Picture books

In my last few recommendations I would like to make a case for books that fire the imagination, not through words (or words alone) but through pictures. I think pictures can stimulate the imagination and the urge to write. I know they can. I have already tried to suggest graphic novels and strip cartoons. Here are some Dover books by artists and illustrators who whose work is as compelling as any novel.

I can't remember when I first encountered Gustave Dore, but it would have been some time in my teens. Though my taste in art moved on and became more sophisticated as I went to art college, I never lost my fascination with Dore.

Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem I have loved ever since I first heard it at school and it is one of those works that has become a kind of test of skill for illustrators. Every generation of illustrators feels the need to have a crack at it. Dore's is still one of the best versions in my opinion.

Dore's illustrations for Paradise Lost are extraordinary. I could (and have) looked at them for hours.

Goya's work seems often to teeter on the edge of insanity and Los Caprichos contains some of his most bizarre images.

The Disasters of War is full of absolutely grotesque and shocking images of barbarity and cruelty. It is also horribly fascinating of course.

I love Odilon Redon's work. His drawings and prints are so strange and haunting. I find them incredibly inspiring, both as an artist and a writer. In fact just looking at that spider on the cover makes me want to write something.

And yet more

Here are a few more book recommendations. . .

Mervyn Peake is extraordinary. He was a great illustrator - his work for Stevenson's Treasure Island and Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner is amazing. Both those pieces of writing have been illustrated many times, but his versions really shine out (if that is the right expression, given how dark they are). But then he also wrote the weird and wonderful Gormenghast books. Fantasy fiction at its gloomy best.


I am a big fan of the short story and it annoys me that it is seen as bite-sized and lacking in substance. H G Wells is a writer I really enjoyed when I was in my teens and I could easily have suggested The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, but I've chosen a book of his short stories. The Country of the Blind is one of his best. Once read, never forgotten.

I read David Almond's Skellig when I first started writing for children. I wanted to see what was out there and what the standard was like. Skellig was one of the things I read that made me very excited about the prospect of writing. A strange and moving book.

I'm reading this to my son at the moment. I had to review Susan Price's Feasting the Wolf recently and I thought it was very strong. It is short and punchy and although it is about Norsemen in Anglo-Saxon England, it is actually a fairly timeless study of the boredom and brutality of warfare. The endless ditch digging is reminiscent of WWI. But what makes this book stand out for me is the way the lot of women - as wives, slaves, even rape victims - is brought to the fore by Price.

Witch Child by Celia Rees. Hard to persuade boys to read a book with a girl on the cover - even when the girl is as striking as this one, and the cover as beautifully designed - but Celia Rees has made historical fiction for girls a force to be reckoned with. A very clever story, nicely told.


This was another book I was asked to review recently. Anne Frank's diary is justifiably famous and should certainly be in every library, but this book is by a school friend of hers - Hannah Goslar. They are separated early on in the narrative when Anna disappears into hiding with her family. Hannah believing that she has escaped. They do meet again, but under tragic circumstances. A short but powerful book.

Twilight. This is the first book that I am recommending that I actually have not read. I tried to read it, but I just could not get on with the writing. But it isn't for me, and the people it is for seem to lap it up. I recommend it purely on the basis that a library should have popular books in it to get the punters in - and they don't come much more popular than Stephanie Meyer's tale of teen-vampire-romance at the moment.

Now this book I can wholeheartedly recommend. Edward Gorey is utterly brilliant. Any compilation of his work would be just as good as Amphigorey because all of his work is equally superb. His humour so dark I can't believe that anyone would publish it if he turned up today, and I am not quite sure how it was published in the first place. I'm just very glad it was.

There has been a spate recently of picture books for older readers. Can I make a pitch for having some of these in a secondary school library? Some of us like pictures. It doesn't mean we don't like words, it just means we like to take pleasure in looking at narrative illustration. The Island is a thought-provoking, fascinating book.

Art Spiegelman's classic comic book looking at the horrors of the Holocaust deserves a place in any library. If ever a book showed that any subject at all can be tackled by the comic strip form - in the right hands of course - then this is it.

The wonderful Charles Schulz. What can I say? People who don't get Peanuts think it is cutesy or preachy (and it can, on occasion, be both those things) but it is so much more. These strips are funny and wise and I think they will be read forever.

Shaun Tan has made a name for himself doing picture books for older readers. In some ways they are a link back to the wordless novels of artists such as Frans Masereel (though without the expressionistic angst). I find his visuals a bit too intricate, but that is the painter in me speaking. I think I would have found them fascinating when I was in my early teens.

Zits is a strip about teenage life by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman. It is very American, and it can be hard to get past that. But it is still nicely observed stuff and some things about teenagers are the same wherever they live!


The Fire of Ares. Another nice piece of historical fiction, this time set in ancient Sparta. Historical fiction always carries the problem that your reader (especially if they are young) might not know anything at all about the age in which you have set your novel. Michael Ford gives enough background to make it seem authentic, whilst still producing an action-packed book.

As with Peanuts, it is easy to dismiss Calvin and Hobbes as cute. I must admit, I felt that way when I first saw the strip. But it has really grown on me. What was never in doubt was the fantastically accomplished drawings of their creator Bill Watterson.



At the risk of becoming a Ray Bradbury bore I am going to add this one. It is a lovely little hardback I have mentioned before on the blog. It is a Dave McKean illustrated short story called The Homecoming. Great story, great illustrations, beautifully presented.

War stories for boys

Ian Lamb got in contact from Bloomsbury yesterday to tell me that Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror has been nominated for yet another award. It has been shortlisted for the Calderdale Children's Book of the Year, which is great news. Thanks to all concerned.

I also forgot to mention that Scholastic sent me a proof of their cover for War Stories for Boys - a compendium of some of the My Story series - including my Battle of Britain book. It is due out next March.

Something tells me they may have to do something about that black on black type before then. . .

NB: Apologies to the designers of War Stories for Boys. They did not have black on black type. That was an anomaly created when I scanned the cover in and I was obviously reacting to that image rather than the actual thing. The type is very clearly metallic gold in the actual thing. and perfectly legible.

Yet more books

Continuing with my book recommendations for the British School in Rio library. . .

While I try and think of some more books for young adults, I want to suggest a few book that weren't written for children at all, but which I think would make good additions to a library catering for teenagers. It is a very personal list and features many of the books that I read when I was in my late teens (though some I did not read until later).

Some of these book will already be in the library of course. I recommend them - to teachers as much as to students - simply as an encouragement to read them without the off-putting sense of awe that comes with being a 'classic', even a modern one.

Ray Bradbury is a genius - as I may have mentioned before. He is one of those writers who just seems to have an endless supply of wonderful ideas. But ideas without the writing ability to make them work are worthless. Bradbury is a brilliant writer who manages to seem folksy and sophisticated in the same sentence. His short stories are superb and many have child or young protagonists.

And what library would be complete without a book which imagines a world where books are burned by the state. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns.


John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids is a brilliantly realised nightmare in which the world is suddenly invaded by murderous plants. The idea of someone waking to find the world utterly changed has been explored many times, but seldom better than in this book.

Raymond Chandler is one of my favourite authors. He has suffered by parody and poor imitation, but his books are a masterclass in writing. Sharp and witty prose, with never a superfluous word.

John Steinbeck is another writer who rarely puts a foot (or should that be finger) wrong. Of Mice and Men is a wonderful story about friendship, longing and loneliness set in the tough world of the Great Depression. Every library probably has a copy. I mention it only because it doesn't have to be studied as a set text. It can just be read and enjoyed as the brilliant book it is.

The Blood of Others. Simone de Beauvoir's novel about the French Resistance seems very relevant now, with its exploration of the limits of responsibility and the use of violence as a weapon in the service of a particular cause. Just how responsible are we for what happens to other human beings? Do the ends justify the means? That question is as relevant now as it was then.

The Outsider. Another book about violence by fellow existentialist, Albert Camus. But this time the violence is arbitrary, casual and senseless. Somehow that theme also seems only to have gained in relevance and pertinence. Camus was arguably the best writer of the existentialists and this book is superb.

The Old Man and the Sea. The French existentialists admired American writers like Hemingway for their spare prose. This book really grabbed my imagination when I read it at school, with its fable like story of an old man, a boy and a very big fish. . .

Bonjour Tristesse. Hello sadness. . . Francoise Sagan was only 18 when she wrote this haunting book about love and jealousy set on the French Riviera. There are lots of books about 17 year old girls around at the moment, and though I can't claim to have read them all, I would be surprised if any of them were as well written as this one.

Goldengrove/Unleaving. Another book about a teenage heart muscles being tested, but this time in the very English setting of Cornwall and by Jill Paton Walsh. This book was recommended to me by Suzanne Jones some time ago and is one of her favourite books. What a lovely piece of writing it is.

Hardly a radical choice - The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most famous novels ever written. Why does this book appear so often on lists of favourite books of all times? Because it is brilliant, that's why. From the wonderful opening page it is a fantastic piece of writing. Again there are lots of teenage first person narratives out there. But they aren't written by J D Sallinger.

William Golding is a wonderful writer. I suppose the obvious book to put here would be Lord of the Flies (which is fantastic, obviously - as is Pincher Martin or the The Spire for that matter), but I have chosen The Inheritors, a moving story about our ancient ancestors - a world that Golding conjures up brilliantly - and to unforgettable, heartbreaking effect.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. R L Stevenson is bit of a hero of mine. He wrote such a range of books and of such high quality. The idea of a man physically transforming into another version of himself seems timeless, as all the very best ideas do.





This is a classic book about cowardice and bravery in the face of battle. Stephen Crane's book is set in the American Civil War but will be endlessly relevant. The red badge of courage is a wound, of course.




It is hard to believe that one man could have as many superb ideas as Philip K Dick managed to have in his career. Practically everything he wrote seems to have been turned into a movie, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is no exception - it was the basis for the movie Blade Runner. The book is much more thought-provoking though, full of amazing ideas and images.





Dracula. I have returned to this book often since I first read it when I was fifteen or so. I read it after seeing Bela Lugosi in the title role in the 1931 Universal Pictures movie version on TV. But the book is far stranger and darker - distasteful even - than any movie version you will see.




I Am Legend. For a more modern take on vampires - Ricard Matheson wrote the book in the 1950s - have a look at I am Legend. It is brilliantly written and utterly terrifying. Is it horror? Is it sci-fi? Who cares? It is a wonderful piece of writing that will make you think whilst scaring the pants off you.


I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley at about the same time as Dracula (and like that book, one I have re-read several time). Everyone thinks they know this story because it has been filmed and copied and spoofed so often. But this is a very different beast from the movie versions. If you have never read it, almost all of your preconceptions will evaporate as the story opens on board a ship surrounded by Arctic ice. . .



And while we are on this horror theme, I will point you in the direction of Edgar Allan Poe. His stories can be a little florid, but that just adds to the weirdness. You will rarely read anything as dark and disturbing as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat or Berenice.

I have praised Saki before on this blog, but that isn't going to stop me doing it again. His stories range from horror to humour (usually black). They are very English and often feature children rebelling against authoritarian adults. They can be very dark. Short story collections are a good introduction to all kinds of writers.

I think Italo Calvino is a superb writer, but I am aware that he tends to divide opinion. I think some people find the books too contrived - too knowing. But that has never bothered me. I find his writing magical and thought-provoking and just incredibly clever. This is one of my favourites.


My Family and Other Animals. I read Gerald Durrell's novel of his childhood on Corfu to my son recently, expecting him to love all the nature references in it, but it was the comic episodes featuring Gerald's crazy family (including the novelist Laurence Durrell) that most amused him (and me).



I read all the Conan books when I was a teenager. I came to them via the Marvel comics series. One of the strokes of genius was Howard making Conan a bit dim. It gives the reader a different kind of relationship with this barbarian freebooter than we would otherwise have.

Susan Hill's novel is about children rather than for children, but it has increasingly found itself onto school set texts because it is such a powerful, gruelling study of bullying and child-to-child cruelty.



James Joyce? James Joyce? Am I really recommending James Joyce to teenagers? Yes I am. I once did a writing workshop with eight year old children based on the last few paragraphs of the last story in this collection - The Dead - with great results. They didn't know they were supposed to be scared of James Joyce. That story - with its story within a story of the poor, doomed Michael Fury - is one I regularly return to and the ending is one of my favourite pieces of writing.

Some more books

Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a superb book. It is strange and haunting and very, very scary. The dreamlike (or should that be nightmarish) tone of the prose is perfectly complimented by Dave McKean's illustrations. Short, but far from sweet.

The Children of Green Knowe is as strange in its way as Coraline, but Lucy Boston was a very different kind of writer. The interplay between the world of the present and the world of ghosts and of the past is incredibly complex. There are other Green Knowe books and they all have a feel about them that I can honestly say is unlike anything else I have ever read.

The Phantom Toll Booth is equally unlike any other book I can think of. It is a strange and lovely thing, fizzing with imagination and a love of language. Make sure you find a copy that has the the orginal Jules Feiffer illustrations.

And we have to have Roald Dahl, don't we? He is so familiar that it is easy to forget just how good his books are (and how much children love them). They are hugely imaginative, dark and often deeply odd. Dahl's voice is unique.

I loved this book when I first read it. My son recently read Jack London's The Call of the Wild and really enjoyed it. White Fang is sitting on his bedside cupboard waiting to be read. It is a fantastic book. It has strong characters, a great story and a wonderful setting. What more could you want?

Mark Walden's Hive books have proved hugely popular with readers and rightly so. They are fast-paced action adventures where certain 'gifted' children are kidnapped and taken to the Higher Institute for Villainous Education to hone their skills. Great stuff.

Louis Sachar's Holes is another book that it is hard to think of anything even remotely similar. The way the story is told is very unusual, moving back and forth in time and with a plot that skillfully binds all the characters together. It is set in a punishment camp for teenagers where they are forced to dig holes in a dried up lake infested with poisonous lizards in the baking sun. Why? Read it and find out.

My son is working his way through Michele Paver's highly successful series that begins with Wolf Brother. This is not so much historical fiction as prehistorical fiction, set in a vividly realised world of our hunter-gathering ancestors. I would have loved these books when I was 11.

Another series I would have enjoyed at that age are Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books. Percy Jackson - half boy, half god - has been a huge hit with children and I'm not surprised. I loved Greek myths when I was young and so too, presumably, did Rick Riordan, who has skillfully borrowed from those myths to create adventures stories that seem to really grab modern readers.

Stan Lee has spent a career inventing demi-gods and heroes Spider-man and the Hulk among them). He and Jack Kirby are one of the great writer/illustrator partnerships of all time (although it was the brilliant Steve Ditko who came up with the look of Spider-man of course). I have chosen the Marvel Essential book of the Fantastic Four, but all the Essential books are great value and a fantastic introduction to some of the best in American comics.

Clive King's Stig of the Dump is a very special book. It plays on the idea - an idea that children love - of a child having a secret friend. Just as in the movie E.T. the bond between the boy and the out-of-time hunter-gatherer is complex, with Stig being both vulnerable and powerful by turns. It shares some similarities with The Indian in the Cupboard as the boy comes to understand that Stig is not a plaything but a real person who needs to get back to his family and his own time. Make sure you get a copy with the Ardizzone peerless illustrations.

Collaboration between author and illustrator is common in picture books but Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell are possibly unique in collaborating so closely in books for this age group. Roald Dahl obviously had a very successful relationship with Quentin Blake, but Chris and Paul blur the job descriptions much more, with Chris being involved right from the beginning at the ideas stage. Their highly successful Edge Chronicles are drawing to a close, but this is where it all started.

I read this to my son last year or the year before and the whole time I was concerned that he would think the story was just too bizarre. But as we carried on it became clear that he absolutely loved it. I was far more resistant to the strangeness than he was. It is an astonishing book; a book that definitely merits the word magical.

As with the last list of books, by recommending a particular book I am in effect recommending the author, and definitely the series of which the book is a part if that is relevant. It is not an exhaustive list by any means, and if I think of more I will add them. Tomorrow I am going to list some books for older readers.