4/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
I found this buried in a dusty box of childrens books in St. Peter's church in the town of Sandwich in Kent. My copy is stamped with 'Ellington and Hereford School'. I'm pretty sure I read this in the distant past - the cover looks familiar anyhow.
This tale follows the exploits of Gamaliel, who is a wereling. This means he is able to shapeshift into a mouse or hedgehog or other small woodland creature. The story starts out with him learning how to morph for the very first time, but he is a denizen of Hagwood and soon he is csught up in all kinds of chaos!
I love Jarvis' use of language and creativity with worldbuilding and strange mutant creatures. This is aimed at older children and whilst the story isn't difficult there are numerous more challenging words, which I liked. Jarvis' is obviously someone who loves language, and gets satisfaction from the sounds and feel of certain words - the text abounds with malodorous, truncated, rancorous, ulcerous, putrid, cankerous... and that's just one chapter!
Also, he doesn't shy away from really revolting and disgusting descriptions, vile malicious characters and really horrid creatures. In fact he revels in the grotesque. I like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment