The Never Ending Story - Michael Ende

"Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong
name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.

Bastian is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own. Through the pages of an old book he discovers a mysterious magical world - a world of dragons, monsters, witches and giants. A world that is doomed unless a human can save it. Can Bastian succeed in battling terrible foes and find the strength he needs to give the Empress a new name?" 

I enjoyed a huge amount of this book. However, I must admit that I understand why the movie decided to change where the story ended. The first half of the book is truly amazing and I loved every minute of it. However once Bastian has been taken into Fantasia, things started to get rather wobbly from a plot point of view. While still incorporating a huge amount of stunning imagery and fun ideas, the plot felt aimless and only loosely tied together. Bastian wanders from place to place, scenario to scenario with no drive or purpose. I understand what Ende was trying to express, he used a very old folklore theme, of the corrupting influence of power and finding the joy of your own identity. However I don't think this theme was as well expressed as the theme of the importance of imagination and creativity expressed in the first half. 

I must say that Ende certainly knows his mythology/ folklore. I recognised many themes, emotional motifs and plot beats from other stories. Quite similar to the Arthurian legends. 

Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward but some emotionally intense scenes. 

The Turnaway Girls - Hayley Chewins

"Delphernia Undersea wants to sing. But everyone on Blightsend knows music belongs to the Masters — and girls with singing throats are swallowed by the sea.

On the strange, stormy island of Blightsend, twelve-year-old Delphernia Undersea has spent her whole life in the cloister of turnaway girls, hidden from sea and sky by a dome of stone and the laws of the island. Outside, the Masters play their music. Inside, the turnaway girls silently make that music into gold. Making shimmer, Mother Nine calls it. But Delphernia can’t make shimmer. She would rather sing than stay silent. When a Master who doesn’t act like a Master comes to the skydoor, it’s a chance for Delphernia to leave the cloister."

A debut that sings! I devoured the book in one sitting. Chewins introduces both an enchantingly inventive idea of girls who weave gold from music, and a stunning lyricism rarely found in Primary School literature. The advanced diction, prose and complexity of the story however makes it suitable for much wider audience.  

Girls who turn away from their reflections as infants are trained as “turnaway girls,” growing up separate from the outside world to learn how to turn music into gold. Boys with a talent for music become music-makers and get to choose a turnaway girl for themselves once they become of age. There is no room for differences or otherness. On top of that, one man is trying to take complete control of the Kingdom for himself and does so in a ruthless manner. There are cautionary tales about one women who was different and didn’t conform, so she was swallowed by the sea; children are warned by this story to make sure to fall in line. 

Not only are the turnaway girls now isolated from the rest of society, but their matron has been taught how to take away all their curiosity as well; who they are as individuals is literally sucked away by a woman following orders so that they can fall into line. 

So you have the main character who is a turnaway girl; she is supposed to be silent, but she loves to sing. She learns through the course of the book that she actaully has the abiliy to sing souls into being, which I just thought was such a beautiful concept. So quietly spiritual. 

I absolutely loved that Chewins added a female Music-Maker who decided she didn’t want to act like a boy anymore. It was such a powerful moment when the main character realized that she wasn’t the only “other” in the universe; there were people like her who didn’t fit this mold that their society had created for themselves. Even just the descriptions of the main character hiding away to sing were so poignant and moving and so relatable; I think we’ve all had those moments where we take time for ourselves just to be ourselves without having to worry about others’ judgments.

This was a surprisingly diverse book, with many POC characters and main character. Thought is was lovely and a great touch, especially considering the themes of the book. 

There were moments of surprising violence within the book, meaning it is not all sweetness and light. I thought the author struck a nice balance. Mother Nine is a great villain that readers will have no problem hating! The Custodien was lacking as a villian however for me. He doesn't do anything particularly awful, we only really know of his awfulness through past events which doesnt really work for me. But I suppose that could be put down to the target audience. 

Overall a really good unique book. There are definitely moment when the target audience became apparent in the lack of in depth character motivation but it was so beautifully written and the concepts where so unique with such a great metaphor for female suppression. Really hats off. 

Age Rating 12+. The abuse of Delpherina by Mother Nine shocked me and is, personally, not appropirate for very young readers. 

The Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

"Without this child, we shall all die.’

Lyra Belacqua lives half-wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon, Pantalaimon, always by her side.

But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle – a struggle born of stolen children, witch clans and armoured bears.

As she hurtles towards danger in the cold far North, Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: she alone is destined to win, or to lose, the biggest battle imaginable."

Lyra and her daemon, a animal companion and representation of their soul all humans have in Pullmans world, Pan have lived their wholes lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Lyra has been raised by the scholars there and has grown up half-wild, not listening to authority, always getting into trouble, not being the well-behaved little girl the scholars hoped she'd be. While her uncle, Lord Asriel, is visiting the college to ask for funding for his latest expedition, Lyra hides in a wardrobe and hears all about the possibility of other worlds, which Lord Asriel wishes to explore, and about Dust. This grief childish accident starts an long and treacherous journey with amazing alternate universes, scholars, witches, daemons, armoured bears, Gyptians and anything else you could possibly imagine. Pullman takes you on an incredibly journey from Jordan College to the Armoured Bear Kingdom of Svalbard. 
I've got to admit that Pullman created a wonderful new universe with all kinds of interesting elements taken from different cultures. Some if this did seem random (I noticed the odd Dutch name here and there, which to me came out of nowhere as none of the story is set there), but I do admire this element of the book enormously. The Witches and Panserbjorne where firm favourites!! However, at the end it suddenly becomes very clear that this is, in fact, a book critising religion, using the fantasy elements as a metaphor for religious terms we are all familiar with, most notably Dust as a scientific explanation to sin. To me, this came a but out of nowhere and I hope it is more fleshed out in the next book as it is a very interesting premise. 

Written as a childrens book but equally absorbing to any adult reader, I would not hesitate in recommending this first book in the Philip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. It is wonderfully enthralling and paints a world that you long to visit. It is slow paced at the beginning but it soon ramps up with enough twists and turns to keep the pace of the plot zooming along rather nicely and many interesting characters along the way. 

Age Rating 13+. There where some adult- ish themes. The scenes of cutting the deamons where very visceral and the discovery and death of the little boy was disturbing. The battle between Iorek and Iofur was also quite brutal.