Loser Weepers ¦ The Bee Rustlers

Not vintage Needle, but quite acceptable nevertheless as better than much of the 'short novels for young readers' material on the market. Both 'Adventures' feature Carol and Tony (and family) and are set in the Pennines. In Losers Weepers (originally in the Methuen Pied Piper series) they find a very old sward on the moors and in The Bee Rustlers (originally from Collins Young Fiction) they save Mum's bees from being stolen. Some originality of approach and telling as we've come to expect from Needle although Carol and Tony aren't his most rounded characters. There's also I think some unnecessary stereotyping.

'Ask them, not me ... I know nowt about it ... Search me', is a representative sample of 'Mum's' articulations when asked for any kind of reasoning response, and the use of 'shut year gob', 'crikey' (when did you last hear a child say that?) and (oh no!) 'summat to tell you;, presumably add up to what London publishers think of as 'realistic Northern' dialogue.