Macintyre's article is so entertaining, be sure to read the whole thing.
Higson’s formula is straightforward, but then boys of 10 are not, on the whole, particularly complex organisms: “Deliberately keep the language simple. Stripped-down and hard-boiled. Not 12 pages of internal monologue.” Boys aren’t big on internal monologue. Unless it also involves exploding noises. “We didn’t want to encourage violence, but I have tried to show the consequences of violence,” says Higson. To judge from the response of his sons (and mine), the result feeds directly into the central cortex of boy brain: action, suspense, gadgets, threat, fights, escapes, jungle survival, evil baddies and plenty of guns. My sons devoured each of the novels in the same way that I consume adult thrillers, in great, unreflective, purely enjoyable lumps.
I have Silverfin waving to me from my TBR shelf. So many books...
2 comments:
So many books, so little time -unless you have a TARDIS or a Time-Turner !
Then there are all the books I've read that are begging me to review them so other people will know about them.
I am such a slug.
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