Erin the Literary Cat : Middle Grade

Written by DANIEL DOCKERY

The book cover is generally in a mix of dark green with an art deco stylised patterned edge in gold. In the centre we see Wendington standing at the prow of the liner that features in the book. There is a pale red and orange sky behind the ship to highlight Wendington and a grey silhouetted figure in a hat of some description. A golden disc is to the left of Wendington as we see her. On it is the inscription "Who would risk death for the tree of life?" Four portholes are seen at the prow, two each side, and in each a silhouette, probably of a person in the book. At the top of the cover 'Wendington Jones' is in red period font, whilst the rest of the title is in gold capitals beneath. The authors name appears below the ship in green on a gold plaque underlined in red.

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

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

This week's review is of a story that we really needed to have read sooner. But it slipped us by. Which is our loss. But thankfully book two is being launched, and we have had the opportunity to read both. So not wishing to delay sharing book one any longer, and with my trusty housekeeper, Mrs H, already making plans for a visit to Australia, let's get on with the show!

©Image copyright

AUTHOR: Daniel Dockery

Illustrations by: Marco Guadalupi

Published by: UCLan Publishing

Publication date Paperback: 2023

Paperback 13 digit ISBN: 978 1915 235 374

UK Cover price for Paperback: £8.99

Amazon KINDLE price: £4.99

Pages: 317

Age range: 10 - 14 and upwards

Any dogs or cats? No, but Percival the newt gets a bigger adventure than he could have bargained for!

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

Thank you to...

We are exceedingly grateful to Graeme Williams and UCLan Publishers for offering us a chance to Read & Review this excellent 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

It is late in 1920, and fifteen-year-old Wendington Jones, aka Wendi, daughter of the famed anthropologist Pennington Jones, has her world turned upside down. She is informed by her the headmistress at her school that her mother, along with her valet, have died in a car crash.

Now orphaned, she becomes the responsibility of her grandmother, and her valet Rohan, a man Wendingtion isn't at all sure of. At the stroke of midnight not long after, Wendington receives a parcel from her dead mother. Within is half of a manuscript relating to a book her mother was writing. It describes her adventures in pursuit of the mythical Tree of Life.

Realising that the fabled tree could bring her mother and father back to life, she decides to complete her mother's work and adventure. But first, she must find the other half of the manuscript. In recent mail received at her grandmother's house, she discovers a letter from her mother's editor. It reveals that the other half was posted to her mother's valet's house in a nearby village. There is also a ticket on a ship leaving for Australia the next day. But the letter holds a warning that others also seek the tree and Pennington should not travel alone!

Whilst trying to retrieve the other half, she is attacked and has to flee the scene. Finding her gran's car outside she makes good her escape, dodging gunfire. In the rearview mirror, she spies Rohan, gun in hand, staring after her.

This is where everything starts to go wrong for Wendi. It is the turning point that leads to danger, discovery and adventure. And an ocean trip to Australia to discover, or rather, rediscover, the tree which is said to be there.

The story takes on a cat-and-mouse game on ship and off. Wendi is desperately trying to figure out the secrets and location of the tree from only part of her mother's work. She also needs to find out who has the other half of the manuscript that was not at the valet's house. Heeding the editor's warning, she has to figure out who amongst her fellow passengers she can trust. None of this is easy when you are a child alone on a cruise liner and trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible to the crew and passengers.

And there is as strange and doubtful a group of passengers on board as even Agatha Christie could wish for. One person, or rather creature, she can rely on is Percival. He is a newt she discovered on the evening of the funeral. His opinions, however, will not save her from the destruction of the ship as well as attempts on her life and that of other passengers.

To find out what else goes on in this action-packed adventure, be it by car, ship, horse or plane, you'll just have to read the book.....

So, what did we think?

Rich in description, attitude and adventure, this book offers, and delivers, so much to the reader. The 1920s are such a wonderful period in human history to set an adventure in. Arguably a golden age for travel and exploration. Even more so as women were starting to explore and exercise their own rights and talents, and in some respects, come to the fore.

Our own adventures are set in this time period, and it creates a wonderful air of discovery, challenges and opportunity, for characters and writers. It is empowering for younger readers to truly understand what we have. For them to appreciate where we are now, and to understand what we have gained, and also sadly, what we have lost.

All of which is why, when we were offered book 2 in this series, we jumped at the chance. We were also given the opportunity to read Book 1 first, which is why, dear reader, you are having this review now. Book 2 review will follow just as soon as I can prise it away from Mrs H's oil-stained fingers!

It was difficult not to love our protagonist's attitude from the start. Pendington is bold, clever in the sense of well-read, very inquisitive, with a wit that is often pithy. However well-read she is, she is, like most fifteen-year-olds, not well-practised or experienced. She is also very human and a bit flawed, as the opening scene at her school indicates. Mrs H says that she was a bit like that as a child.

I loved that about Wendi. She is a very human fifteen-year-old who later is dealing with the loss of her mother, having already lost her father. In fact, this book really is all about dealing with loss.

Having said that, it was hard to place this book down as there was always something happening or about to happen. It has oodles of adventure interspersed with tongue-in-cheek humour and thoughts as Wendington works things out. In fact, having read up on the author's process, Percival the newt is there as a silent foil, a sounding board so Wendi, who is alone in her grief, can express her thoughts out loud to us the reader. He also makes a delightful sidekick who adds his own humour.

There is peril aplenty, everything from planes to trains, with cars and horses in between. In fact, I doubt the likes of Enola Holmes, Adèle Blanc-Sec, or a certain American professor, would have fared better against the villains our Wendington Jones comes up against.

So, crunch time.

A rare and wondrous story that is a subtle and delightful blend of an adult movie adventure with heaps of Agatha Christie 1920's style. The very best adventure a young lady or man could ever wish for. At 317 pages this is, we feel, at the more advanced end of Middle Grade reading, but well within the grasp of most. Certainly, it makes for a grand adult read.

But most important of all, under all the action there is a much bigger driver. One that we think is incredibly well dealt with. This story is first and foremost about loss, grief, the avoidance thereof, and then coming to terms and dealing with it. Some of the strongest moments, and also the most heart-tugging, come from these themes. That in itself is a journey of discovery and as strong if not stronger than what goes on around and about.

Mrs H and I often have conversations after we read books. Some of the conversations go down strange rabbit holes of 'what if character X met Y, or did this or that, what would happen? One such was when she said to me what if she met Hercule on board? We figured he would be busy solving, say, a death on the cruise ship in first class area, whilst Wendington Jones would be in the lower decks doing her thing, too. They would doubtless brush shoulders at some point in a scene, probably in the midst of some turmoil. There would be a pause, then with an uncertain look from Wendi, and a polite knowing look and a nod of appreciation and understanding from Hercule, they would go about their work. Doubtless, though, they would each through quite different means, reach a satisfactory conclusion.

This isn't quite as fanciful as it may seem. Both characters are around at the same time, Hercule's first case being in 1917. So they could have overlapped. Both also are similar in that they have each faced a huge personal loss that they struggle with. But enough of that flight of fancy, back to the review . . . .

Of course, a satisfactory conclusion does not mean all's well that ends well, at least for some. Which is another reason to love this story. Come the end of the story and the character's journey thus far, both the spiritual and actual, we both truly felt we had been on the adventure too. And had learned something very important about life and death, just like Wendi. This adventure deals with all aspects of both those in a respectful way. At times blunt, but better for it.

So there you have it. An excellent read, a highly recommended adventure that will stay with us a long time, and become a reference by which to judge other stories.

Daniel Dockery's website, specific to Wendington Jones, contains a lot of information as to Daniel himself and the thought process for this book. Well worth a read. A link to that web page can be found HERE or type this: https://www.wendingtonjones.com/

UCLan Publishing's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://uclanpublishing.com/

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

For those that just want a selfie on a Sunday, here's one of me reaching out . . . . What for or to whom I'll let you all decide . . .

Mrs H also wants you know that I had spent what she calls an IN-ORDINATE amount of time on my pedicure. The all look perfectly in order to me, what do you think?