Uki and the Outcasts: BLUE PETER BOOK AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR

By Author / Illustrator

Kieran Larwood, David Wyatt

Genre

Fantasy

Age range(s)

Publisher

Faber & Faber

ISBN

9780571342808

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

02-04-2020

Synopsis

From bestselling author and winner of the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award, Uki and the Outcasts is the first in a new trilogy set in the world of Podkin One-Ear.'EXCELLENT,' says the bard. 'It's probably a good idea for you to know about him.''Wait . . . him? Who's him?' said Rue.'Uki,' says the bard. 'Uki Patchwork. The Magpie Demon. Uki of the Two Furs.'From the Ice Wastes beyond the Cinder Wall emerges an unlikely hero. Rejected by his village and left to die, young Uki is given life and unique powers by a long-buried spirit from the time of the Ancients . . . and a life or death mission.Joined by two other outcasts - a trained assassin who refuses to kill people and a very short rabbit who rides the fastest jerboa on the plains - Uki must capture Valkus, the Spirit of War, before rabbitkind destroys itself in conflict.A thrilling new book set in the Five Realms of Podkin One-Ear.'Storytelling perfection.' Sophie Anderson'One of my sons very favourite authors.' Romesh Ranganathan'Superb.' Max Porter

Reviews

Uki and the Outcasts is the fourth book in the absolutely amazing series of books set in the Five Realms - a fantasy world formed and inhabited by tribes of rabbits. After the first three books focusing on the adventures of young rabbit Podkin, the author has moved forward in time and place within the Realms and we are introduced to a new, young, equally endearing and equally heroic main character for the next trilogy in the series. We are taken on another sweeping adventure by a familiar storytelling Bard and his young apprentice Rue as their own journey and quest weaves into the tales the Bard tells.

Uki is a young misfit of a rabbit (half white and half black) who, in his short life so far, has been rejected by his tribe, bullied for being different, orphaned after the loss of his much loved mother and left near death in a grave. From these desperate, dismal conditions, Uki become an unlikely hero as his life force is joined by a guardian spirit in need of a body to capture, after escaping from four other escaped spirits set on destroying the land. So begin the quests of Uki .

In Larwood's books, the hero is not a solitary figure. Uki gradually acquires a "tribe" of his own; other outcasts from across the Realms. There is Jori, a young female rabbit who is destined by her Clan to become a killer but who cannot bring herself to fulfil her Clan demands. Kree is a small plains rabbit with an excitable and quick temper who Uki and Jori rescue from a beating and who claims to have been thrown out of home. The trio's growing friendship, trust and loyalty are the heart and strength of the story; it is impossible not to take these three unusual, flawed but fiercely brave young characters completely to your heart.

In Uki and the Outcasts, the Spirit of War, Valkus, must be stopped. There are some truly stunning landscapes created in the book through both the thrilling, detailed descriptions of cities in flames and the superb illustrations by David Wyatt (his illustrations throughout all the Five Realms series are exceptional). There is a vast, cinematic feel to much of the action in the tale which contrasts so well to the individual fears and challenges that each small rabbit has to overcome to ensure Uki can complete his first quest.

I was worried I might not take to Uki as I am such a huge fan of the Podkin stories in the first three books but it was an unnecessary fear. Uki and The Outcasts is just as brilliantly written, with characters just as warm and endearing and with adventures as tense, drama filled and exciting as you could imagine.

400 pages / Reviewed by Jennifer Caddick, teacher