Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story to Make You Squirm

Lynne Reid Banks is a best-selling author for children and adults. Her classic children's novel 'The Indian in the Cupboard' has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. She was born in London in 1929 and worked as an actress, writer and TV news reporter. Lynne has written thirty books: her first, 'The L-Shaped Room', was published in 1960. She now lives in Dorset, where she continues to write. Lynne says that writing for children comes much more easily than writing for adults. Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He has worked as an art director at an advertising agency, a graphic designer, a cartoonist, a teacher, a film maker and as a Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic.

Grade 3-4?Harry is warned by his mother, Belinda, never to ascend the mysterious "Up Pipe" (drain) or to travel to the "no-top-world" (surface) where the Hoo-Mins (humans) live. Still, encouraged by his fearless friend George, the two centipedes make several trips to these destinations, where they encounter dangerous creatures and barely make it home with their cuticles intact. Later on, when smoke invades their tunnel, the two frantically crawl through the "Up Pipe" and discover a gigantic "meat mountain" that they soon realize is a sleeping Hoo-Min. They escape just in time to scuttle down the pipe and revive the smoke-struck Belinda. Having learned the difference between bravery and foolhardiness, they live happily ever after. This simplistic fantasy is a stretch for even the most accepting readers. The characters never develop but remain insects who have human characteristics uncomfortably imposed upon them. The author is often didactic, defining potentially unfamiliar words or explaining the anatomy of centipedes. The humor is more silly than funny, and this attempt to present things through the eyes of insects is far-fetched and uninteresting. A disappointingly dull book.?Wendy D. Caldiero, New York Public Library
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