil pipes, sewage and squit-cannons. ‘Squit-features’ is a standard insult. It doesn’t take loads of shit (and a dollop of graphic gore for good measure) to excite or amuse children. And how many tree-puns can you take? ‘A bunch of make-be-leaf’, ‘Oaky-Doaky’, ‘the River Sticks’, ‘run holly-for-leather’ – and hundreds more where those came from. ‘Buddy Holly’ is a Dendran oath, though it might be tricky for 2011 young readers to get the reference. This would have been a stronger novel – an original, fast-paced, well-plotted novel – without the laboured humour which inevitably cloys the prose. Fair enough – many children may initially enjoy the naughty squit stuff and the puns, but to go on and on along this path seems condescending and arch.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Angie Hill http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Angie Hill2011-11-01 00:00:232022-01-28 12:43:10Ravenwood

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue Bfk 272 May 2025
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

Margaret McDonald and her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu win the 2025 Branford Boase Award

July 9, 2025

‘The magic of poetry by heart’ Champions of the 2025 National Poetry Speaking Competition Announced

July 8, 2025
IBC

New National Year of Reading launching January 2026

July 8, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
Ashes Dark Inside
Scroll to top