Synopsis: Stanley Wells is an ordinary boy, who happens to be quite curious. His friends are the mysterious Dr Moon and his canine companion Morcambe. Together they seem to stumble upon strange happenings and trip over mysteries that just need solving... Stanley is sleeping in the caravan at the bottom of the garden of his new house. He awakes at the sound of an odd whooooomphing noise and goes to investigate. There appear to be new trees in the garden...very odd. And now his mum and the twins are missing - could these things be connected? And what about Jim, the old man who lives in the woods with his parrot, telling tales of the sea? Could he be involved somehow? Dr Moon is the only person who can help Stanley with this puzzle and luckily he's on his way...

Review: This fun novel, with its manageable chapters and extensive, evocative illustrations seems well suited to independent readers in lower KS2. Its central character, Stanley, is easy to identify with. He is resourceful and curious, compassionate and quick-thinking, yet he is still a young boy, who quickly gets tired, discouraged and lonely. Young readers are also sure to empathise with his moments of jealousy and resentment towards his new step-siblings, Leo and Cleo, although his relationship with their father, Chris, disappointingly remains unexplored.

Despite its familiar hero, however, Tree Soup is far from a regular book. Stewart seems to delight in the fantastical, even surreal, as people as transformed into trees, the neighbour is discovered to be a landlocked pirate, and Stanley seeks help from the enigmatic pipe-smoking, long-eared Dr E. B. Moon. I do confess to finding the story somewhat bizarre at first, but as the mystery unfolded, I grew accustomed to Stanley’s world of magic realism and attached to the medley of characters.

There are certainly plenty of clues to piece together and surprises along the way to keep the reader guessing. This element of the unexpected even extends to Stewart’s illustrations, which periodically explode across a double-page, taking over the telling for a moment and forcing one to read in a different way.

Not your standard chapter book; an imaginative new story sure to intrigue and entertain!

Buy this Book

2008-08-14