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This book was first published in 1906.
Dan and Una are giving their own version of A Midsummer's Night's Dream when Puck, the last of the People of the Hills, appears before them. He brings to them some of the people who have lived there before and these people tell the children their stories. Dan and Una hear about the Romans and Hadrian's Wall, the Vikings, and Saxons and Normans after the Battle of Hastings.
10+
A sequel to Puck of Pook's Hill. Dan and Una hear about Good Queen Bess and Sir Francis Drake, England after the Norman Conquest and the Europe of Napoleon and Talleyrand.
10+
This book was first published in 1972.
The Driftway is a very old road running through the centre of England. At one time it was a drove road. People have been passing over it for thousands of years and many of these people have left messages for one another. That's what the Driftway is; a place where people leave messages. But not everyone gets these messages.
Paul is one person who does get the messages of the Driftway. He resents the fact that his father has remarried and he takes his little sister Sandra and runs away. They get a lift from a pedlar who travels around the countryside in a cart pulled by a horse and with two donkeys tethered behind. As they travel along the Driftway Paul sees some of the people who have passed before him. He hears their stories and gradually begins to realise that other people have their viewpoints too. The pedlar is also something of a philosopher and he helps Paul to understand the messages. By the end of the story Paul comes to accept that he has not been fair to his stepmother.
All this is worked out against a series of snapshots from the history of England; the Saxon village wiped out by the Vikings, the Civil War and the carnage of the Battle of Edgehill, the harshness of the game laws and the poverty of many people in the nineteenth century. Perhaps most interesting and instructive of all is a story of some Welsh drovers and a highwayman. We hear the story retold by all the characters and it is quite different each time.
Penelope Lively evokes the unique atmosphere of a very historic part of England and also makes her readers think deeply. She has won awards for some of her other books but, personally, I think that The Driftway is one of her best books.
10+
This book is from the Oxford Children's Modern Classics series. It was first published in 1939.
Peter is drawn to a tiny ship in a shop window - a ship with tiny shields hung over the sides and a carved boar's head at the prow. Peter manages to buy the little ship. Gradually he finds out that it is a magic ship. It can fly through the air and take him wherever he wants to go, even back into the past.
Peter and his brother and two sisters have many adventures with the ship. They travel back to Ancient Egypt at the time of the pharaohs and then they have an adventure with a modern archaeologist. They meet a Norman girl of their own age in the England of the Norman Conquest. They even go to Asgard, the home of the Norse gods where they learn that the ship once belonged to the god Frey. Odin tells them that there is no magic when one no longer believes. The children will grow up and then they will no longer believe in a magic ship. When that happens they should give the ship back to Frey and Odin will give each of them their heart's desire. The story ends when Peter takes the ship back to the shop. And yes, all the children get what they most want out of life.
I liked the part about Robin Hood best. On an earlier adventure Humphrey dropped his model engine. The children ask the ship to take them back to it. The engine has been found by Dickon who gets it to work. Instead of marvelling at this the superstitious people of the time are afraid. A wagon which goes without any beast to draw it and which has a chimney from which the devil himself comes in the form of a hot cloud! Dickon must be a witch. He is about to be burnt as a witch but the children go to Robin Hood and ask him to save Dickon.
The Ship that Flew is a pleasant story with its own charm. There are those who would say that modern children are too sophisticated for this kind of story now but I firmly believe that children to-day are not nearly so sophisticated as we are led to believe. There are enough gritty realistic books around. Children should be allowed some dreams. Let them read The Ship that Flew and use their imagination.
The Ship that Flew has a double interest. First as a book in its own right. Then it has an extra interest in the insight it gives of the time in which it was written - pre-war England when middle class children were addressed as "Master" or "Miss" by servants and the concept of "healthy eating" had not yet been invented.
10+
This is the tenth in the series about the time travelling boy footballers. It is the first in the series to have a double time slip.
A boys football team, the Tanfield Rangers are on a half term tour in the north of England. In this book they are in Whitby. They are given some free time and are split up into groups of four. Michael Winter, or Worm (short for Bookworm) is grouped with Ryan, Anil and Dazza. Worm wants to explore the ruins of Whitby Abbey and eventually the others give in to him. They race up the steps and find themselves back in 867. The Abbey is ablaze and is being looted by Vikings who force the boys to take part. Then they are taken aboard a Viking longship. There is a storm and the ship sinks but the boys survive and find they have gone through another time gate. They are rescued by the captain of a Whitby whaler at the end of the 18th century. They stay with the captain and his family for some time and there is much sparring between Ryan and the captain's son, Will Scoresby before the Time Rangers find themselves back in their own time. They play their football match and meet one of Will's descendants.
Although short this book manages to give a good historical background to Whitby - the Abbey, The Viking raid, and, in the later section, much information about a whaling and a famous Whitby family, the Scorebys.
The boys really come alive, particularly Ryan who carries a football about with him wherever he goes, and Worm who is more interested in history than football.
There is an interesting suggestion for future books in the series. In earlier books it has always been assumed that it is Worm who takes the others back in history, but here Worm suddenly snaps at Ryan and points out that Ryan and himself are the only two who have been in every time slip adventure. So what if it is not Worm, but Ryan who is responsible for the time travelling? Interesting.
An easy read for the nine plus age group
Nine year old Iain Barlass lives in Perth in Central Scotland. He suddenly discovers that he has a very special gift. From time to time he can see events that happened years ago. There are little cameos of a Carthusian monk and of a clan battle. Then he is given a chanter, or pipe, by a tinker woman. It is a magic pipe and Iain finds that he can play it, although he has never been taught how. When he goes with his school up the Sleepy Glen he plays it and Seamus Dhu appears and shows him a more detailed picture of the past. Later Iain and Seamus, together with Iain's father and teacher, work together to bring life back to the deserted glen.
This book is intended for younger children - in the eight to twelve age group. Within the framework of an original story it introduces some simple and basic history for young minds. The history is easily absorbed because the young readers are not overburdened with facts. For example, there is a chapter giving a vivid description of the Highland Clearances but the Jacobite Rebellions are not mentioned at all. The children are shown what happened but are not expected to consider the whys and wherefores. Very wise for this age group.
I liked the little touch at the end of regenerating the deserted glen. In other words, the past being used to provide an answer to a modern problem.
This is an interesting story which contains a fair amount of easily remembered history. It should certainly be of use to Scottish schools but it would be unfair to regard this as a glorified text book. It is an appealing story in its own right. It should also be of interest south of the Border as a remembrance of a holiday in Scotland.
8 - 12
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