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Juniper
At Cricklepit School Juniper feels safe with Ranjit and the reassuring presence of teachers like Mr Merchant and Miss Plum. But at home life is sometimes as frightening as her dreams, which start like beautiful fairy tales but always end in terror.
As a small child she always loved the story of 'The Juniper Tree', for all its sadness, feeling her name linked them together. Now it raises disturbing echoes in her life, and she dare not tell even Ranjit what she fears and hopes.
Juniper is a powerful and haunting book which makes a notable addition to Gene Kemp's stories about the pupils of Cricklepit School.
As a small child she always loved the story of 'The Juniper Tree', for all its sadness, feeling her name linked them together. Now it raises disturbing echoes in her life, and she dare not tell even Ranjit what she fears and hopes.
Juniper is a powerful and haunting book which makes a notable addition to Gene Kemp's stories about the pupils of Cricklepit School.
112 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1986
10 people want to read
About the author
Gene Kemp
52 books11 followersGene Kemp was an English author known for children's books. Her first, The Pride of Tamworth Pig, appeared in 1972. She won the British Carnegie Medal for her school novel The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1977).
Gene Kemp was born in Wigginton, Staffordshire in 1926. She grew up near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and went to Exeter University. She became a teacher and taught at St Sidwell's School in Exeter in the 1970s.
From 1972 she wrote stories for young readers about a pig named Tamworth, named after the town she grew up in. Kemp found inspiration for many of the characters in her books amongst the friends of her children, Chantal and Richard.
Her best known book is The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, published by Faber's Children's Books in 1977. Set in the fictional Cricklepit School, it charts the pleasures and pains of friendship and growing up. There are several Cricklepit books, including Snaggletooth's Mystery, an alternative history of the school, and Gowie Corby Plays Chicken, set one year after The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler and referencing Tyke in several chapters.
Kemp wrote ghost stories and fantasy as well as realistic fiction, like Seriously Weird, which is told from the perspective of the sister of a young man with Asperger syndrome. She also dramatised some of her work, the most successful and well-known of these being Charlie Lewis Plays for Time, another Cricklepit story.
Gene Kemp was awarded an Honorary MA from Exeter University in 1984. She lived in Exeter and had three children – a daughter, Judith, from her first marriage to Norman Pattison, which ended in divorce, and another daughter, Chantal, and a son, Richard, from her second marriage, to Allan Kemp, who died in 1990. She had three grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Kemp died at the age of 88 on 4 January 2015.
Kemp won two awards for The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1997): the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, for the year's best children's book by a British subject, and one from the Children's Rights Workshop.
She made the Smarties Prize shortlist four times, in (1981) for The Clock Tower Ghost, (1985) for Charlie Lewis Plays for Time, (1986) for Juniper and (1990) for Just Ferret.
Gene Kemp was born in Wigginton, Staffordshire in 1926. She grew up near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and went to Exeter University. She became a teacher and taught at St Sidwell's School in Exeter in the 1970s.
From 1972 she wrote stories for young readers about a pig named Tamworth, named after the town she grew up in. Kemp found inspiration for many of the characters in her books amongst the friends of her children, Chantal and Richard.
Her best known book is The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, published by Faber's Children's Books in 1977. Set in the fictional Cricklepit School, it charts the pleasures and pains of friendship and growing up. There are several Cricklepit books, including Snaggletooth's Mystery, an alternative history of the school, and Gowie Corby Plays Chicken, set one year after The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler and referencing Tyke in several chapters.
Kemp wrote ghost stories and fantasy as well as realistic fiction, like Seriously Weird, which is told from the perspective of the sister of a young man with Asperger syndrome. She also dramatised some of her work, the most successful and well-known of these being Charlie Lewis Plays for Time, another Cricklepit story.
Gene Kemp was awarded an Honorary MA from Exeter University in 1984. She lived in Exeter and had three children – a daughter, Judith, from her first marriage to Norman Pattison, which ended in divorce, and another daughter, Chantal, and a son, Richard, from her second marriage, to Allan Kemp, who died in 1990. She had three grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Kemp died at the age of 88 on 4 January 2015.
Kemp won two awards for The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1997): the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, for the year's best children's book by a British subject, and one from the Children's Rights Workshop.
She made the Smarties Prize shortlist four times, in (1981) for The Clock Tower Ghost, (1985) for Charlie Lewis Plays for Time, (1986) for Juniper and (1990) for Just Ferret.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 26, 2022
With nightmares like mine, who needs vampires?
Juniper Cantello is a "one point five"-armed, red-headed twelve year old girl, living in poverty somewhere in Britain (Number 5, Norbream Villas) on a road affectionately referred to as a death-trap or simply 'Death Alley'. Her mother spends her days upstairs and asleep, there's no food at all in the house, nor electricity. There's talk about 'putting Juniper into care' amongst her teachers, and as the story opens Juniper is unsuccessfully warding off an invasive debt collector, Mr. Beamish.
Ranjit is Juniper's best mate, who lives at the other end of 'Death Alley' in the Kasbah Store owned and operated by his parents. He's a natural artist, sketching everything he sees deftly. And he wears a top-knot (Sikhism). It's 1986:
good creepy children's mystery, utterly English, full of beautiful pressing prose and poetic anxiety. Love love love". I'd like to thank Jamie for her review, and also the Children's Bookshop (Hay on Wye) for their lovely website - that's how I stumbled upon this book, which is sadly not on OpenLibrary (at time of writing). I will be looking into more of Gene Kemp's (a female author) books after this one. :) Interesting all around - didn't know where it might go, and I sure enjoyed the (short) ride. I wish there had been more about Ranjit, though. And that there had been a denouement. It just snaps closed at the end.
If you enjoy books like this, please consider joining (or starting) a discussion on our group, Forgotten Vintage Children's Books We Want Republished! https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Most people live happily ever after, or at least that's how it seems to Juniper. But for her and her mum things seem to have worked out in the wrong order and they're living unhappily ever after.
Since her dad left they've had nothing but problems and now things are just getting worse - there are even threats to put Juniper into care. Then she notices two suspicious men who seem to be following her. Who are they? Why are they interested in her? As Christmas draws nearer Juniper knows something is going to happen . . .
Gene Kemp, the author of the award-winning The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, has written an exciting and moving mystery story.
Juniper Cantello is a "one point five"-armed, red-headed twelve year old girl, living in poverty somewhere in Britain (Number 5, Norbream Villas) on a road affectionately referred to as a death-trap or simply 'Death Alley'. Her mother spends her days upstairs and asleep, there's no food at all in the house, nor electricity. There's talk about 'putting Juniper into care' amongst her teachers, and as the story opens Juniper is unsuccessfully warding off an invasive debt collector, Mr. Beamish.
Ranjit is Juniper's best mate, who lives at the other end of 'Death Alley' in the Kasbah Store owned and operated by his parents. He's a natural artist, sketching everything he sees deftly. And he wears a top-knot (Sikhism). It's 1986:
It was December - not long till Christmas - and the streets were so packed they had to push their way through the crowds on the pavement, and Ranjit especially was jostled by toughs, go home they said, and worse, but they battled through to the pedestrian area where several buskers in different places all seemed to be singing 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'. Right in the middle a Christmas tree stood, tinsel and lights gleaming. A crowd of teenage girls with wild hair and patterned leg-warmers, green and yellow and pink, ran giggling over the paving stones, waving bunches of mistletoe and chasing boys who were dodging not to get away.I absolutely love Ranjit. I'm tempted to say that he steals the scenes from Juniper, but that can't be quite right. They're a fantastic pair - disabled yet capable beyond her years Juniper with her fairytale nightmares and rhymes running through her radiant red head, and Ranjit, gifted but also handicapped by being a visible minority in a racist city.
'It's all right for you,' she cried, suddenly so angry she felt she had lift off. 'You have your father and mother and all your family and the shop and you're brilliant at work and games and drawing and everything. You're SAFE.'I'll cut that spat off here, rather than pepper this with a myriad of spoiler tags (you can take a guess at some of them if you take a look at the Listopia lists I've added this to). During the course of the story, we find out Juniper's circumstances, the tangled mess that is her extended family, and what is lurking in the background. Much of the answers and action comes towards the end, too.
'Safe? Me?' he cried. 'You are making a joke. I am Ranjit Singh, not Johnny Brown, and I am here in your country which is also my country. I know no other. So it is never easy.'
They were playing chess, tucked away in a corner by the window. Ranjit was winning, but then he was the champion chess player not only of Cricklepit School but of all the city primary schools. After he had beaten Juniper one more time, Ranjit picked up the black King and said:Jamie Sands wrote the only other GR review for this (at time of writing) - I hope she won't mind me quoting her: "Urgh I love this stupid old book no one else has ever read SO MUCH
'. Let me see, yes, Ellie is a Queen and you are a pawn. Very interesting. I wonder how the game will come out.'
good creepy children's mystery, utterly English, full of beautiful pressing prose and poetic anxiety. Love love love". I'd like to thank Jamie for her review, and also the Children's Bookshop (Hay on Wye) for their lovely website - that's how I stumbled upon this book, which is sadly not on OpenLibrary (at time of writing). I will be looking into more of Gene Kemp's (a female author) books after this one. :) Interesting all around - didn't know where it might go, and I sure enjoyed the (short) ride. I wish there had been more about Ranjit, though. And that there had been a denouement. It just snaps closed at the end.
If you enjoy books like this, please consider joining (or starting) a discussion on our group, Forgotten Vintage Children's Books We Want Republished! https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
November 15, 2021
Urgh I love this stupid old book no one else has ever read SO MUCH
good creepy children's mystery, utterly English, full of beautiful pressing prose and poetic anxiety. Love love love
good creepy children's mystery, utterly English, full of beautiful pressing prose and poetic anxiety. Love love love
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