The way to Sattin Shore

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If one thing excites me more than anything, it's finding a Phillippa Pearce book I haven't read.  She is the author of my favourite book- "Tom's Midnight Garden" and I always get excited when I find one of her books in a charity shop. Somehow, I have no idea where this copy of The way to Sattin Shore came from except that when I was bequeathing my epic children's book collection to the new teacher in year 4 (she's from USA, she doesn't have any of her own here), I happened to notice it balanced on a pile.  Swooping down on it with eagle-like menace, I grabbed it and stowed it away in my bag for the journey home from school.  Was I right to place my trust in this author, trusting to her usual standards?

Of course I was. This book was simply top notch!  It contains that effective quality of creating mystery that you don't realise at first but slowly pervades your subconscious until you realise something is up. The book deals with one Katy Tranter, a young girl who lives with her mother, maternal grandmother and two older brothers in a small town.  She doesn't have many friends but doesn't seem to mind it, it's not an issue in the book. Although this  is the case, she adores her ginger cat, Syrup, who is enough friend for her.  It seems she is fatherless, her father died when she was born but as the book continues, all is not what it seems.   The mystery is slowly unlocked with reluctant or willing help coming from her family members and even her new friend.

The book is well written with just enough touch of a slightly uncomfortable feeling of trouble to keep you reading, but not too scary for the children it is written for.  Wonderful description marks many passages of this text and yet it never overtakes the narrative flow, it simply creates a vivid image of the times it tries to depict and makes you feel part of it.  I love a sequence of Katy sledging down a hill in the snow.  The characterisation is not immediately obvious that she is reluctant to do it until it becomes apparent and I was surprised by this. I identified with Katy as I am a total scaredy-cat about things that go fast.  I felt her exhilaration when she discovered that it wasn't as scary as she'd thought. When thinking about them, I discovered I care about the characters in this story and what happens to them.  If you've read my reviews before, you might have got the feeling I am picky about the endings of books. In this case, the end of the story, though it has some minor bittersweet overtones, is the type of ending I like.

If you can get hold of a copy of this book, I would thoroughly recommend it.