This is a weekly meme started and hosted by @marysimms72 on her brilliant Book Craic blog which I urge you to read. Also, please check out all the other posts and Tweets with the #MGTakesOnThursday tag, you will be sure to find many fantastic recommendations!
All fans of MG fiction are invited to join in, just follow these steps:
- Post a picture of a front cover of a middle-grade book which you have read and would recommend to others with details of the author, illustrator and publisher.
- Open the book to page 11 and share your favourite sentence.
- Write three words to describe the book
- Either share why you would recommend this book, or link to your review.
Author: Siri Kolu
Translator: Ruth Urbom
Publisher: Little Tiger Press
Favourite sentence from Page 11:
“It’ll cause quite a buzz at the Summer Shindig when we rock up with a prisoner,” added Golden Pete from his beach chair.
This book in three words: Honour Among Thieves!
Realising that I have read shockingly few MG books which have been translated from other languages, I was delighted to be sent a proof copy of Me and the Robbersons which will be published by Little Tiger Press in June.
Ten-year-old Maisie Meadows Vainisto is a trailblazer; the first prisoner ever in the history of Finnish highway robbery!
This prize-winning story by Finnish author Siri Kolu recounts Maisie’s summer of adventure with a family of sweet-toothed road-pirates, the eponymous Robbersons. After unexpectedly being plucked from her family’s car by bandit leader Wild Karl, she begins the escapade as one more piece of loot in the back of the Robbersons’ wildly swerving and speeding van as it leaves the familiar highway and heads off into the unknown.
Maisie’s transition from another boring summer with her own dull family to embracing the life-style of her captors is apparent from her first breakfast when she overcomes her repulsion at their lack of cutlery and manners and enjoys not just the hand-stolen and hand-cooked food but also the companionship and family interaction so lacking in her own home. As a reader you join with her in embracing the Robbersons, who only steal what they need, disdain money and live by their own code of honour. Maisie’s habit of jotting observations in her notebook is welcomed by Wild Karl in the hope that her analysis will facilitate a new signature crime that will enhance the family’s reputation at the Summer Shindig; a glorious bandit celebration of the year’s highlights!
The cast of characters is marvellous. Fearsome matriarch Hilda, the reckless, daredevil transit van driver with a golden heart; Wild Karl, out of shape with wildly braided hair behaving like a reincarnation of a Viking raider; his devoted best friend Golden Pete, blessed with gold teeth with which to intimidate the gang’s victims and Karl and Hilda’s children, Hellie and Charlie. Hellie is clearly ambitious to take over the family business with her athletic ability, stealth and impressive knife-throwing skills whilst younger brother Charlie must content himself with a potato-peeler for a weapon! As the crew zig-zag through their crime spree, each of the van’s passengers reveal their personalities and motives to Maisie.
This story grabbed me as surely as a highwayman’s hold on his ill-gotten gains. It pulsates with humour, tenderness and outright anarchy with a plot that accelerates, weaves and spins like a high-octane car chase. I can best describe it as a modern day mash-up of Pippi Longstocking and Robin Hood and I would love to see it filmed by Taika Waititi. It is wonderful to see a hugely enjoyable European-authored book about to be made available for a UK readership, particularly at this point in time. Siri Kolu’s original text has been translated into English by Ruth Urbom and I certainly hope that there will be future publications available from this partnership.
I highly recommend this story to readers of 9+ who love off-beat, wacky humour mixed with adventure. It is due for publication on June 10th 2021 and I am most grateful to Charlie Morris at Little Tiger Press for sending me a proof copy to review.
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This sounds like so much fun – a proper feel good summer road trip! I’d not heard of it til now, thanks!
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I hadn’t heard of this book before, Veronica but it sounds great fun. Thank you for making me aware of it,
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