SOUTH AFRICAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Jay’s Thoughts this Month
From Manuscript to Book Launch
“I think that book publishing is about to
slide into the sea. We live in a literate time, and our children
are writing up a storm, often combining letters and numerals (U
R 2 1derful) … The future of publishing: 18 million authors in
America, each with an average of 14 readers, eight of whom are
blood relatives. Average annual earnings: $1.75.”
Garrison Keillor writing in the Chicago Tribune
Children's Book of the Month
JAMES
LITEL AND THE LAND OF MAGICOLOGYKR Elliott
Illustrated by MM Mohwaduba
New Voices Publishing
In the author’s words: “An action packed adventure to keep you on the edge of your seat!”
JAMES LITEL AND THE LAND OF MAGICOLOGY is an unusual choice for the Bookchat “Book of the Month”. Let’s be honest – it isn’t up to the usual standard of such choices.
It is written by a young author; it’s full of illogical bloodshed
and violence; there is no plot worth talking of; there is a
distressing lack of proof-reading; and it ends with that hoary
cliché “It was all a dream”. So why choose it?
Because it is bursting with inventiveness, it has surprising
panache, and because I suspect that this author will (one day)
produce something of lasting quality. Take this description of a
hospital nurse: “She was soft on the eyes and she had a nice shaped
body and the biggest pair of you-know-what’s James had ever seen”.
The fact that James gets killed frequently, even having his skull
cracked open, is just something that a hero has to put up with. The
vivid description is gory, pointless, relentless, constantly
surprising and horribly riveting. Not for the faint-hearted!
REVIEW ARCHIVES