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Junior Fiction
OUP
Hardback £10.99
ISBN: 0192719254
Reviewed by Bette Paul
[Armadillo 6.1 Spring 2004]
Weêve been here before ® with Gulliver, with Pod, Homily and Arriety, and, best of all, with Sneezewort, Baldmoney and Dodder ® the realistically tough and grumpy Little Grey Men, now out of fashion. Gillian Crossês new book is a direct descendent of the line and itês a joy to find a miniature world set firmly in the 21st century, though in an unsuspected hedgerow world of tiny human beings.
Most of her books are thrillers in one sense or another and this is her most ambitious since The Great Elephant Race. Itês also one of her most dense and difficult with page after page of intense, exhaustive description of the background and the exhausting physical effort to survive in it. The tension lies in this very effort, first with Robert, when it appears heês a lone survivor in the jungle after a plane crash. Then, very gradually ® over 75 pages ® we (and Robert) realise that the •jungleê is merely a hedge bottom where a colony of tiny people, as Robert is now, scratch out a meagre living.
And now the tension switches from Robertês solitary survival to his learning to live with the tribe. Not least of all when he is overcome with homesickness and sets off, with a few of the strongest members, on a quest to find his real home. This is a work of staggering imagination and acute, often terrifying observation. My only cavil would be that Iêm not sure even a very experienced reader would be gripped by the prolonged description of the minutiae of life at this level. A great book for reading aloud in class or in bed, and an inspiring source for creative writing at all ages.