REVIEW!: Wild Song- Janis Mackay- Piccadilly Press

Wild Song is a beautiful and enchanting book for children and adults alike. Janis Mackay spent a month on a Finnish Island on a writing residency, funded by Creative Scotland, to write this book, which sounds like a magical experience, and truly shows in the writing. The story follows Niilo, a 13 year old Finnish boy, who on top of having a terrible phobia of the sea, has horrible nightmares about drowning which drive him to spend his nights lying on the floor to avoid sleep, and disruptive anger issues which his parents can no longer deal with. Niilo is sent from Helsinki to live on a tiny island at the Wild School, where along with other boys who don't fit well with traditional education he is taught about nature, growing food, foraging, wood work and circus skills (among other things). Niilo's determination to 'free' drives him and he soon opens up to his case worker Hannu, who helps him search for his lost 'wild song'. 

Five things I loved about Wild Song:

5-The Finnish and Saami folklore was beautifully integrated into the story through Hannu. Seeing Niilo slowly embrace these stories and look for meaning and comfort in them was a great way to show his journey to finding those lost memories.

4-Niilo's anger issues were compassionately portrayed. With Niilo as narrator the reader was able to see and understand the thinking behind his actions, as Niilo himself attempted to understand them. Never were his feeling patronised or belittled, as his own version of events were what guided the reader.

3-Niilo's astute awareness of Hannu's methods of pep-talking and encouragement were spot on. Again Mackay never patronises Niilo, or the reader. He is aware when Hannu is gently pushing an idea on him, or telling him a story with a particular lesson in mind. He is even aware when that story is something he doesn't want to hear, and so stops listening. 

2-The Tove Jansson book in the wooden hut and Niilo wondering is maybe this island had been Tove's island. I love Tove Jansson's work so this reference gave me warm fuzzies when reading.

1-The seal! What a magical moment when the seal guides Niilo to shore, and helps him to fish, and keeps and eye on him. And the two seals popping up to greet Niilo and his mum, singing their wild song, was a perfect ending to a beautiful, thoughtful book. 

I'm strongly considering finding a way that I can spend a month on a Finnish island. Also my interest in selkies has been reawakened, and having a little look through Janis Mackay's previous work it looks like I have quite a few selkie-based children's books to indulge in. 

I'm currently doing the #MayBookChallenge on instagram- come follow me @ruthlily!

I was sent a copy of Wild Song by Hot Key Books/Piccadilly Press. This is not a paid review. All views are my own, and I just happened to love it! A version of this review has been posted on Goodreads and Amazon. Wild Song came out on 7 May 2015.

Childhood Favourites: A Series of Unfortunate Events- Lemony Snicket

These books were SO GREAT, and physically beautiful too. I got numbers 7 and 8 in Canada and the 'Unauthorised Autobiography" too, so they have different but equally beautiful covers to the UK editions. The signature humour and quirky writing style of Snicket felt so refreshing to read. The story of these three very unfortunate orphaned siblings spans 13 volumes, as they are shunted from one terrible or unsuitable foster carer to the next, slowing figuring out more about the mysterious secret organisation their parents belonged too, narrowly escaping the dreadful Count Olaf at every turn. It's an fantastic tale, with really great characters- even the baby is well developed- it never patronises, but teaches the reader words and theories along the way. The grim story made endlessly fascinating and readable with the use of quirk and humour in even the most unfortunate of events. 

Uncle Monty might just have been my favourite in The Reptile Room, he is exactly how I imagine Newt Scamander will be in Fantastic Beasts. I can remember reading The Vile Village and The Hostile Hospital on holiday in Canada- I was very excited to get them as they were not yet published in the UK. I think I read them them in 2 seconds flat in the RV we were travelling from Calgary to Vancouver in- that was a fun holiday! I also got the Canadian The Unauthorized Autobiography, which has a very different cover from the UK edition. The false cover (for keeping the book secret) reads "The Luckiest Kids in the World! Book 1! The Pony Party! by Loney M. Setnick." What more can I say:  I loved them!

The Unauthorized Autobiography/The Luckiet Kids in the World!

I've read only one of Daniel Handler's (Snicket's real name) books for adults, We Are Pirates, but the weird and wonderful quirky writing style is still there so I'll have to read some more. I also have one of his All The Wrong Questions series as Lemony Snicket, which have realllllly nice illustrations by Seth, I might have to collect a few more of that series. 

Book Memories: Childhood Favourites

Almost Forgotten Childhood Favourites

Sometimes I forget that I actually read a few books which were NOT part of the Harry Potter series when I was growing up. There were whole other series that I adored, authors whose every book I had to own, stories I would revisit again and again. So, to honour these almost-forgotten-favourites, I will be taking a little trip down memory lane over a series of blog posts to share my favourite childhood books and probably a few teenage favourites too! A lot of them are still popular with children and teens today, which makes me very happy, and some may have been forgotten, but either way I'll be giving them all a little bit of attention here.

What were your childhood favourites? Let me know!

March reviews coming soon too! I read We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury. I'm almost finished Sally Green's Half Bad, so that may sneak into the March reviews too!