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Johnny Swanson [Hardcover]

Eleanor Updale (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Book Description

Publication Date: 29 April 2010

SPECIAL OFFER - THE SECRET OF INSTANT DELIGHT! Be the first to read Johnny Swanson!

The book that's got the nation talking - yours by return of post.

All is revealed:

The truth about the Stambleton murder

The facts behind the TB scare

The real identity of Ada Ardour

And one boy's fight to save his mother's life!

All this, and the answer to the burning question of 1929:

What on earth is a CLONG?

(To find out, send a P.O. for 2/6 to Box 90)

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Frequently Bought Together

Johnny Swanson + Montmorency
Price For Both: £14.77

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  • Montmorency by Eleanor Updale Paperback £4.64

Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: David Fickling Books (29 April 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385616422
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385616423
  • Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 3.5 x 18.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 533,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Eleanor Updale Page
Eleanor Updale
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Product Description

Review

This is a lovely story, full of fascinating and accurate period detail, social injustice and moral quandaries, that revels in a child's determination to play the unfair system to his advantage. Young fans of Updale's Montmorency series will find this equally entertaining (Sally Morris Daily Mail 20100521)

Like the best children's books, it's about children, not simplified or toned down for them (Michael Morpurgo The Times 20100423)

The Silver Sword, Goodnight Mr Tom, The Butterfly Lion, The Railway Children and Kim all belong to a genre in which there is no magic, but a tremendous sense of what real children in adversity might achieve with courage, cleverness and luck. Eleanor Updale's Johnny Swanson belongs to this category, and it deserves the highest praise (Amanda Craig The Times 20100501)

Updale writes with such obvious relish that fun exudes from the ink on every page. This is real entertainment. Johnny Swanson is just the kind of book for which the term "joyous romp" was invented (Philip Ardagh Guardian 20100401)

Johnny Swanson is another historical novel from Eleanor Updale, the creator of the wonderful Montmorency books, and this is an ingeniously constructed whodunit set in northern England in 1929, during a TB epidemic. There's lots of blood and gore, and it explores some unusal adult themes - being broke for example (Toby Clements Daily Telegraph 20101127)

Book Description

A rip-roaring mystery adventure with the most unlikely hero ever.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Page Turning Mystery Story 25 Sep 2010
By Mrs. K. A. Wheatley TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
Johnny Swanson is an unlikely hero for this mystery story. Scrawny and bullied at school, Johnny struggles to be accepted by his class mates, and he and his mum Winnie have to work hard to survive after his dad is killed in the First World War. Money troubles loom large as the new landlord of their cottage threatens to put the rent up and Winnie knows she can't afford to pay it.

Scammed by a newspaper advertisement himself, Johnny adopts the idea to make money and help his mother, but in the process gets involved in a terrible tale of murder and deceit, played out against the background of the TB epidemic sweeping the nation in 1929.

The story is pacy, lively and full of suitably gory horrors and twists to delight most older children. I would recommend it for children of 11 and up, as some of the themes are rather brutal and the descriptions of murder victims etc quite graphic. It is however, great fun and very exciting and a worthy successor to the Montmorency books previously written by Updale.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Light-hearted read with good period detail 6 Oct 2012
By Ms. J. Jones
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Johnny Swanson is a story which could appeal to adults as well as children. The writing is light and pacy and Johnny's advertisments are delightfully comic. Good period detail and a deft plot should be enjoyed by all ages.
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5.0 out of 5 stars I thought this was going to be a light hearted book once I started reading it. It was, but a few serious issues are addressed. 27 Nov 2010
By Jessica
Format:Hardcover
Covers always create an impression of what the story is about. Usually it works. Sometimes I don't like the cover. In this case, the cover captures the essence of the story perfectly. On the back is an envelope and some money, which provides the basis for Johnny's scams. On the front flap Johnny has written an ad for the book, similar to how he would write his scams. I found Hutch's comment hilarious.

Ok, the summary from RHCB might make you think huh? Basically Johnny lives with his mother. For one reason and another he responds to an ad in the paper which is in fact a scam. Disappointed at being ripped off, Johnny feels guilty for taking the money from his mother (without telling her) and wants to pay her back .He can't get enough money on his meagre paper round. So he decides to write a scam in the paper. It takes a bit of planning and several small lies. This lies have huge implications for Johnny later on in the novel. Serious ones. They lead to his mother being tried as a suspect for murder. The whole town turns against Johnny.

He manages to avoid going in to care, but only because of his scam. The scam mostly causes trouble, but it also saves Johnny and his mother at the end. I was saddened but not surprised at how people act towards Johnny when his mother is a suspect. He has a few who stand by him, and there is a wonderful (if a little predictable) surprise at the end of the story involving one of the people. I loved finding out how telephones worked, and also more about the old money system. I was horrified by how Johnny's friend was treated in the sanatorium. Life was - and in places still is - very cruel for orphans.
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