Killer

Tanya Landman, a welcome, reliable and regular author with Barrington Stoke, has written an excellent and moralistic short story about jumping to conclusions and paying the price. In the style of a fable, Killer fills the brief tale of a Prince and his faithful dog, Gelert, with drama, pathos, retribution and regret.

The story fills only 23 pages, yet manages to produce an epic tale which feels much longer and stays with the reader long after the book is closed. The illustrations by Alessandro Valdrighi fill the pages with story enhancing dramatic clues for the visual decoder, making this a perfect choice for the reluctant or struggling reader as well as offering an attractive and encouraging layout.

The front cover is particularly well chosen with more of a horror-based illustration, limited to just blood red and black colours to entice even the most reticent of browsers that an exciting short story lies within the pages. Killer would make an excellent choice for a front-facing book in libraries using dynamic shelving.

Barrington Stoke's use of an accessible font and format, short sentences, paragraphs and sections, and the liberal use of space and illustrations make this a potentially popular book for any reader but particularly those who have dyslexia or visual disabilities. The brevity of the story does not prevent Tanya from ensuring there is the traditional beginning, middle and end of all good stories. Additionally, this short story would enable a reader to achieve the quick win of finishing a book within a short period of time and adds to a varied collection of super readable books of all lengths in the school library.

Killer is highly recommended as an addition to the secondary school library. NB the death of an animal may require sensitive support for some readers.

32 pages / Reviewed by Ruth Cornish, school librarian

Suggested Reading Age 11+