the voyage of qv66

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The Voyage of QV66 by Penelope Lively

A children’s book that makes no concessions to younger readers, this superlative animal adventure leads you on an unforgettable trip

With a dependable, rough-coated narrator, a climate-changed world and a band of pilgrims varied enough to rival Chaucer’s Canterburians, Penelope Lively’s superlative The Voyage of QV66 , first published in 1978, combines playfulness, originality and moments of pure terror in a quest like no other.

Pal is a down-to-earth chap, named after a tin with his picture on it ; not at all the sort of fellow to set off on a harebrained scheme of his own accord. But he’s loyal to a fault, and can’t resist the pleading of his friends. Ned, whose ancestor may have won the Derby, is similarly kindly and susceptible, and so is Frieda, with her strong, conservative sense of decency, and predilection for flowery hats worn draped over her horns. So when Stanley – small, brown, mysterious, and extremely highly strung – discovers a picture resembling himself under the curious legend LONDON ZOO, his friends are reluctantly persuaded to set out in search of his identity, his friends and relations. Accompanied by Offa, a cathedral-born pigeon who speaks in scriptural tags, and Pansy, a diminutive, narcissistic, somewhat vacuous ginger cat, they set off to discover Who Stanley Really Is.

The eponymous QV66 is the boat in which they do so. Theirs is a world without humans – ancient posters and scraps of newsprint inform the animals of rising floodwaters, and a mass homo sapiens exodus to Mars – and without human roads, many of which are still drowned. It takes one of Stanley’s “headaches” (mighty migraines that signal the advent of inspiration) and a lot of tinkering and scavenging, but eventually the wheeled boat, resplendent with painted eyes, sets forth on its odyssey. A series of dangerous, hilarious episodes and chance meetings follow – and a brilliantly unexpected ending.

This book makes no allowances for its readers’ youth. It tells sophisticated jokes straight-faced, straight-up, simply as part of the story; it presents its magnificently strange, often menacing landscapes deadpan. And it grips, from the outset, like a boa constrictor. There is an unforgettable scene at Stonehenge, in which a credulous animal crowd, commanded by a well-named murder of crows, gather to make a sacrifice to ensure the continued rising of the sun. Lively’s depiction of the muttering, go-along-to-get-along mob, who can’t put their paws on exactly why blood should be shed, but aren’t willing to stand up and say it shouldn’t, is a masterful piece of satire; and her description of the storm that breaks at the moment of crisis remains, in my mind, bright as a spear of lightning.

The most memorable part of the story for me, however, is the journey’s mastermind, the indomitable Stanley himself – the bombastic, self-hating miniature genius who oscillates dizzyingly between declaring himself “some kind of mistake” and “not really here at all” and demonstrating himself to be an epic, legendary figure leading his motley band ever onward to triumphs and territories new. It’s easy to envisage Stanley as a representative of humanity itself – more trouble than he’s worth, unable to keep his paws to himself, frequently the victim of his own ingenuity, and constantly getting everyone else into trouble alongside him. But you can’t help but root for him, and for his crew of good-natured followers – and marvel at the writer who fills a wheeled boat with animals, sets them afloat, and bears the reader effortlessly away with them on an unprecedented, unforgettable voyage.

• Penelope Lively
• Journeys in literature
• Children and teenagers

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Penelope Lively

The Voyage of the QV66

None of the animals had ever seen anything quite like Stanley before. He looked like People, who lived in England before the water came, only his body was small and covered with fur. And he had ideas- brilliant ones- about where they came from and how they could change their lives.

But Stanley didn’t know what kind of animal he was. “It’s no fun,” he said, “being the only one of a kind.” So, when Stanley discovered a boat, the QV 66, and set out for London looking for relatives, his five best friends went with him.

The Voyage of QV66

by Penelope Lively

About the book

Penelope Livelys amazing animal odyssey follows a group of seven animals, including Stanley, as they explore a flooded, people-less world on board QV66 and search for another animal like Stanley. Age 9+

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The voyage of qv66 - softcover, lively, penelope.

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• Publisher Egmont Childrens Books
• Publication date 1990
• ISBN 10  0749703601
• ISBN 13  9780749703608
• Binding Paperback

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ISBN 10:  1903252210 ISBN 13:  9781903252215 Publisher: Jane Nissen Books, 2005 Softcover

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The Voyage of QV66 Hardcover – Import, January 1, 1978

• Print length 173 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Heinemann Young Books
• Publication date January 1, 1978
• ISBN-10 0434948993
• ISBN-13 978-0434948994
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Heinemann Young Books; First Edition (January 1, 1978)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 173 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0434948993
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0434948994
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds

About the author

Alison lurie.

Alison Lurie (b. 1926) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Chicago and raised in White Plains, New York, she joined the English department at Cornell University in 1970, where she taught courses on children’s literature, among others. Her first novel, Love and Friendship (1962), is a story of romance and deception among the faculty of a snowbound New England college. It won favorable reviews and established her as a keen observer of love in academia. It was followed by the well-received The Nowhere City (1966) and The War Between the Tates (1974). In 1984, she published Foreign Affairs, her best-known novel, which traces the erotic entanglements of two American professors in England. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Her most recent novel is The Last Resort (1998). In addition to her novels, Lurie’s interest in children’s literature led to three collections of folk tales and two critical studies of the genre. Lurie officially retired from Cornell in 1998, but continues to teach and write. In 2012, she was awarded a two-year term as the official author of the state of New York. Lurie lives in Ithaca, New York, and is married to the writer Edward Hower. She has three grown sons and three grandchildren.

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