Book Talk: This collection of short stories may be by the author of Redwall, but if you're looking for cuddly animals you're looking in the wrong place. These stories mostly revolve around school-aged human youth and the creatures that do appear in the stories are anything but cuddly. If you want to find out what a Ribbajack is and what it can do, then pick up this book. I'd wait until day light to read it, though.
Rocks my Socks: These stories are wonderfully atmospheric and perfectly capture the horror that literature has taught me to associate with English boarding schools and the countryside of Great Britain and Ireland in general. Thank goodness I was raised in America! On a more serious note, these stories have a dahl-esque sense of dark justice that I simply adore. The sense of justice, albeit dark, means that there are also some nice little morals in the stories. Also like Dahl, the stories are definitely dark, but they're actually not terribly violent. The violent bits that do exist are mostly left up to the imagination rather than described in detail, which I prefer.
Rocks in my Socks: As much as I enjoyed the atmosphere of these stories the pacing was a bit slow at times. I started reading this book in the spring and only finished it in November. The stories were good and I enjoyed them when I eventually sat down to read one, but I never felt particularly compelled to keep on reading.
Every Book its Reader: I'd recommend this to fans of suspense/horror or anyone with a taste for dark literature. The gender of the main characters switches depending on the story so I think it would be great for both boys and girls. As I said it's not graphically violent, but it is rather dark. I'd suggest it for 7th and up.
The Ribbajack by Brian Jacques
buy it at indiebound or check it out at your local library
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