Opening sentence: One morning, as Douglas was leaving for school, he heard a voice calling his name. It was a faint voice, hardly louder than the wind blowing through the trees, but when he looked round to see who was calling, there was nobody there. He was wondering if he might have imagined it, when the voice called again.
The voice is a woman named Kai and she explains:
‘I do not have much time, so you must listen carefully. Three things.’ She spoke in short bursts, breathing through clenched teeth between each of them. ‘One, my name is Kai and I come from another planet. Two, my mission is to take this...’ she gestured to the case in her lap, ‘...back to my home world and liberate people my people. Three, I am being hunted by the Guardians of the Federation and my only chance of escape is to find someone to hide me for the next forty-eight hours.’ She looked up at Douglas, her dark eyes staring intently into his. ‘Gedrus says you are the only coda I can reach. Will you help me? Please?’
Things to notice - Kai is from another planet. She is hurt and needs help. There is sure to be some danger ahead for Douglas even if we have, at this stage, no idea about the Guardians of the Federation. Also who is Gedrus? More in a minute ...
First you need to know Kai has a box and a mysterious green stone necklace. We later find the box contains more of these stones and that the holder of the stone can contact the librarian named Gedrus. He can answer any question - yes read that again ANY question. Think of the possibilities here - help in a test; help with homework; and what about his mum and dad - Douglas would love some help to bring them back together. BUT of course we know the old adage "be careful what you wish for".
‘You might like to think of me,’ Gedrus leant forward with his elbows on the desk, ‘as the sort of access point to an encyclopaedia.’ He gestured to the rows of books behind him. ‘A very large encyclopaedia, that contains information about events and people from all corners of the galaxy. Anything you want to know, you hold the stone, ask me, and I give you the answer.’
The complex part of this story comes when we make a discovery about Kai - is she really trying to save her planet? Is she really telling the truth? And what about Gedrus - does he have a motive for giving the answers he supplies and then another character arrives - and he is a Guardian - his name is Quomp.
Back to that first quote. Douglas is a coda:
The C means that you are the sort of person who can absorb new and disturbing information without too much emotion – in other words you don’t panic. The O means you’re someone who likes his privacy, so you’re the sort of person who can keep a secret. The D means you’re honest and dependable, and the A means you have a very trusting personality and you tend to believe what someone tells you as long as it doesn’t contradict common sense or something you already know.’
Along the way, in this crazy tale, Douglas does find a terrific new friend - Ivo. Ivo is crazy about robots and rockets and now there is a way for Douglas to help his new friend because of Gedrus. Douglas will also need money - older readers aged 10+ and adults are sure to find the way Douglas manipulates the stock market rather thrilling.
Blurb from author webpage: The Touchstone is a pretty remarkable object. You hold it in your hand, ask a question and it gives you the answer. You just have to be a bit careful what you ask... This is the story of how one of the most valuable objects in the galaxy falls into the hands of a very ordinary English schoolboy, Douglas Paterson, and what he decides to do with it. Like so many things that are supposed to make life easier, this one starts off by making everything very difficult! Shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award, the Solihull Children's Book Award, the West Sussex Children's book Award.
I met a wonderful young reader last Christmas and when she discovered I was a fellow book lover she enthusiastically shared her favourite book which was read to her class in Grade 2 or 3. She explained that in every bookshop she visited with her parents she always asked if they had this special book but so far no one could help her.
Naturally I went back to my motel and Googled the book using the information she had shared and I easily found this book was The Touchstone by Andrew Norris (2021). Sadly it is now out of print but there are copies available from online sellers and also there is an eBook version which is the one I just read.
In books for young children characters rarely if ever die - of course Charlotte's Web and Bridge to Terabithia are two exceptions but I would say they better suit an older child. I am explaining this because my young reading friend told me (huge spoiler alert) that the main character, a boy named Douglas, dies in the story! NO I could not believe that this would happen in a book shared by a class teacher with children aged 7 or 8. Please, please do not worry though - this book does have a happy ending.
I do still wonder why the teacher selected this book for her class. I think it would better suit readers aged 10+ but perhaps she (unfortunately in my view) wanted to use some existing teaching resources from one of the many commercial online companies. In any case this book really resonated with the little girl I met. You can see more books by Andrew Norriss here. I read Mike many years ago and Ctrl-Z looks very familiar - we must have had this one in my former school library.
Companion book - this has just been published and I will talk about it in detail in a few days:
Bookseller blurb: 'The world will end at ten thirty-six in the morning, on the fourteenth of March this year.' This is the message aliens send to ten-year-old nerds Harrison (Aitch), Ally and Mo. How do they send it? Via the magnetic letters on Mo's fridge, of course. Aitch and Ally aren't sure what to believe, but soon they're in an alien spaceship travelling at lightspeed to Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Mo is worried his mum will be furious that he boarded an alien craft with strangers. And Aitch is not too happy that they've kidnapped his dog. But maybe the aliens aren't that scary after all? They say they want to save the planet. It's only humans they're not so impressed by... The future of the human race might just be in the hands of three nerds and their lazy dog. What could go wrong?
Other books to look for in your library:
