Flying Eye Books The Secret of Black Rock
416 ratings
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Price: £7.99
Brand: Flying Eye Books
Description: Winner of the Illustrated Book Category for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018. Longlisted for The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018. Erin loves to lie on the jetty, looking for the weirdest fish in the sea - the weirder, the better! And she knows the best ones must be further out, where her mum won't let her go. Out there in the deepest sea lies the Black Rock: a huge, dark and spiky mass that is said to destroy any boats that come near it!. Can Erin uncover the truth behind this mysterious legend? ‘ Channelling Tove Jansson, Tintin and Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, the book’s enchanting, richly coloured illustrations had details to savour in every frame… a young artist to watch’ – The Guardian. Author and Illustrator Joe Todd-Stanton grew up in Brighton. His work as an illustrator includes artwork for books with Oxford University Press and Usborne Publishing before beginning to create and illustrate his own stories, including The Secret of Black Rock and the children's graphic novel, Arthur and the Golden Rope.
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9781911171744
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9781911171744
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Author: Kelly
Rating: 5
Review: Used this book with my class and they loved it, great story and lots of discussions to have. Illustrations are also lovely.
Author: onemanlandslide
Rating: 3
Review: Having read and liked two of Todd-Stanton's other books Arthur and the Golden Rope and a Mouse Called Julian - I was looking forward to reading The Secret of Black Rock. I've now read it with my son around ten times. Like his other books, it's beautifully illustrated. However, I'm not a fan of the story. The plot itself is pretty generic - child wants to do something but isn't allowed, bends the rules to do it, gets in trouble, learns something in the process and that lesson goes on to serve a greater good. Nothing wrong with that but it's broadly the plot of a hundred other children's stories. The way it's written is more disappointing. The opening few pages set the tone. Erin wants to go out to sea "but it was too dangerous because of... The Legend of Black Rock". A legend doesn't make something dangerous. Apparently "every fisherman had a scary story to tell" but only two are mentioned and neither tales are that remarkable. Elsewhere the writing follows hackneyed tropes (The fog got "thicker...and thicker", Erin sank "...deeper...deeper"). At one point Erin is stuck out to sea with Black Rock and in order to advance the story Todd-Stanton has her pick up a fishing rod, take off the hook and attach some brightly coloured seaweed to it. She then casts the seaweed into the sea causing the fish to follow the seaward and in turn Black Rock to follow the fish. It makes no sense, even within a story about a huge living rock. All of a sudden she's back home explaining to the adults what happened and next thing we know the adults are off to destroy the rock using huge claws and drills. Yep, me neither. Anyway, Erin convinces the adults that Black Rock is not actually a monster and, after an obligatory page describing how everyone lived happily ever after, it's over. The Legend of Black Rock is a beautifully illustrated children's book but a very average story. That being said my son likes it and in the end that's more important. Extra marks for the production quality, which is Flying Eye's usual high standard.
