Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City by Will Mabbitt, illustrated by Ross
Collins (Puffin Books) PB RRP $16.99
Reviewed by
Dianne Bates
This book
for readers 8+ years is unique, highly original and very exciting for this
adult reader who has been reviewing children’s books for decades as it is so
different! One reason is that there are two narrative voices controlling the
story. There’s a first person omniscient (eccentric) narrator who takes the
reader on a guided tour through the story from place to place, often setting
the scene and atmosphere. Here’s the start of chapter five: ‘Oh, it is too much! Avert your eyes from
the gruesome spectacle. Close this grisly book you read. Close it at once, I
say. AT ONCE! Hand it to a responsible adult to throw upon a bonfire.’)
This
narrator is intercepted at times by a third person narrator relating the
adventures of the tale’s protagonist, Mabel Jones, whose baby sister Maggie is
abducted by magic vines. Sometimes the first voice seamlessly merges into the
second voice as the reader is catapulted into a series of awesome adventures
that involves creatures such as buzzards and llamas, and places such Offal Stop
and the Great Murky River.
Early in the
book, as she searches for her stolen sister, Mabel is led into the filthy Hotel
Paradiso, a place in the future in the City of Dreams in the Noo World
populated with talking animals, all of which are quirky and eccentric and
dressed outrageously. Mr Habib, a monkey who runs the Sacred Museum of Beaks,
tells Mabel she is in great danger and that ‘only the pure of heart can defeat
the dark magic.’
Not only is
there rich and quirkily (and often exaggerated) descriptive language and
non-stop action in this so-very-different novel, but the book is designed to
look incredibly tempting for its young readers with words frequently presented
in outstanding font and typeface. The frequent black and white illustrations
are as creative as the text; in one section, the reader is even invited to
examine an illustration to ‘see’ the book’s outlandish characters.
According to
The Times, this innovative book (the
second in a series) has ‘a dash of Lemony Snicket’ but in no way is it
derivative. I can see it winning awards and young readers telling friends to
beg, borrow or steal it. Highly recommended.
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