CANR
WORK TITLE:
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BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.catherinejinks.com/
CITY: Sydney
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COUNTRY: Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian
LAST VOLUME: SATA 269
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born November 17, 1963, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; daughter of Brian and Rhonda Jinks; married Peter Dockrill (a journalist), November 22, 1992; children: Hannah.
EDUCATION:University of Sydney, B.A. (with honors), 1986.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and illustrator. Westpac Banking Corp., Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, journalist, 1986-93; full-time writer. Lecturer, workshop presenter, and writer-in-residence at Australian schools.
AVOCATIONS:Gardening, history, films, television.
AWARDS:Literature Board of the Australia Council grant; Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award shortlist, Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA), 1993, for Pagan’s Crusade, 1997, for Pagan’s Scribe, and 2001, for You’ll Wake the Baby!; Victoria Premier’s Award shortlist, 1993, for Pagan’s Crusade; Adelaide Festival Award shortlist, 1996, for Pagan’s Vows; Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award in older-readers category, 1996, for Pagan’s Vows, and 1998, for Eye to Eye; Victoria Premier’s Award, 1997, for Pagan’s Scribe; Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror Award in young-adult division, 1997, and CROW Award shortlist, 1998, both for Eye to Eye; New South Wales State Literary Award shortlist, 1999, for Eye to Eye, and 2000, for The Stinking Great Lie; Family Award for Children’s Book in picture-book category, 2001, Young Australian Best Book Award shortlist, and Kids Own Australian Literature Award shortlist, both 2002, all for You’ll Wake the Baby!; Aurealis Award for fantasy shortlist, 2002, and CBCA Notable Book designation, both for Eglantine; Aurealis Award shortlist for long fiction, 2003, for Eustace; CBCA Notable Book designation, for Elysium; special commendation, Sisters in Crime Davitt Award, 2005, for Road; Davitt Young-Adult Award, Sisters in Crime, 2006, for Evil Genius, 2009, for Genius Squad; best novel prize, Australian Shadows Awards, 2019, for Shepherd.
POLITICS: “Left.”WRITINGS
Author’s works have been translated into German, French, and Spanish, among other languages.
SIDELIGHTS
Australian author Catherine Jinks is best known for her “Pagan’s Chronicles” series, which draws readers into the medieval world. The series, which includes the books Pagan’s Crusade and Pagan’s Scribe, grew out of Jinks’s interest in medieval history and focus on sixteen-year-old Christian Arab Pagan Kidrouk, who works as a squire for Templar Knight Lord Roland Roucy de Bram during the Crusades. The “Pagan Chronicles” combine Jinks’s wide-ranging knowledge of the medieval period with her engaging writing style and quirky sense of humor.
Other books that draw readers into the medieval past include Babylonne and the murder mystery The Inquisitor, while Jinks returns to the present for several picture books and young-adult works, including the titles comprising her popular “Allie’s Ghost Hunters” and “Genius” series.
Jinks was born in Australia in 1963 and grew up amid a book-loving family in Papua New Guinea. An avid writer since childhood, she once recalled to an Allen & Unwin online interviewer, “My first ‘book’ was a picture book called I Want to Be a Jungle Girl. I sent my first ‘novel’ to a publisher when I was twelve (it was turned down, needless to say).” After moving to Australia and graduating from the University of Sydney with a degree in medieval history, she married and relocated with her Canadian husband to Nova Scotia from 1993 to 1994, before returning to Australia with her family.
Jinks’s first book for young adults, This Way Out, was published in 1991, after its author had spent several years working as a journalist. The contemporary story focuses on a fifteen-year-old girl’s dissatisfaction with her life and her search for a job that will pay for the photographs she hopes will begin her modeling career. “ This Way Out reveals the author’s awareness of some of the frustrations and longings of youth,” remarked Cathryn Crowe in Magpies.
“Pagan's Chronicles” Series
In her second book, Pagan’s Crusade, Jinks introduces her twelfth-century ragamuffin character, Pagan, as he attempts to rise above a childhood on the streets of Jerusalem by finding a place with the Knights Templar. The novel, which takes place in 1187, focuses on the relationship between the streetwise Pagan and Templar Knight Lord Roland, who as a member of the order charged with protecting travelers, is the epitome of upper-class strength and valor. Touring the Middle East to advance the cause of Christianity, the pair are forced to enter battle to defend the city of Jerusalem and the Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy City from the Muslim warlord Saladin, who is attempting to recapture the city for Islam. “The aristocratic Templar and his scruffy squire make an unlikely partnership and it is a measure of the success of Ms. Jinks’ story that we accept the mutual respect that grows up between the partners under the stress of violent action,” wrote Marcus Crouch in Junior Bookshelf.
Pagan’s Crusade was described as “a curious, and curiously fascinating, novel” by Crouch in Junior Bookshelf. Critics have noted the author’s unusual choice of modern vernacular speech for her medieval characters, a choice that yields “a style which is elliptical and abrupt and, at times, wildly funny,” according to a reviewer in Magpies. Praising Jinks’s characters as “lively and engaging,” Horn Book contributor Anita L. Burkam added that the irreverent squire’s “sarcastic first-person narration, while faithful to the details of medieval life, contains more than a touch of irony.” Comparing Jinks’s humor to that of British comedy troupe Monty Python, a Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that the “alternately hilarious, often poignant novel … turns medieval history into fodder for both high comedy and allegory.” Also praising Pagan’s Crusade, a Kirkus Reviews critic maintained that the book’s “orphan’s-eye view” helps readers visualize “the overripe streets of 12th-century Jerusalem” and also “introduces a character as lovable, stubbornly loyal, and smart- mouthed as any Disney film sidekick.”
In Pagan in Exile, the first sequel to Pagan’s Crusade, Lord Roland takes Pagan back to his estate in Languedoc, France, where the knight becomes involved in the domestic wars among the twelfth-century landed aristocracy while trying to summon others to help the Order retake Jerusalem. Like Jinks’s first volume, Pagan in Exile was praised for its young protagonist’s humorous first-person narration, although its plot contains a darker focus due to its depiction of the brutality and squalor of medieval life. Noting that the author successfully brings to life an epoch “that was particularly dark and dirty,” Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper added that followers of the “Pagan” series would likely “find other books set in the Middle Ages pallid” by comparison.
Other books in the “Pagan Chronicles” series include Pagan’s Vows and Pagan’s Scribe. Pagan’s Vows finds Pagan and Lord Roland serving as novices at the Abbey of Saint Martin as a way of avoiding the brutality of medieval French society. While Roland quickly accepts the way of life at the Benedictine monastery, Pagan sees the dishonesty and hypocrisy running rampant in this house of God. Rejecting the blind obedience demanded of him, he is determined to unveil the corruption in the monastic hierarchy, even if it angers Lord Roland. “The historical details in this fast-moving, humorous tale are precise and fascinating,” Anita L. Burkam noted in Booklist.
Jinks concluded her series with Pagan’s Scribe, in which Isadore recounts Pagan’s rise to become an archdeacon of the Catholic Church in France. Burkam remarked that the “emotionally satisfying epic brings the Middle Ages to life,” and Paula Rohrlick, writing in Kliatt, described the novel as a “moving ending to a vivid, gritty historical fiction series.” Pagan’s Vows won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award for the older readers category from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, one of several awards accorded the series. In her acceptance speech, published in Reading Time, Jinks noted: “In a funny sort of way I see the award as more of a tribute to Pagan than to me.” Describing her popular fictional character, she added: “He’s been through a lot, yet he’s kept his humour and his courage and his loving heart.”
TheInquisitorand Babylonne
Like the “Pagan” books, The Inquisitor is another novel by Jinks that has found its way into the hands of U.S. readers. Taking place in fourteenth-century France during the Inquisition, the novel focuses on the efforts of Inquisitor Father Bernard Peyre to track down the person who murdered and dismembered the corpse of the father’s supervisor, Father Augustin. As his search uncovers corruption in the church hierarchy, Bernard finds his reputation sullied—and his life threatened—by charges of heresy in what Booklist reviewer Carrie Bissey dubbed a “smart page-turner that paints a convincing portrait of the struggle to live in the shadow of a … [corrupt] institution.” Citing Bernard as a “sympathetic and engaging narrator,” a Publishers Weekly reviewer also praised Jinks for her creation of a “gripping escape sequence” to crown the novel’s plot.
Babylonne, another work set in medieval France, centers on the title character, a rebellious teenager who flees from an arranged marriage to an elderly man. Disguised as a boy, Babylonne must place her trust in her traveling companion, Father Isadore, a Catholic priest who knew her father, Pagan Kidrouk. According to Kliatt reviewer Aimee Cole, “Issues of faith and truth are presented seamlessly within the story for readers to question,” and Burkam observed that Jinks’s “characters will touch readers’ sympathies even as the faultless scholarship steeps them in the deeds and customs of the era.”
“Allie's Ghost Hunters” Series
Jinks embarked on a second series with Eglantine: A Paranormal Adventure. As the first of the “Allie’s Ghost Hunters” books, Eglantine introduces Allie Gebhardt, junior ghost hunter. In this book, as well as its sequels Eustace: A Paranormal Adventure, Eloise: A Paranormal Adventure, and Elysium: A Paranormal Adventure, Allie gradually gains the tools of the ghost-hunting trade—séances, dealing with emanations, and how to put a spirit to rest—as various unearthly spectres cross her path. The works “feature well-drawn settings,” Elaine E. Knight commented in School Library Journal.
Evil Genius and Genius Squad
Jinks introduces child prodigy Cadel Piggott in Evil Genius, “an engrossingly complex tale,” according to a critic in Kirkus Reviews. After his adoptive parents can no longer cope with his destructive behaviors, the mischievous Cadel is placed in the Axis Institute by his longtime psychologist, Dr. Thaddeus Roth. Cadel soon realizes, however, that he is being groomed to take the place of his biological father, Phineas Darkkon, an imprisoned criminal mastermind. “Jinks sets up a compelling world of lies, deceit, and betrayal,” Dylan Thomarie observed in School Library Journal, and a Publishers Weekly contributor observed that “as the complex deceptions that have shaped Cadel’s life come to light, his emotional unraveling and awakening will likely engross readers.” In Genius Squad, a sequel, Cadel joins forces with an elite group of computer experts who are investigating a criminal empire. “Jinks writes hacker lingo accessible to nontechies, imparting the edgy thrill of computer espionage,” Burkam noted, and a Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that the cast of characters “help populate this story with fresh twists and eyebrow-raising, technologically over-the-top antics.”
The Reformed Vampire Support Group
A group of rundown, whiny bloodsuckers are involved in a murder mystery in The Reformed Vampire Support Group, a “droll vampire send-up” according to Booklist critic Ian Chipman. After one of its members gets himself staked, a band of weary vampires, who suffer from anemia and find immortality stifling, must track down the killer before he strikes again.
“Jinks’s signature facility with plot and character development is intact,” a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented, and Horn Book critic Lauren Adams stated that “this alternative vampire story is for outsiders of all kinds, underground or otherwise.”
(open new) Living Hell
Jinks turns to science fiction in her 2010 work, Living Hell, set aboard the spaceship Plexus, decades from Earth. One day the ship should land on a habitable planet, but for now it is home for a couple thousand residents. Cheney has spent his seventeen years only aboard the ship, and he and the other passengers have settled into a routine. Then the ship passes through what seems to be a radiation field with shocking results. The ship begins turning into an organism, with walls becoming muscle and cables turned into veins. The transport vehicles on board begin acting like defending cells eager to chew up viruses. The problem is, the humans on board are now the viruses.
Booklist reviewer Daniel Kraus noted of Living Hell: “Jinks’ well-thought-out environs and rational characters help ground this otherwise out-of-control interstellar thriller.” A Publishers Weekly writer had a higher assessment, concluding: “With plenty of gruesome creatures (and demises) that owe a thing or two to films like Aliens, this is science fiction for horror fans.” A Kirkus Reviews critic also had praise, commenting, “Packed with thrills, this deserves equally over-the-top CGI. In a word–AWESOME.” Similarly, Horn Book contributor Claire E. Gross called the novel a “thought-provoking meditation on society and individuals caught in the watershed moment of sudden and absolute change.”
The Genius Wars andThe Abused Werewolf Rescue Group
Jinks continues her Genius series books with The Genius Wars, in which Cadel is rejecting his training to become a criminal mastermind. He is settling into a new and normal life with his adoptive parents. But now his former mentor and nemesis, Prosper English is appearing, violence happens to those around him, and his character is put to the ultimate test in this novel whose climax is “taut, absorbing and tantalizingly ambiguous,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. A similar opinion was voiced by Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Alicia Abdul, who concluded: “The final explosive scenes are the culmination of plotting and counter-maneuvering of the indistinguishable abilities of two sophisticated masterminds–the only thing Cadel lacks is age.”
In The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, Jinks provides a sequel to her earlier The Reformed Vampire Support Group. Toby Vandeveld is thirteen and thinks he is a normal nerdy teen until one morning he awakens in a hospital, having been found unconscious and naked in a dingo pen. He and his single mom finally figure out what this means: that he is in fact a werewolf. But the realization is cut short when Toby is kidnapped to take part in underground werewolf fights. Instead of being victimized, Toby and other competitors become allies and turn against their captors. A Publishers Weekly reviewer had reservations about the novel, commenting: “Jinks has hold of a clever idea and a solid sense of humor, but this installment is brought down by an overdose of disbelief on Toby’s part and the chaotic second half of the story.” Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic noted: “By the end it’s hilarious, but many teens may struggle to get that far.”
The Paradise Trap and Saving Thanehaven
Jinks takes readers into a deadly paradise out of Greek mythology in The Paradise Trap. Marcus is eleven and has no interest in spending the summer at the beach with his mom in the old trailer she has purchased. He would much rather be playing video games or just hanging out with his new friends, Newt and Edison. But soon Marcus discovers a magical property to the trailer: it has a staircase that leads anyone who descends to their dreamed of magical place. The only problem is that if the visitor wants to leave, things get hostile. Marcus ultimately gets to the bottom of this, discovering that the kindly old lady his mother bought the trailer from is actually a child-devouring Siren who has lost her voice and now depends on the trailer for her victims. A Kirkus Reviews contributor termed this a “breathless escapade, featuring several horror-show tropes leavened with hints of satire.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Paradise Trap a “fast-paced adventure that’s easily as exciting as one of Marcus’s beloved video games.”
In Saving Thanehaven, “Jinks delivers neatly crafted middle-grade storytelling, effortlessly blending social commentary into the omniscient narration,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. The novel takes place inside a computer game with heroic characters battling tyranny. Noble the Slayer is one of the most heroic, but one day he encounters a scrawny kid named Rufus on his way to rescue a princess. Rufus tells Noble it is time for him to take back his autonomy and stop being controlled by gamers and players. Now Noble and a band of others bound from game to game to free heroes of all sorts. However, soon the system itself fails and Rufus turns out to be a virus. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted of this novel: “Clever, thought-provoking fun for all–especially for technology geeks and those who love them.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly critic concluded: “Gamers should adore this book.”
"How to Catch a Bogle" Series
Jinks serves up a fantasy trilogy about child-eating monsters in Victorian England in her “How to Catch a Bogle” series (originally published in Australia as “City of Orphans”). The series launched with How to Catch a Bogler, in which ten-year-old orphan Birdie is apprenticed to Alfred the Bogler, who catches monsters for a living. Birdie uses a sweet song to lure the bogles out of hiding and then kills them. All goes well until London’s orphans begin to disappear. “Jinks opens her projected trilogy in high style, offering a period melodrama replete with colorful characters, narrow squeaks and explosions of ectoplasmic goo,” noted a Kirkus Reviews critic. Similarly, Horn Book contributor Deirdre F. Baker commented, “This quasi-Victorian, somewhat gothic fantasy is a satisfying confection.” Likewise, a Publishers Weekly reviewer called the novel “topnotch storytelling.”
The series continues with The Plague of Bogles, in which Birdie and Alfred are joined by young Jem Barbary, who has grown tired of his life as a pickpocket. Together these three continue the battle against the monstrous bogles and all other sorts of villainy. “Don’t even think about reading this story under the covers by flashlight,” warned Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan. The series concludes with The Last Bogler, in which young Ned Roach becomes Alfred’s apprentice battling the bogles, joining Birdie and Jem. But times are changing and as the age of machines approaches, people begin to question the existence of monsters such as bogles. But there is an even greater enemy and menace awaiting. Booklist reviewer Phelan noted, “Fans of this richly atmospheric adventure trilogy … won’t want to miss the final volume.” A Kirkus Reviews critic had a more nuanced assessment, concluding: “Better in its parts than its whole–but even second-drawer Jinks tops the general run.” Higher praise was offered by School Library Journal writer Amanda Raklovits, who commented: “A highly satisfying conclusion to this wonderfully crafted fantasy series.”
Shepherd
Jinks takes readers back to mid-nineteenth century Australia in her award-winning 2019 novel, Shepherd. Tom Clay was twelve when he was caught poaching in his native England and transported to Australia. There he began a new life in New South Wales as a shepherd for Mr. Barrett. At first, this new life is great for Tom, as he takes real pride in his work and never loses any sheep. But another employee, Dan Carver, turns Tom’s life into a nightmare. Carver brags that he has killed a number of people and keeps trophies of his kills. He is jealous of Tom’s innate skill as a shepherd, and one day he manages to coax the boy into the woods supposedly to search for a lost animal. But when Carver attempts to kill Tom, he fails, and then escapes. But weeks later Carver is back and through a series of tense encounters continues his attempts at murder.
Online Australian Book Review contributor David Whish-Wilson had praise for Shepherd, noting that it “evokes the terrible conditions of the frontier for both convict and Aboriginal subject alike, in the cloth of a highly readable, richly characterised, beautifully written novel.” Cosy Dragon website writer Rose Herbert similarly commented: “The writing style is smooth and the environment explicitly realised. Technically this novel is fantastic.” (close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2002, Carrie Bissey, review of The Inquisitor, p. 304; January 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Pagan in Exile, p. 844; May 15, 2007, Jennifer Mattson, review of Evil Genius, p. 46; January 1, 2009, Ian Chipman, review of The Reformed Vampire Support Group, p. 71; February 15, 2010, Daniel Kraus, review of Living Hell, p. 71; March 1, 2011, Krista Hurley, review of The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, p. 56; March 1, 2012, Andrew Medlar, review of The Paradise Trap, p. 90; July 1, 2013, Krista Hurley, review of Saving Thanehaven, p, 75; October 1, 2013, Carolyn Phelan, review of How to Catch a Bogle, p. 53; November 1, 2014, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Plague of Bogles; p. 56; November 15, 2015, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Last Bogler, p. 55.
Horn Book, July, 1993, Karen Jameyson, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 498; September-October, 2003, Anita L. Burkam, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 611; May-June, 2004, Anita L. Burkam, review of Pagan in Exile, p. 328; September- October, 2004, Anita L. Burkam, review of Pagan’s Vows, p. 587; March-April, 2005, Anita L. Burkam, review of Pagan’s Scribe, p. 203; July-August, 2008, Anita L. Burkam, review of Genius Squad, p. 449; January-February, 2009, Anita L. Burkam, review of Babylonne, p. 94; May-June, 2009, Lauren Adams, review of The Reformed Vampire Support Group, p. 298; March-April, 2010, Claire E. Gross, review of Living Hell, p. 58; September-October, 2010, Anita L. Burkam, review of The Genius Wars, p. 79; September-October, 2013, Deirdre F. Baker, review of review of How to Catch a Bogle, p. 101; January-February, 2015, Deirdre F. Baker, review of A Plague of Bogles, p. 82.
Junior Bookshelf, December, 1993, Marcus Crouch, review of Pagan’s Crusade, pp. 246-247.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2002, review of The Inquisitor, p. 1355; October 14, 2003, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 1272; December 15, 2003, review of Pagan in Exile, p. 1450; April 1, 2007, review of Evil Genius; March 1, 2010, review of Living Hell; August 1, 2010, review of The Genius Wars; March 1, 2011, review of The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group; January 15, 2012, review of The Paradise Trap; May 15, 2013, review of Saving Thanehaven; July 15, 2013, review of How to Catch a Bogle; October 15, 2014, review of A Plague of Bogles; September 15, 2015, review of The Last Bogler.
Kliatt, January, 2004, Paula Rohrlick, reviews of Pagan’s Crusade and Pagan in Exile, p. 8; March, 2005, Paula Rohrlick, review of Pagan’s Scribe, p. 13; November, 2008, Aimee Cole, review of Babylonne, p. 12.
Magpies, November, 1992, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 14; March, 1993, Cathryn Crowe, review of This Way Out, p. 32; May, 1993, Joan Zahnleiter, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 24; July, 1995, review of Pagan in Exile, p. 24.
Publishers Weekly, September 30, 2002, review of The Inquisitor, p. 53; November 10, 2003, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 63; April 2, 2007, review of Evil Genius, p. 57; March 31, 2008, review of Genius Squad, p. 62; January 26, 2009, review of The Reformed Vampire Support Group, p. 120; March 29, 2010, review of Living Hell, p. 60; February 14, 2011, review of The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, p. 58; February 13, 2012, review of The Paradise Trap, p. 57; May 20, 2013, review of Saving Thanehaven; p. 60; spring, 2014, review of How to Catch a Bogle, p. 83; March 16, 2020, review of Shepherd, p. 55.
Reading Time, November, 1996, Catherine Jinks, acceptance speech for Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award, pp. 7-8.
School Library Journal, December, 2003, Douglas P. Davey, review of Pagan’s Crusade, p. 153; September, 2004, Kirsten Oravec, review of Pagan’s Vows, p. 209; July, 2007, Dylan Thomarie, review of Evil Genius, p. 104; November, 2007, Elaine E. Knight, reviews of Eglantine: A Paranormal Adventure and Eustace: A Paranormal Adventure, p. 126; June, 2008, Steven Engelfried, review of Genius Squad, p. 144; December, 2008, Wendy Scalfaro, review of Babylonne, p. 128; March 3, 2012, Mandy Laferriere, review of The Paradise Trap, p. 161; August 8, 2013, Amanda Raklovits, review of How to Catch a Bogle and Saving Thanehaven, p. 102; November 11, 2014, Amanda Raklovits, review of A Plague of Bogles, p. 101; October 10, 2015, Amanda Raklovits, review of The Last Bogler, p. 90.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October 4, 2010, Alicia Abdul, review of The Genius Wars, p. 350; February 6, 2011, Sara Guan and Laura Woodruff, review of The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, p. 570.
ONLINE
Allen & Unwin Web site, http:/ /www.allenandunwin.com/ (November 15, 2009), “Catherine Jinks.”
Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/ (July 10, 2020), “Catherine Jinks.”
Australian Book Review, https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/ (September 1, 2019), David Whish-Wilson, review of Shepherd.
Australasian Horror Writers Association website, https://australasianhorror.com/ (July 10, 2020), “2019 Awards.”
Candlewick Press Web site, http:// www.candlewick.com/ (November 15, 2009), “Catherine Jinks.”
Catherine Jinks Web site, http:// www.catherinejinks.com (July 10, 2020).
Cosy Dragon, https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/ (September 1, 2019), Rose Herbert, review of Shepherd.
Fantastic Fiction, https://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (July 10, 2020), “Catherine Jinks.”
Lateral Learning Speakers’ Agency Web site, http://www.laterallearning.com/ (November 15, 2009), “Catherine Jinks.”*
Catherine Jinks was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1963. She grew up in Papua New Guinea and later studied medieval history at the University of Sydney. After working for several years in a bank, she married Peter Dockrill, a Canadian journalist, and lived for a short time in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is now a full-time writer, residing in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales with Peter and their daughter Hannah. Catherine is a four-time winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award, and has also won a Victorian Premier’s Literature Award, the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature, the Ena Noel Award for Children’s Literature and an Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. In 2001 she was presented with a Centenary Medal for her contribution to Australian Children’s Literature.
What made you want to be a writer?
I probably became a writer because I like reading so much. (It’s the same as people who like watching football becoming football players.) I love escaping into other worlds, and reading is the best way of doing that – although writing is another way. And the difference is that, with writing, it’s my own world! So I can do anything I like with it!
Which of your own books do you love the best?
Usually it’s the one I’m writing at the moment, though I’ve always had a soft spot for my Pagan books.
What inspired you to write the ‘Pagan’ series?
Generally, most of my books start because I have one idea, and then another idea, and then I put them together and – BANG! – a book starts to develop. With Pagan’s Crusade, both ideas were based on research I did while I was at university. The first idea came from my study of pilgrims in the Holy Land; I was very amused by a kind of pilgrim’s handbook that was written then, and thought how funny it would be to write about medieval pilgrims behaving like a modern tour group (Monty Python style).
The other idea came from what I learned about the Templars. The Templar knights, of course, had a set of rules they had to follow if they wanted to reach heaven. One rule was that they had to fight to the death; they couldn’t be ransomed. Another rule was that they had to obey their Grand Master. But when Saladin captured their Grand Master in 1189, the Templars were faced with a terrible paradox. Because their Grand Master (under Saladin’s instructions) ordered the Templars to surrender. And suddenly, their rules didn’t make sense any more.
I realised what an awful moment that would have been, for a Templar knight like Roland. And it’s become one of the most important scenes in the book. In fact, it’s probably the main reason I actually wrote the book.
Will you ever write another ‘Pagan’ book?
I was thinking of writing a sixth book in the series, but I don’t know that I ever will now. It just didn’t work out, perhaps because I had difficulty finding a good framework in the history of Bologna (which is where Babylonne would have ended up). As for inserting another book about Pagan between Pagan’s Vows and Pagan’s Scribe … I couldn’t do it, because Pagan and Roland were pretty much living separate lives, at that stage, and the book is all about their relationship. Also, Pagan would have been getting a little old; the protagonist always has to be around sixteen.
What inspired you to write Evil Genius?
You’ll notice that Evil Genius is dedicated to my nephew Robert and his ‘Professor Gangrene’ doll. The fact is that one day I was in Robert’s bedroom with my husband and my brother, looking at that horrible doll. And my husband said, ‘What I want to know is, where do these people get their academic degrees from?’ And my brother (who’s actually a university lecturer himself), said ‘They get them from the University of Evil.’ Then he went on to talk about how there’d be two schools within the university – of Pure Evil and Applied Evil – and how the two schools would fight a lot over funding, because Applied Evil would attract all the fee-paying students, whereas Pure Evil would receive half the funding, even without many students . . .
Then, a few months later, I saw Elijah Wood in Lord of the Rings, and I wondered what would happen if someone who looked so incredibly innocent was really a nasty little dude.
When I put the two ideas together, I came up with Evil Genius.
Will you ever write another ‘Genius’ book?
At this stage, I’m not planning to write a sequel to The Genius Wars. It was a very, very hard series to write – because I’m not a computer person – and I wouldn’t know where else to go with the Cadel/Prosper relationship, which is pivotal to the novel.
What inspired you to write the ‘Allie’s Ghost Hunters’ series?
There’s a writer called Ursula Dubosarsky who’s also a friend of mine. (You may have read her books.) One day she told me about seeing strange writing scribbled on a wall near her house. She said that it was creepy writing because she couldn’t understand what it said. And that got me thinking about creepy writing on walls, an idea that became Eglantine.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Not really, though I have heard some pretty strange tales…
What inspired you to write The Paradise Trap?
I originally got the idea for the book from something that happened to me when I was very young. My parents bought a caravan to use on our holidays, and it was really quite big – with a bedroom and a separate toilet and shower, as well as enough extra beds for all three kids – and it still wasn’t big enough for me! I wanted my own bedroom and an upstairs area and all kinds of extras. Forty years later, I decided to create a caravan that did have all those things, and more!
Are you going to write a sequel to The Paradise Trap?
No, that was always written as a stand-alone book.
Are you writing another book at the moment?
I’m always writing another book. It’s the way I make my life more exciting.
Isn’t it a big jump writing both science fiction and historical novels?
No, because in both cases you’re writing about a world that’s strange to the reader. In both cases, you have to spend a lot of time describing and explaining things, while at the same time not appearing to be a kind of tour-guide. That takes the same kind of skill, whether you’re describing a 25th century spaceship or a 12th century monastery.
Where do you do your writing?
At a nice antique desk beside a window in front of my house, from which point I can see all the tradesmen and visitors coming and going. I also do all my writing on a computer – though my first book was written by hand.
What aspects of being a writer do you like and dislike?
What I like most about being a writer is earning money while I’m having fun. (However, it takes a long time before you can earn your living as a full-time writer – and some writers never do.) I also like receiving fan mail from my readers, and knowing that they love my characters as much as I do.
One thing I don’t like about being a writer is editing my manuscripts. Once I’ve finished a story, I just want to go on and write the next one; I hate being dragged back into the old book by the person editing it, who might want me to rewrite and change things. Usually writers have to do two or three edits on their books, and I hate that.
Who are your favourite authors?
My favourite books and authors tend to have changed over time. When I was young, my favourite books were the Narnia books, and Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave (about Merlin), and anything by Patricia Wrightson. As I grew older, my favourite books were by Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, and George Orwell. Now I really love Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, New Grub Street by George Gissing and the Adrian Mole books – plus a lot of modern thriller writers.
But probably my all-time favourite author is Jane Austen. I’ve always loved her, and always will.
Would you ever consider making movies out of your books?
I’d love to have a movie made out of one of my books, but it’s not up to me. Though several producers and directors have tried to turn my books into movies, none of them were able to raise the funds. So I’m just keeping my fingers crossed!
Did you enjoy school and what was your favourite subject?
I didn’t enjoy primary school much because my family moved around all the time. I enjoyed high school more because I made some really, really good friends there. I liked English when it was all about writing stories and putting on plays – though I didn’t like it so much in the last two years of school, when we concentrated on writing essays. Art I always enjoyed, as long as we weren’t doing pots or weaving.
What are your hobbies?
Reading and watching DVDs. I also like gardening.
What is your favourite food?
It’s a toss-up between chocolate and roast potatoes.
What is your favourite animal?
I don’t really have one favourite animal, though I do like otters, wombats and Tasmanian Devils. There’s nothing more cuddly than a baby wombat.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
An animator.
Catherine Jinks
Australia (b.1963)
Catherine Jinks was born in Brisbane and grew up in Sydney and Papua New Guinea. She became a writer because she loves reading, as well as history, films, TV and gossip.
The author of over twenty books for children and adults, including the award-winning Pagan series, Catherine writes whenever she gets a moment (i.e. when her daughter's not around!) and could write for eight hours straight if she had the chance but never does these days. She gets her ideas for her novels from everywhere particularly good science fiction films. Catherine lives in the Blue Mountains with her Canadian husband and young daughter Hannah.
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Series
Pagan Chronicles
1. Pagan's Crusade (1994)
2. Pagan in Exile (2004)
3. Pagan's Vows (2004)
4. Pagan's Scribe (2005)
5. Pagan's Daughter (2006)
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Allie's Ghost Hunters
1. Eglantine (2002)
2. Eustace (2003)
3. Eloise (2005)
4. Elysium (2007)
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Genius
1. Evil Genius (2005)
2. Genius Squad (2008)
3. The Genius Wars (2010)
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City of Orphans trilogy
1. A Very Unusual Pursuit (2013)
aka How to Catch a Bogle
2. A Very Peculiar Plague (2013)
aka A Plague of Bogles
3. A Very Singular Guild (2013)
aka The Last Bogler
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Novels
Witch Bank (1995)
An Evening with the Messiah (1996)
Little White Secrets (1997)
Eye to Eye (1997)
Piggy in the Middle (1998)
The Horrible Holiday (1998)
The Stinking Great Lie (1998)
The Future Trap (1999)
The Inquisitor (1999)
What's Hector McKerrow Doing These Days? (2000)
The Notary (2000)
Bella Vista (2001)
Daryl's Dinner (2001)
The Rapture (2001)
To Die for (2002)
The Gentleman's Garden (2002)
Spinning Around (2004)
The Road (2006)
Babylonne (2008)
The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009)
Living Hell (2010)
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (2011)
The Paradise Trap (2012)
Saving Thanehaven (2013)
Shepherd (2019)
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Picture Books
You'll Wake the Baby (2000)
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Catherine Jinks
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Catherine Jinks
Born 1963
Brisbane, Queensland
Language English
Nationality Australian
Years active 1986-
Catherine Jinks (born 1963) is an Australian writer of fiction books for all age groups. She has won many awards including the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award four times, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Aurealis Award for science fiction, the IBBY Australia Ena Noel Encouragement Award, the Adelaide Festival Award, and the Davitt Award for crime fiction.[1]
Contents
1 Personal life
2 Books
2.1 Fiction series
3 Awards
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Personal life
Jinks was born in Brisbane, Queensland, and grew up in Papua New Guinea where her father worked as a patrol officer. She went to Ku-ring-gai High School in Sydney, where the library was named after her in 2007.
Books
This Way Out (1991)
The Future Trap (1993)
Witch Bank (1995)
The Secret of Hermitage Isle (1996)
An Evening with the Messiah (1996)
Little White Secrets (1997)
Eye to Eye (1998)
The Horrible Holiday (1998)
Piggy in the Middle (1998)
The Stinking Great Lie (1999)
The Inquisitor (2000)
The Notary (2000)
You'll Wake the Baby (2000)
What's Hector McKerrow Doing These Days (2000)
Bella Vista (2001)
The Rapture (2001)
The Gentleman's Garden (2002)
Daryl's Dinner (2002)
The Road (2004)
Spinning Around (2004)
The Secret Familiar (2006)
Katie & Cleo Move In (2007)
Living Hell (2007)
Dark Mountain (2008)
The Paradise Trap (2011)
Saving Thanehaven (2013)
Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief (2015)
Shepherd (2019)
Fiction series
Pagan's Chronicles
Pagan's Crusade (1992)
Pagan in Exile (1994)
Pagan's Vows (1995)
Pagan's Scribe (1995)
Pagan's Daughter (2006)
Allie's Ghost Hunters
Eglantine (2002)
Eustace (2003)
Eloise (2004)
Elysium (2007)
Genius
Evil Genius (2005)
Genius Squad (2008)
The Genius Wars (2009)
Support Group
The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009)
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (2010)
City of Orphans
A Very Unusual Pursuit (2013)
A Very Peculiar Plague (2013)
A Very Singular Guild
Awards
1996 winner Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers – Pagan's Vows
1997 co-winner Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel – Eye to Eye
1998 winner Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers – Eye to Eye
2001 winner Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers – You'll Wake the Baby
2006 winner Davitt Award — Best Young Adult Book – Evil Genius
2009 winner Davitt Award — Best Young Adult Book – Genius Squad
2014 winner Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers – A Very Unusual Pursuit
Catherine Jinks was born in Brisbane in 1963 and grew up in Sydney and Papua New Guinea. She studied medieval history at university and her love of reading led her to become a writer. Her books for children, teenagers and adults have been published to wide acclaim all over the world, and have won numerous awards. Catherine's most recent titles include the City of Orphans series the bestselling Evil Genius series and her paranormal spoofs, The Reformed Vampire Support Group and The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. Catherine lives in the Blue Mountains in NSW with her husband, journalist Peter Dockrill, and their daughter Hannah.
When did you start writing?
'I started when I was about eight years old. My first 'book' was a picture book called I Want to be a Jungle Girl. I sent my first 'novel' to a publisher when I was twelve (it was turned down, needless to say).'
What was the biggest inspiration for you to become a writer?
'Probably my mother. She always had her head in a book, and she was always reading to my brothers and me while we ate dinner. She's a very imaginative, creative person who encouraged us to read - and if you like reading books, you generally end up wanting to write them.'
What was your favourite book as a child?
'I didn't have a favourite book as a child. I liked the Narnia books, The Nargun and the Stars by Patricia Wrightson, Josh by Ivan Southall, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie... lots of books.'
What is your proudest moment?
'I don't know. I suppose I was proud of winning the Victorian Premier's Award, or the CBC award twice in a row, but I have to confess I felt prouder when I cooked my first lamb roast. It's hard to say.'
What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
'The best thing is making money out of something that's so much fun. The worst thing is editing. Once I've finished a book, I want it to go away and never come back - but it does, again and again. I hate that.'
Where do you do your writing?
'At a nice, antique desk beside a window at the front of my house, from which point I can see all the tradesmen, visitors etc coming and going. It's distracting but I can't afford to miss the arrival of a plumber, when we need one.'
Did you enjoy school and what was your favourite subject?
'I didn't enjoy primary school much because my family moved around all the time. I enjoyed high school because I made some really, really good friends there. I liked English when it was all about writing stories and putting on plays, but when we started concentrating on essays for exams in the last two years, I lost my fondness for it. Art I always enjoyed, as long as we weren't doing pots or macramé.'
CATHERINE JINKS was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1963. She grew up in Papua New Guinea and later spent four years studying medieval history at the University of Sydney. After working for several years in a bank, she married a Canadian journalist and lived for a short time in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is now a full-time writer, residing in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales with her husband Peter and their daughter Hannah.Catherine is a three-time winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award, and has also won a Victorian Premier's Literature Award, the Ena Noel Award for Children's Literature, and an Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. In 2001 she was presented with a Centenary Medal for her contribution to Australian Children's Literature.
2019 AWARDS
The Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) is proud to announce the WINNERS AND FINALISTS in the 2019 Australian Shadows Awards. Please note that the decisions are based on the opinions of the judges and not the AHWA.
Congratulations to all.
COLLECTED WORKS
WINNER: Served Cold by Alan Baxter
Collision: Stories by J.S. Breukelaar
Figments and Fragments by Deborah Sheldon
EDITED WORKS
WINNER: Midnight Echo #14 edited by Deborah Sheldon
Beside the Seaside: Tales from the Day-Tripper edited by Steve Dillon
Trickster’s Treats #3 – the Seven Deadly Sins Edition edited by Marie O’Regan and Lee Murray
GRAPHIC NOVEL
WINNER: DCeased written by Tom Taylor (art by Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Laura Braga, Richard Friend, James Harren, Darick Robertson, Trevor Scott and Neil Edwards)
The Eldritch Kid: The Bone War written by Christian D. Read (art by Paul Mason)
Matinee written by Emmet O’Cuana (art by David Parsons)
Geebung Polo Club written by Jason Fischer (adapted from a Banjo Patterson poem), (art by Shauna O’Meara)
THE ROCKY WOOD AWARD FOR NON-FICTION AND CRITICISM
WINNER: The Danse Macabre by Kyla Lee Ward
Suffer the Little Children by Kris Ashton
Horror and the paranormal, chapter 8 of Writing Speculative Fiction by Eugen Bacon
Horror Movies That Mean Something and Childhood Trauma Manifested by Maria Lewis
PAUL HAINES AWARD FOR LONG FICTION
WINNER: Supermassive Black Mass by Matthew R. Davis
The Netherwhere Line by Matthew J. Morrison
Out of Darkness by Chris Mason
The Enemy of the Enemy by Rick Kennett
1862 by C.J. Halbard
POETRY
WINNER: Taxonomy of Captured Roses by Hester J. Rook
Brine and Vanishings by Hester J. Rook
Please Do Not Feed the Animals by Anne Casey
Separation by Jay Caselberg
Ode to a Black Hole by Charles Lovecraft
Boat of a Million Years by Kyla Lee Ward
SHORT FICTION
WINNER: Steadfast Shadowsong by Matthew R. Davis
Vivienne & Agnes by Chris Mason
The Ocean Hushed the Stones by Alan Baxter
Ava Rune by J.S. Breukelaar
NOVEL
WINNER: Shepherd by Catherine Jinks
Fusion by Kate Richards
The Flower and the Serpent by Madeleine D’Este
The judges’ decisions are final.
Do you have any questions? Drop us a line at australianshadowsawards@gmail.com.
Find below link to Submitted Works sheet for the Australian Shadows Awards 2019.
To view the Submitted Works sheet, click HERE.
QUOTE:"Jinks' well-thought-out environs and rational characters help ground this otherwise out-of-control interstellar thriller."
Living Hell.
By Catherine Jinks.
Apr. 2010. 272p. Harcourt, $17 (9780152061937). Gr. 7-10.
All is well on the spaceship Plexus. Decades into a journey that has left earth far behind, the couple thousand residents live a life of insulated security. Their social interactions are sensitive and enlightened, their meals prepared instantaneously, and a serene aura of peace makes their slow search for an inhabitable planet a tranquil one. But what's that up ahead? A radiation field? Soon after the ship passes through, 17-year-old Cheney finds himself in the middle--literally--of a nightmare. (Warning: somewhat of a first-act spoiler ahead.) With shocking rapidity, the ship begins turning into a biologic organism: the walls become muscle, cables become veins, and simple devices like transport vehicles become equivalent to cellular defenders out to devour viruses--and the viruses are the humans. An unbelievably tense first half plateaus after a time, but that hardly diminishes the gooey, sticky, mucus-covered fun. Jinks' well-thought-out environs and rational characters help ground this otherwise out-of-control interstellar thriller.--Daniel Kraus
Kraus, Daniel
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Kraus, Daniel. "Living Hell." Booklist, vol. 106, no. 12, 15 Feb. 2010, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A219830855/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=07644947. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Packed with thrills, this deserves equally over-the-top CGI. In a word--AWESOME."
Jinks, Catherine LIVING HELL Harcourt (Children's) $$17.00 Apr. 1, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-15-206193-7
Gleeful Alien-esque action adventure. Cheney has spent every one of his 17 years on a spaceship (33 years if you count the time in suspended animation). One day, he knows, Plexus will land on a planet, but space is home. His life is birthday parties, dinner with his parents and work rotations until the fateful day where they hit a mysterious wave in space. It's a subatomic radiation wave, or the universal life force or... really, the details don't matter. The point is, suddenly the ship turns alive. What used to be floating laundry units, transport shuttles and scientific equipment are now enormous oozing cells and acidic carnivores, and every last piece wants to kill the humans. The race-against-time adventure is chock-full of scientific revelations, gruesome corpses and a marvelously gratuitous samurai sword. Even the requisite escape through the air ducts is made more exciting when the living ship has an asthma attack. Packed with thrills, this deserves equally over-the-top CGI. In a word--AWESOME. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Jinks, Catherine: LIVING HELL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2010. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A221151964/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=72372ef4. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE:
"thought-provoking meditation on society and individuals caught in the watershed moment of sudden and absolute change."
Living Hell
by Catherine Jinks
Middle School Harcourt 257pp.
4/10 978-0-15-206193-7 $17.00 g
Jinks tends to build books around startlingly unique reinterpretations of familiar tropes (The Reformed Vampire Support Group, rev. 5/09); here she examines space travel gone wrong. Seventeen-year-old Cheney has lived his entire life aboard the spaceship Plexus, still, after forty-six years in space, in search of a habitable planet. After the Plexus passes through an unidentified radiation wave (later dubbed "the goddamn universal life force" and left at that), Cheney's serene and somewhat sterile existence becomes a desperate battle for survival. The ship is transformed into a living organism, and when it identifies its human passengers as hostile parasites, its various systems, once engineered for human convenience and comfort, begin to function as a horrific large-scale immune system. Jinks takes the backbone of the horror genre--nonstop peril plus a pervasive sense of entrapment and helplessness--and fleshes it out with deft character development and the inventive detailing of hard sci-fi. Vivid descriptions--of doors that have become slick fibrous valves "sucking at his body" and floors that are "slippery paths of tissue ... rough with soggy bristles"--will please the gross-me-out contingent. The story starts slowly but simmers to a rewarding boil as careful world-building gives way to an unputdownable binge of destruction, pathos, and pulse-pounding action. The ending unfolds a new world for readers to consider, turning the whole novel into a thought-provoking meditation on society and individuals caught in the watershed moment of sudden and absolute change.
g indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Gross, Claire E. "Living Hell." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 86, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2010, p. 58+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A221195368/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b3d50529. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "With plenty of gruesome creatures (and demises) that owe a thing or two to films like Aliens, this is science fiction for horror fans."
Living Hell
Catherine Jinks. Harcourt, $17 (272p) ISBN
978-0-15-206193-7
Science fiction has a long tradition of doomed "generation ships," spacecraft whose leisurely journeys are interrupted by some calamity, either internal or external. Early on, 17-year-old Cheney's afterthe-fact narrative reveals that the same is true of Plexus, the starship on which he's been born and raised, which is en route to finding a habitable planet for its 1,500 residents. During its voyage, Plexus encounters a mysterious wave of energy that rapidly transforms the ship's mechanical elements into living organisms, many analogous to ones inside our bodies, and the crew is subjected to repeated attacks from a ship whose immune system identifies them as alien infections ("For the first time my whole world was shifting on its axis. All my life I'd been traveling in one direction, at a constant speed"). Jinks (The Reformed Vampire Support Group) remains adept at action sequences and creating a pervasively tense environment, though her characters are perhaps less memorable than in previous books. With plenty of gruesome creatures (and demises) that owe a thing or two to films like Aliens, this is science fiction for horror fans. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Living Hell." Publishers Weekly, vol. 257, no. 13, 29 Mar. 2010, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A222934663/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e767ac8b. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "taut, absorbing and tantalizingly ambiguous.,"
Jinks, Catherine THE GENIUS WARS Harcourt (Adult Fiction) $17.00 9, 1 ISBN: 978-0-15-206619-2
Cyber-espionage takes both front seats in this conclusion to the outstanding Genius series. Though raised to be a criminal mastermind, 15-year-old Cadel rejects the role, desiring only a normal life with his new adoptive parents. No chance: Suddenly his fugitive mentor/nemesis Prosper English is showing up on nearby security cameras, a high-tech wheelchair tries to run over him as it carries his best friend Sonja down a flight of stairs and an out-of-control bus demolishes his home, leaving his new stepfather severely injured. Not only is Jinks no stranger to gaming, hacking and cutting-edge computer systems, but she plunges her young protagonist into simultaneous character-testing conflicts as he feels forced to trick his beloved but slower and overprotective guardians, abandon ethics to hack into various private and government systems and struggle to control the wild anger that in high-pressure situations drives him to act toward others just like the despised, megalomaniac Prosper. As Cadel's multiple adversaries don't start showing their faces until late in the proceedings, much of the "war" seems fought in the abstract, but the climax is taut, absorbing and tantalizingly ambiguous. (Thriller. 12-15)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Jinks, Catherine: THE GENIUS WARS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2010. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A256560827/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=18533bb6. Accessed 6 July 2020.
The Genius Wars
by Catherine Jinks
Middle School, High School Harcourt 378 pp.
9/10 978-0-15-206619-2 $17.00 g
A computer genius raised by a criminal mastermind--Evil Genius, The Genius Squad (rev. 7/08)--Cadel is finally settling into normal teenage life now that police chief Saul Greeniaus plans to adopt him and manipulative sociopath Prosper English, the man who raised him, is a fugitive from justice. Then closed circuit TV footage reveals that Prosper is back in Sydney, and "accidents" start putting Cadel's friends and family in the hospital. Cadel knows that malicious programmers under Prosper's direction are hacking into public safety networks and targeting his friends, but the police, who barely understand Cadel's explanations, aren't about to let him join the criminal investigation. With the lives of his friends at stake, Cadel goes rogue, pitting his world-class coding skills and a background in villainy and deceit against a man whose only weakness is for Cadel himself. Jinks uses a variety of hacker tricks to gun up the full-throttled plot, alternating virtual attacks with real-life peril for her winsome protagonist. Dizzying cascades of terminology unfamiliar to all but the most wired readers speed the pace and confer authenticity on Cadel as an elite cyberpunk. But Cadel's frustration over older, less savvy authorities not taking him seriously, and his worries that his former mentor may have indelibly stamped him in his own rotten mold, will command the attention of even non-techie readers until Jinks's final plot twists wind to a close.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Burkam, Anita L. "The Genius Wars." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 86, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2010, p. 79+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A236568211/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a8895668. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "The final explosive scenes are the culmination of plotting and counter-maneuvering of the indistinguishable abilities of two sophisticated masterminds--the only thing Cadel lacks is age."
Jinks, Catherine. The Genius Wars. Harcourt, 2010. 384p. $17. 978-0-15-206619-2.
With the lives of his friend Sonja and his newly adoptive parents, Fiona and Saul, in danger from Prosper English's ubiquitous tactics, hero Cadel Piggot must again call upon the theatrical Genius Squad to help crack the code of English's hijinks. In this third book in the series, English's intentions may be more sinister than ever with the knowledge that Cadel is not his blood, thus boundaries may have disappeared. With complex computer-programming language and more elaborate schemes than the book's predecessors, every move can have innumerable deadly consequences. Some options are so inconceivable that Cadel's suggestions leave fans thinking that only someone with his villainous upbringing could even think it possible. Additionally, the gnawing thought echoed by his friends and foes is that Cadel's callous actions and maliciousness are at the expense of those he loves, leaving him with as much culpability as the criminals he's trying to bring down. This is especially apparent when he dons his hilarious female alter ego to travel to the United States to become the pawn in a series of intricate moves English has been planning. The final explosive scenes are the culmination of plotting and counter-maneuvering of the indistinguishable abilities of two sophisticated masterminds--the only thing Cadel lacks is age.
Purchasing the third in Jinks's series will keep pace with any middle level school or public library's collection for tech-savvy teens interested in Cadel's well-being and English's demise.
Abdul, Alicia
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Abdul, Alicia. "Jinks, Catherine. The Genius Wars." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 33, no. 4, Oct. 2010, p. 350. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A249219894/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e8fc3f5f. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Jinks, Catherine. The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. 416p. $16.99. 978-0-15-206615-4.
Thirteen-year-old Toby Vandevelde considers himself an average nerd until, one morning, he awakens in the hospital to learn that he was discovered--naked and unconscious--lying inside a dingo pen. He immediately suspects he is the victim of his prankster friends, Fergus and Amin. When this proves false, Toby and his single-parent mother investigate epilepsy, another dead end. As explanations disappear, they are visited by Father Ramon and Reuben, a volatile young man who resembles Toby in several ways: exceptional sense of smell, rapidly growing hair, and instantaneous reflexes. The strangers ask if Toby is a seventh son of Portuguese or Spanish descent, a question no one can answer because Toby is adopted.
Adventures with kind-hearted vampires, abused werewolves and evil humans follow. Although fast-paced, the convoluted plot brings together supernaturally afflicted characters of differing powers and conflicting motives without real connections, leaving the reader mired in pages of bloody but pointless battle. Toby deteriorates into a whiner searching for a cell phone to call his mother. Jinks, the Australian author of the popular Evil Genius trilogy and The Reformed Vampire Support Group (Graphia, 2010/ VOYA October 2009), has borrowed heavily and unsuccessfully from the Twilight series. There is probably no movie contract here.
While this book is unique and interesting, it lacks humor, turning it into a very serious story that I did not find as enjoyable as it could have been. The budding romance between Toby and Nina, a pale anorexic girl who turns out to be a vampire, echoes that of Twilight, taking away from the originality of the book. In addition, there seems to be no hope for Toby to ever live a normal life, judging by the lives of other werewolves that he meets, leaving the reader with a vague dissatisfied feeling. It is also very different from Catherine ]inks' previous books featuring Caleb, a super-genius, which walked the thin line between science fiction and not-so-realistic fiction that was still "realistic." 3Q, 3P.--Sara Guan, Teen Reviewer.
Woodruff, Laura^Guan, Sara
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Guan, Sara, and Laura Woodruff. "Jinks, Catherine. The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 33, no. 6, Feb. 2011, p. 570. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A249219529/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=29a9fa49. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE:
"Jinks has hold of a clever idea and a solid sense of humor, but this installment is brought down by an overdose of disbelief on Toby's part and the chaotic second half of the story."
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group
Catherine Jinks. Harcourt, $16.99 (416p)
ISBN 978-0-15-206615-4
In this action-heavy sequel to The Reformed Vampire Support Group, Australian author Jinks focuses on a different breed of misunderstood monster. After 13-year-old Toby is found, naked and amnesiac, in the dingo pen of a wildlife park in Sydney, his life takes a turn for the weird, as Ft. Ramon Alvarez (whom readers will remember from the previous book) tries to convince Toby that he's a werewolf. Despite initial skepticism, Toby eventually accepts the truth, just in time to be kidnapped by a group running underground werewolf fights. Now, he and an assortment of new allies have to turn the tables on their captors. And when a (recognizable) group of vampires gets involved, things get even messier. As in the earlier book, Jinks has hold of a clever idea and a solid sense of humor, but this installment is brought down by an overdose of disbelief on Toby's part and the chaotic second half of the story. With so much shouting and running around, it's easy to lose track of the actual plot. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
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"The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group." Publishers Weekly, vol. 258, no. 7, 14 Feb. 2011, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A249957994/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=46b9f5be. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "By the end it's hilarious, but many teens may struggle to get that far."
Jinks, Catherine THE ABUSED WEREWOLF RESCUE GROUP Harcourt (Adult Fiction) $16.99 4, 1 ISBN: 978-0-15-206615-4
The satire isn't all that's biting in this darkly comedic sequel to The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009). Archetypically sullen and uncommunicative teen Toby is thrown for a loop after waking up the morning after a full moon naked in a nearby wildlife park. He finds himself caught between the smothering attentions of his annoyingly smart adoptive mother and the bizarre but enticing warning delivered by a scarred, dangerous looking stranger named Reuben that he's a werewolf. Barely has Toby begun to take that idea seriously than he's kidnapped by promoters of international werewolf death matches and taken to an arena in the remote outback. Rescuers appear quickly; as it turns out, werewolves aren't all that uncommon and even have organized self-help groups. Nor are they the only supernatural creatures around, as Toby discovers when Reuben shows up with a band of startlingly pale, sickly but uncommonly resilient helpers who display a sharp aversion to daylight. Jinks has a few other surprises in store too, but (in possibly deliberate imitation of a certain wildly popular penumbral series) she challenges readers first to slog through hundreds of pages of snarling dialogue, repetitive ruminations and aimless plotting. Not to mention unresolved issues and an unwieldy supporting cast, both of which are likely to spill over into further sequels. By the end it's hilarious, but many teens may struggle to get that far. (Satiric fantasy. 12-15)
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"Jinks, Catherine: THE ABUSED WEREWOLF RESCUE GROUP." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2011. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A256558507/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f1d26d64. Accessed 6 July 2020.
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group.
By Catherine Jinks.
Apr. 2011. 416p. Harcourt, $16.99 (9780152066154). Gr. 8-11.
This stand-alone companion to The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009) follows Toby after he is found unconscious in a dingo pen, minus his memories. Soon he is approached by strangers who claim Toby's a werewolf. Toby is understandably creeped out by their offers to imprison him during full moons, and though he visits their supernatural support group, their self-absorbed lecturing fails to convince. When Toby is kidnapped for a werewolf fighting ring, his love of Jackass-style stunts and DIY inventions gives him the admirable resourcefulness to engineer his and another boy's escape--but their plan is complicated by a vengeful werewolf. Toby's talky narrative is agreeably direct, but it also frequently summarizes what should be pivotal scenes, such as Toby's first transformation. For a novel about werewolves, there's surprisingly little werewolf activity--even the horror of the fighting ring is muted by only being talked about secondhand. Despite the slow start, diehards will be pleased to find that the action picks up as it goes.--Krista Hurley
Hurley, Krista
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 American Library Association
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Hurley, Krista. "The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group." Booklist, vol. 107, no. 13, 1 Mar. 2011, p. 56. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A251857414/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=694737cb. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "breathless escapade, featuring several horror-show tropes leavened with hints of satire."
Jinks, Catherine PARADISE TRAP Egmont USA (Children's Fiction) $16.99 4, 24 ISBN: 978-1-60684-273-7
Two vacationing families fall afoul of a deadly predator from Greek mythology. Just arrived among the hordes of vacationers surrounding Diamond Beach, 11-year-old video-gamer Marcus is astounded to discover that the shabby, wheeled trailer his mother Holly bought for the outing sports a hidden staircase that leads down to a dark cellar. Stranger yet, the cellar has doors that lead to the opener's dream vacation. These range from a fabulous amusement park for the young son of Coco, a childhood friend of Holly's who follows Marcus down the stairs, and a rock club packed with celebrities for Coco's moody teenage daughter to the idyllic beach resort of Holly's childhood. The disturbing discovery that each locale turns hostile toward anyone who wants to leave or isn't having fun prompts Marcus to enlist the grownups in a rescue that becomes a running battle with the trailer's former owner, Miss Molpe. This kindly old lady from Holly's youth is in truth a clever and powerful child-eating Siren who has lost her voice but still retains the ability to set elaborate magical snares for intended victims. She can also create vacations from hell, as Marcus and company discover before a narrow escape that (possibly) sends her to a fiery doom. A breathless escapade, featuring several horror-show tropes leavened with hints of satire. (Fantasy. 11-13)
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"Jinks, Catherine: PARADISE TRAP." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2012. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A276922421/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=90f02ea8. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "fast-paced adventure that's easily as exciting as one of Marcus's beloved video games."
The Paradise Trap
Catherine Jinks. Egmont USA, $18.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-60684-273-7
Jinks (the Evil Genius series) combines a plot filled with surreal twists and turns with a dash of Greek mythology in a novel that hits the mark on both the humor and horror fronts. Eleven-year-old Marcus has no interest in spending the summer at the beach with his mother, Holly, in the old trailer she buys--he'd rather play video games than deal with the obnoxious crowds. However, Marcus and his new friends, siblings Edison and Newt, discover that the trailer somehow has a secret cellar, which takes them to fantastic, too-good-to-be-tree places that entice them to stay in the mysterious realm (for Edison, it's an amusement park; for Newt, a rocking nightclub). Although several classic tropes appear (from the various dangerous paradises to Edison and Newt's mad scientist-like father), Jinks keeps her material fresh, weaving in old myths and the occasional bit of social commentary; a sizable amount of the story is told from Holly's point of view, in addition to Marcus's. The result is a fast-paced adventure that's easily as exciting as one of Marcus's beloved video games. Ages 8-12. (Aim.)
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"The Paradise Trap." Publishers Weekly, vol. 259, no. 7, 13 Feb. 2012, p. 57. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A280192192/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=458db581. Accessed 6 July 2020.
The Paradise Trap.
By Catherine Jinks.
Mar. 2012. 320p. Egmont, $15.99
(9781606842737). Gr. 4-6.
Be careful what you wish for is certainly the advice Holly Bradshaw should have heeded in this darkish fantasy. Her son, Marcus, wants to spend his eleventh summer playing video games, but she drags him off in a dilapidated trailer to re-create her happiest childhood holidays. Joined by the family of Holly's old friend Coco, they accidentally discover that the camper leads to a land of nightmares. As each of the characters in turn is trapped in his or her own fantasy gone wrong--spa, theme park, nightclub, and so on--it's up to the others to evade killer cats, a witch, a robot, and other convolutions to rescue them. Fans of Jinks should be wary, as this lacks much of the psychological and technical interest of her Evil Genius series, and the adults often seem more important than the kids. But, as with a real trip, even if it's not what you expected, it's fun to escape from the everyday.--Andrew Medlar
Medlar, Andrew
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association
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Medlar, Andrew. "The Paradise Trap." Booklist, vol. 108, no. 13, 1 Mar. 2012, p. 90. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A282939983/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6c2c4004. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: : "Clever, thought-provoking fun for all--especially for technology geeks and those who love them."
Jinks, Catherine SAVING THANEHAVEN Egmont USA (Children's Fiction) $15.99 7, 9 ISBN: 978-1-60684-274-4
Iconic characters struggle between tyranny and anarchy when the computer game that they live within is attacked by a virus. Noble is just an earnest knight in the computer game "Thanehaven Slayer" when he encounters young Rufus, who strongly suggests that he may be doomed if he doesn't drop all the heroics and start thinking for himself. With Rufus' mantra--"you don't have to do this"--ringing in his ears, Noble sets out to change his computer world. When computer-world Rufus (aka "Ruthlessrufus") turns out to be malware perpetrated by real-life computer owner Mikey's best friend, Rufus, readers are brought in on the joke. Award-winning Australian author Jinks delivers neatly crafted middle-grade storytelling, effortlessly blending social commentary into the omniscient narration. Along the way, she lightly explores the tension between rules and freedom, order and chaos ("You can follow rules and still think for yourself"). By the end, the tale also reads like a parable aimed at young people unwittingly influenced by a mischievous or troubled friend. Clever, thought-provoking fun for all--especially for technology geeks and those who love them. (Fantasy. 9-12)
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"Jinks, Catherine: SAVING THANEHAVEN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2013. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A329455477/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4936268e. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Gamers should adore this book."
Saving Thanehaven Catherine Jinks. Egmont USA, $17.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-60684-274-4
Noble the Slayer fights monsters with help from an ill-tempered, shape-shifting, magical weapon, Smite. Smite has always been with Noble, but how far back does "always" go? One day on the way to rescue a princess, Noble meets a skinny kid named Rufus who questions Noble's very mission and autonomy. "Let's just say I'm a freedom lover," says Rufus. "Power to the people, and all that stuff." Noble, Rufus explains, is nothing more than the lead character in a first-person "shooter" game, controlled by some distant player. Soon the slightly dimwitted hero abandons Smite and, with Rufus, embarks on a quest to free gaming subroutines everywhere. Joined by a growing retinue of fugitive characters, they jump from game to game, dealing with everything from deadly organic spaceships to Barbie-style dress-up environments, with an efficient antivirus program in a white lab coat hot on their heels. Jinks (The Paradise Trap) serves up a genuinely funny tale, filled with sprightly (or is that spritely?) characters, unpredictable twists, and a veritable roman a clef of half-familiar videogame scenarios. Gamers should adore this book. Ages 10-up. (July)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
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"Saving Thanehaven." Publishers Weekly, vol. 260, no. 20, 20 May 2013, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A331079842/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ecd28cf6. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Saving Thanehaven.
By Catherine Jinks.
July 2013. 384p. Egmont, $15.99 (9781606842744); e-book, $15.99 (9781606842843). Gr. 5-8.
Long-suffering hero Noble is squelching through a carnivorous swamp on his way to rescue the princess or die trying, until he meets Rufus, an out-of-place kid who suggests that Noble's life sucks. Noble privately agrees, but what else can he do? Stop? Well, yes: Rufus explains that Noble is trapped inside a computer game, and unless he takes back his autonomy from the players controlling him, he will never be free. Electrified by this revolutionary idea, Noble joins Rufus on a new quest to free others from this tyrannical system. As they travel within the computer, their subversive influence grows, but when the system fails, it looks more like chaos than freedom. Jinks cleverly reinterprets the inner workings of our familiar devices to create a believable computer world, though tech-savvy readers will appreciate it the most. Clues to Rufus' true identity as a virus and what's happening outside the computer are easily found, and the ultimate message--that following rules and thinking autonomously are not mutually exclusive--doesn't feel didactic. This is a no-brainer for garners.
Hurley, Krista
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
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Hurley, Krista. "Saving Thanehaven." Booklist, vol. 109, no. 21, 1 July 2013, p. 75. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A338036774/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a10daa7f. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Jinks opens her projected trilogy in high style, offering a period melodrama replete with colorful characters, narrow squeaks and explosions of ectoplasmic goo,"
Jinks, Catherine HOW TO CATCH A BOGLE Harcourt (Children's Fiction) $16.99 9, 3 ISBN: 978-0-544-08708-8
Child-eating bogles infest Victorian London, providing work aplenty for "Go-Devil Man" Alfred Bunce and his intrepid young apprentice, Birdie. Singing morbid verses from popular ballads in her angelic voice to draw the shadowy creatures out of their chimneys, sewers or other lairs so that Alfred can stab them with his special lance, Birdie thinks she has "the best job in the world" despite the risk--she could be snatched and eaten if the timing is even a little off. Alas, the idyll doesn't survive a double set of complications. First, unctuous would-be warlock Roswell Morton, out to capture one of the monsters for his own evil uses, kidnaps her and plants her in an insane asylum to force Alfred's cooperation. Second are the unwanted but, as it turns out, saving attentions of Miss Edith Eames, a self-described "folklorist." Her na�vet� about London's nastier stews conceals both a quick wit and a fixed determination to see Birdie cleaned up and educated in the social graces. The tale is set in a range of locales, most of them noxious and well-stocked with rousingly scary hobgoblins as well as a cast of colorful Londoners with Dickensian names like Sally Pickles and Ned Roach. It dashes along smartly to a suspenseful climactic kerfuffle as it endears its 10-year-old protagonist, whose temper is matched only by her courage in the clutch, to readers. Jinks opens her projected trilogy in high style, offering a period melodrama replete with colorful characters, narrow squeaks and explosions of ectoplasmic goo. (glossary of slang and monster types) (Historical fantasy. 10-13)
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"Jinks, Catherine: HOW TO CATCH A BOGLE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2013. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A336585568/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=29c80375. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "This quasi-Victorian, somewhat gothic fantasy is a satisfying confection."
How to Catch a Bogle
by Catherine Jinks; illus. by Sarah Watts
Intermediate, Middle School Harcourt 335 pp.
9/13 978-0-544-08708-8 $16.99 g
This quasi-Victorian, somewhat gothic fantasy is a satisfying confection. Apprenticed to Alfred the Bogler, Birdie's task is to use her clear singing voice to lure resident bogles out of hiding so Alfred can destroy them. The pair makes a decent living doing away with the child-eating creatures, but then educated, well-meaning Miss Eames steps in. Miss Eames wants to study bogles scientifically, but soon she has another aim--to educate Birdie for a safer, more genteel profession that can last into adulthood. Then the worst happens: Birdie is captured and imprisoned in an insane asylum by dreadful Dr. Morton, who thinks nothing of feeding children to bogles to further his megalomaniacal aims. Jinks is an assured storyteller: character, plot, and style develop with buoyant, pleasing momentum, and her rendition of working-class English dialect reads accessibly. While this is fantasy--somewhat similar in flavor to Joan Aiken's Dido Twite tales--factual elements of the period undergird and strengthen setting and story line. Birdie is a bright, stalwart heroine whose limitless font of haunting ballads tinges the story with melancholy.
Most of the books are recommended; all of them are subject to the qualifications in the reviews. g indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion. * indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work. For a complete key to the review abbreviations as well as for bios of our reviewers, please visit hbook.com/horn-book-magazine.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Baker, Deirdre F. "How to Catch a Bogle." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 89, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2013, p. 101+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A345774198/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=99609b6d. Accessed 6 July 2020.
How to Catch a Bogle. By Catherine Jinks. Illus. by Sarah Watts. 2013. 320p. Harcourt, $16.99 (9780544087088). Gr. 4-6.
Ten-year-old Birdie considers herself fortunate not to be begging, stealing, or living in the workhouse. As an apprentice to Alfred the Bogler, she receives food and shelter in exchange for helping him trap and destroy the hungry, monstrous bogles (goblins) that lurk in houses, where they snatch and eat the occasional child. Her role in the business? Birdie is the bait. Standing with her back to the bogle's hideout, she sings sweetly until he shows himself and Alfred dispatches him. Despite her dangerous occupation, Birdie balks when Miss Eames, a lady with a scientific interest in bogle hunting, offers to raise her above her station. Suspense mounts when human enemies begin to surpass the supernatural ones in malevolence, destruction, and sheer terror. Birdie proves her mettle time and time again in this richly atmospheric tale set in London around 1870. In the pitch-perfect narrative, the bogles seem as normal a part of the city's life as the costers, griddlers, mudlarks, and toffs (a glossary is appended).The first volume of a planned trilogy from the author of the Evil Genius series and the Pagan series, this intense historical thriller will leave readers eager for the planned sequel.--Carolyn Phelan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
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Phelan, Caroyn. "How to Catch a Bogle." Booklist, vol. 110, no. 3, 1 Oct. 2013, p. 53. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348978832/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3bb02bdb. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "topnotch storytelling."
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks, illus. by Sarah Watts. Harcourt, $16.99 ISBN 978-0-544-08708-8
Orphan Birdie McAdam, age 10, is apprenticed to Alfred the Bogler, who uses Birdie's angelic singing voice to lure monsters out of their hiding spots in sewer pipes or fire grates, then kills them with Finn MacCool's spear before they can kill Birdie. As risky as that sounds, Birdie loves her job, and she feels threatened when Miss Eames, an academic studying English folklore, starts accompanying Alfred and Birdie on their rounds and points out that Birdie's occupation makes other Dickensian-era job opportunities for children seem positively wholesome by comparison. This is topnotch storytelling from. Jinks (the Evil Genius series), full of wit, a colorful cast of rogues, and delectable slang. The tension-fueled plot moves forward on two tracks as Birdie and Alfred face increasingly perilous confrontations with a variety of monsters, and Miss Eames makes Birdie an irresistible offer--music lessons and a place in her comfortable home instead of near-certain death. What will loyal Birdie do? Prepare to waFit to find out--this installment is the first in a projected trilogy. Ages 9-12.
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"How to Catch a Bogle." Publishers Weekly, vol. 261, Spring 2014, p. 83. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A375948899/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=06310578. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Jinks, Catherine A PLAGUE OF BOGLES HMH Books (Children's Fiction) $16.99 1, 6 ISBN: 978-0-544-08747-7
Jinks returns to Victorian London's fetid stews and ragged demimonde in this sequel to How to Catch a Bogle (2013). Continuing to depict her setting in Dickensian detail, the author shifts her tale's main focus from young bogler Birdie to ex-thief Jem Barbary. He struggles to reconcile conflicting drives to find and exact revenge on his treacherous former fagin Sarah Pickles and to chivvy weary old bogle-killer Alfred Bunce out of retirement in order to become his new apprentice. Something, as it eventually develops, is drawing the deadly, child-eating bogles--formerly so rare as to be widely believed to be mythical--to concentrate in one particular neighborhood's sewers and cellars. Scary as the monsters are, and despite several narrow squeaks, luring them out and killing them with Alfred's magical spear takes on a routine air as Jem's warring agendas and stubborn refusal to believe that he has any true friends take center stage. Moreover, Josiah Lubbock, a promisingly irritating new character, is continually trotted out but then goes on to play no significant role (at least in this episode), and despite the author's efforts to relegate the previous volume's vivid, angelic-voiced protagonist Birdie to a supporting role, she continues to outshine Jem and everyone else. Hints at the end of a larger story arc notwithstanding, this continuation never develops much steam or clear direction. (glossary of monsters and period slang) (Historical fantasy. 10-13)
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"Jinks, Catherine: A PLAGUE OF BOGLES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2014. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A385540195/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8b1e9799. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Don't even think about reading this story under the covers by flashlight,"
A Plague of Bogles.
By Catherine Jinks.
Jan. 2015. 336p. Houghton, $16.99 (9780544087477). Gr. 4-6.
It's one thing when a bogle creeps into a cellar in Victorian London and snatches a child to devour, but it's quite another when a section of the city experiences a veritable plague of the monsters. Out of work and down on his luck, young Jem coaxes Alfred the bogler out of retirement. Jem becomes his apprentice, serving as bait to lure bogles into the open, where Alfred can spear them. When Jem pursues a vicious old enemy, he finds himself in an equally terrifying situation. Readers who loved How to Catch a Bogle (2013), the first volume in this planned trilogy, will be glad that Birdie reappears in the second book. But from first to last, this is Jem's story, a fast-paced adventure in which the main characters are both tough and tender. The darkly atmospheric setting creates a convincing backdrop for the frightening action scenes and flavorful period dialogue. An appended glossary defines period slang and monster-related terms. Don't even think about reading this story under the covers by flashlight.--Carolyn Phelan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association
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Phelan, Carolyn. "A Plague of Bogles." Booklist, vol. 111, no. 5, 1 Nov. 2014, p. 56. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A391309194/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5614abbd. Accessed 6 July 2020.
A Plague of Bogles
by Catherine Jinks; illus. by Sarah Watts
Intermediate, Middle School Houghton 322 pp. 1/15 978-0-544-08747-7 $16.99 g
Jinks continues the drama begun in How to Catch a Bogle (rev. 9/13) in this fast-paced, quasi-Victorian fantasy in which London is plagued by child-eating bogles. The first volume's "bogle bait," Birdie, is now living with genteel Miss Eames and being educated; Jem, street urchin and friend of Birdie's, hopes to move up in the world and take Birdie's place working with Alfred Bunce, the bogle-catcher. Jem has two aims: to make a living helping with bogle-catching; and to find and take revenge on Sarah Pickles, the woman who abused and betrayed him in the past. As children disappear in increasing numbers and bogles multiply, a horrified Jem discovers that his aims are related: when he finds Sarah, he also finds the source of the bogle proliferation. With a linear narrative, plenty of action and dialogue, and an ample smattering of colorful Victorian street language (boozing ken, bluebottle: glossary included), this is a speedy, characterful yarn. The looming architecture of London's streets and the dank, echoing clamminess of its sewers enhance the pungent atmosphere of the setting.
g indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Baker, Deirdre F. "A Plague of Bogles." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 91, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2015, p. 82+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A395847357/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=69d17f5a. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Fans of this richly atmospheric adventure trilogy ... won't want to miss the final volume."
The Last Bogler. By Catherine Jinks. Jan. 2016. 336p. HMH, $16.99 (9780544086968). Gr. 4-6.
Working as an apprentice to Alfred the bogler was always a risky business, acting as bait for child-eating monsters lurking in and below buildings in Victorian London. Now that a government agency has hired Alfred to rid London of its bogles, Ned finds himself in a particularly dangerous position. Unwanted publicity brings unexpected consequences, and events begin to spiral out of control. Meanwhile, the grand scheme to flush the bogles from the sewers seems likely to backfire. Ned, who will do anything for Alfred (though in his heart he does not aspire to be a bogler), is a well-drawn, sympathetic character. Birdie and Jem, the young protagonists from the earlier two books have minor roles here as well. Jinks offers an exciting, large-scale bogle-hunting scene, provides a bittersweet ending to the series, and lets readers know why boglers are no longer needed today. Fans of this richly atmospheric adventure trilogy, which began with the riveting How to Catch a Bogle (2013), won't want to miss the final volume. --Carolyn Phelan
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Phelan, Carolyn. "The Last Bogler." Booklist, vol. 112, no. 6, 15 Nov. 2015, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A436233212/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=403c23fd. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "Better in its parts than its whole--but even second-drawer Jinks tops the general run."
Jinks, Catherine THE LAST BOGLER HMH Books (Children's Fiction) $16.99 1, 5 ISBN: 978-0-544-08696-8
Weary "Go-Devil Man" Alfred Bunce and his uncertain apprentice, Ned, face a seemingly overwhelming plague of child-eating bogles in this busy trilogy closer. In what amounts to a wrap-up volume livened by gross bits, Jinks sends her bogle hunters--with help from the ad hoc Committee for the Regulation of Subterranean Anomalies--into Victorian London's dark nooks and noisome sewers after a series of shadowy menaces. She also sets ex-apprentices Birdie and Jem on to careers in the theater, trots in a country witch to explain how to mass-produce bogle-killing magical spears, consigns vicious butcher/crime lord Salty Jack to a suitably brutal fate, and ties off various other loose ends. Though en masse the darksome creatures seem less hideously menacing than the rare and terrifying haunts of previous volumes, here their toothy, tentacled bodies do slither chillingly enough into view and explode with satisfying violence, "like a gigantic pimple," when speared. (One particularly memorable battle takes place in a privy.) Set pieces notwithstanding, though, the climax turns to more of an anticlimax as the growing crisis is averted via an authorial rationale that even younger readers may find hard to buy. An epilogue leaves the majors married or nearly married and Bunce in happy retirement. Better in its parts than its whole--but even second-drawer Jinks tops the general run. (map, glossary of slang) (Historical fantasy. 10-13)
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"Jinks, Catherine: THE LAST BOGLER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2015. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A428372814/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a1acbd60. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Shepherd
Catherine Jinks. Text, $15.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-925773-83-5
Tom Clay, the 12-year-old hero of this suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller set in 1840 from Ned Kelly Award--winner Jinks (The Inquisitor), was transported to Australia after being caught poaching in England. Tom has begun a new life as a shepherd in New South Wales for Mr. Barrett. Tom takes pride in never having lost one of his charges and enjoys his work, but he runs afoul of a violent employee of Mr. Barrett, Dan Carver, who boasts of killing both white men and native Australians and keeping their body parts as trophies. Jealous of Tom's ability to read and skill at herding sheep, Carver lures Tom into a forest, ostensibly to search for a lost animal, and his attempt on the boy's life fails. Carver escapes, only to resurface weeks later, still bent on killing the boy. The bulk of the book consists of Carver's efforts to attain his bloody objective and Tom's efforts to thwart them. Multiple pulse-pounding sections compensate only in part for the lack of character depth. This amounts to a YA novel with a high violence level. Fans of Jinks's YA City of Orphans trilogy may want to take a look. (May)
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"Shepherd." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 11, 16 Mar. 2020, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A622071085/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dec07103. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: A highly satisfying conclusion to this wonderfully crafted fantasy series.-
JINKS, Catherine. The Last Bogler. 336p. HMH. Jan. 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780544086968.
Gr 4-6--Having discovered the cause of the infestation in A Plague of Bogles (HMH, 2015), the newly formed Committee for the Regulation of Subterranean Anomalies has plenty of work as they work to rid London of the monsters that lurk in dark places and eat children. Alfred Bunce, the seasoned bogler, and his apprentices are instrumental to the cause, but both Birdie McAdam's and Jem Barbary's futures seem to be heading in other directions, and now Ned Roach is the only apprentice left. Though observant and clever, Ned lacks confidence. Alfred thinks the boy is a natural, and while Ned doesn't really want a future as a bogler, he feels indebted to the older man for giving him a home. While shadows from the past pose additional dangers, the very future of bogling is uncertain. The final book of the trilogy contains everything that made the first two so appealing: finely drawn characters and engaging action sequences all set in the richly described Victorian setting. With superb pacing, the story propels readers right along with Ned, but at its heart is Alfred Bunce, the gruff, stalwart bogler who seeks to put an end to bogles even if that means he will be out of a job. VERDICT A highly satisfying conclusion to this wonderfully crafted fantasy series.--Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
Raklovits, Amanda
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Raklovits, Amanda. "Jinks, Catherine. The Last Bogler." School Library Journal, vol. 61, no. 10, Oct. 2015, p. 90+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A431724858/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=546a038d. Accessed 6 July 2020.
JINKS, Catherine. A Plague of Bogles. illus. by Sarah Watts. 336p. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2015. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780544087477; ebk. $16.99. ISBN 9780544087354.
Gr 4-6-After the climactic events of How to Catch a Bogle (Houghton Harcourt, 2013), Alfred Bunce has retired from killing the monsters that lurk in London. His former apprentice, Birdie McAdam, has moved on to study singing while living with the wealthy folklorist, Miss Eames. Jem Barbary, a former pickpocket, has bounced around from job to job, consumed with the desire for revenge against Sarah Pickles, who sold him off to be bogle bait. But when children go missing around Newgate prison, Alfred reluctantly agrees to take on another bogling job with Jem as his apprentice. Jem proves himself to be nimble and spry, using his quickness and acrobatics to escape bogles. One job leads to another and Alfred is unsettled by the unusually large concentration of bogles in one area. He and Jem are joined by Birdie and Miss Eames as they attempt to discover what has brought so many monsters to the same place. This second book in the trilogy is as engaging as the first, with exciting action scenes and a new protagonist as its focal point. Jem is used to relying on himself and though he is resourceful, he lacks Birdie's confidence. His practical outlook and determination make him an appealing character, even as his single-minded focus on finding the woman who betrayed him threatens to uproot the place he has found with Alfred. Well paced and with details and dialogue that transport readers to the streets (and sewers) of Victorian London, there is much to enjoy in this excellent adventure series.--Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
Raklovits, Amanda
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Raklovits, Amanda. "Jinks, Catherine. A Plague of Bogles." School Library Journal, vol. 60, no. 11, Nov. 2014, p. 101. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A388967307/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=34349b71. Accessed 6 July 2020.
JINKS, Catherine. How to Catch a Bogle. illus. by Sarah Watts. 335p. glossary. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2013. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-544-08708-8.
Gr 4-6--As a bogler's apprentice, 10-year-old Birdie has faced down plenty of monsters lurking in the chimneys, wells, and other dark places of Victorian London. She serves as bait, singing sweetly to lure the bogles out so her master, the well-seasoned Go-Devil Man Alfred Bunce, can kill them with his trusty spear. Enter the wealthy folklorist Miss Eames, who is determined to find more scientific ways of drawing out the monsters, and Birdie fears that her livelihood may be threatened by the well-meaning lady. Meanwhile, orphans are disappearing and a bogle is suspected, but Alfred and Birdie discover something even more sinister at work. The first in a projected trilogy, this book treats readers to a lively, engaging story with an endearing protagonist at its center. Capable, forthright, and street-wise, Birdie fairly leaps off the page with pluck, intelligence, and courage. Historical details are woven in to ensure that readers are firmly ensconced in Victorian London, where bogles may be waiting to snatch unsuspecting children, but they are certainly not the only danger to be had. The well-paced story builds to an exciting climax as each bogle encounter raises the stakes and Birdie and Alfred face a decision that will change their lives. While this particular adventure is wrapped up nicely, readers will be delighted that the stage is set for future bogling exploits.--Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
Raklovits, Amanda
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Raklovits, Amanda. "Jinks, Catherine. How to Catch a Bogle." School Library Journal, vol. 59, no. 8, Aug. 2013, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A339017220/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=635faca8. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Jinks, Catherine. Saving Thanehaven. 375p. Egmont USA. 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-1-60684-274-4; ebook $17.99. ISBN 978-1-60684-284-3. LC 2012046190.
Gr 5-8--Noble's life is one of struggle and battle. He must fight everything he encounters, including the terrain he stands on, in his quest to reach the castle and free the princess. Even his own morphing weapon, Smite, can't be trusted. This all changes when Noble encounters Rufus; whose refreshing independent philosophy offers him a choice to leave behind his life of violent drudgery. Noble's quest is then transformed into one of liberation, as he in turn offers the individuals he encounters on his way the freedom to change their destinies. The only thing is, it turns out that Noble and his band of freedom seekers are in fact characters in computer games--and Rufus is a computer virus sent by the ostracized and disgruntled ex-friend of Mikey, the boy who owns the computer. Eventually Noble realizes that Rufus's only agenda is to force Noble's computer home to crash. With the support of his ragtag bunch of gaming heroes, Noble forces a showdown with Rufus. Jinks creates a hilarious combination of disparate game characters from Noble the Knight to zombies, MyScene-type fashion victims, and Lulu the silver unicorn from a preschool game. Their attempts at cooperation outside their individual game environments provide a very funny background to an overall theme of"is there capacity for independent thought in software and gaming programming?" As in Terry Pratchett's Only .You Can Save Mankind (HarperCollins, 2004), readers are left with sympathy for the characters in the games, who are doomed to inevitable extinction as each new level is achieved. Jinks successfully delivers life lessons from gaming, and has a lot of fun along the way.--Jane Barrer, United Nations International School, New York City
Barrer, Jane
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Barrer, Jane. "Jinks, Catherine. Saving Thanehaven." School Library Journal, vol. 59, no. 8, Aug. 2013, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A339017225/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f67eda72. Accessed 6 July 2020.
JINKS, Catherine. The Paradise Trap. 344p. Egmont USA. Apr. 2012. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-1-60684-273-7; ebook $15.99. ISBN 978-1-60684-283-6. LC number unavailable.
Gr 4-7--Marcus is devastated when his morn, Holly, ruins his summer plans by buying a junky old trailer and taking him to her favorite childhood vacation spot, Diamond Beach. When they arrive, Holly runs into Coco, one of her friends from the old days, all grown up and married to a semi-famous inventor, Sterling Huckstepp. He has two kids: Newt, a sassy teen girl, and a younger boy, Edison. Their trailer is full of crazy inventions, including a bumbling robot, Prot. Then the boys find that Marcus's trailer has a cellar. When Edison opens the cellar door, it leads to a fantastic amusement park; and he doesn't want to leave. Marcus realizes that the cellar creates the personal dream vacation of whoever opens the door, only the vacation never, ever ends. He enlists the help of Prot, Newt, and the adults, which takes the action up a notch as they all fight to escape the trap, rescue Holly's missing childhood crush, and defeat the evil that is trying to destroy them. Readers will be anxious to get lost in this world of dreams, nightmares, and deception. Jinks deftly mixes mild horror with humor to give younger readers a few shivers and make older readers chuckle. Each dream/nightmare world sheds dramatic, sometimes touching, insight into the character whose hopes and fears created it, and the nonstop action will make for exciting read-alouds and booktalks. Completely absorbing and totally fun.--Mandy Laferriere, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX
Laferriere, Mandy
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Laferriere, Mandy. "Jinks, Catherine. The Paradise Trap." School Library Journal, vol. 58, no. 3, Mar. 2012, p. 161. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A282425665/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6c0390a5. Accessed 6 July 2020.
QUOTE: "evokes the terrible conditions of the frontier for both convict and Aboriginal subject alike, in the cloth of a highly readable, richly characterised, beautifully written novel."
Shepherd by Catherine Jinks
Reviewed by David Whish-Wilson • September 2019, no. 414
One of the few advantages a contemporary writer of historical fiction has derives from working in a context with laxer censorship laws. Representations of sexuality and violence once proscribed can be incorporated to better approach the social conditions of the period. With regard to narratives about Australia’s convict history, Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life was written after transportation had ceased to the eastern Australian colonies, while farther west Fenian convict John Boyle O’Reilly’s Moondyne was published after he had escaped from Western Australia and found sanctuary in the United States.
Reader interest in the convict period has never flagged, however. More recently, Jock Serong’s magnificent Preservation (2018), together with Peter Cochrane’s terrific The Making of Martin Sparrow (2018) and Rohan Wilson’s award-winning double act of The Roving Party (2011) and To Name Those Lost (2017), are nuanced and comprehensive readings of the barbarism visited upon both the convicts themselves but also upon Australia’s First Nations peoples.
Catherine Jinks’s Shepherd, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing, similarly evokes the terrible conditions of the frontier for both convict and Aboriginal subject alike, in the cloth of a highly readable, richly characterised, beautifully written novel. Much like Wilson’s To Name Those Lost, which draws suspense from a central chase plotline, Shepherd too is structured around a pivotal incident, which sets off a chain of violent events and maintains its narrative intrigue from a sustained pursuit.
QUOTE: "The writing style is smooth and the environment explicitly realised. Technically this novel is fantastic.”
Review: Catherine Jinks – Shepherd
Posted on July 5, 2019 by Rose Herbert
Shepherd
Catherine Jinks
It’s a hard life in New South Wales as a convict, but Tom Clay has his sheep and his dogs. There’s a big problem though – Dan Carver is going to kill him when he comes back. The arrival of a third shepherd, Rowdy Cavanagh should make Tom more relaxed, but Rowdy doesn’t know when to shut up. A fraught chase ensures across the wild Australian landscape.
What this novel brings home for me is the sheer amount of knowledge that white Australians have lost by effectively wiping out the native peoples. Tom is/was a poacher back in England and thus he understands a lot about animals and plants. In the bush he doesn’t understand anything though and he feels like everything is against him. Rowdy’s big mouth certainly doesn’t help him concentrate!
The cover suggests a murder mystery to me, with the pitchfork spearing the title. But what I got was nothing like that. Instead I felt like I was walking the bush with Tom and fearing for my own life. Unfortunately, I’m just not very excited by colonial Australian history. I studied the literature of the time and wasn’t that keen on it. I don’t really understand why I didn’t care for this novel, but I didn’t. It’s not something I’d necessarily read if I had a choice, which is why it came on vacation with me to force me to read it.
The writing style is smooth and the environment explicitly realised. Technically this novel is fantastic. Yet the ending felt cold to me and I could have put it down at any point. I didn’t connect with Tom enough and the deaths of other characters didn’t interest me. I finished this novel in the space of a couple of hours. 3 stars from me.