Guy Lochhead, 07/09/10
Children and young adult’s fantasy trilogy written by Zizou Corder (pen-name of mother & daughter writing duo Louisa and Isabel Adomakoh Young), and published between 2003-2006. The series follows a young boy named Charlie Ashanti who can talk the language of cats. He is on the run on a floating circus, aiming to return its lions to the wilds of Morocco and rescue his kidnapped parents. Gah, I don’t know. I mean, it’s cool that they have an ‘environmental’ message, but it’s generally a pretty one-dimensional series dealing with one issue. The circus thing is weird, as is the one-kid’s-quest format, and English authors writing under an exotic pseudonym. I think the main thing is that it’s not well written. It’s nice to have a mother and daughter writing together though.