Erin the Literary Cat : Adventure

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Thursday, 10 July 2025

MAISIE vs ANTARCTICA

Written by JACK JACKMAN

Small cover image. The book cover is in matt pale blues, aqua/turquoise, with a near diamond pointed middle section that extends to points north and south and with flat sides east to west. Within and central is the books title, above is Maisie and her father in the antarctic and below is an ornate compass in red and orange. in the outer quadrants/corners, from top left clockwise appears a skidoo, a plummeting, orangey coloured plane with smoking engine, a brown seal looking left, and three penguins looking right. The authors name appears in gold within a pale creamy box between along the bottom. All of the above appear in a small scalloped white and gold band set in from the book edge.

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.

Hello, and welcome to my latest Read & Review, featuring this week a chilling Antarctic adventure in Middle-Grade Fiction.

Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, standing poised beside a team of huskies and sledge with a tube of seal repellant in hand, let's shout MUSH and launch off into first-in-series review of a blindingly brilliant adventure . . .

Large book cover image. The book cover is in matt pale blues, aqua/turquoise, with a near diamond pointed middle section that extends to points north and south and with flat sides east to west. Within and central is the books title, above is Maisie and her father in the antarctic and below is an ornate compass in red and orange. in the outer quadrants/corners, from top left clockwise appears a skidoo, a plummeting, orangey coloured plane with smoking engine, a brown seal looking left, and three penguins looking right. The authors name appears in gold within a pale creamy box between along the bottom. All of the above appear in a small scalloped white and gold band set in from the book edge.

AUTHOR: Jack Jackman

Illustrations by: Marco Guadalupi

Published by: Nosy Crow

Publication date Paperback: 10 October 2024

Paperback 13 digit ISBN: 978-1805131359

UK Cover price for Paperback: £7.99

Amazon KINDLE price: £6.98

Pages: 256

Age range: 8-12 and upwards

Any dogs or cats? No, a few other beasties from the Antarctic waste and waters.

SPOILER ALERT

Yes, as to plot direction and characters.

Thank you to...

We are exceedingly grateful to Hannah Prutton, Nosy Crow Publishers, and Net Galley for offering us this fantastic adventure for our Read & Review.

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, received as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review.

First and foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.

The plot

BANG! That's how we are thrown into Maisie's adventure, and for three stunning, breath-freezing pages, Maisie recounts her plight. How the Spanish-speaking pilot, Guillermo, is slumped over and her boring jigsaw-loving father, who has never piloted a plane, even though he has written a book on How to Crash Land a Plane, is fighting at the controls of a light aircraft as it plunges to certain death and disaster.

Then, as things change from blue to white, Maisie then takes us back to how she finds herself in this plight. It is ultimately all down to a babysitter's son choosing to flood his home, building a moat for his Lego castle. It is the Christmas holidays, and her dad is off to do research on how to survive in the Antarctic. A quick in and out, staying a day between. His other books work along the lines of How to Build a Zip Wire, How to Wrestle a Crocodile and How to Defuse a Bomb. None of which he has ever done or had the time to do, what with looking after Maisie on his own after his wife died.

But, the upshot is that rather than not go, Maisie sees a chance to have a small adventure to make her Christmas holiday break for once sound fabulous rather than dull when she recounts it to class come term time. Little does she know what awaits, and that's excluding the plane crash.

When we rejoin after this little foray back in time, Maisie finds herself alive and on the ice. Guillermo is alive and wounded, but her father is OK. Of the plane, there is no sign, but her father says it is further along the ice.

It soon becomes clear that nobody will be coming for them as their flight is illegal. They shouldn't have been flying to Antarctica and had filed a flight plan to somewhere else. Additionally, Guillermo's battered plane doesn't have a working radio.

Pretty soon, after some help and chewing things over, Maisie and her dad set to making an igloo. A much better one than those semi-built igloos Maisie finds out on the ice. But where did they come from if nobody lives there? They drag the pilot under cover, and in doing so, Maisie notes that they leave trails in the snowy ice. Yet, there are no trails from when her father dragged the pilot to safety from the plane.

They have priorities, and having built a shelter and retrieved a stove from his rucksack, the next is food. Now, this is where some fun info about penguins comes in as father and daughter head off to find some fish. And where there are penguins, you'll find fish. But where you find penguins near the edge of an ice flow, you'll also find peril that will eat a small, overly-hasty girl, no matter the time of day.

The beast is as surprised by missing his target as Maisie is at still being alive and not in its jaws when the former and the latter face each other on the ice flow with a healthy distance between them. Has she just been teleported? It seems like she has, and maybe it isn't the first time, either. Could it be that they all survived the plane crash because none of them were on the plane when it did crash? Is her father an actual superhero with teleport skills?

It is a suggestion that her level-headed (dull) father says isn't possible. But as they say in the state of Denmark, something is very fishy indeed. And Maisie is determined to find out what it is.

When Guillermo is awake, he lends Maisie his much food-stained map. It is on this they discover Antarctica isn't as uninhabited as they thought. Right about a cigarette burn through the map is a British scientific research base. It's thirty kilometres away, too far to walk in a day, especially in cold weather and icy winds.

Which is when Maisie's dad heads off to use the plane's radio. But after he has gone out, Guillermo says he'll have a hard time fixing it as he left the radio in the aerodrome!

What happens next is, well, surprising. Chasing after her dad, Maisie ultimately finds him asleep on the ice, his head on a snow pillow. His clothes are in tatters, and he is injured. What has happened to him? And more's the point, when asked if he got the radio working, the one that wasn't there, he says it didn't work properly so he left a message instead! Could he be delusional, or has the mystery just dialled up a notch?

Which is where Mrs H has plucked the metaphoric pen from my paws and insisted I stop the review. Suffice it to say, at less than halfway through this adventure, and having not revealed everything that has happened up to this point, I have most definitely left the best to last.

So, what did we think? SPOILERS

Talk about starting the book with a bang. This one literally threw us head-first into a nosedive plane crash in the Antarctic, and the adrenaline created fuelled us to the end. Such clever writing. We loved how so very neatly, after the shock of the first three pages, we rewound and brought ourselves up to speed in the preceding few days, not that speed was lacking anywhere.

I thought we had the plot and outcome pegged, but we were both totally wrong. To tell you exactly what is going on, the actual driver behind actions and incidents will ruin the book. Despite being considered by some a not-too-bright child with her head in fantasy land, Maisie is clued up and observant. Alas, this isn't matched with either being able to keep a secret or necessarily think things through.

But that's exactly what brings this book alive without being cliched. Coupled with some really cool facts about the Antarctic, first-hand experience with some of the inhabitants, and most delightful characters, such as their one-time pilot, we have an excellent, fast-paced adventure that would make Clive Cussler proud. In fact, I'd peg him as having written this had it been an anonymous work.

Small book cover image. The book cover is in matt pale blues, aqua/turquoise, with a near diamond pointed middle section that extends to points north and south and with flat sides east to west. Within and central is the books title, above is Maisie and her father in the antarctic and below is an ornate compass in red and orange. in the outer quadrants/corners, from top left clockwise appears a skidoo, a plummeting, orangey coloured plane with smoking engine, a brown seal looking left, and three penguins looking right. The authors name appears in gold within a pale creamy box between along the bottom. All of the above appear in a small scalloped white and gold band set in from the book edge.

So . . . .

Crunch time.

"A barnstorming, rollercoaster adventure filled with wry humour, thrills, spills, peril and mystery. One hell of a ride, and I just couldn't stop till the end, and left wanting more."

Want to buy a copy?

To get a copy, dodging crevasses, toothy-grinned sea beasts, and slightly shady Spanish-speaking pilots, head to your local book stockist. Or why not try their online ordering service.

Jack Jackman's author web page can be found HERE or type this: https://nosycrow.com/contributor/jack-jackman/

Marco Guadalupi's Instagram account page can be found HERE or type https://www.instagram.com/marcoguadalupi85/

Nosy Crow's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://nosycrow.com/

And now for my Sunday Selfie . . . .

Selfie of Erin's head whilst lying on her green patterned chair pad. She is resting on her left side with head to the right of the shot. Her right forearm is covering her eyes and face.

Here is me taking a snooze having finished the review of book two in this series. Tune in in a fortnight to read all about MAISIE vs the HIMALAYAS.

We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kitties Blue and their mum, Janet Blue, from the Cat on My Head blog in America. CLICK THIS LINK to visit their site and to get the code to add to your own blog . . .

Small image. The Cat on My Head Sunday Selfies Blog Hop badge. Features a yellow-haired lady with a tuxedo cat on her head.

I hope you enjoyed that adventure.

Till laters!

ERin

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Sunday, 6 July 2025

GARGOYLES: Guardians of the Source

Written by Tamsin Mori

Cover: An ornamental arch in pale blue, is set on a dark blue background with mid blue vine leaves. Within the arch centre we see the 3 kids, along with their special creatures: a water kelpie, amazing insects and a tiny elf-like creature. Callan is sat astride Zariel, the winged lion gargoyle that features in the story. There is a crescent moon within the top of the arch and authors name below in pale yellow. The old house is in silhouette against a red/purple sky. They all stand on purple and blue grass. The title at bottom of page. Gargoyles is in white and yellow gothic text, the remainder is in shiny red capitals.

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.

Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week an amazing adventure in Middle Grade Fiction.

Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, busy checking for dangerous ornamental masonry on the roof, lets get this book review on the the road to Gargoyle's Rest . . .

AUTHOR: Tamsin Mori (Click to link to their site.)

Illustrations by: David Dean (Click to link to their site.)

Published by: Fox & Ink Books (formerly UCLan Publishing) (Click to link to their site.)

Publication date Paperback: 4 April 2024

Paperback 13 digit ISBN: 978 - 191 5235 909

UK Cover price for Paperback: £8.99

Amazon KINDLE price: £7.85

Pages: 303

Age range: 9 - 12 and upwards

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

Thank you to...

We are exceedingly grateful to publicist Graeme Williams, and UCLan Publishing for offering us a chance to Read & Review this story.

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, received as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review.

First and foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.

The plot

After the death of his grandmother on his father’s side, Callan and his parents move to his grans house, Gargoyle's Rest, a rambling and seemingly decrepit mansion which sports large gargoyles around the roof, and a ‘no-go’ room that is unsafe. When he gets a look into the room he sees a hole in the floor. Stranger though is the fact the hole is surrounded by large stone gargoyles, the same as those around the roof.

The grounds are expansive, overgrown, and full of intrigue for 11-year-old Callan who has been forced to leave all his friends behind. He discovers a girl, Yasmin, wandering, trespassing through the woods.

Whilst they do not initially bond, Callan has an opportunity to make a friend and to explore. Yasmin lives with her family and younger, incorrigible, slightly annoying brother, Raf, in one of the estate cottages beyond the grounds and that Callan’s family now own. Her neighbours include Angus, who clearly is self-assured and clever, and has nothing to prove. He irks Callan who feels the need to compete and prove himself, more so when he discovers the special skills Angus Yasmin and Raf have and the creatures they can communicate with and, to a degree, control.

Callan’s new bedroom is rather spooky, with a huge stone gargoyle outside the window. On exploring the other floors and rooms, he discovers a bedroom. Within he finds someone’s diary. Taking it, he is intent on reading more about this person, and rather intriguingly, their role in what they describe as being a Guardian of the Source. The Source he will discover is a well that, whatever goes in comes out magnified – good or bad. The Guardians who through generations have protected the Source, have the power to awaken the great gargoyles that surround the house.

Once awoken they become the fearsome fur, feather, scale, flesh and breathing creatures they formerly depicted. In fact, the Guardians are expected to bond with a gargoyle. Think Avatar and choosing your own ‘Ikran’ or ‘Mountain Banshee’.

Seeing this as a great opportunity to prove himself, and get one over on Angus, Callan tries to awaken and befriend his own gargoyle, that outside his window, but only manages to invite a deadly ghast into his bedroom. Not a great start. Only a trained Guardian has the right to summon a gargoyle.

Behind the scenes, Callan’s dad, is struggling with the house. An old friend and structural engineer says the place is unsound and that he should sell up and move his family out before it falls down.

As things worsen with the house, and a family secret related to the diary, so Callan and his dad come to blows and drift apart. Something else is also happening, the catalyst for the events and ill feelings. The well that contains the source is being awoken, and what was previously held within, an evil force, is starting to assert its power. And when it does, it will unleash disaster and ghasts on the world. But knowing that what goes into the well is magnified, who or what is feeding it evil?

Callan has challenges ahead of him, not just navigating friendships, his father and the hidden secret of the diary’s owner. Having started off wanting his own gargoyle friend to impress Yasmin and Angus, he very soon realises that he needs to be a guardian proper to not only save the house but his family and the good magic in the well, the source, that is being usurped by the evil.

The problem is Zariel, the gargoyle outside his window, is far from willing to be befriended, or impressed with Callan, and considers far too young and grossly undertrained to be a guardian.

Time is running out, and only a Gargoyle and Guardian as a pair can fight the looming threat that is growing in the shadows.

So, what did we think?

We have lived in a large, old creaking house, with rambling wild garden and a stream running through. I often dreamed that there was far more lurking within and without than just stray mice and creepy crawlies in the damp vegetation and the river's sometimes placid sometimes fast waters. Sadly we had no gargoyles, only long since dead and stuffed jewel eyed creatures, and let me assure you that they are scary enough. But if we'd had gargoyles I bet they would have talked and been just like those in this adventure. This is exactly the kind of fun I would love to have had, but likely would have not been as brave as Callan.

What I love is that the journey Callan goes on involves his parents, particularly his dad. We get a real sense of the angst of friendship building for the kids, and a real dilemma for the parents as key elements of their lives, past and present, create problems tensions for them all, amplified by the evil that seeps into the house.

The story eases us gently into characters, location and situation, steadily enough to allow for the ensuing series to have fresh reveals along the way. There is plenty of action once we start uncovering the secrets of the mansion and the family past and present. The plot is original, and we can recall only one other gargoyle in a middle grade book series, though they weren't as central to the story as Zariel is. More grumpy gargoyles more often I say!

There is an admirable mix of the fantasy elements and human interaction without the reader feeling lost or overwhelmed by a new new world. How this changes with the new book remains to be seen. I have every confidence that the head of steam built up will continue to delight and draw younger readers in.

Finally but not least, is the cover. It is colourful and shiny, and so very ably brings together every part of the adventure, characters and place and shows them off to best catch the eye. It did us, and I am so glad we chose it for review.

So, Crunch time.

A well-crafted, atmospheric blend of fantasy, magic and adventure, with a healthy dose of spooky and dark to bring a big book feel. The delightful and compelling scene setting leads to a pacy and satisfying grand finale. Which in turn heralds another, soon to be released adventure for Callan and his new friends, humans and Gargoyles alike.

And now for my Sunday Selfie . . . .

Was the cat outside looking at me, or the cat food Mrs H brought from Amazon? One thing for sure is that all the cats in this neck of the woods like the pate and biscuits Amazon sell. A good pricec and quality. Have any of you tried it also?

I hope you enjoyed that adventure.

Till laters!

ERin