The Etiquette of Voles is a first book by a new author, which was published last Tuesday. I saw a promotion for it on another website, possibly Natalie Aguirre’s, and pre-ordered from Amazon. It sounded that good!
This is another post joining in Marvellous Middle Grade Mondays, run by Greg Pattridge at Always in the Middle. I’m running out of MG reads to review, so I’ll see how long I can post on the third Monday of the month.
The Etiquette of Voles
by Karen B McCoy, illustrated by Lena Mulberg
Life is lonely in Queen Victoria’s London, especially for a talking vole. Chains may be the equal of any human detective, but there’s one case he can’t where he came from and why he can speak.
Luckily, he has the help of Eldridge, the retired investigator he lives with. Their latest job-a shipload of missing fish destined for experimentation-might provide some needed answers. But when Eldridge is kidnapped, Chains is left without sanctuary at a time he badly needs friends. Especially with profiteers, scientists, and pirates from London’s mad scientific underbelly after his hide.
The more clues Chains unearths, the more certain he is that finding Eldridge will also unlock the mystery of how Chains originally came to be, and might even offer him a place to truly belong. But someone he thought he could trust doesn’t want that to happen. A talking vole may offer a significant breakthrough, but a silenced one is preferred. (Goodreads)
My Review
Nicholas Nickleby meets The Rats of NIMH in this exciting and very mysterious debut from Karen B McCoy. A talking vole who regularly bewails his lack of opposable thumbs when, for example, trying to turn a door knob, is utterly right for an intriguing protagonist.
Sometimes I wonder about MG books. There are definitely differences in acceptable levels of violence (and romance) in Mg Lit between Australia, UK and US. I learned this when working with a lovely group of authors on the BookElves project. To me, there is more violence and ill-treatment of people (and animals) in this book than might be acceptable in Australia. It’s upper end of the scale for UK… at least 10 and up. So crossing Dickensian treatment of people with vivisection, fairly graphically, is not necessarily something I’d expect in an MG book.
smells and gloop
The date of the setting is well defined since the new Tower Bridge is under construction, so 1889 or so. My mental map of London and its Victorian wharfs, still in use today in some cases, came into play on many occasions. I could quibble that the river actually goes north from Victoria station to Waterloo, but I’m picky like that. Ms McCoy has done a great job with the smells and gloop of Thames mud, of which there is a great deal. I wasn’t so happy with some of the sentence construction or word usage: it either needed a better final edit, or less van Dykian attempt at pseudo-Cockney.
I get the impression this might be the first in a series. That would be really interesting, and I’d read some more of Chains, Daniel and Petunia. I’d even beta-read, if asked!
The Etiquette of Voles is a great read for an older MG, and the chapter illustrations by Lena Mulberg are an excellent feature (apart from the opposable thumb). I wish Ms McCoy every success with it.
I’m glad you enjoyed this, but you must have heard of it from someone else. The talking vole sounds like a unique addition to the story.
It might have been Sally Cronin, or one of the IWSG group… someone who promotes lots of books. But I thought of you first!
This sounds like such a fun book, Jemima. Loved your review. Can you send me the link to the latest on the boys?
Sent it yesterday, Noelle. Hope this week goes well.
Pretty sure someone else in the MMGM group shared this. Good review—makes me want to read it. And yeah, in my not very humble opinion, here in the US we worry way too much about exposing kids to sex and not enough about violence. I also know that even as a fairly protected little kid I engaged in pretty violent imaginary play!
Ah, yes, that was the source! Glad someone’s head is working better than mine.
I’m sure the label “upper MG” was created to cover books not appealing to a YA audience but still having a a few of their more mature elements. It gets a bit confusing for book buyers. Thank goodness there are reviewers like you and the rest of the group on MMGM to clear the air! This one sounds like a great choice to add to my growing list of books to read. Thanks for being a part of MMGM this week.
Yes, upper MG is quite useful when you’ve got a good reader who is also mature enough for difficult topics. Having said that; what kids see on the news…. How can we judge whether content is suitable in our books?
This sounds interesting! You had me with Nicholas Nickleby meets Rats of NIMH. I love books set in Victorian times, Dickens, and this sounds unique. However, I’m a rather sensitive reader, so thanks for the heads up on the graphic elements.
Yes I sort of swooshed over the details of the ‘operation’. And I rarely manage to get X meets Y comparisons… this jumped out at me
Mysteries are always popular. This sounds like one kids would like. Thanks for the review.
This does seem like a weighty topic for this age group. Sounds like the story did pull you in, though, even though you felt there were some flaws.