Young Critics competition unearths serious reviewers

Young critics in our annual competition showed themselves to be serious readers with plenty to say
Year 5 pupils at St Cedd’s school, which won the school category in the competition
Year 5 pupils at St Cedd’s school, which won the school category in the Young Critics competition. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Eight books covering everything from humorous ogres to the Holocaust made up the longlist for the 2010 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Together they reflected the versatility and skill of the best writers today as they work to entrance readers of all different ages and interests.

The power of that entrancement was clear from the entries to this year's Young Critics competition. The young reviewers in a record entry showed how serious they are about reading, how they hate to feel cheated by sleights of hand, and how quick they are to pounce on authors' weaknesses. Drawing on their wider skills as readers, they critiqued content, style and impact of the eight longlisted books.

Beth Leishman (11) focused on the content as she celebrated the vivacious plotting of Ally Kennan's Sparks, the story of a group of children fulfilling their grandfather's wish to have a Viking funeral. She wrote: "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this roller-coaster ride of a book, which kept me guessing till the end."

Class 4P at St Cedd's school, Chelmsford – the first primary entry to win the school section of the competition – conveyed their delight in the humour of Eva Ibbotson's witty and fantastical romp, The Ogre of Oglefort, and used their reviews to encourage others to enjoy the book, too. "If you read this book you'll laugh till you fall off the chair," wrote Connie Kichiner (nine). Holly Thompson (nine) arrived at a more serious reading of the story, which she summed up as "an inspirational book ... it taught me that money doesn't buy happiness", while Bansri Patel (nine) was intrigued by the range of descriptive words used:  "amusing, hilarious, inspired, determined, inspirational, stubborn, feisty".

Lucy Elliott (11) wrote: "I do love mean characters", as she reflected how "the ogre is expected to be mean and cruel, but really he's just a lonely, frustrated guy".

Gregory Hughes's Unhooking the Moon, a road movie of a story that tells how two children take off for New York after being orphaned, impressed Loqman Kelly (12) with its characterisation. He identified the Rat, the feisty 10-year-old sister of the narrator, as the driving force of the book, which he described as "a warm, funny book carrying a message or two with an ambiguous ending that leaves you wishing for more. Brave, bold and brilliant ..."

Appreciating both content and style in Lob, Linda Newbery's  magical story of a girl and her invisible garden friend, Bells Wordsworth (eight) described it as having "everything you need to make a perfect book: lovely poetic descriptions, an original mix of characters, the sense of mystery around Lob and great ink pictures, which bring the story to life". She went on to praise Newbery for writing "beautifully about nature, the seasons and the magic of garden life".

Morris Gleitzman's Now, which picks up the Holocaust story he began in Once and Then, was praised by Miles Xabier Riley (13) for "turning traumatic events into a celebration of humanity". 

His verdict – "this is an uplifting story that deserves to be read" – neatly summed up the overwhelming impact of the last of Gleitzman's remarkable trilogy. However, he didn't stop there, but went on to outline his many reasons for loving it. "There is the sentence structure – short, snappy and straight to the point is the norm – making it a real page-turner. Then there are the gripping dramatic elements of the story, perfectly mixed with humour. Furthermore, it never dips into that easy pitfall of sentimentality, instead it exhibits touching poignancy throughout."

Nicholas Wiseman (10) used his own pleasingly figurative language to praise Theresa Breslin's sun-baked, romantic and blood-soaked Prisoner of the Inquisition. He neatly reflected the book's structure when he wrote: "Breslin uses the Inquisition's devastating effect on one family to coil together her main themes". It was, he went on, "a true diamond in the coal mine of historical fiction".

"Both history geeks and wannabe adventurers will enjoy this thrilling page-turner", wrote Frances Myatt (13). She backed her claim by praising  Breslin for transforming a simple plot "by an unexpected twist in the final pages and brilliant prose, which evokes a vibrant world of monks, magistrates and mariners," before giving her personal take on the book. "I loved how Prisoner of the Inquisition wove historical events into a living, breathing world with a tangle of family allegiances and vendettas worthy of a contemporary soap." A rich endorsement if ever an author needed one.

Clearly already seeped in Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, Paul Mitchell (13) praised Ghost Hunter, the final volume, because "it not only keeps you fascinated and curious about what is going to happen next, it keeps the reader asking questions even after they have read the final page." But Paul adds a note of criticism of Paver when he points out  that in this, as in her other titles, the storyline is "a long-drawn-out build-up, with all the action crammed into one or two chapters at the end followed by a final happy ending". It's a mild rebuke, which he quickly qualifies with, "although this detracts little from the brilliance of the book".

Darkness  and tension were qualities Marcus Sedgwick's fans admired in White Crow, a chilling gothic teen thriller. "White Crow evokes in the reader a wide range of emotions from curiosity to sadness, and pure terror," wrote Freya Richardson (15). Dramatically capturing the physical impact the book had on her, she added: "As the book draws to a close there is a shocking cliff-hanger which makes the reader's jaw hang open and their eyes scan the page again to make sure."

Alice Richardson (15) was aware of the physical effect of White Crow, which she described as "a gripping and satisfying (if slightly disturbing) read that will leave the hairs on your neck standing on end."

The winner of the 2010 Children's Fiction Prize was Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver Orion). To order any of our featured books, at a discounted price and with free UK p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

Calling all young critics

Are you interested in helping to edit a new Young Guardian Books website? Just send us an email telling us about the books and authors you like, and what you'd like to see on the site. Please remember to include your name and age. We will pick a panel of editors from the entries who will be responsible for deciding what books to review and discuss. Send your applications to ygbooks@theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/12/young-critics-competition
www.theguardian.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-05
727189
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:Y2Z4TM3WMNWXIIZLN6JYCEJUVBMBWMHW
<urn:uuid:1acf6eeb-7996-4aff-ba11-fc598c43ac95>
2018-01-19T12:36:52Z
151.101.33.111
text/html
sha1:RB7I6IM5UJHXDYRLS634SYMU3B6YQ2LU
<urn:uuid:fda34eac-5ce5-4422-a91a-735e66e4fa76>
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/12/young-critics-competition
response
<urn:uuid:b4640a80-6ea2-4a9a-b323-e99cc648cdfa>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-164-6-16.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-05
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf