Weekend Reviews (1)

Here's a roundup of the early reviews of children's books in the papers.

• Amanda Craig reviews G.P. Taylor's latest offering, The Curse of Salamander Street, for the Times. Now I personally think Shadowmancer is the worst children's novel I've EVER READ and it seems my tastes here are shared by Amanda Craig. She finds this sequel to Shadowmancer "the very worst" and writes, "I am appalled at the way this author has managed to rise on a minimum of talent and a maximum of self- publicising stunts (such as his claim that he was defending free speech when ejected from a school reading for using foul language). " Craig also reviews Blade of Fire, by Stuart Hill, and The Hollow People, by Brian Keaney ("by far the best of the bunch").
• Susan Perren reviews new picture books for the Globe and Mail. Titles reviewed include: Small Wonders: Baby Animals in the Wild, by Marilyn Baillie, illustrated by Romi Caron, Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct, by Mo Willems, Jack and the Beanstalk, by E. Nesbit, illustrated by Matt Tavares