It has been a very long time since I last posted. I was chatting with my youngest the other day, newly out of exam purdah having just finished her A levels, and we were discussing how crazy life has been recently. We started off thinking of “recently” as the last few weeks, but in reality, it feels as if it has been at least a few months! And that is evidenced by my very erratic posting. I’ve been studying this last year, which has now come to an end – enjoyable but hard work – and I am now at the end of my association with school, so I am hoping life is about to get a bit easier and more manageable.
What has prompted me back into my blogging groove was being contacted by a lovely person at Macmillan Children’s Books, offering me a copy of Anna Fargher’s newest book, Delta and the Lost City, and the opportunity to participate in a blog tour. I am a fan of Anna Fargher’s books, and have reviewed on here two of her earlier books, The Umbrella Mouse and The Fire Cats of London. Fargher’s books are ‘middle-grade’, aimed at 8-12 years old, but I am a firm believer in adults reading to and with children, so this could also suit six and seven year olds with some supervision.
In Delta and the Lost City, Fargher deploys her usual style and technique, so it will thrill children who are already her fans. The setting is historic, as usual, although she is going much further back than ever before, this time to Pompeii in AD 79 at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. So readers get a helpful history lesson as well as a great story!
Also, as usual, her main characters are animals; Delta is a wonderful central figure, daughter of a placid white house dog, but fathered by a wolf and therefore with almost black fur, unlike her mother. Delta strikes fear into many who don’t know her and she can use her wolf genes to her advantage at times, to protect those whom she loves. But Delta has a kind and loving heart and is an intelligent and resourceful creature.
[The rest of this review contains some spoilers.]
Delta lives in a house in the country, at the home of kindly nobleman Lucius. Her animal friends in the household include her mother Luna and the eagle Bellona. The humans they care for are Herminia, Lucius’s daughter, who is pregnant, and the slaves Gaia and her son Neo. Lucius was a progressive and treated his slaves well, decreeing also that they should be given their freedom after his death. Herminia is married to Marcus, a sly and cruel buisnessman. Delta sees Marcus secretly murdering the elderly Lucius and concealing his will, but there is little she can do about it. When Marcus decides to take Herminia and the household back to Rome and sell the household slaves, Delta flees with the help of Bellona.
On the run, Delta goes on a desperate search. She finds Neo and Gaia in Pompeii, in their new households. All the residents of the city know that Vesuvius is active, feeling the daily tremors in the earth beneath their feet. They make gifts to the god Vulcan to try and placate him to save themselves and their city. But, as we know, this is futile and Vesuvius eventually erupts. As in The Fire Cats of London, we know the outcome, but Fargher keeps us on the edge of our seats, as we follow our heroine and her human and animal friends, trying to escape the terror as well as do the right thing.
Like Fargher’s other animal heroines and heroes, Delta is a brave and clever dog, worthy of her central place in the book. Children will love Delta and the other characters and be able to identify with the child characters, their emotions, and their ability to empathise and develop close relationships with the animals. Importantly, Fargher never patronises with her animal characters; they take centre-stage unashamedly
This is a charming book with well-defined characters, a powerful story and a fascinating historical insight and I recommend it highly.
The book will be published on 4th July. There are one or two other things going on that day, but if you are in the UK, make a detour to the bookshop on the way back from the polling station with your children and pick up a copy!
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