Thanks to Dr. K.E.Patrick, reviewer on Amazon.

Galvanised by Dr. K. E. Patrick’s very kind review of Curd on Amazon, I tried to write him a note.
This failed, because of a glitch that ensures I cannot buy anything from Amazon - to wit - no matter how many times I change my password, my email and password never match!

So Here goes. My open letter to the kind Doctor, in the hopes he has a Google alert for his name in operation.

To Dr. K.E. Patrick,
May I thank you and all those others who have responded
positively to my first book (I have not posted before because it seems churlish
to engage in self-defense against those negative reviewers). I am writing to
invite your your two children to go to the www.ravensquill.com website where
they can download a poster to print out (up to about A2 size, I’m told) with
lots of illustrations on it. I would also love to receive their own opinions
(bottom of review page) to add to that page with their names attached. Thanks
again. I am writing the sequel more slowly than I would like, because my
illustration workload (for the Penguin Group, Osprey the military publishers,
Brown Reference Group and others) is so heavy. I also sign copies every
Saturday and through half terms and holidays, mainly in a major book retail
chain.

By way of thanks to all my other positive Amazon reviewers I am going to post their reviews in the next post with ditto likewise hopes.
Meanwhile, here’s his review:


5.0 out of 5 stars A gem -- challenges strong readers without mature content, 22 Jun 2010
By Dr. K. E. Patrick (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and Us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond (Hardcover)

“I am always struggling to find books that are challenging and engaging for my 9- and 7-year-old without having too much mature content. This book is exactly what I look for in those terms, and seem to be exactly what my children want, too.

Other reviewers have mentioned the illustrations. Those, and the size of print, large enough, clean enough, are a great mix for young, ambitious readers whose eyes are still a bit far-sighted.

The humour, though slated by another reviewer, is one of my children's favourite parts of the book: names like King Ziggu (a rat) and Queen Mumbie-Bumbie (a bee, of course!) and the Dodongs (two-headed dodo) and Corbie (the crow) and the Minorbore (like a minotaur, only boring); they like the puns and the riddles, even the unsolvable one about why the wren-drive is like a sat-king; they like the illustrations and the map at the start; and the chapter titled Pilgrim's Progress, about a crow chasing the jackdaws.

My 9-year-old wants to put this book as one of the best of all time, along with The Hobbit and books by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Basically, a great quest book for children that parents won't mind reading aloud. What can be better than that???”