Kate Saunders (1) (1960–2023)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: (2012), 3/12/2013; PUBLISHER: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Library Binding edition); ISBN: 978-0375990908; PAGES: 304; Unabridged READING AGE: 10-12 years; LEXILE: 0700; GRADE LEVEL: 5-6.)
(Available as Digital)
*This edition-Audio: COPYRIGHT: 3/12/2013; PUBLISHER: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; ISBN: 978038568254; DURATION: 06:52:18; PARTS: 6; Unabridged; FILE SIZE: 197952 KB
Feature Film or tv?: No

SERIES:
No

MAJOR CHARACTERS:
Oscar (Oz) Spoffard – Eleven year old boy-Lily’s twin
Lily Spoffard – Eleven year old girl-Oz’s twin
Bruce Spoffard – Father to twins
Emily Spoffard – Mother to twins
Pierre Spoffard – Father's great-uncle
Marcel Spoffard – Father's father
Isadore Spoffard – Father's great-uncle
Jay – M16 divisional head agent
Allen – M16 agent
Demerara – Cat
Spike – Rat


SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:

Lily and her Twin, Oz have just moved into the inherited family home, and it’s inhabited by beings only they can see. Their parents are oblivious to this fact, and are unaware of their children's adventures, even after Lily, Oz, and the neighbor boy get recruited by M16 to capture an immortal murderer.

I selected this book because I love the narrator. It was great and I’ll be looking into others by this author.

AUTHOR:
Kate Saunders (May 4, 1960).
“Kate Saunders is the daughter of the early public relations advocate Basil Saunders[1] and his journalist wife Betty (née Smith),[2] She has worked for newspapers and magazines in the UK, including The Sunday Times, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph, She and Cosmopolitan.[3]

She has also been a regular contributor to radio and television, with appearances on the Radio 4 programmes Woman's Hour, Start the Week and Kaleidoscope.[4] She was, with Sandi Toksvig, a guest on the first episode of the long-running news quiz programme Have I Got News for You.[5] The BBC children's series Belfry Witches was based on her series of children's books about two mischief-making witches.

Saunders won the annual Costa Children's Book Award for Five Children on the Western Front (2014), a contribution to the classic fantasy series that E. Nesbit inaugurated in 1902 with Five Children and It.[6][7] She was also a contributor to the authorised Winnie-the-Pooh sequel, The Best Bear in All the World. Her children's novel The Land of Neverendings has been shortlisted for the 2019 Carnegie Medal,[8] as was Five Children on the Western Front in 2016.

She has written many novels, such as Wild Young Bohemians, and also co-wrote Catholics and Sex (1992) with Peter Stanford,[9] who was then editor of the Catholic Herald.[10][11] Saunders and Stanford later presented a television series based on the book on Channel 4.[12]

Saunders' acting work includes an appearance as a policewoman dated by Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses episode in 1982.[13]” - - - Wikipedia

NARRATOR:
Jayne Entwistle. There’s not much in the way of a biography online about Jayne, but she’s an excellent narrator with an English/British accent.

GENRE:
Fiction; Adventure

LOCATIONS:
England: Washford Commons (summerset); London

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (2012)

SUBJECTS:
M16, candy, magic, chocolatiers, immortality, talking animals; adventurers; cats; rats; London; Twins; moving; family home; ancestry; England; dyslexia

DEDICATION:
"To Norman and Evie, from their “only” child"

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1 “Skittle Street”
“’We’ll probably sell the place,’ Dad said, from the driver’s seat. ‘I shouldn’t think it’s worth much. The letter said it had been empty for more than seventy years.’
‘It’s probably a rat-infested ruin,’ said Oz.
‘Rats!’ squeaked Lily. ‘I hate rats!’
‘Keep your wig on, Lil,’ Dad said over his shoulder. ‘We’re only taking one quick look. I’ve never inherited a house before.’
The previous day, a strange parcel had arrived at the Spoffard family’s small house in Washford Common. It was from a solicitor name Mr. Spike. In his letter, he explained that Dad’s great-uncle Pierre had died and left him a house. The parcel had also contained a set of old keys and the title deeds to 18 Skittle Street, London N7.
At first Bruce Spoffard had thought it must be a mistake. As far as he knew, his great-uncle Pierre had been dead since long before he was born. ‘The three Spoffard brothers—my great grand-father and two great-uncles—were killed in a freak accident in 1938, when the tram they were in ran off the Thames Embankment.’
‘Pierre obviously didn’t die on that tram,’ said Oz. ‘I bet he deliberately faked his own death. Maybe his brothers did too.’
‘Steady on,’ Dad said, smiling. ‘Even if they did, they wouldn’t have lasted until now—they’d be about a hundred and twenty!’
‘I’m sure there’s a perfectly simple explanation,’ Mum said. ‘Whatever it is, this house couldn’t have come along at a better time—what with the mortgage and the twins’ shoes, and Oz’s music lessons and Lily’s tutor, and a new baby on the way.’
‘I don’t want a tutor,’ said Lily. ‘Sandra’s a cow—she blames me when I can’t do things.’
Her parents had heard this complaint many times before, and now ignored it. They had an amazing talent for not hearing things they didn’t like.
‘And this old car’s on the point of conking out,’ Dad added.
‘Oz costs a lot because he’s a genius, and I do because I’m stupid.’
‘For the last time,’ Mum said, studying the street map, ‘you are not stupid. You have dyslexia.’
‘I’m not a genius, either,’ said Oz. ‘If I were a genius I wouldn’t need music lessons, would I?’

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
4-14-2022 to 4-21-2022… (more)

Some pretty decent writers do passable impressions of A. A. Milne around some nice illustrations in the style of E. H. Shepard.

Autumn: in which Pooh and Piglet prepare to meet a Dragon / Paul Bright
~3 stars~
Christopher Robin cannot be disturbed as he prepares for his role in the school play as St. George the dragon slayer. In his absence, Piglet gets all worked up that a dragon is coming to the Hundred-Acre Wood and pulls everyone else into his fear spiral. Meanwhile, Eeyore is desperate to keep credit for finding a shiny thing buried in the ground. It's fluff, but a cute little joke about uncomfortable pauses actually felt like something Milne would write.

Winter: in which Penguin arrives in the Forest / Brian Sibley
~3 stars~
Based on an actual photo of Milne, Christopher Robin and the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal looking at a penguin doll, this story is a bit macabre. First, Owl gets all prejudiced and downright enraged by the non-flying bird and takes his speciesist ass right out of the story in a huff without redemption or comeuppance. And then toward the end, the tone gets very dark as Penguin disappears and Christopher Robin gets ominously vague as to where he went or if he'll return. I genuinely fear for Penguin's fate and wonder if it involves something that might occur in Sid's room in the first Toy Story movie.

Spring: in which Eeyore suspects Another Donkey is after his thistles / Jeanne Willis
~2 stars~
A very predictable and labored story about paranoia, reflections and mistaken identity. Rabbit's friends and relations show up, but get treated as second-class citizens when it comes time to sit for tea and they are consigned to chat amongst themselves under the table, beneath the notice of the main characters. Nasty.

Summer: in which Pooh dreams of the Sauce of the Nile / Kate Saunders
~3 stars~
An amusing expotition has Pooh and friends trying to find find the headwaters of the stream that runs through the Hundred-Acre Wood. Not a lot happens as the trail leads up to the inevitable book-closing party, but the dialogue is snappy and reminiscent of Milne, and Kanga gets to shine more than usual. Very nice.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Exposition -- Acknowledgments -- Autumn: in which Pooh and Piglet prepare to meet a Dragon / Paul Bright -- Winter: in which Penguin arrives in the Forest / Brian Sibley -- Spring: in which Eeyore suspects Another Donkey is after his thistles / Jeanne Willis -- Summer: in which Pooh dreams of the Sauce of the Nile / Kate Saunders -- Afterword / Paul Bright, Brian Sibley, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... )… (more)