Barnabas Walks

by William Mayne, Barbara Firth (Illustrator)

A guinea pig has a thoroughly adventurous time when he gets loose in the schoolroom, tries to learn to read, is chased by a cat and is rescued by a dog.

Hardcover

First published October 30, 1986

About the author

William Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.

He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.

A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.

William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really cool children's book that this almost 55 year old adult thoroughly enjoyed. It takes the classroom pet trope, and gives it a nod and a wink. Barnabas, the class guinea pig, does have the human trait of wanting to learn to read, and can count. That he's smart enough to get out of his hutch-like cage is not too far-fetched.

I don't know what time period this book was meant to be set in, since there are references to ink wells. The book was published in 1986, and inkwells were long gone by then, although my school desks at the time still had round indentations for bottles of ink.

The watercolors by Barbara Firth are dream-like, but detailed. She does give Barnabas human expressions, but he's still entirely recognizable as a guinea pig. I could just about touch him. I knew how much he weighed (about three pounds) and the herky-jerky hesitancy of his walkabout. Really well done, Barbara.

I really don't want to give the end away, but I just adored the dog. And the dog acted completely like a dog.

This book contains one of the best questions I've ever read:

What is one cracker among so many teeth?

What, indeed.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my childhood bedroom for the holidays to re-read for the nostalgia.

LOVE Barnabas’ cute little piggy butt.

[Cws]

JE-May