Location: United Kingdom
Member Since: July 25, 2010
ziggy evitts
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by ziggy evitts
- Twin Shorts
on July 25, 2010
This collection of short stories acts as an excellent introduction not only to the world of “Priscilla the Great” but also to the inimitable writing style of Sybil Nelson. In this work “Twin Shorts” Sybil has fashioned a series of deftly hilarious sketches that take the form of school essays written by the aforementioned Priscilla, who is - rarely for Young Adult fiction - a believably frank and witty narrator. Creating any child/teen narrative voice in fiction is a great challenge. The two traps into which writers usually fall in this regard are; either to write in an unrealistically wise and complex fashion; or, to write too simplistically, using too much slang and abbreviation. In all her writing, Sybil walks the line between those two potential pitfalls quite brilliantly, creating authentic voices that young adult readers can engage with and enjoy. I have no doubt that it is only a matter of time until the whole “Priscilla the Great” series is a considerably huge publishing success. Furthermore, the story in “Twin Shorts” concerning an unfortunate boy named Billy is quite simply one of the wittiest things I have read in ages, regardless of the books target age. ZE