[This review was written c.2007, which may explain the first line. On the other hand, it may not. Personally, I have no idea what 'tiresome tales of a pubescent sorcerer' refers to...]
Enveloped as it is with a turgid enthralment for the tiresome tales of a pubescent sorcerer, the English speaking world has of late seriously neglected much of the best children’s fiction to have been produced on mainland Europe. Chief among its losses are the four books in the ‘Van’ series, an enterprising collection of stories that have thus far failed to grab the attention of anyone outside of Holland, their country of origin. Though they are all written by the same two people (an anonymous husband and wife team based in Amsterdam) each of the four works that make up the series is credited to a separate author, whose surname always begins with the ubiquitous prefix ‘Van’ and always ends with an unsubtle pun on the title. Whilst these broad jokes cannot be blamed on clumsy translation – all the books were in fact originally written in English – we may forgive them when we consider that the series was primarily designed to attract a readership of teenagers. The first book – entitled Around Amsterdam – was by Van Tram, the second – Nightly Creeps by Van Tom (its intriguing subtitle was The Operatic Menace). The third book – and central subject of this review – was Van Eel’s Underwater Transportation. For the fourth and most recent book, the joke took a nosedive into the quagmire of complexity. Read the rest of this entry »
