Short!: A Book of Very Short Stories |
 |
 click here for more details, find new or used items |
Kevin Crossley-Holland
|
|
Pages: 96 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0192781480
Pub: OUP Oxford
Pub date: 1998-03-26
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 969
Reader Reviews:
Second Rate (4/7 people found this helpful)
There has always been something rather second rate about Kevin Crossley-Holland; if he has mastered anything it's picking at the off-cuts of other people's work and making them his own and I think that this collection demonstrates this clearly.
The traditional stories that are in this collection have all been done better elsewhere and the ones taht seem to be Crossley-Holland's own all seem imbued with something rather mean-spirited; tales full of children coming to harm or being threatened.
He even has a go at being "street" and getting down with the kids - "Hey, respect, lion!" But it doesn't work: it just sounds like some elderly white bloke trying to be current.
The writer's biography calls him a "master story-teller": that, for me, is just not true. His Arthur trilogy seems like a thin idea stretched even thinner - where's the plot, KCH?! - and this collection is the same thing, but in reverse: "I'll fob them off with some abbreviated bilge, it'll get me a few more school bookings where I can pontificate about being Welsh, talk down to them and then leave, quids in." (I speak from experience - I've heard him. There was something rather Daily Mail about him, as if all us should have been gratified that he deigned to slum it at a comprehensive for once).
So, no, don't buy this one. Dig a bit further and find a collection touched by more warmth, more humour
Short but so sweet (55/66 people found this helpful)
A class of 6-8 year olds. A wet and windy, indoor playtime day. A slightly frazzled Headteacher doing "supply". And a book! And what a book! Three selections - the shortest of the short just to prove that you don't need to write a novel to grab your reader. This book epitomises the ZEN of teaching and learning - listen for that one hand clapping! Saved!
Similar Products
Short and Shocking! (Short!)
Short and Scary!
Fantastically Funny Stories (Sidesplitters) (Sidesplitters) (Sidesplitters)
Short and Spooky!: A Book of Very Short Spooky Stories
Jumpstart!: Literacy - Games and Activities for Ages 7-14
Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Children’s Books -> Fiction -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Children’s Books -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Young Adult -> General AAS
Books -> Special Features -> Search Inside!
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin) -> Ages 9-11
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin) -> Ages 12-16
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
Books -> Refinements -> Condition (condition-type)