Spindlewood: Pip and the Wood Witch Curse by Chris Mould
| Spindlewood: Pip and the Wood Witch Curse by Chris Mould | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
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| Summary: Orphan Pip escapes from a terrible fate as a cabin boy, but finds himself instead in a terrifying town where both humans and woodland creatures are determined to hunt him down. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 176 | Date: January 2011 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-0340970690 | |
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Pip doesn't want to be sold to Captain Snarks as a pirate's cabin boy. He is sure he'll get sea-sick, and he would far rather continue to work at the stable yard. But the foul-breathed drunkard who runs the orphanage refuses to listen: he will receive more money for the lad if he sends him to sea. On the way to the docks Pip manages to escape, and he stows away in the rear carriage of the Stage Fright Theatre Company, charmingly described as 'dancing masters of the macabre'. Our hero remains there for many days, hidden from everyone and only occasionally sneaking out to find a bone to gnaw, until the travelling troupe arrives at its destination, Hangman's Hollow. And then Pip's troubles begin in earnest.
Pip's is not a sunny, cheerful world. Gates seem destined to creak, buildings are always crooked, and chimney pots have no choice but to crumble. The whole atmosphere of the story breathes terror, evil and decay, and the reader's heart sinks as the gates of the town close behind poor Pip. What menace awaits him? What perils will he encounter as he flounders through the snowy streets? How can he survive in a place where foreboding seeps from every brick?
The answer comes swiftly, from a kindly inn-keeper who drags Pip off the street and conceals him in the back rooms of the inn. All those stories about Hangman's Hollow were not mere fairy tales, he says, but fact: Pip has come to a town surrounded by a forest full of lurking, skulking creatures which prey upon children, imprisoning them in the depths of their dark abode. Worse still, in order to protect the town from attack the authorities have banned children completely. Any they find are taken away to be used in the wars against the forest folk, and the adults who conceal them suffer a far worse fate. It is not surprising that the few remaining boys and girls are carefully hidden.
Chris Mould likes to present skinny little boys who find themselves in situations which are so awful you cannot imagine how they will survive. But survive they do, through a mixture of determination, resourcefulness and a series of coincidences which joyfully stretch belief way beyond any serious limits. This is fiction, the author seems to be telling us, not some boring old biography or history book, and the whole fun of the genre is that you can make anything at all happen, realistic or not. This sense of freedom and fun, and an uncompromising disregard for mere rules of probability is what makes his books so enjoyable for young people to read.
To treat this book merely as a text in isolation would be to do it a grave injustice. Chris Mould is both the author and the illustrator, and the words and pictures are equally important for a full appreciation of the story. The scratchy, jagged designs romp across the page, sometimes spilling onto the next one in their exuberance. Scrawny Pip is pursued by witches with bony, twisted fingers like tree branches, and the huge, staring eyes of the wolves peer at him from the murky forest gloom. These images serve two purposes: on the one hand they create a scary, thrilling atmosphere where anything could happen to our hero, but on the other hand their presence on almost every page stop the newly-independent reader from imagining anything worse. This is evil, but it is contained and controlled and even, at times, so exaggerated and ridiculous that it becomes funny. Young readers will gallop through this book, loving the excitement and the menace, and will soon be begging for the next book in the series.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further reading suggestion: Fans of Chris Mould will also love the story of Stanley Buggles, by the same author. Try The Werewolf and the Ibis, the first volume in the Something Wickedly Weird series.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Spindlewood: Pip and the Wood Witch Curse by Chris Mould at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Spindlewood: Pip and the Wood Witch Curse by Chris Mould at Amazon.com.
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