A review of "Ketchup Clouds" by Annabel Pitcher

Hi Folks in the Smoke,

    I've been lucky enough to get a sneaky, advance copy of Annabel Pitcher's upcoming novel "Ketchup Clouds". I adored her sparkling debut "My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece" and was waiting with bated breath for this. So, with excitement just-about-contained, I thought I'd share it
with you.

    Where "My Sister…" followed 10-year-old  Jamie, "Ketchup Clouds" is an older affair. Our narrator this time out is a 15-year-old girl who is suffocating with guilt and grief. She gives herself the pseudonym "Zoe".

    The tale is beautifully wrought and I don't want to spoil any of the dramatic twists, so I'll stay sparse on plots details. Suffice to say Zoe has two younger sisters, a pair of stressed parents, a loyal and charismatic best friend, as well as studies to attend to and various social trials and tribulations to endure. But there are also two boys around whom most of the action revolves.

      Pitcher has Zoe pour her heart out through letters that she writes to an American death row prisoner, Stuart. It's meant to be a charitable act but becomes a confessional for Zoe, a way for her to divulge and eventually understand what's happened in the past year - she is a searingly honest narrator. This device is very powerful as it contrasts crime and guilt, conscience and prison. While we never read Stuart's replies we do see Zoe soften and become more comfortable and confiding as the forms of address and the sign offs evolve through the novel.

     I did weep when I finished "My Sister" and so there was a level of expectation that Pitcher might put me through the ringer again. She does, but in a different, teenaged way and so I was left with a sense of heartache rather than being convulsed in tears - but that's a great thing; she's a skilled, sophisticated crafter of story, not just a heartstring-tugger. And she's a more accomplished, confident writer this time out - she tells us things at her own pace, teasing us and reflecting the anxious nature of Zoe. While the reveal isn't a complete shock, that might merely be a reward for attentive reading.

    Pitcher's style is emotionally eloquent, weaving a story of teen uncertainty, of loss and of feeling lost, with tenderness and attitude, warmth and wit. Zoe is very real, you can hear her drafting her letters, see her crouched over the page in the dead of night, feel her conflicting emotions. She is a sincere, knowing and endearing character.

  

   I'd recommend this for fans of Pitcher but also for anyone who has enjoyed the likes of "Solace of the Road", "What I Was" and "The Sky is Everywhere". Hers is a powerful new voice with versatility and passion, and most importantly a talent for telling original stories.

   Thanks for reading,

          LJ

A review of "Cloud Tea Monkeys", written by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham and illustrated by Juan Wijngaard

Hi there People in the Ether,

   Sorry for the silence; summer and various events got in the way lately.

   This is a sincere and serene tale inspired by legends from the Himalayas.

   Peet and Graham set their tale among the lady tea pickers on an Indian tea plantation - they live and work in the lower reaches of the mountains, gazing at the mystical clouds that hang over the upper peaks.

   A little girl, Tashi, accompanies her mother to work each day and steals away to be with a troupe of monkeys. When her mother becomes ill, Tashi thinks she will pick tea so that the doctor's bills can be paid. But the basket is bigger than she is, and the overseer is mean. Tashi seeks refuge with her simian friends, and while she weeps, they take the basket and disappear beyond the cloud into the upper reaches of the mountains. They return with a basket full of beautiful, unusual tea leaves. The imperious but gentle Royal Tea Taster happens by the plantation and is impressed with Tashi's haul - he knows the harvesters were monkeys and he knows the leaves are cloud tea, a very rare treasure. Thasi's miracle has arrived.

   The story is conjured in a beautiful, gentle, bewitchingly traditional tone - it's like a classical fairy tale or A Thousand and One Nights episode. Tashi is sweet and brave, and her monkey companions are full of character but never anthropomorphised. The writers have chosen tender phrases and descriptions of colours that are very evocative of the landscape and Imperial era.

   The illustrations are very vibrant, rich and enchanting. Wijngaard uses both oil artwork and line drawings to bring the plantation, the women and the animals to life in glorious rubies, emeralds and sapphires. I especially love the pencil sketches of the Tea Taster's various faces as he samples the cloud tea - looking "like a man who'd seen an angel".
   It's a pleasing package too - the designer has employed a very traditional page layout throughout with text and plate-like illustrations complimenting the traditional style of the story. The cover is moody and beautiful, and the paper is a lovely weight and a milky shade.

   So, ultimately, this is a longer, layered story, full of detailed descriptions and sophisticated turns of phrase, and would probably speak more to readers of six years and older.

   Thanks for reading,
          LJ