Below the Green Pond
by Jane Waller
Description
Owen, an eleven-year-old boy, falls into a pond and shrinks to the size of the tiny creatures which live there. Most of these are friendly, but others are dangerous; and Owen needs all his courage and resourcefulness to survive his various adventures.
All the animalcules that inhabit the pond (mostly known by their scientific names such as Daphnia, Dugesia Lugubris, Cristatella and Volvox) live and die as they would in real life.
Owen’s first underwater friend (Sedilla, the water flea) teaches him – and the readers of this book – a lot about what goes on in the underwater world, one which is both beautiful and treacherous. As a reviewer of the original edition said, this is “natural history turned into an exciting adventure, which can be enjoyed by a very wide age range”.
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Reviews
‘Owen’s underwater world is both beautiful and treacherous. Natural history turned into an exciting adventure, much enjoyed by a wide age range’. (Voted among the Pick of the Year by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups).
‘Owen’s adventures among the pond people are credible, vivid and exciting. He sets out on a journey beset with many dangers and few delights, the kind of journey plotted by Homer, Dante and Bunyan for their heroes, and for much the same reason – to prove that mere mortals … may win through against seemingly impossible odds and be chastened or matured by their ordeals. A story mixing fact and fantasy in absolutely equal proportions … Very readable, for every age group’. (Times Literary Supplement).
‘Ever since Alice fell down that rabbit hole .. children’s writers have been experimenting with other worlds in which their young protagonists could adventure. Sad to say most of these have been pretty derivative, a reflection on the paucity of the imagination when confronted with circumstances in which anything is possible. Jane Waller has got over this predicament in a most original and satisfying way’. (Times Educational Supplement).
Author Biography
When her memoir “Me Jane” comes out it will be Jane’s 18th published book. Novels for children, works on ceramics, knitting, social history, the role of women in the Second World War; they’ve been coming out regularly since the first, ‘A Stitch in Time’, helped to launch a revival of interest in hand-knitting in 1972.
And if that wasn’t enough, she has studied painting and sculpture, glass-blowing and ceramics (producing work described by the Arts Editor of the International Herald Tribune as “among the greatest creations of twentieth century pottery”). Now, in her little cottage on the Chequers Estate, she divides her time between writing and drawing, having just finished a memoir of her childhood while working on a final draft of her 5th novel for children, in which two competing groups of Weather Makers (including Hebrides the Witch, German Bight and the strangely indecisive Fitzroy/Finisterre) battle to take decisive control over the world’s weather.
Glis-Glis Publishing
I have had 17 books published to date, on topics from children’s education to the role of women in WW2, from hand-built ceramics to the history of knitwear. And then there are my four novels for children: Below the Green Pond, Saving the Dinosaurs, Under Buckingham Palace (originally, The Sludgegulpers) and The Egyptian Princess. Each of these four novels is based on painstaking research, whether of life under a pond, in the Cretaceous Age, in the London sewers (yes, I did go down them for several hours!) or in Ancient Egypt when the first true pyramid was built. In each case this research, as reviewers have pointed out, is woven into a taut, fast-moving story line. Here are a couple of examples: Below the Green Pond: ‘Owen’s underwater world is both beautiful and treacherous. Natural history turned into an exciting adventure, much enjoyed by a wide age range.’ (Voted among the Pick of the Year by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups) ‘A story mixing fact and fantasy in absolutely equal proportions. Very readable, for every age group.’ (Times Literary Supplement). Saving the Dinosaurs: ‘In my view this book has the best device a children’s book could have, which is a perfect blend of reality and fantasy’ (Jill Murphy, children’s author). ‘Fantasy and reality blend into an exciting story for all dinosaur fans’ (The London Parents guide). ‘This highly imaginative fantasy is coupled with much factual evidence about life in the late Cretaceous Age and provides an exciting read’. (Angela Lepper, teacher). Under Buckingham Palace: ‘An enjoyable fantasy, with serious facts: for confident readers”. (Independent on Sunday). Sadly, despite reviews such as these, all three books went out of print until I set up Glis-Glis Publishing and brought them out myself, adding The Egyptian Princess as a sequel to Saving the Dinosaurs. New readers are enchanted by my books. But what I am really looking for is an established publisher – with the infrastructure for marketing and distribution – to take them on and give them a proper boost. And any publishers interested should know that I have nearly finished two more books. The first is ‘Weather or Not’: a novel for ages 9-90, for Geography students, those who go out to sea in boats and all who are interested in how the weather is made … because the likes of Malin, German Bight, Faroes, Fair Isle, Sole and all the others are actually real creatures, combined into two groups, one fighting to keep the world’s weather in balance, the other intent on increasing global warning. An exciting adventure story with a message and warning for us all. The second is ‘Me Jane’ (remember Tarzan?), a memoir of my life from 4 year’s old until I go off to Oxford as an 18 year old art student. The grammar, vocabulary, feelings and memories change and mature as I get older; and it is all based on my own diaries , as well as those of my mother and grandmother.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Glis-Glis Publishing
- Publication Date July 2012
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9780957317024
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 12 GBP
- Pages164
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusSelf-Published
- Editionnew edition, new publisher
- Page sizeA5 (8.3 x 5.8) inches
- Illustration19 full colour
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