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 Great new versions of classic school stories from Girls Gone By...

December is, surprisingly, a quiet month for publishers. All the blockbuster titles went on sale several weeks ago, and publishers' lists are extremely short this month. By and large, there are relatively few new titles for me to talk about this month. That's not to say that the quality of the books that are published in the weeks before Christmas is downgraded or not worth mentioning. What it means is that the review pages and story episodes are mostly unchanged in this issue, but I've focused on a few fantastic titles you could still pick up in the days left before Christmas. The next issue will be out at the end of January, which gives me a nice long break!

GIRLS GONE BY publishers continue to publish eye-catching, mouthwatering new versions of hard-to-find and out-of-print girls' school stories. Late November saw the publication of ELINOR BRENT DYER's 56th Chalet School novel, TWO SAME AT THE CHALET SCHOOL; November also sees the publication of ELSIE J OXENHAM's THE NEW ABBEY GIRLS. TWO SAMS has a lovely introduction by Helen Barber, whose THE BETTANYS OF TAVERTON HIGH was published by Girls Gone By at the beginning of November, and was my "nostalgia" book of the month in the December issue. Elinor Brent Dyer's Chalet School series is in all likelihood the most popular of all girls' story series, and it's not hard to see why when you read them. In actual fact, it's not my favourite series - being a baby boomer, I prefer THE SILENT THREE from my sister's SCHOOL FRIEND comic, and I also liked THE FOUR MARYS from BUNTY - but I did "discover" the Chalet School in the 1990s and really do enjoy them, even more so in their latest, perfect incarnations from Girls Gone By! TWO SAMS AT THE CHALET SCHOOL is one of those wonderful stories of two girls sharing (almost) the same name and discovering they have such a lot in common even though they are a couple of years apart in age and in their new school. Whilst the adventures they have are not in the same league as those enjoyed by the Silent Three, they are, nevertheless, most enjoyable and The entire Chalet School series is really faultless - lovely, sympathetic characters, simple but engaging plots, glorious scenery. Elsie J Oxenham's book is set in the 1920s - a different setting altogether, but again, huge fun and again, the package is superb. Other than owning a copy of the original book, I can't think of a better way to collect these charming reprints from an age now well in the past but superbly kept alive by Girls Gone By. Fascinating articles about Elsie J Oxenham and her long-running association with the English Folk Song Society make this a real collector's item.

Ronnie by Ronnie Drew (Penguin Ireland)

With the whole-hearted co-operation of his daughter and son, Cliodhna and Phelim, it has been possible to put together Ronnie's work on his memoir along with his other writings, interviews with Cliodhna and Phelim, a wealth of photographs and other material from the family archive and contributions from close friends, to create a book that is a wonderful portrait of, and a fitting and loving tribute to, the man Bono called 'the king of Ireland'. A fascinating and heartwarming memoir of one of the most famous singers in the history of Irish folk music, Ronnie Drew was the leader of the Dubliners and that's what he'll be remembered for - that unbelievably gruff but tuneful voice. I have at least ten Dubliners CDs in my collection and never tire of hearing them. This book is a joy and a delight, a window on the world of one fantastic entertainer, the like of which won't be seen again...

Ender in Exile
By Orson Scott Card
Published by Tor Books
November 2008;$25.95US/$28.95CAN; 978-0-765-30496-4

Description

Orson Scott Card returns to his bestselling series with a new Ender novel.

    At first, Ender believed that they would bring him back to Earth as soon as things quieted down.  But things were quiet now, had been quiet for a             year, and it was plain to him now that they would not bring him back at all, that he was much more useful as a name and a story than he would ever     be as an inconvenient flesh-and-blood person. At the close of Ender’s Game, Andrew Wiggin -- called Ender by everyone -- knows that he cannot live on Earth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: He is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living under the Hegemon's control, a pawn in his brother Peter's political games. Or he can join the colony ships and go out to settle one of the new worlds won in the war. The story of those years on the colony worlds has never been told... until now.     The voyage was long. By the end of it, Val had finished the first volume of her history of the bugger wars and transmitted it by ansible, under Demosthenes' name, back to Earth, and Ender had won something better than the adulation of the passengers. They knew him now, and he had won their love and their respect.   

Ender was twelve when he chose to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies. With him went his sister, Valentine, and the core of the artificial intelligence that would become Jane. He wrote The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, and his sister wrote The Speaker for the Dead. He served as governor of his first colony world, but now Ender is on the move, looking for a planet where the hive queens might be reestablished.
What he finds in the Gangescolony is more than he bargained for -- a resentful governor who caused a devastating war on Earth and a brilliant young colonist who is out to destroy him, starting with his reputation and ending, perhaps, with his life.

Author Bio
Orson Scott Card is the internationally bestselling author of Ender's Game. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Reviews

“The novels of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series are an intriguing combination of action, mliitary and political strategy, elaborate war games, and psychology.”
–USA TODAY

 “You can’t step into the same river twice, but Card has gracefully dipped twice into the same inkwell-once for Ender’s Game, and again for his stand-alone ‘parallel novel.’… As always, everyone will be struck by the power of Card’s children, always more and less than human, perfect yet struggling, tragic yet hopeful, wondrous and strange.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Ender’s Shadow

 “Ender’s Game is a fast-paced action/ adventure, but it is also a book with deep and complex moral sensibilities. Card constructed the book so that layers fold with immaculate timing, transforming an almost juvenile adventure into a tragic tale of the destruction of the only other sentient species man had discovered in the universe.”
-The Houston Post

 “There aren’t too many recent SF novels we can confidently call truly moral works, but Speaker for the Dead is one. Full of careful characterization, intriguing scientific, especially anthropological, speculation, and a fictional challenge to our capacity to define humanity inclusively rather than exclusively, it’s a completely gripping story.”
-Toronto Star

 “As a storyteller, Card excels in portraying the quiet drama of wars fought not on battlefields but in the hearts and minds of his characters.”
-Library Journal on Xenocide

 “Card’s prose is powerful here, as is his consideration of mystical and quasi-religious themes. Though billed as the final Ender novel, this story leaves enough mysteries unexplored to justify another entry, and Card fans should find that possibility, like this novel, very welcome indeed.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Children Of The Mind

You may not have heard of Sabrestorm Publishing but they're rapidly making a name for themselves as one of the best and most respected nostalgia publishers in the UK. I reviewed their excellent book UTILITY FURNITURE in the last issue, and found it a delightful book, conjuring up memories of my parents' furniture. This month there's a feature on Sabrestorm. January's a great month for children's books, with the second in the MONSTER ACADEMY series - another school story, and a new VAMPIRATES story from JUSTIN SOMPER! Watch out also for THE THIRTEENTH TREASURE (more in next month's issue). And it's the 60th anniversary of the publication of the first NODDY book - Harper Collins are marking the anniversary with a reprint of that now famous book that launched the little wooden man with the hat and the bell.