FLIPPED

Written by  Philip Caveney

                         

©Image Copyright

                                              

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

Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week a Adventure in Middle Grade Fiction.

Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, happy that we have our own published novels to get sucked back into, lets get this review on the road!

©Image copyright (see below)

AUTHOR:  Philip Caveney. (Website link CLICK HERE.)

 

Cover illustration by:  Images ©Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, 2025

 

Published by:  Fox and Ink Books. (Website link CLICK HERE.)

 

Publication date Paperback: 6th Nov 2025

 

Paperback 13 digit ISBN:  978-1916747739

UK Cover price for Paperback:  £7.99

Amazon KINDLE price:  £3.99

 

Pages: 276

 

Age range:  9 - 16+

Internal illustrations?: No

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Yes, some as to plot direction and characters.

 

 

Thank you to... 

We are exceedingly grateful to Graeme Williams, publicist, and Fox and Ink Books 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 will enjoy.

The plot

It is late July 2020, the school summer holidays have arrived, and it is the height of the Covid pandemic. 15/16-year-old Philip Gregory, aka Flip, is spending his days out and about on his own, exploring the Kent Marshes near his home. His mother is a nurse practitioner in the A&E of a local hospital, managing the brunt and cruel side of the virus. On his latest walk, he heads up a rise and finds in the valley beyond, and hidden from view, an abandoned Victorian redbrick house behind a wired fence. Dilapidated and boarded up, he finds his way inside. What awaits him is a sort of house stuck in time; cobwebs, mouldy old furniture abound, and rubbish left by other visitors is the only sign of modern-day life.

Then, out of the blue, he sees a young, imperious-looking girl about his age, staring at him from an upper landing. Stranger yet, it seems she was expecting him. She calls him Pip, a name he hasn’t been called since early childhood, and has a task for him to complete. Unwittingly, Flip seems to have been seconded to undertake a task for Miss H. Curious how the girl knew his past name, and despite his protestations to the contrary that he is not ‘Pip’, the girl introduces herself as Estella, and leads a confused Flip, aka Pip to where he is to work. He has been tasked with cataloguing all the items in the house’s large and dusty attic, and to look out in particular for a large book that Miss H has lost.

During the search, which does not go well, Flip finds an old and loaded rifle and blows out an attic window by mistake. Taking this as the ideal reason to flee, he makes his excuses, and heads to the ground floor. Estella is not best pleased and insists that he should return the next day, saying that if he does not, Miss H will have ways to ensure he does.

A surprise awaits Flip that evening as, after a very realistic dream where he is running on the Marshes and comes across a stranger who sounds like his absent dad, he awakes to find Estella in his garden! She is there to ensure he returns the next day, and will confront his mother if Flip does not.

Needless to say, Flip is starting to get worried and overwhelmed by all this, but to keep the peace and not get his mum involved, the next day he returns to the old house, Satis House.

The next day dawns, and Flip heads off to the Marshes, and into what becomes a very exciting adventure. As time progresses, it is obvious to him that he is being drawn into the book, Great Expectations, of which he knows little, and is perceived by other characters as Pip from the novel. Indeed, he seems to become Pip, in clothes and worn appearance. But Flip soon realises he has not replaced Pip, just displaced him. Why this is happening, he doesn't know, but somehow he needs to figure out and quickly to make sure he doesn't get stuck back in Pip's world!

Worse is to come, as the characters are seeping into 2020, too. When he arrives in the study of none other than the author, Charles Dickens, himself, things get really fun, and a touch surreal. 

Like all great novels, the fun is in the details and telling as they progress. Which is where and why we must leave this review.


So, what did we think?

Great Expectations may well be known to you – if not read, then viewed on the television. What the author has skilfully done here is create multiple stories. We have a retelling, albeit abbreviated, of the Dickens classic, then the tale of Flip and his mother and estranged father. Finally, we have the resulting tale as the casts of both come together, in good ways and bad, and across the two other tales, creating a mini-classic in its own right.

This new tale will appeal to modern and younger readers, but has enough of Dickens’ classic to provide a delightful read for the older reader too. The sometimes pithy wit was well received in this household, as were Flip and Pip’s confusion and responses to situations they found themselves in . Poor Mr Dickens has a rough time of it as well, and his role added a lovely twist/extra layer and dimension that takes it up a notch.

Picking the pandemic as a present-day timeline was a stroke of genius. While most kids of Flip’s age will not have heard or even thought about Dickens’ story, they will instantly relate to that period when they lost freedom, friendships, and saw loved ones if not die, then become sick or seriously ill. This tale ably hits on how life was for each generation, and links and draws comparisons briefly to the cholera epidemic of Victorian times. It also brings together elements of family life, breakups, and tragedy.

One key reason for this plot working so well for us is that the two stories mirror each other in elements that slowly get revealed as the story progresses. Not wishing to spoil things, but it isn’t just the similarity in names that the protagonist Flip shares, but also the life story of key secondary characters as well. So, if you have read Great Expectations, you should be able to see where this is going and why. Though not necessarily how it all works out. That was a lovely twist right at the end, which, while a largish clue was left early on, we ultimately just didn’t see it coming.


So, crunch time.

A masterstroke of plotting, creating a cross-generational tale that Mr Dickens might well have appreciated, had he got his head around his characters not doing what they were told. Well worth a read for all in this age group and above. And we do hope this gets the publicity and credit it deserves in the classroom and beyond.

And as it's time for the Sunday Selfies, here's something equal full of nature and soft and gentle – me! 

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 . . . 

 

Here is yours truly caught in what Mrs H says is my 'contemplative, artist's model pose'. 

© Image Copyright

 

I hope you enjoyed that adventure review and our selfie. 

Till laters!

ERin

BAXTER'S VIEW

Written & illustrated by  Kerri Cunningham

                            

                                                       

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

Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week a gentle tale for 5-8 year olds.

Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, currently spending time appreciating the small things in the gardens (not mice or spiders), lets go on with our review of Baxter's View. 

AUTHOR:  Kerri Cunningham  Click HERE for their web page 

Illustrations by:  Kerri Cunningham

 

Published by:   Fox & Ink Books. Click HERE for their web page

Publication date Paperback: 6 Nov 2025

Paperback 13 digit ISBN:  978-1916747715

UK Cover price for Paperback:  £7.99

Amazon KINDLE price:  N/A

 

Pages: 32

 

Age range:  5 - 8

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

 

 

Thank you to... 

We are exceedingly grateful to Graeme Williams and Fox and Ink Publishers 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

Rory, the slightly elder brother to Baxter, is at the age where he just wants to run everywhere to get to the fun stuff. Baxter, however, likes to hum, bounce and flap his hands. He wants to enjoy all the sensory things he finds as they head to the park with their mother. Unfortunately this means even a short walk can take ages. 

For Rory this means having to wait as Baxter explores the textures sights and sounds found on route, be they in a shop window or lush grass in the park or jumping in puddles. This makes Rory huff a lot and ask his mum to push on to the slides in the play area, not letting Baxter enjoy what he wants to do.

Rather than acquiesce to Rory, she suggest he try some of the things his brother likes. For instance she suggests he joins Baxter in lying under a tree and seeing what it is that fascinates him so.

Will Rory get to change his mind and discover a new world at his feat and feast for his eyes? The answer is, of course, yes he will, and the next time they venture out as a family the time is so much more fun.

So, what did we think?

Seeing things through Baxters eyes means Rory can learn to slow down and appreciate the amazing things around. Baxter has his sensory needs, but he sees and feels things others can too, if they take the time. 

This gentle yet compelling story allows the Rory's of this world, and lets face it many kids and adults are this way these days, to get extra value from life. Aided by fantastic artwork that speaks as much as the words, this tale is bound to enthral and gently educate on a few levels, not least respect for others.

So, Crunch time. 

We can't applaud this short but captivating tale enough. The authors artwork is perfectly suited, bright and cheery. It even makes the (older) reader slow down, think and reset. Perfect for the young reader and for shared reading at home or in the school. 

And given that the festive season is almost upon us, this would make a perfect (early) present too.

And as it's time for the Sunday Selfies, here's something equal full of nature and soft and gentle – me! 

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 . . . 

 

Here is yours truly caught showing that I can balance with both paws off the duvet whilst napping! ;)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that adventure review, and will take time this week to slow down and explore the nature all around us that so often goes unnoticed....

 

Till laters!

ERin

WYRDWOOD BY CURTIS JOBLING

Written by  Curtis Jobling

                            

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

Hello, and welcome to my latest Book Review featuring this week a Adventure in Middle Grade Fiction.

Without further ado, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, nailing some horseshoes and garlic around the house, lets get on with this fantastic and eerie tale.

AUTHOR:  Curtis Jobling. Click here for their web page.

Illustrations by:  Alice Cao.  Click here for their web page. 

Published by:  Fox & Ink Books. Click here for their web page.

 

Publication date Paperback: 2/10/2025

 

Paperback 13 digit ISBN:  978-1916747692

UK Cover price for Paperback:  £8.99

Amazon KINDLE price:  £4.99

 

Pages: 371

 

Age range:  11-14 and upwards

Any dogs or cats? two dogs and something nasty in the woods

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

 

 

Thank you to... 

We are exceedingly grateful to Graeme Williams and Fox & Ink Publishers for offering us a chance to Read & Review an advance copy of this story. 

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought 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 will enjoy.

 

The plot

The dramatic prologue sees Sam Harper, father to Kiki, our protagonist, rescue a woman from an oncoming logging lorry. In the dark, stark naked in the snow and confused, there is no way the woman we get to know as Fay, can save herself. Sam pulls her to safety, and so creates an underlying plot for the story.

Some months later, Kiki Harper, sixteen, awakens from a nightmare just as her train pulls into the sleepy and remote seaside town of Merryweather-by-the-sea. She was at school for three months on the UK mainland, and is now returning home for Christmas. She has returned early to catch the big switch-on of the Christmas lights and to surprise her family. After certain events the previous summer, all eyes are on the supposed destructive and troubled child. Troubled, but not without cause, as the recurring nightmare is of the night not that long ago when her mother was killed in a car crash that saw Kiki and her younger siblings pulled from the car submerged in the river. 

Her best friend, Stefan Pimblott – a young poacher, and son of a local scrap metal merchant – doesn’t materialise to take her home, so she heads off in the snow. Along the way we readers get introduced to certain key characters, including Stefan’s elder sister, Ruby, her loutish bigot of a boyfriend Leo Pitts, aka Pitbull, and police officer Maggie O’Malley.

On arriving home, she discovers a woman, Fay, in the house. She is wearing her mother’s clothes and working away in the kitchen. Kiki is pulled up short, not knowing what to make of the situation as her father has not told her of a mother replacement in his life. Her father and younger siblings are besotted with this lady, who is nothing but polite and well intentioned. Even the townsfolk have taken to her, and it seems memories of her mother have been swept aside by some magical spell.

We get a feeling of something strange going on in the village when the schoolmistress notices how quiet and tired her class is, and also when more and more of the young children aren’t attending due to some mysterious malaise. Whatever it is, it’s putting a dampener on the entire village and Christmas; all save the Harper family and recent incomers. The children have been drawing a stick man, the Stick Man of fable, more of a tree than a man, and singing a very spooky and about him in the playground. Of course, the old schoolmistress has seen it all before, many years past. At that time, the same drawings were made and songs sung. Then something came from the woods and took one of their number away. That was the orice demanded then, and it seems now also. The past is being replayed.

When Wem Campbell, from the lighthouse, (thought to be suffering the ravages of dementia) rips the priest’s festive lights off an ancient stone cross, swearing that it‘s all wrong and they will awaken ‘HIM’, we get a real sense of the pervading menace, mystery, history, and malice that lurks in the towns past. Of course, it’s already too late. Only the surviving senior townsfolk know what really happened, and they are, for the time being at least, not telling. 

Woven through this tale like a vein of rot in a potato, we have onetime criminal, poacher turned gamekeeper for the logging Blackwood family’s estate, Mick Cleaver, who lives in the Wyrdwood. He lives near the now-dilapidated old Blackwood family mansion. What he is up to isn’t known, but he doesn’t like trespassers and has made it clear he wants Stephan’s family out of his hair once and for all. This spills out along the plot in various confrontations. He isn’t afraid to kill or maim to get what he wants or to keep his secrets safe.

As the festive snow starts to gather deeply all around, so we get to see more of the stick man. And with him come the nasty things, drawing in the good and the bad, the innocent, ugly and unlucky. 

To lay out more of the nuances and characters will be almost impossible, save that the threads knit together dramatically, and in their own right, to become something both grand and terrible. And I don’t mean that awful festive sweater you may have been given one year that lurks almost menacingly at the back of the wardrobe . . . 

So, what did we think?

As a rule, we don’t like and review horror books. But this hooked our attention when we were offered it, and we found we could not refuse. That says a lot in my book.

It is one of those that a review can only ever scratch the surface of what transpires between the covers. And that cover is very expressive and in keeping. All credit goes to Alice Cao for her skill in bringing the tale to life that way.

You really would have to go a long way to better this tale. Come the closing chapters, we could visualise this as a Steven Spielberg movie. And we shouldn’t be surprised by that, given the author’s pedigree.

Before coming to writing books, Curtis Jobling was the designer for ‘Bob the Builder’ and worked on ‘Wallace & Gromit‘ and ‘Mars Attacks‘. He has written horror stories for some time for older audiences. His million-selling ‘Wereworld’ series of adventures has become a major new animated production called ‘Wolf King‘ on Netflix.

This adventure has a wealth of family and small-town community charm, but also highlights family and community issues. The cast has everyone from the elderly, one-time schoolteacher next door, to the young, eager priest ignorant of past ways and rites. There’s the local police officer, born and bred on the island, who has fallen in love with the new schoolteacher. The local logging company is felling the ancient wood for profit, and the Mayor’s son is a lout and bully and ripe for putting in his place – but nobody dares. Then there’s the mysterious, youthful, quiet fisherman who lives with the aged Wem in the nearby lighthouse. They all have secrets, some unknown to them.

The villain – well, the corporeal one, if you get my drift – he reminds us of Bill Sykes, complete with his dog. He really is as evil as they come, and delightfully, every inch of his bad nature has been brought to the fore.

And best of all, possibly beyond our protagonist, is Fay. A clear instigator of things at the start, but is she a key player in this story? Is she who she seems to be, and are her motives and reasons for being there as pure as they seem? Things are never simple in this tale.

From the isolated setting, trapped between the ocean and the Wyrdwoods – which creates a locked-room mystery effect – we are forced to focus in on the story and characters hemmed within. Histories, both old and recent, of place and people intrigue and frighten beyond the page and window.

We loved the way the plot unfolded. It didn’t just throw clues at you as we wanted/expected them but held back till the optimal point for the characters and story. As a result, you were never 100% certain of anyone, well, nearly everyone. The characters evolved well in our mind’s eye, and whilst some are as painted, others had hidden depths.

As for the ending, well, that was almost cinematographic and brings us squarely back to the Spielberg fan in us, but I’ll not give it away. Oh, one more thing: the epilogue is, in a comeuppance way, oh-so-sweet . . .



So, crunch time.


The story is a clever, vivid, articulate and atmospheric blend of folklore and mild horror, set in a small town steeped in secrets. As capable a story for a teen as any of the Stephen King books for adults Mrs H has read in days gone by. Yes, there are grizzly bits, but they are in keeping, well placed and not for shock value.

In fact, it complements and introduces the author’s other fantasy books for older readers. We thoroughly recommend this adventure for teenagers and up, to those who don’t mind ‘branching’ out into a little fright and a few grizzly pieces too, none of which we thought were OTT for the story.

And now for something not spooky at all, the Sunday Selfies!

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 . . . 

 

Here is yours truly testing out the guest room bed. It's been a while since we had a visitor, mainly because they miss the turn off for the County of East Lambtonshire!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that adventure review, and will dip your toes into the amazing world of middle grade and teen literature. Whilst some can be quite short others, like this one, are pretty long. 

What books have you all been reading, and would you recommend them to your blogging friends and the wider world?

 

Till laters!

ERin