OUTCAST (8+) by Michelle Paver

COTTONWOOL COLIN (4+) by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

SHOULD WE CAST children out of the nest or wrap them up in cotton wool? Both can be appropriate, but at present our society seems more concerned with the latter. Every week, the media lament increasing obesity, timidity and sloth while promoting fearfulness in parents and children alike. Two excellent new books address this head on.

Michelle Paver’s hero Torak does not so much illustrate The Dangerous Book for Boys as live it. His adventures in The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series have been thrilling from the first page, and he has become a great hero for the new generation.

Orphaned in Wolf Brother when a gigantic bear killed his father, Torak befriended a wolf cub and was adopted by his friend Renn’s clan. Outcast is the fourth novel in the series, and by now Torak and Renn are teenagers. Although Renn has become a young woman with her first “moon bleed” and a tattoo to prove it, Torak is more worried about another mark. When he was captured by the Soul Eaters in the third book, these evil magicians left on him a tattoo that they believe will make him one of them.

Corroded by guilt and fear, Torak has been trying to keep it hidden. But when it is revealed after a fight with a boy from another clan, he becomes an outcast, just as he feared. Weaponless and foodless, he is expected to die of hunger – unless the clans kill him first.

One of the great pleasures of these wonderful books is the impression they give of imparting the deepest secrets of survival in the wild. Paver has a passion for wolves and “primitive” peoples and researches each one by travelling to remote places.

Her vivid, pared-down style brings to life what it feels like to hunt and be hunted. All classic Boy’s Own stories, from Rogue Maleto Lord of the Flies involve this, although Torak is no ordinary boy but a “spirit walker” who says he can enter the body of an animal. Whether this is true or not is left ambiguous, but his magic skill helps to keep him alive – although it also exposes him to danger from the Soul Eaters.

Outcast is his harshest adventure yet, for although the adorable Wolf and Renn remain faithful, he goes increasingly mad, either through blood poisoning or a spell put on him by Sesshun, the most evil of the Soul Eaters. About to wreak devastation on all the clans, she has a shocking secret. Luckily for Torak as well as Wolf and Renn, he has two friendly ravens to help him to come to his senses.

These people believe that the natural world is alive; that doing the wrong thing will offend the World Spirit, let alone the wild animals that they both hunt and worship. Yet they still have to make profound moral choices about loyalty, courage and resilience, and return to their clan the stronger for it.

Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross have now done a dozen picture books together. Their robust sense of humour, plain common sense and pure fun in addressing all that is most mad about our attitudes to parenting make them essential for readers aged 4+, whether or not they are ready to venture out of the nest.

Colin, a mouse, is the smallest of his mother’s children. She keeps him indoors and only lets him out covered in cotton wool. Far from protecting him, this attracts more danger, with ducks believing him to be a meringue, foxes a rabbit, and so on. Yet exposure to danger makes the little mouse bolder, delighted that “everything DID happen to me”.

OUTCAST by Michelle Paver

Orion, £9.99; 224pp

Buy the book here at the offer price of £9.49 (free p&p)

COTTONWOOL COLIN by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

Andersen, £10.99; 32pp

Buy the book here at the offer price of £9.98 (free p&p)

Michelle Paver appears at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 12 at 11.45am

Call 01242 227979 or visit www.cheltenhamfestivals.com

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