CHILDREN'S BOOKS 10-12:LEMONY SNICKET HAS a lot to answer for.
Over the past decade the success of his A Series of Unfortunate Eventshas spawned a host of inferior baby-goth sagas, the latest of which is Gareth P Jones's The Thornthwaite Inheritance(Bloomsbury, £5.99). Lorelli and Ovid Thornthwaite are teenage twins who have spent their entire lives attempting to kill each other in ingenious ways in order to become the sole heir of their late parents' fortune. But when the twins reach a truce, they discover someone else is trying to kill them. Any potential fun is dampened by Jones's prose, which isn't spiky enough for the subject, and some ill-advised attempts to inject real emotion; when Lorelli is overcome with sorrow at her first sight of her parents' grave, it's as jarring as Wednesday Addams suddenly weeping over what could have happened to the rest of Thing.
There's more pseudo-Gothic silliness in GP Taylor's Mariah Mundi and the Ghost Diamonds(Faber, £6.99), complete with cover art that would have the late, great Edward Gorey turning in his grave. What should be an entertaining adventure, as young orphan Mariah investigates mysterious deaths in the spooky hotel where he lives, falls flat. It isn't helped by the fact that the opening chapter is devoted to an overly complicated recap of the previous book in the series, which severely hampers the flow of the new story.
Exposition doesn't have to be so clunky. I hadn't read the first two books in Irish author Michael Scott's bestselling series about the immortal alchemist, Nicholas Flamel, but Scott quickly and unobtrusively brings newcomers up to speed in the new instalment, The Sorceress(Doubleday, £12.99). Flamel and the Newman twins, two Californian teenagers who discover they are the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy, are still pursued by the forces of darkness, led by also immortal John Dee (Elizabeth I's real-life magician). The introduction of the multiple celebrity immortals is hilariously heavy-handed ("This is Dee's former apprentice, the immortal human William Shakespeare") and Scott could learn a few lessons from Alan Moore on how to cleverly insert well-known figures into a new story. But The Sorceressis also bursting with fantastic ideas and genuinely chilling moments, and Scott paces the fast-moving story well. It's a hugely entertaining ride.
So is Sam Llewellyn's excellent The Well Between the Words(Scholastic, £6.99). The land of Lyonesse is fuelled by monsters who lurk in the bottomless Wells. But now the land is sinking, and it seems only a scared young boy called Idris can save it. Idris is an old form of the name Arthur, and it's not a coincidence that this imaginative story also features characters called Morgan, Kay, Uther and Ector. But this intelligent, witty and at times unsettling book is a truly original take on Arthurian myth, from a very promising writer.
Another legend comes to life in Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood(Walker, £9.99). Tony Lee, Sam Hart and Artur Fujita's graphic novel offers an original new take on the Sherwood story, drawing on a variety of legends to create a thrilling adventure. Hart and Fujita's stark art, with its strong black lines and evocative use of colour, is excellent, and the writing is smart and snappy, making it a great introduction to graphic novels for young readers.
There's some gritty realism in Daniel Finn's exquisitely written Two Good Thieves(Macmillan, £9.99), although this tale of Latin-American street kids who steal a precious jewel may be too gritty for some.
Those in need of pure escapism can find solace in Tim Walker's jaunty Rise of the Rattler(Faber, £6.99). Almost everyone in the world has been touched by a happiness-inducing potion called the Fizzle – and now those who haven't "got the Fizzle" are being targeted by the self-described Grand Fizzler. Despite its off-puttingly wacky presentation, this is a sharp and funny fantasy.
Liz Kessler's Philippa Fisher and the Dream Maker's Daughter(Orion, £6.99) is anything but gritty. Philippa once had a fairy godmother called Daisy, but now she's lost both Daisy and her (human) best friend. Even a holiday in a country cottage doesn't lift her spirits – until she makes a new friend, Robyn, who used to live in the cottage until her mother died. But there's something magical in the nearby wood that will change everyone's lives. Kessler's new novel is charming, but it's all a little bit earnest and twee; Philippa is sympathetic, but her love of exclamation marks and her complete lack of cynicism is a bit cloying. And do today's young girls, force-fed pinkness, princesses and fairies from birth, really need another fairy-centric tale?
Thank heaven, then, for Louis Sachar's Pig City(Bloomsbury, £5.99). The story of a bunch of kids, led by the charismatic Laura, who start a secret society called Pig City, it's reminiscent of the funny, unsentimental American authors of the 1970s and 1980s such as Mary Rodgers and Beverly Cleary. And best of all, there's not a fairy in sight.
Anna Carey is a freelance journalist