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#HistFicThursdays - The Personal Side of History... and a Word on Food!

 The events of the past week have brought home to me just how important the personal aspect and view of history are. One of the key questions I have both asked other authors and been asked myself, is whether there was a specific character they identify with. For my own part, I've always answered that there is a little bit of me in all my characters. And it's true. I have never based a character totally on myself because I have never belonged to a point in time except my own, I can't know how I would react! Now, I am less than a decade from my own lifespan encompassing the general 50-year gap for an historical fiction setting - a scary thought! Suddenly, my own early adventures are starting to sound like something from a historical novel. A few weeks ago, Crowvus published Child at the Pantry Door  and, at the end of the month, we will be publishing the next issue of our journal Hooded: Memoirs . The personal aspect to both of these books is a crucial resource to historical ...
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Book Review: The Stranger of Wigglesworth - Colby Hess

Blurb:

The arrival of a mysterious stranger in the happy village of Giggleswick causes a schism that disrupts their innocent, carefree existence. A brave, clever, freethinking boy then sets off on a quest to reveal the stranger’s deception and rescue his fellow villagers.


Review:


This is the story of how a stranger appears and starts telling happy, content people that they'll be more happy and content if they live their lives his way. When they refuse, things start going wrong in their joyful little village of Giggleswick. But all is not as it seems... there is a darker force at work!


I thoroughly enjoyed it. To me, it had elements of The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning, both in content and style. The story is written in a kind of gentle poetry which is more about rhythm than rhyme and that makes it a wonderful thing to read aloud.

The Stranger of Wigglesworth is a picture book for older children. It states clearly on the cover that it is for Ages 6-11, and it's important to keep this in mind when reading it. There are a lot of words in here which littler children wouldn't understand, and some parts of the story are very dark. The only slight issue I had with it was that, on one single occasion, the illustrations got so dark that I struggled to see what was happening, but that didn't spoil the overall reading experience for me.

This is a book to be read aloud where possible - and definitely one to be shared!

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