Love You to Death

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

I REVIEWED Eclipse, the third book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series in September last year. The book was preceded by Twilight and New Moon. To cut three big, fat books short: Teenager Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, a sexy 150-year-old vampire who looks 17, fall in love and grope for pages on end. You would think that Meyer couldn't possibly have written close to 2000 pages on just human-vampire lust, but to hear the fangirls talk you'd think she had. You wouldn't be entirely wrong either to think that that's what most of Meyer's teenage fans love about the series.

At a book discussion group I facilitate, the 13-year-old girls were swooning over Edward. One of them told me that a friend of hers had whited out the name Bella in Eclipse and replaced it with her own so she could fully indulge in a fantasy relationship with the romantic, dreamily good-looking undead hero. It's came as no surprise that the girls were unimpressed by Bella's other love interest, Jacob Black, a native American shapeshifter - most Malaysian teenage girls I know prefer white boys. I'm not sure if, in this case, their partiality had anything to do with the fact that Jacob shapeshifts into a giant wolf. I mean, it's all very well having a boyfriend who hunts deer for nourishment (Edward and his family drink the blood of animals not humans - they're funny that way), but do you really want one who sits by the fireside gnawing on a bone?

Anyway, the fourth and final book of the series, Breaking Dawn (Little, Brown, 754 pages, ISBN: 978-0316032148) was released in Malaysia on Monday (Aug 4). In Eclipse, practically the whole time Bella's with Edward she's trying desperately to get into his pants and he spends the whole time trying to keep her out of them (yet he creeps into her bedroom and shares her bed on a nighly basis - like, duh!). At the end of that book, he's convinced her to marry him so that they can do the deed with a clear conscience!

So, what do you think would be uppermost on the minds of teen fans when they pick up their copies of Breaking Dawn and rush home to devour the book? I admit I too was pretty curious about this vampire-human shagging lark. Now, Edward fears he will kill Bella with his, erm, enthusiam (he doesn't know his own strength, poor dear) so he'd prefer to do the wild thing with her only after he's made her a vampire: her strength will match his then and, hey, she'll be (un)dead anyway so no worries, huh? But that Meyer woman, it turns out, has another trick up her sleeve. Bella wants to experience the delights of the flesh as a human. She wants to delay being turned into a vampire so she can have a real honeymoon. Good lord, talk about perverse, and I'm talking about Meyer. For three books, she has Edward advocating abstinence before marriage, and then she has him still fighting Bella off even after she becomes Mrs Cullen!

Well, given how Edward eventually does give in to Bella, there doesn't seem to be a reason for delaying the "action" apart from the desire to prolong the suspense. This isn't just when it comes to the consummation of Bella and Edward's marriage. Later in the novel, the family has to prepare for an attack by the Volturi (self-appointed watchdogs of the vampire world). The Cullens are accused of a misdeed that may result in them being executed and they spend pages and pages discussing the situation, re-hashing ad nauseum the same facts and arguments and getting ready for possible war. In the end, the confrontation ends with a whimper that if, like me, you tend to skim pages, you might miss altogether. The book is full of this sort of endless exposition ending in anti-climax. Meyer's characters take a long time to state their points of view. The purpose, one supposes, is to increase the suspense, but Meyer overdoes it - the action (or rather inaction, because her characters do so prefer talking to doing) is drawn out for so long that the reader loses interest - whatever curiousity that is aroused in the first place gives way to irritation and impatience, and by the time a resolution is reached, the response is simply, "Oh, god, I waited all that time for this?"

If you read the reviews on Amazon, there is an obvious split between fans who are really disappointed and fans who are gushing like burst pipes. Although I've never been a fan, I was prepared to be amused and entertained. Instead, I am rather disturbed (creeped out is a more accurate description) by several plot developments and the portrayal of Bella. Discussing my concerns in detail would give the story away so all I'll say is that I worry about the sort of messages teenage girls will receive from Breaking Dawn. The book raises some very serious questions, but the way they are handled and "resolved" make me wonder what Meyer's attitude towards these issues is.

The book group I mentioned above will be discussing the book in September and I'm really curious to hear what the girls (and one boy) have to say about it. I definitely intend to talk about all my doubts - I hope they won't beat me to a bloody pulp with their copies of the book!

So, what next for Meyer's fans? Well, of course there's the movie (of Twilight, the first book), due to be released in December. The trailer is really something, especially the bit where Edward asks Bella, "Are you afraid?" and she answers, breathlessly, "I'm only afraid of losing you."

Meyer is currently working on Midnight Sun, a novel about Edward (picture the stampede to the bookstores!). On her website (www.stepheniemeyer.com), the author says that the book started as a character development exercise and that she decided to develop it further because Edwards deserves to tell his story. She says: "At first I was planning to post it all here on my website, but I changed my mind for two reasons, the most important being that Edward's version is much longer than Bella's—Edward over-thinks everything. I'm not even half way done, and the page count is near three hundred." Oh dear. Well, if you're curious there are links to the first chapter on the website.

If December is too long to wait for your next dose of Edward and Bella, there's always A New Dawn, a collection of essays about Edward and Bella. They're written by authors of young adult fiction, like Megan McCafferty and Linda Gerber, and pretty much just sing the series' praises so don't expect any literary criticism or discussions about the sociosexual questions posed by author (however unintentional they may be).

And if your Bella-Edward itch still needs scratching, there is fanfiction. If you happen to be one of those fans who doesn't like what happens in Breaking Dawn, writing your own conclusion to the couple's romance might be the way to go. In fact, the beauty of fanfiction is there never ever has to be an end to the story.

Pauline Baynes 1922-2008

Pauline Baynes, the illustrator of C. S. Lewis's Narnia books, died on 1st August.

She was 86.

For many she will live on because of the iconic images she created for Lewis's series, in particular (for me at least) that evocative picture of Luch and Susan frolicking with Aslan (on the cover of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and the one (in the same book) of Lucy walking through the snow with Tumnus the Faun (left).

In fact, Baynes illustrated books many other books by other authors, including J. R. R. Tolkien, Rumer Godden and Helen Piers. I was surprised to discover that she was also responsible for the cover for the first paperback edition of Richard Adams's Watership Down. That's one cover I remember distinctly from my childhood - I didn't know she was the illustrator until I read about her her death on Brian Sibley's blog.

Sibley also wrote her obituary in The Independent.

Books for All Babies

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

By DAPHNE LEE

ABOUT a month ago, I had the good fortune and pleasure of "meeting" a librarian by the name of Rashidah Begum. Like so many first-meetings in this day and age, it happened online when Rashidah emailed me about an exciting programme she is involved in.

"Every Baby a Book" was launched in July 2007 by the Penang Public Library. It brought together two ideas: to produce a durable children's book from cloth and to provide every new baby in Penang with a book, in the hope of nurturing a love for reading.

This programme reminds me of "Bookstart", a British project that aims to provide every baby in Britain with free packs of books in order "to inspire, stimulate and create in children a love of reading that will give them a flying start in life". "Bookstart" is run by Booktrust, a British charity funded by the Arts Council of England, and supported by British booksellers and publishers. The official website stresses the importance of showing that "books are fun!"

It's marvellous to think of a similar programme being launched in Malaysia. The Penang Public Library certainly has the right idea in targetting children from the word go and in involving parents in their efforts. Research shows not just the benefits of exposing children to books and reading from an early age, but also how children thrive if they are read to at home by their parents. I guess nothing beats sharing an activity with loved ones in a familiar and safe environment.

Unlike "Bookstart", "Every Baby a Book" is based on a single book that has been developed specifically for the programme. It is A4 in size, with a horizontal (or "landscape") layout. The material is a synthetic blend, silky and smooth in texture. There are all together 11 leaves (22 pages), inclusive of the books' covers.

Owing to the book's size and the thinness of the material, the reader has to rest the book on a flat surface to turn the floppy pages easily. Babies and toddlers would probably use the floor, although tiny fingers might lose their grip on the slippery fabric.

The book opens with a short introduction to the programme. This is followed by instructions on how to use the book. The actual content (that would be used by children) fills 10 pages and comprises "alphabets", "numbers", "colours and shapes", "I", "coconut tree", "fruits", "hibiscus", "fish", "animals" and "computer".

Each concept or subject is introduced without the use of text, only pictures. It is up to parents and care-givers to expand on the basics provided by the book. The "parents' guide" includes tips on how to do just that.

Rashidah mentioned to me how important it was, to those involved in producing the book, that it should feature Malaysian content. Hence, I suppose, the inclusion of "coconut tree" and "hibiscus", which otherwise might seem arbitrary.

Also, there are pictures of bananas and durians in the "fruits" section. Only bananas and durians. This, I feel, is going too far in the other direction, no matter how tired you are of reading about apples, oranges, peaches, pears and plums.

One of the things that worries me about this programme is how there is very little in the book that actually stimulates a child's imagination. If all we need are letters and numbers, arranged in a row, one might as well write them out oneself (on cardboard, if durability is an issue). As for the pictures, they are presented in an abstract manner, floating on the page, unrelated to a story, not even part of a scene that might be used as a basis of a story. The guide suggests what parents might say about the pictures, but would your child apreciate being told what the five petals of the hibiscus symbolise? Well, yes, if the hibiscus was part of a story, but not, I think, apropos of nothing at all.

I think the aims and objectives of� the "Every Baby a Book" programme are admirable. It really is an excellent idea to get parents actively involved by holding training sessions and workshops that show them how to read to children. I do, however, have reservations about the book produced specially for the programme and wonder if it could be replaced with a selection of books that are better suited to capturing the attention and interest of children.

Authors and illustrators whose lifework is writing and drawing for the amusement of children are the ones who are most qualified to produce books that will encourage a love for reading. While I am passionate about promoting reading, and I can see how sincere the Penang Public Library's intentions are, I feel we would fare better if we used the works of "experts" like Margaret Wise Brown and Rob Campbell, Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak to further the cause.

I wrote to Rashidah about my concerns and in her reply she said, "I would like to emphasise that the programme is the first of its kind here and I would like to consider it an evolving programme. This means that the approach, and even the content may change as we get feedback."

That a programme such a "Every Baby a Book" even exists in Malaysia is heartening and I applaud the Penang Public Library for its vision and effort.

Discovering the World

I never enjoyed geography lessons when I was in school. All those names! All those terms! They didn't seem to have anything to do with my life. If only I had had J. Patrick Lewis's A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme to bewitch and encourage me!

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

A WORLD OF WONDERS: GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELS IN VERSE AND RHYME
By J. Patrick Lewis
Publisher: Dial Books, 40 pages (ISBN: 978-0803725799)

BROWSING at a recent booksale, I came across an excellent way to introduce children to geography. Hmm ... how dubious that sounds! Would any child be interested in the "study of the earth and its features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity" (www.dictionary.com)? Put that way, probably not.

On the other hand, "So many places have fabulous names,/ Like Fried, North Dakota,/ The Court of St. James,/ Siberia, NIgeria, Elria, Peru,/ The White Nile, Black Sea,/ And Kalamazoo! The Great Wall of China, South Pole and Locj Ness,/ And 104 Fairview - that's my address!" is definitely intriguing.

"Thousands of spaces are places to be -/ Discover the World of GE-OG-RA-PHY!" writes J. Patrick Lewis, author of A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme. He continues, "Travel by boat or by car or by plane/ To visit East africa, Singapore, Spain./ Go by yourself or invite a good friend,/ But traveling by poem is what I recommend." Those who globe-trotters and jetsetters may turn up their snouts at it, but arm-chair travel is not to be scoffed at - especially considering the price of fuel ... and the ozone layer.

Lewis writes humorously about brave (and nosy) explorers like Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan and Tenzing Norgay (no Cheng Ho though); tackles, gleefully, geographical phenomena like the aurora borealis; explores the significance of place names; provides solutions for those who confuse longitude and latitude, and stalactites and stalagmites.

His creative rhymes ("equate her" with "'frigerator"!) certainly help fix facts in one's mind - this is a very helpful devise when mugging for exams. Memorising these poems also can help make you the life and soul of the party ... or brand you an insufferable show-off. My favourites "Sri Lank used to be Ceylon./ Ancient Persia? Now Iran./ Zaire was Congo way back when,/ Now it's Congo once again." (from New Names, Old Places) and "The Arctic is water all covered with ice./ Antartica? Land (frozen paradise)." (from The Arctic and Antartica: Which is Colder?)

I learnt some interesting facts from this book. Did you know, for example, that there's standing room on the island of Bali for Earth's population? Well, you do now!

A World of Wonders is illustrated by Alison Jay who uses oils overlaid by crackle varnish that gives her work an aged look. Jay has published many picture books using this technique. In this case, her pictures have the effect of an old map, perfect for a book about geography as it recalls an ancient atlas or globe. However, rather than the yellowed patina of age, Jay's colours are fresh and vibrant, dominated by shades of blues and greens, with touches of rich earth tones.

This is a beautiful book - a valuable addition to libraries public and private, it will gladden the hearts, minds and eyes of young and old alike.

Double the Fun

I remember being really upset that I didn't have double eyelids. My sisters (all three of them) had them and advised me to stick tape on my lids to produce the desired "fold". I seem to remember trying this method and others too, including applying baby oil to the lids and "encouraging" a fold by drawing it on with the blunt end of a toothpick!

This was when I was in primary school so I shall blame my shameful and ridiculous behaviour on ignorance and youth.

By the way, my efforts with toothpicks, tape etc did not pay off. However, I ended up with double-eyelids anyway. I can't remember when they appeared, but according to a character in An Na's The Fold, it sometimes happens when you grow older and the skin on your eyelids become thinner!

From StarMag, 13th July 2008

Review by DAPHNE LEE

SKIN DEEP
By E. M. Crane
Publisher: Delacorte Press, 273 pages
(ISBN: 978-0385734790)

THE FOLD
By An Na
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 280 pages
(ISBN: 978-0399242762)

IN the social hierachy of her high school, Andrea Anderson falls between "Too Lame to Invite to a Party" and "Too Ugly to Go Out With". She doesn't really mind. It's better not to be noticed than to make a bad impression or to be laughed at: "I AM plainish, boring, nervous," says Andrea. "Average student. No school activities. Andrea Anderson, a Nothing. I just am."

But Honora Menapace disagrees with Andrea's assessment of herself. Honora is Andrea's neighbour. Diagnosed with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, she hires Andrea as an assistant. Honora remarks that the word "and" occurs twice in the name Andrea Anderson. To Honora this means that there is always more to come. Andrea is "not a surface person". ""You are continuing",' she says.

Honora is unlike anyone Andrea knows and, thanks to her, Andrea starts to view the world and people differently. The fact that Honora herself turns out to be totally unlike what Andrea and the rest of the neighbourhood imagined, forces the teenager to re-think things. And as she gets to know Honora better and allows her employer into her life and her thoughts, Andrea finds herself looking more closely at her schoolmates, her teachers, even her own mother, and noticing things about them that she never stopped to consider before.

Honora's trust and belief in Andrea boosts her self-worth and -belief and gives her the courage to open up to others. Her newfound willingness to connect with another human being, something she'd always viewed with dread, makes her new friends that she would never have dreamt of connecting with. She realises that she has been judging her cute neighbour Roger, and Ashley, the pretty cheerleader, based on their looks and popularity in school. Their friendly overtures towards her are, at first, viewed with suspicion and apprehension, revealing not only prejudice on her part but also a lack of self-esteem that prevents her from seeing herself as worthy of their attention and friendship.

It turns out that Ashley is also going through change. For her, it is a more conscious one as she strives to break out of the seemingly perfect world that she inhabits.

'"It's not me,"' she tells Andrea at one point. '"I need a damn intermission from it all so I can take a break, My life just turned out this way, and this way is so incredibly boring and competitive and frivolous, I need a break."'

It seems that it's not just the "plain", "boring", "nothing" people who don't get a chance to reveal their hidden depths.

Skin Deep, like most young adult novels, is about self-realisation. Here it is portrayed through the experiences of Andrea and also, to a lesser degree, Ashley, as well as Andrea's mother who, although a grown-up, is also struggling to find her identity and role in life.

E. M. Crane has created a rich cast of characters, all of whom are vividly portrayed through their words and actions. Often, you get a powerful sense of what a character is like simply by Andrea's reaction to him or her. Mr Diego, Andrea's homeroom teacher, for example, leaves a deep impression although he is in just two short chapters. His suicide early in the novel makes every moment he spent on the page significant in hindsight. (I went back and re-read Mr Diego's scenes, searching for clues.) His death causes Andrea and the reader to think of him as more than just a bad-tempered, bitter man. It made me acutely aware of how easy it is to dismiss people, to simply take them at face value, never for a moment wondering or even caring what causes them to behave the way they do. Someone shouldn't have to die before they are noticed and their feelings considered, but, sadly, this is often the case and Andrea's reflections on the dead Mr Diego shed more light on the man, and the attitudes of those around him, than the few lines that portray him when he was alive and kicking.

Andrea, as the central character, is easy to sympathise and empathise with. Although at first thoroughly unremarkable, she is likeable - shy but curious and thoughtful, fearful yet brave, self-effacing and unsure yet open and eager. I very quickly started caring intensely about Andrea, wanting the best for her, hoping for triumphs and revelations that would leave her breathless and transformed.

Honora's friendship does change Andrea, and by the end of the book you believe that she is well on her way to being the sort of person who takes the road less travelled, touches lives, makes a difference and tries to see in others what is often missed. And you wish you were that sort of person too.

Joyce, in An Na's The Fold, is, on the other hand, someone you wouldn't really want to be like. In fact, she is someone I probably was a lot like ... once ... when I was a teenager - a time of life I would pay good money to not revisit.

Joyce is a American-born Korean who believes she is a failure because she is not as pretty as her older sister, and John Ford Kang, the half-Caucasian, half-Asian boy from school, doesn't know she exists. She wants so badly for JFK to notice her that she seriously considers going for an operation that will give her double-eyelids. Aigoo!

Joyce's insecurity, her envy, and depression are realistically portrayed, but she is really annoying and I wanted her to either get the operation and shut up already, or have her big moment of realising she's beautiful just as the good lord made her and ... well, shut up already too. I guess the difference between Andrea and Joyce is Andrea just gets on with things whereas Joyce whines constantly. The whining is quite off-putting. Whenever it got too much, I'd to stop reading so it took a while to finish the book. Luckily, Joyce has family and friends who are nicer and more patient than I am. They stick by her no matter how annoying she gets.

I badly want to spank Joyce and, unfortunately, I know several Malaysian teens whom she reminds me of. They would so totally relate to her dissatisfaction with her looks, her wish to have more Caucasian features and her partiality to boys who don't look totally Asian. I don't know if they would want to read about Joyce though. They are so into the whole idea of being white that the problems of an Asian girl, no matter how similar to their own, would probably not appeal to them. The average Malaysian teen would be more willing to scrape the surface of Skin Deep than to be part of The Fold.

About a Boy

From StarMag, 29th June, 2008

Review by DAPHNE LEE

SLAM
By Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin, 342 pages
(ISBN: 978-0141324494)

I THOUGHT Slam was going to be about skateboarding. I was wrong and glad I was wrong. I used to skateboard when a teen - to impress a huge crush I had, who roller skated, but I didn't do any impressive stunts and I didn't think I'd be interested in reading about a guy doing them. However, as I said, Slam is not about skateboarding. It's just about Sam who skates and who worships the air skating champion Tony Hawks flips through.

He's so into Tony Hawk (or TH as he calls him) that he talks to a poster of the skater (skateboarding and skateboarder, Sam says, would be terms used only by losers) and, as he's read Hawk's authobiography countless times, finds it really easy to imagine his hero talking back, giving him advice, offering opinions, telling him where he's gone wrong and what he's done that's worthy of praise.

Anyway, Sam is a 15-year-old lad who lives with his single mum. Near the start of the book, Sam morosely reflects that his family isn't the sort that goes from strength to strength, each generation doing a little better than the one before. Instead, everyone just takes turns to make stupid mistakes that put paid to any hopes of success: "In our family," Sam says, "people always slip up on the first step. In fact, most of the time they don't even find the stairs."

Sam's mum's mistake was to have him at 16. She's only 32 - young for a mum, so young that Sam's skating buddy, Rabbit, considers asking her out! So, Sam is well aware that his family hasn't a good track record and although things seem to be shaping up nicely for him - he's doing well in school, especially in art; he's learning difficult skating tricks; and he has a girlfriend, a beautiful girlfriend called Alicia - you just know that this happy state of affairs isn't going to last for long. If they did, there'd probably be no book. Or a different book, anyway. Maybe one about skating!

Well, unfortunately for poor Sam and fortunately for those of us who'd loathe pages of him waxing lyrical about ollies, kickturns, 50-50 grinds and other skating tricks, the lad slips up, right according to family tradition. On his 16th birthday, Alicia announces that she's pregnant and Sam ... well, Sam, being young and stupid, runs off to Hastings where he hopes to remain for the rest of his life in blessed, childless anonymity.

However, since Sam is, deep-down, a good kid and life in Hastings isn't as easy as he envisions it, he comes right back and faces the music. This, as he's 16 and clueless, basically means panicking a great deal and making things up as he goes along, which new parents, no matter their age, do anyway. For Sam, things are rather more difficult though. Not only does he have to deal with problems that no 16 year old should have to face, he is denied the chance to face them one day at a time.

For some reason, Sam finds himself being whisked back and forward through time so that he's thrown headfirst into difficult situations. This results in some awkwardness. For example, when he has to get his baby vaccinated, he has no idea what the kid is called. And he has to do a nappy change practically not knowing one end of a baby from the other.

It is a bit like that though, being a new parent, so I think Hornby has hit on a plot device that conveys most effectively the shock-horror sensations experienced in the early days of parenthood. But as far as Sam's concerned, all this whizzing about through time is TH's doing. TH himself made his fair share of stupid mistakes and this is, supposedly, his way to helping Sam to cope with the consequences of being a young idiot. In a warped sort of way, it works: when Sam gets around to reliving those moments that he fast-forwarded to before, he has the benefit of hindsight and experience and is able to behave quite sensibly ... for a change.

If you've read Hornby's other novels, you'll know that men behaving badly is what the author is best at portraying. Or, or at very least, men behaving like selfish, petulant children. Sam, to break the mold, is a young lad behaving quite well, all things considered. Sure, he's flippant and foolish, and there are plenty of moments when you want to shake some sense and feeling into him, but he's 16, and he's allowed to have these moments. You expect him to be imperfect and make mistakes, you're prepared for heartless, cowarDly behaviour like attempting to dump Alicia by simply avoiding her, and you can even smile at idiotic ideas like choosing Green Day's American Idiot to play in the labour room.

This is Hornby's first young adult novel and it looks like he remembers rather well what it was like to be a teenager who expects not to make decisions more difficult that what cereal to eat in the morning and how many 'O' levels to take.

When he says something like how someone might try to steal your IPod but never your baby, it's cringe-worthy, but only if you're a parent whose greatest fear is that someone will kidnap little Timmy from his stroller at the playground. If you're a teen it's spot on and rather funny.

It's impossible not to like Sam, warts and all. And, after all, he isn't a bastard, just a scared, unsure kid who, by the end of the novel, looks like he might actually be quite a catch when he's 28. Although Sam slips up on the first step, he gets right up, starts climbing again (albeit thanks to some prodding), and will probably reach the top of the stairs ... some day.

The Mysteries of Fate

From Tots to Teens, StarMag, 27th January 2008

By DAPHNE LEE
THE MYSTERIOUS EDGE OF THE HEROIC WORLD
By E. L. Konigsburg
Publisher: Atheneum, 244 pages
(ISBN: 978-1416949725)

MOST of the time, coincidences are simply an accidental concurrence of events linked in one way or another.

But what of coincidences that bring people together? In E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, George Emerson says that it’s fate that causes people to be “flung together” and “drawn apart”.

But Mr Beebe the clergyman insists that it is often common interests, purposes or backgrounds that bring people naturally together. Yes, the old birds of a feather theory.

It’s not immediately obvious what Amadeo Kaplan, William Wilcox and Aida Lily Tull have in common that would cause their paths to cross.

The first is a 12-year-old, newly moved to Florida from New York. His secret wish is to make a discovery: he wishes to find something that has remained hidden for so long that no one remembers it or realises it ever existed – and he longs to share that wish with a friend.

William Wilcox is aloof, given to long silences, so self-assured he inspires “awe and fear or both”. Amadeo recognises him from school and is surprised when, one day, William gets off the school bus at his stop. It turns out that William is headed for Mrs Zander’s house. And Mrs Zander is Amadeo’s neighbour and was once Aida Lily Tull, heiress and opera diva.

Amadeo, William and Aida are characters in The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World, the latest novel by E.L. Konigsburg.

Like many of Konigsburg’s characters, they are slightly odd (eccentric, if you will). Amadeo and William are pre-teens who speak like wise (if slightly pompous) old men. Both are only sons, close to their mothers, drawn to Aida, a flamboyant, fabulous woman who likes spectacular outfits, champagne (served in crystal flutes, if you please!) and princess phones.

William is helping his mother, a liquidator, prepare the contents of Aida’s home to be sold off, as Aida is moving into a retirement home.

Amadeo is fascinated by Aida and her house, which, unlike his mother’s tastefully, professionally decorated home, is choc-a-bloc with things both precious and kitschy. He senses that this is where he might make his discovery and persuades William to allow him to help sort through Aida’s stuff.

Of course, Amadeo does make a discovery – in fact, he makes several, not least about love and life, human nature and friendship.

William and Aida open up new worlds to Amadeo, exposing him to unexpected and unusual situations and provoking reactions and emotions that are amazing, surprising and disturbing.

Each experience gives Amadeo fresh insights into himself and his intentions and, finally, plays a part in shaping the action he takes when he finds a sketch of a woman drawn by Amadeo Modigliani, an artist whose work was labelled degenerate by the Nazis during World War II.

The Modigliani is the point at which the long and winding roads walked on by Konigsburg’s various characters converge, but Amadeo’s discovery is not something that no one remembers, but something that haunts the memories and conscience of a number of people.

However, more than simply recovering a lost object and work of art, he helps restore lost dreams and dignity.

The author writes in her usual straightforward style, but her characters are complex, mysterious and secretive, and their actions and motives are unclear, even to themselves.

One might see The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World as a simple but moving story about a boy who gets what he wishes for, but a deeper reading reveals a tale about the profound effect art has on the human spirit, how the past affects the present in ways unimaginable and fantastic, and how beauty can provoke the greatest kindness as well as the most incredible cruelty.

In the end, it is the common desire to set things right as well as the shared belief in the truth and life-changing possibilities of great art that brings Konigsburg’s characters together.

Konigsburg is a two-time winner of the Newberry Medal, for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) and The View from Saturday (1997).

For a complete list of her books go to this site.