Crime for Kids
In our house (here in London’s outer suburbs) we have an annual post-Xmas tradition. In the weeks after the dust has settled and a small truckload of packaging and wrapping has been disposed of, I review the stuff that the kids actually seem to like (and sometimes the obvious rubbish that’ll never see daylight again - one of my most popular blog entries ever is this slating for a particularly crappy non-toy from a couple of years ago).
So, this year, Santa brought Carl Hiaasen’s second childrens’ novel, Flush. I don’t need to tell you that Hiaasen is a slick, funny thriller writer – one of the elite of sophisticated mainstream American writers who get good reviews in the broadsheets and sell by the wheelbarrow-load in supermarkets too. His kids’ books are brilliant. Now that it’s OK for serious writers to knock out children’s books (see Elmore Leonard’s equally good Coyote’s In The House – the Harry Potter effect, they call it) we’re going to see lots more of these crossover works from established adult authors.
This one is a fast and funny crime thriller with a green theme (sewage, greed, turtles) and has the usual mix of Hiaasen types: the stoical hero, the wise rogue, the venal capitalist and assorted meatheads, innocents and sidekicks. The principal characters here, though, are kids and the environmental theme is one they easily connect with. I’m reading Flush to my seven year-old girl and eight year-old boy and it’s a real pleasure to read something that’s sharp and grown-up while still within their range.
I usually stop at one chapter per night but the kids are finding it easy to push me to read another with this one. It’s also really interesting to learn that a writer can paint a very convincing, quite dark and urban canvas without the usual cast of prostitutes, drug dealers and rapists. The wild side, here, is limited to booze and tattoos and I haven’t found myself explaining any dubious practices to the kids (”well son, a crack pipe is a…”). Verdict: the best book we’ve read together since, well, probably since the last Hiaasen: Hoot (which also has a green theme – endangered owls and greedy property developers).
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