Kids Into books: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Illustrator: Tim Stevens

Publisher: Harper Collins, $14.95

Age Group: 8-12 years



It was years before Christopher told anyone
about his dreams. This was because he mostly
lived in the nurseries at the top of the big London
house, and the nursery maids who looked after
him changed every few months.

He scarcely saw his parents. When Christopher was small, he was terrified that he would meet Papa out walking in the park one day and not recognise him.
He used to kneel down and look through the banisters on the rare days when Papa came home from the City before bedtime, hoping to fix Papa's face in his mind. All he got was a foreshortened view of a figure in a frock-coat with a great deal of well combed black whisker, handing a tall black hatto the footman, and then a view of a very neat white parting in black hair, as Papa marched rapidly under the stairway and out of sight. Beyond knowing that Papa was taller than most footmen, Christopher knew little else.