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Oliver and the Seawigs Kindle Edition
- PublisherOUP Oxford
- Publication dateSeptember 5, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- File size84353 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A delightfully told, beautfiul tale of nautical hairdressing, saltwater primates and sarcastic seaweed--this is my kind of book!"--Chris Riddell, award-winning illustrator and co-creator of the Edge Chronicles
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00EJLULNC
- Publisher : OUP Oxford (September 5, 2013)
- Publication date : September 5, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 84353 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : Not Enabled
- Print length : 208 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,446,088 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,728 in Children's Marine Life Stories
- #5,696 in Children's Animal Action & Adventure
- #10,371 in Children's Marine Life Books
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Philip Reeve is best known as the author of Mortal Engines, but has written many other works, including Railhead, Here Lies Arthur, and a series of popular books for younger readers with the illustrator Sarah McIntyre.
Philip was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for a number of years while also co-writing, producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects. Philip then began illustrating, and has since provided illustrations, cartoons and comic strips for around forty children's books, including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series. It was while working on these that he wrote Mortal Engines, his first novel.
Mortal Engines is a gripping adventure story set in a future world where moving cities trawl the globe. It was shortlisted for several awards and was the Gold Award winner at the Nestle Smarties Book Prize 2002 and the winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year at the 2003 Awards. A movie adaptation, written and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and directed by Christian Rivers, was released in 2018.
Predator's Gold is the second book in the Mortal Engines quartet, Infernal Devices the third and A Darkling Plain concludes the series to date. A Darkling Plain was published in 2006 and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
In 2007, Philip took a new direction with publication of Here Lies Arthur, a story which this time looks back into history. Set in the Dark Ages, the book is a gripping adventure story and at the same time explores how a myth can be created through story-telling. Here Lies Arthur was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Award, the Nestle Children's Book Prize and won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2008.
Fever Crumb, published in 2009 and set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines, was short-listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010. It was followed by A Web of Air (2010) and Scrivener's Moon (2011).
Philip is also the author of Goblins ,Goblins Vs Dwarves, and Goblin Quest (comic fantasies about the bloodthirsty goblins of Clovenstone) and a trilogy of steam-powered Victorian space adventures Larklight, Starcross and Mothstorm, all gloriously illustrated by David Wyatt.
In recent years Philip has begun a successful collaboration with the illustrator Sarah McIntyre. Their books together include Oliver and the Seawigs, Cakes in Space, Pugs of the Frozen North, and Jinks and O’Hare Funfair Repair. The Legend of Kevin, about a roly-poly flying pony, was followed by three sequels: Kevin's Great Escape, Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit and Kevin vs the Unicorns.
In March 2023 Philip and Sarah published the first of their new Adventuremice series: Otter Chaos. Based on paintings Sarah did during the pandemic lockdowns, and lavishly illustrated in full colour, the first book tells the story of Pedro, a young mouse who sets off in search of the fabled Mouse Islands, and meets the daring Adventuremice.
Inspired by working on the Reeve & McIntyre series, Philip returned to large-scale sci-fi with his YA novel Railhead, set in a future where human beings live in a galactic empire linked by hyperspace railways, Railhead tells the story of a young thief named Zen, who is recruited to commit an elaborate robbery. Zen’s adventures continue in a sequel, Black Light Express, and Station Zero completes the trilogy.
Philip's most recent novels are Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep and Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild. Described by the Guardian as 'a superbly weird tale of wonder, peril, tragedy and the thin places between worlds', it is set on the imaginary 19th Century island of Wildsea, where young Utterly Dark keeps watch for even more imaginary islands which appear sometimes on the western horizon, and the terrifying being who lives on them. 'The writing is superbly descriptive, strongly evoking landscapes, weathers and moods. Much of the earlier part of the story feels lyrical and echoes the writing of the period in which it is set, without ever feeling in any way archaic. But…the story rapidly builds to a cataclysmic and hugely exciting sequence of climaxes.’ (Gordon Askew, Magic Fiction Since Potter.) The second book follows Utterly to another island, where old magic is stirring beneath the hills.
Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son.
Illustrator and writer Sarah McIntyre is easy to spot in her pointy glasses and hats. She's excited to launch the Adventuremice series of highly illustrated books for young readers with her co-author Philip Reeve. Together they've created award-winning books such as 'Oliver and the Seawigs' and 'Pugs of the Frozen North', and their more recent series about Kevin the Roly-Poly Flying Pony. Reeve & McIntyre think up stories together, then Reeve writes them (with help from Sarah) and Sarah illustrates them (with help from Philip). Sarah has also written and illustrated her own books, including the highly popular Grumpycorn picture books. Visit her website for lots of free book-related activities and inspiration for making your own drawings.
Websites: Jabberworks.co.uk & Adventuremice.com
Instagram/Twitter: jabberworks
Facebook: facebook.com/illustratrix
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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Oliver Crisp has lived quite an adventurous life at a very young age. His parents are explorers, and they have decided that it's time to settle down. However, a group of mysterious islands have made their way into the body of water that surrounds their home, and Oliver's parents must explore them right away! Suddenly, Oliver's parents go missing...and so do the islands! In this entertaining tale, Reeve and McIntyre introduce the perfect hybrid between graphic novel and middle-grade chapter book that will charm and amuse the whole family!
When I first received this book, I had no idea what a "seawig" was. I thought it was some kind of sea creature that the author had made up. I was most pleasantly surprised when I discovered what a "seawig" was just that! A wig...made from the sea! Add a nearsighted mermaid, some rudely sarcastic seaweed, and enough sea monkeys to fill a sea, and you have Oliver and the Seawigs.
This book is so many levels of cool that I ran out and bought myself a copy! This is the perfect book for the child transitioning from picture books to chapter books. They will enjoy illustrations on almost every page, and the lines are spaced out enough that they will breeze through the book in no time. The entire layout and design is esthetically pleasing and easy for young eyes to look at. It reminded me a lot of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck. The storyline and artwork is embellished with levels of creativity that will keep the reader turning pages with anticipation.
I. love. this. book. I cannot stress how much I love this book. I've already recommended it to several people. I'm sure that it's release here in the US will vie for several awards (deservingly so!).
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the free digital copy I received in exchange for an honest review.
Author: Philip Reeve
Illustrator: Sarah McIntyre
Publisher: Oxford
Random House Children's
Year: 2013
Pages: 200
[Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC (advance readers copy) via NetGalley in exchange for my fair and unbiased review of Oliver and the Seawigs. I have in no way been compensated or asked to provide a positive review. Just honesty.]
I am glad that I am rather frequently asked by publishers to review children's literature. In this way, I am introduced to new authors that I may not otherwise know about or hear of. I am also introduced to illustrators who make beautiful drawings and or painting. One of my favorite classes in graduate school was the one where we did nothing but read children's books and literature.
Oliver and the Seawigs is a fun, whimsical book written for upper elementary to junior high students. I suspect, however, that even senior high students and adults will enjoy and appreciate the fast paced action, light-hearted fun, and witty humor of this book. It's filled with plenty of puns, alliterations, and jokes along the way--and rambling islands, talking birds, sarcastic seas, sea monkeys, mermaids, and hallowed shallows. As a teacher, I enjoy when authors make fun use of words and invite the readers to think their way through a story. Words are great fun and Reeve did a wonderful job making his enjoyment of words fun for the readers.
As I noted above, I read an ARC. I downloaded through NetGalley into Adobe Digital Editions and attempted to read the book using my Nook. I was very disappointed that the graphics heavy book did not function at all on my Nook. In fact, it crashed my Nook many times before I simply gave up and read the book entirely on ADE. Even in ADE the book pages turned very slowly and at times caused the program to be unresponsive for several minutes. This was unfortunate. I don't know if this is a problem just with the ARC or if this is an inherent problem, but it was my experience.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and these technical glitches in no way took away from the enjoyment of the story and my pleasure in reading it. I think I would prefer to have a nice hard bound copy as opposed to the digital copy, for reasons mentioned above and I hope that my digital experience was my own and not shared by other readers.
In some ways the book reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket--in this case, one young child working through a challenging adventure and attempting to solve relatively complex problems along the way. Furthermore, the language is not softened for readers who may well find themselves in need of a dictionary to work through some of the larger words in the book (e.g., crotchety, feted, doubloons). Of course they are not mountainous words, but still there may be some challenges for some students and other readers. And of course I believe this to be a good thing. One of the best ways to learn how to read and how to think through books is when a reader is forced, at times, to look up a word in a dictionary. Even now, after 40+ years of reading, this is a frequent practice of mine.
The artwork is spectacular. The version I read was mostly pencil drawings with a very small palette of color (blue & black). The artwork was very well done and complimented the story nicely. After looking at the web pages of the illustrator, I also see how the artwork reflects her personality in any number of ways. The artwork only enhanced the story and in no way detracted from it.
The story is simple. The story is short (and the illustrations, sometimes taking up two pages, make the book go by rather quickly). The story is fun. I don't think there is a lot of suspense for older readers who will find the story somewhat predictable and cookie-cutter, but younger readers will probably find it somewhat suspenseful and scary at times. (Maybe.) I highly recommend the book and hope at some point to include it in my own classroom (there are some extras at the illustrator's web page, see above for link).
5/5 stars
Top reviews from other countries
La storia è originale e i disegni sono meravigliosi!
Di sicuro leggero anche gli atri titoli di Reeve illustrati da Sarah!
When it arrived I wasn't disappointed, it's well bound and beautifully illustrated throughout, so looked forward to reading it with my youngest kids.
We've not finished it yet, but I'm finding the story enjoyable, and the kids love it !!
I would recommend this book to anyone with primary school age kids.