Louis de Bernières did it. Peter Carey did it. Ian Fleming famously did it with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I am, of course, referring to adult authors turning their hand to writing for children.
The most high-profile adult author recently to have turned to children's fiction is the US courtroom thriller writer John Grisham with Theodore Boone, Young Lawyer. The accompanying publicity makes it clear that this is intended for "children and adults". So how is Mr Grisham when it comes to a younger readership?
What slightly muddies the water for UK children is just how American this book is. Even those brought up on a regular diet of US-import children's television programmes – and there are a disproportionate number of those about – may find it harder to make sense of it in print. "Homeroom" and "bleachers" may be fine, but being "the only Twins fan in town"? Is that baseball, basketball, or American football? And a reference to a "station" turns out to be short for a workstation or – er – desk. Thirteen-year-old Theo Boone's favourite lessons at school are the not-so-familiar "government" and Spanish and, of course, the trial law at the heart of the story is based on the US rather than UK judicial system. One can't blame Grisham for that, but I was left with the feeling it could have done with a little Anglicisation in the UK editing process.
That aside, the very fact that there is a schoolboy protagonist is a good start. But don't expect an Alex Rider or a Young Bond: this is a book of dialogue rather than action. At no time does Theo even break into a sweat. When he is privy to some potentially dynamite information, he ends up telling Mom and Dad – which may be realistic and the Right Thing to Do, but is not particularly conducive to page-turning excitement.
Theo is an old head on young shoulders which, as is often the case, has the opposite effect: making him seem young for his age. He's a boy "playing grown-up". As both his parents are lawyers, Theo uses their law practice's computer codes to gain access to a whole variety of legal sites on his laptop. This is a useful literary device, but Grisham makes no real attempt to raise the issue of the ethics of such behaviour. Theo just gets on with it. He's the boy other kids at school come to for legal advice if their parents are about to lose their home to the bank or their brother has been busted for drugs. He operates out of a closet in his parents' offices.
The character reminded me most of one Jupiter Jones from a 1970s series originally entitled "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators", whose "secret headquarters" was in an old mobile-home trailer hidden under a pile of scrap in a junkyard. Jupiter Jones tried to talk like an adult and was a bit full of himself. I used to love those books, but certainly found Jones the least likeable character.
Of course Grisham can write. He's a master of his craft, and there's much to like about Theodore Boone. It's very readable but, despite the boy himself being in the middle of the story, he isn't really at the heart of the action. Why? Because there is no real action, apart from the turning wheels of justice. Let's hope in the next book there's more of a real sense of personal danger and urgency, not just lawyer talk.
Philip Ardagh's latest Grubtown tale, Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens, is published by Faber. .
