Paper Aeroplanes - M's review

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter

Paper Aeroplanes is a story about friendship and being a teenage girl. Renee and Flo are finishing their GCSEs at an independent, all-girls school on the small island of Guernsey. Their families have suffered break-ups and deaths, and they’re not coping very well. Both girls are desperately lonely and struggling with awfully bullying friendships, overbearingly sexist brothers, difficult parents and carers, boyfriends and puberty.

The novel’s appeal is in its depiction of schoolgirl friendships, the highs and the lows, and the really nasty bits too. A warm, frank tone, with a few funny and emotionally teary moments, is mixed in with crudely graphic yet honest representations of puberty and sex. Many of the characters make choices that impact on both themselves and other people, and have long term consequences.

Paper Aeroplanes has been viewed as brutally honest - it is definitely mortification highway! (Thankfully), Renee and Flo’s experiences were more embarrassing than anything I ever experienced at school and the novel may present some extremes.  The narration from both Renee and Flo’s perspectives was interesting although the two voices were not very distinctive . I frequently got lost as to what was happening to whom.

Inspiration for the novel came from the author’s teenage diary and there is a nostalgic and self-indulgent element to the novel that offers a strong appeal to readers who were teenage girls in the 1990s. I’d say it was aimed at these readers as well as young adults. If you're younger and haven't read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, I'd probably start there first.

Paper Aeroplanes Hot Key Ring (by Hot Key Books)

 

Reviewed by M

Publication details: Hot Key Books, May 2013, London, paperback

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

 

Friday Brown - M's review

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

My expectations for this novel were high but I was also anticipating that they would be dashed. They weren’t. My expectations were exceeded as Friday Brown threw out a few surprises, intakes of breath and a raised eyebrow or two. Friday Brown left me bereft. Not empty; but as if I’d lost something special. There aren’t that many novels that leave me like that. I want it back please.



Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Set in Australia, the novel is about a teen called Friday Brown. Her mother thought calling her Friday would protect her from the family curse which goes that all the Brown women die from drowning on a Saturday. When Friday’s mother dies, she takes off and starts all over again, the one thing that she has been doing all her life. Just this time, she’s doing it on her own and she’s in search of her dad whom she’s never met. And then, a train station incident changes everything and the novel took me places I’d never expected and at times I was a little afraid to follow – but I’m so glad I did. Had she known, I’m sure Friday would have changed things....I wish she had.

One of the standouts of this novel for me was the characters. There are quite a few of them: Friday, Silence, Arden, Darcy, Carrie, Bree, AiAi, Joe, Malik and Wish.

Other than Friday, you don’t get to know too much about their pasts other than that they were troubled. At the same time, you really get to know them in the way that you might get to know someone in real life (you know how you often don’t actually interview someone when you meet them).  For me, Silence and Arden really are the most interesting characters of all, partly because there’s so much left unsaid about them and you just know that there is so much to say. Silence is a terribly endearing character. Arden, well, what can I say! Bree is interesting, living a double life. That is curious. Wish. I feel like he was a bit of a superfluous character. However, I suspect that other readers, especially teen readers, may feel that he is a very important character.

Friday Brown is a very contemporary psychological thriller and a novel that deals with big and unsettling topics: like mental and sexual toying, mutism, homelessness, death, abuse and worse. But it is not gritty. As Arden (one of the characters in the novel) does with her ‘children’, Friday Brown reels you in with its warm, beguiling charm, spinning you like a yoyo. Up and down, up and down....leaving you dangling...and up again....and down – and then it cuts the string.

One of my favourite novels this year,  I have a feeling Friday Brown could be one of those novels that in ten years time I’m still pulling its name out of the bag when someone  asks for a recommendation. Good for young teens right through to adults.

Silence is silver and then I wished upon a star.

 

PS. The author, Vikki Wakefield, set out to explore very different themes to those that I identified. Reading is so interpretive and its iteration continues to reproduce something different.

 

Publication details: July 2013, Hot Key Books, London, paperback

This copy: uncorrected proof received from the publishers for review

Friday Brown was originally published in 2012 by Text Publishing, Australia.

 

If You Find Me - M's review

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

If You Find Me is a chilling but beautifully written story about two sisters, Carey and Jenessa, who have been brought up in a camper van in some rural Tennessee woods. They don’t know much about life anywhere else and they have hardly met any people in that time. They are backwoods. Now, they are being moved and must negotiate a potentially dangerous situation as well as learn to adapt and deal with their past and their futures. But from the first few pages, you know there is something else, something much bigger going on. If You Find Me is a dark story with a tone to match as it tells of child abuse and more. A compelling and challenging read.



If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

The novel is told by Carey who is fifteen. She interweaves her current voice, her memories and woods voice, and her before-the-woods voice (yeah, can you find her in all of that and can she find herself?). This gives the reader clues about what happened in the woods, and before that time.  A bigger picture (as well as reader suspense) builds up slowly but, this novel is not a thriller. It doesn’t have that fast adrenalin pumping feel that thrillers tend to have. It’s much more dramatic and slower.  This doesn’t mean it’s a slow read. Quite the opposite. It’s a quick and compelling read. Wonderfully, it doesn’t leave you hanging until the end. Even though you might be able to fill in most of the details of Carey’s story before the end (some readers might not), you’re still hungering to find out all the nitty gritty bits. And the end, well it’s definitely thought-provoking. It ties the story up well but leaves just enough for you to wonder – and debate with other readers - about the reality (and ethics) of what happens next (or should or could).

There are two clear parts to the plot. The main plot is about Carey and Jenessa fitting into a new ‘civilised’ life. This new life has its own problems and a dangerous undercurrent runs through it. However, this plot also introduces the sorts of storyline and issues that appear in many teen novels – being put into new environments but feeling like you don’t fit. This part of the novel is warm and almost sugary, which is quite a contrast to the sub-plot which explores the terrible past. The story of the past (and possible future) is very sinister and full of trauma. Emily Murdoch deals with it sensitively but she doesn’t hold back much on detail either. Really, it’s all one plot but the novel’s structure shifts backwards and forwards in time so that it seems like two plots.

What surprised me is how much it reminded me of Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley, which is most definitely an adult novel. Both novels are dealing with controversial issues and explore a similar situation: two sisters have been deliberately secluded from the rest of the world. For me, this is the most interesting aspect in both novels. The problems and delights that people who have been abused deal with while experiencing social reintegration and self acceptance is a familiar theme. However, combining it with characters who are almost foreigners in the country that they have been living in is fascinating. It’s almost like a refugee story.

Overall, this felt like an adult novel. The themes, the details of implied and actual sexual abuse, the writing style and plot structure (multiple flipping from past to present within scenes), create that sense. The middle section of the book, however, introduces plot elements of school, making friends and dealing with being an outsider. My least favourite parts of the novel are introduced here (maybe I'm too old!). I’m not sure if I believe the whole story that surrounds Ryan. I also never really warmed to Delaney but that might have been the whole point about what her character has gone through too (Carey and Jenessa aren’t the only ones who’ve been affected by their past).

I really enjoyed If You Find Me and would recommend it to older teens. If You Find Me is dark and explicit but it is also hopeful and explores justice as a concept. Other novels suitable for young adult readers that explore questions of justice in a similar vein are Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield (forthcoming July 2013).

Publication details: 2 May 2013, Indigo, London, paperback

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

The Night She Disappeared - M's review

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

 

 



The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

The Night She Disappeared is a teen crime thriller. It is about the disappearance of Kayla Cutler (17) who disappears while making a pizza delivery. The story is told from a variety of perspectives and the novel feels a bit like you’re being presented with different bits of evidence so you can be the detective. Different chapters are told through people who knew Kayla, police reports, transcripts, notes and so on. I liked this.

While the main story is about Kayla’s case, a strong sub-plot is about how Drew and Gabie cope with the immediate aftermath, especially as they’re responsible for Kayla delivering pizza that particular night. Another sub-plot (and theme) is about how police – and others – deal with a missing persons enquiry.  I quite liked aspects of the novel although like many teen novels, there is a romantic undercurrent that I thought distracted from the main plot, and given the circumstances, it almost seemed out of place. On the whole, much of the novel portrays girls (rather than boys) as likely and potential victims (there is only one paragraph that questions aspects of this), and I think this could be alarming for some readers.

This is a very quick easy read.

I’m not familiar with crime fiction, neither adult nor teen (and tend to shy away from violent crime narratives). Little M reads (and loves) some thrillers – like Sophie McKenzie’s Girl, Missing series. We’ve both read and enjoyed Martyn Bedford’s Flip and Annabel Pitcher’s Ketchup Clouds which are thrillers with some crime elements in both novels.

Publication details: 2013, Walker, London, paperback

This copy: received from the publisher for review purposes

 

The Double Shadow - M's review

The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner

The Double Shadow has been nominated for the Carnegie 2013 medal. This review forms part of our longlist shadowing and takes into consideration the judging criteria.

Sally Gardner has a second nomination for Maggot Moon which recently won the Costa Children’s Book of the Year 2012.

The Double Shadow starts off darkly and within pages sexual abuse is strongly suggested. At the same time, mystery and strange goings on are suggested too. Perhaps some secret histories and secret futures too....

The Double Shadow is a science fiction that is set just before World War II. It tells the story of Amaryllis whose father has built a memory machine encased in a picture palace for her seventeenth birthday present. It is built upon people’s memories and she will not age. Amaryllis is not sure she wants this, especially after she realises the significance of the double shadow which throws everything into a mindbending haze for her and the reader.

The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner

At first, I felt sorry for Amaryllis, the main character. Something awful has obviously happened to her – more than once. But then, she starts to grate on you. She’s not so nice – or dependable – and I’m not sure if her hidden traumas can justify her behaviour. Ezra, as he’s supposed to be, is the hero character – and I was holding my fingers crossed that he would stay this way. Also though, I was crossing my fingers twice for Amaryllis: once, hoping that what I think might have happened didn’t happen, and twice, hoping that she might actually be nice and forgivable for what she does to Ezra. Some have likened their relationship to that of Dicken’s Pip and Estella, and I think some of that is apparent. For me, the characters are slightly (and sometimes very) unbelievable. Why would Amaryllis be so mean to Ezra? Why would Ezra stand by her? Also, I didn’t quite get the point of Roach. However, there is character and relationship development as the novel nears its end.

The Double Shadow is a complex and challenging read. Plotwise and structurally, the novel dives straight into the action but then it winds in all sorts of ways, backwards, forwards and sometimes somewhere else. I often got confused about which character’s voice was telling the story. For me, the sub-plot of the war was superfluous. However, the language used is easy to follow.

I do wish the novel was a bit shorter. There was a little bit too much repetition going on. Also, three-quarters of the way through, the tone of the novel changes and the narrative style has become much more detached and matter-of-fact. A bit more like Lemony Snicket – because what is continually implied is dark. For me, this sits uncomfortably with the abuse that has taken place and with the tone that was originally set. However, the plot is intriguing. Although the mood is grim and confusing, I still wanted to know what happens/happened. I want to see the pieces all put together – indeed, whether they can be. Most of the loose ends are tied up sufficiently. However, the pace towards the end of the novel was accelerated and glossed over a fair few details.

This tale is a real cauldron pot with leaks. Each reader will have to decide for themselves whether the pot retains all the core ingredients to make something most delicious. For my reading palate, I think the balance of flavours wasn’t quite right....but I’m still not sure! Other readers may feel that this novel is a triumph.

Although very sensitively dealt with, I think that the themes of sexual abuse combined with the plot and structural complexity would make this a more satisfying read for older teens (although it is still a very uncomfortable read for anyone). This is definitely Young Adult rather than teen fiction.

 

Publication details:  2011, Indigo, London, hardback

This copy: received from the publisher for shadowing the Carnegie 2013 longlist

 

 

 

Pigeon English - M's review

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

Due to the themes and content of this novel, this review has been deliberately selected by me to run during Anti-Bullying Week.

 

Previously shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Pigeon English really is not a heavy, wade-through-me novel.  It’s pacy and simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking.  

Harri is in Year 7 and has recently moved from Ghana with his mother and sister. They are living on a rough council estate in London. Harri tells a story about what happens when a boy from their area is found stabbed to death and he and his friend decide to become ‘detectives’.  Through Harri’s ‘whodunit’ detective story, Pigeon English explores what life is like for children trying to make a life for themselves in the London ganglands.

At first, I thought the title Pigeon English was mainly going to be a play on words, pidgin English, seeing as Harri is from Ghana.  In one way it is, as throughout the story Harri explains what he thinks the new words, rules and slang he’s picked up mean. Many of these will make you chuckle and many will elicit other emotions too.  Some of it is a bit of a pidgin mix up. Harri got me too – for a long while, when Harri said ‘Asweh,’ I thought Asweh was some kind of ancestral god (I swear, I’m such a sucker)! And his sister, Lydia, was funny by always reprimanding Harri and reminding him to ‘advise yourself”!

But there is also an actual pigeon in the novel. This pigeon flies into Harri’s London flat one day, and also acts as his guardian. For me, the pigeon as guardian provides a foreboding warning to the reader about where the plot is going. You might be chuckling away at Harri’s innocence but the pigeon reminds you that this story is really about violent bullying.



Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

Harri is a delightful narrator and character. Deep down he’s a really good boy and for most readers, he’s likely to melt your hearts.  It’s the little things he does. Like he thinks people should tell the estate gangs the secret that gangs can also do good, helpful missions, not just harmful ones. And his hand-drawn lines on his plain trainers to make them look like the cool brand ones.

As with most child narrators, Harri’s observations, thoughts and recounts, shed light on the many different prejudices that people carry around in their heads and throw about in their words and sometimes actions too.

Pigeon English is also a murder mystery, a whodunit story and in this way joins some other wonderful novels for teens like The CuriousIncident of the Dog In the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and The Night Sky In MyHead by Sarah Hammond.

 

Harri’s story is a chilling one. While it was not written or first published as a YA novel, in comparison to some other YA novels that take on gritty urban issues, for me, Pigeon English sings and soars above them. There are some nasty characters in this novel but the author, through Harri, softens them and makes them more palatable to read about than some other novels achieve, such as This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees or Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses sequence. Shocking as the story in Pigeon English is, it doesn’t aim for a ‘shock factor’. I’d even go so far as to say that while it dishes dirt, it takes the grit out. For me, that’s what gives it wings.

This new edition is published for the YA market and has guidance on the back: Parental Advisory: Explicit Content. Yes, there is some explicit content in this novel mostly involving knives, tongues and fingers - all told from eleven year old Harri’s perspective. Definitely one for the older teens (and obviously adults) but I think a lot of young teens could (and maybe should) get their heads around it too. Strong hearts needed. Perhaps tissues too.  This is a novel worth keeping.

 

Publication details:

Bloomsbury, October 2012 edition, London, paperback
 
This copy: received for review from the publisher

 

Knife Edge - M's Review

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is the second novel in Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses sequence. If you haven’t read Noughts & Crosses, you can read my review here. Please note that there are spoilers for Noughts & Crosses from the third paragraph onwards in this review of Knife Edge.

Billed by some as a dystopian novel, Knife Edge doesn’t read like one for me. For me, it's much more like a gritty contemporary crime novel for teens. The only apparent aspect that is speculative in Knife Edge is that domination by race is reversed – so blacks (Crosses) over whites (noughts).  While this was interesting in the first book, Noughts & Crosses, it feels a bit repetitive in Knife Edge.

 

SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT read on if you wish to avoid small spoilers for the first novel, Noughts & Crosses.

Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses #2) by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is a story about loneliness, revenge, discrimination and motherhood. It continues Sephy’s story. In Noughts & Crosses, her story ran parallel to Callum’s story. In Knife Edge, her story runs parallel to Jude’s, Callum’s brother. Sephy is now a single teen mother estranged from her powerful Cross family, and she has to get on with her life.  Jude, is a terrorist in hiding, he wants revenge – and he’s desperately lonely.  

Like Noughts & Crosses, Knife Edge is written from the different characters' points of view. But in the last sections of the novel, the story is also told from Jasmine and Meggie’s perspective, Sephy and Callum’s mothers respectively. The novel is also divided up into sections which are titled by colours that make up a rainbow. Rainbows and mothers are interweaved themes that run through Knife Edge and these could make very interesting discussions for reading groups.

Malorie Blackman describes Noughts & Crosses as being her novel about love while Knife Edge is her novel about hate. I don’t see it this way. Yes, Noughts & Crosses might be about love but that is not what stood out for me most. And yes, there is definitely hate in Knife Edge. A lot of hate and some of the characters are truly hateful. But I would describe Knife Edge as being the book about mothers and how motherhood affects their lives and the choices they make: Jasmine, Meggie and now Sephy too (remember, she’s a teenage mum).

Aspects of Knife Edge's plot and particularly the storytelling from the mothers' perspectives reminded me of Sindiwe Magona's novel, Mother To Mother, which told the fictionalised account of a high-profile racial killing in Cape Town.

The ending to Noughts & Crosses shocked me, and if shock factor is what you’re after, Knife Edge will deliver. There are plenty of shockers in it. I didn’t like that but, of course, that might be the point of the Noughts & Crosses sequence – racial discrimination is not a happy life. Nor is any form of discrimination. More and more, I’ve started to notice that the treatment of women by men in the Noughts & Crosses sequence so far is vile. another dimension to explore in reading groups...

On a more positive note, the Noughts and Cross characters alike make some awful choices that impact badly on themselves and others around them. Blackman doesn’t impose her views on the story and it’s left up to the reader to deal with the moral issues that form the backbone of the sequence. But for me, Knife Edge is a bit too dark and gloomy.

Publication details:

Corgi, 2012 (new edition), London, paperback

 This copy: received for review from the publisher

This Is not Forgiveness - M's review

This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees

This Is Not Forgiveness is one of those books that caught my eye a few months back just after it was published. The romance angle on the blurb and in the trailer made me dither. But then I was sent a copy for review. And I was surprised.

First off, This Is Not Forgiveness is not a romance in the usual sense. I was also expecting a lot of fast-paced political activism. But, This Is Not Forgiveness is actually not-nice-nor-sugary-sweet stirred with a lot of vodka and sex - and something unpleasant lurking beneath the surface too. It has all the ingredients for a very good psychological thriller.

The story opens with an urn full of ashes and the novel provides a testament to how this death happened. The novel is presented from the perspectives of the three main characters – Jamie, Rob and Caro - although the ending sheds further light on the eyes of the novel’s telling. Jamie develops a strong attraction for Caro but thinks she’ll never go for him. Rob, his brother, is back from the war in Afghanistan and he is struggling to cope with what some describe as post-traumatic-stress. Caro’s been expelled from school for having an affair with a teacher and her latest inspiration comes from the militant Red Faktion Army. This Is Not Forgiveness is an account of how their three lives became intermingled in a series of manipulations and deceits.

Amidst the grit, the plot is full of tensions and the suspense building is simply foreboding. All along I was thinking, ‘Please, don’t let it end like that. Or like that. Or like that.’ The character portrayals and development are also substantial and I’ve had a lengthy conversation with another adult about the characters in this novel and the kinds of judgements that we made about them. Certainly, my judgements of the characters changed as the story twisted and turned.

Stating the obvious, but different readers will take different things from this novel. For some, it just won’t be their thing and they won’t read it. For others, it might be something about teenage relationships, or grappling with ways to change the world. For some, they might see it is as a representation of the banality of contemporary teenagehood. For me it was these things but mostly I read it as a biting commentary on how we think about armies and more particularly the Afghan war.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers and Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman, although speculative fictions, also have central teen girl characters who are seriously exploring the different forms of political action and the consequences of violent interventions. All three novels are violent and hardhitting but This Is Not Forgiveness is by far the grittier. I’d even say it was grittier than Noughts & Crosses – but not as harsh.

Who’d I recommend it for? Older teens or adults. The characters are mostly eighteen or older. Jamie might be seventeen – he’s under-age for the pubs – and Rob is in his early twenties. But they’re all well over the age for legitimate sex – and they’re not about to hold back. Like I said, the story mix includes lots of vodka and sex.

  

Publication details:

Bloomsbury, 2012, London, paperback

This copy: received for review from the publisher

 

 

The Diviners - M's review

The Diviners by Libba Bray

 

Murders, touch of creepy horror, the supernatural, 1920s New York flappers and hype. Everything that isn’t really my thing all packed into one book. Yet, something drew me to it. Yes, the cover is gorgeous and Libba Bray had caught my eye (hee!) I’d not read any of her work before but somewhere along the way she’d made it onto my lists of authors and novels to look out for.

A huge 600 hundred pager hardback arrived. I wondered what I’d let myself in for…..

 

The Diviners - Libba Bray

Evie O’Neill has style, she flaunts it and is the bad girl in small-town Ohio. But she’s also a diviner who can read the history of an object by holding it. This gets her into too much tongue-wagging, finger-pointing trouble and her middle class American parents can’t bear it anymore. So she’s shipped (railed?) off to her uncle who runs a museum about ghosts and other unusual things in New York. New York!! Evie can’t believe her luck. But her lucks lands her in the middle of a ghastly murder hunt.

The Diviners has a whole cast of characters and Libba Bray takes her time with the plot to flesh some of them out. I think plenty of people will fall in love with Evie O’Neill. She’s beautiful, stylish, selfish and quick-tongued if not quite quick-witted. But it was Memphis Campbell’s story that grabbed me and I was disappointed that it didn’t develop as much as I thought it would. And it could have – there were 578 pages. But the plot wasn’t fast-paced and the ‘divining’ stories that were developing around the main plot (finding a cult murderer) made this novel feel a bit like a TV pilot episode. It might have something to do with this book being the first in a planned series..... But, the main storyline does come to a satisfactory close although there is plenty left planted but not yet sprouting.

For me, it was the other divining stories that point to a bigger story in the main plot which I wanted to see develop: “The storm is coming, the storm is coming”. Libba Bray packs a host of American history and democracy into the web that she spins and draws in religious cults, the KKK, hot and cold wars, and secret special projects too. I wanted to know more about this rather than the murder story.

The dialogue is littered with one-liner after one-liner to a point that should be exhausting. But somehow, it isn’t and there is plenty of other prose to carry you away. Libba Bray is a fine storyteller.

If you’re into a good story and can cope with the gruesome (I can’t, but that’s me), this could be a series worth following. Just like Evie, The Diviners has style – and it flaunts it.

 

Publication details:

Atom, September 2012, London, hardback

This copy: received for review from the publisher

M's Review - Now Is the Time For Running

Now Is the Time For Running by Michael Williams

Now Is the Time For Running

First published in South Africa as The Billion Dollar Soccer Ball, Now Is the Time For Running is a novel about the courage, bravery, despair and hope that are required by ordinary, everyday adults and children in the face of xenophobia (the fear of people from another country).

This is a compelling story about two brothers, Deo and Innocent. It starts with a dusty game of football being played in a Zimbabwean village using an improvised soccer ball (a football). It’s around 2007 and the arrival of soldiers at the soccer game sets the novel on a dramatic and heartwrenching path.

Deo is fourteen and finds himself faced with a smattering of the biggest and scariest decisions of his life. They’re made even tougher because he shoulders responsibility for Innocent, his twenty-four year old brother who suffered brain trauma at birth.  Armed with only a broken soccer ball and a cereal box, Deo and Innocent set off on a journey. They know their lives are in danger and they need to seek refuge. But they don’t know where they’re going or how they’re going to get there.

Now Is the Time For Running is a hopeful story but it is also a deeply sad and horrifying story. There all sorts of wild and often horrible obstacles encountered by the characters in this story. But there is also a lot of goodness where you’d least expect to find it. Apart from telling a good story, this is one of those novels that might prompt some readers to go and find out more about refugees or even get involved in existing social projects. Or maybe start a new one.  Or just have a little think.

This is a book that could hook readers of soccer fiction. Soccer is a central theme and it provides key turning points in the story. It is also a much loved game in southern Africa. But for those who aren’t football fans, fear not. The story is really about Deo and Innocent’s journey for refuge. And it’s a real pageturner. The last section of the book was my least favourite but it signposted me to a couple of important things I didn’t know about so I am very pleased I read them (I’m not saying what they were because that would be a plot spoiler!). 

I think this fictional story (based on interviews with African refugees) will tug at the hearts and minds of most teenagers, youth workers and many other adults.  I think I should start a new tag for the blog: books that made me cry when I wrote the review.

The book cover warns that it is not suitable for younger readers. There is horrific violence and abuse but it is not graphic and sometimes it is simply inferred.

Publication details:

Tamarind, 2012, London, paperback

This copy: received for review from the publishers

Other reading suggestions:

For younger readers wishing to read fiction that explores issues with similar themes about democracy and refugees, I would point them towards The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo.

For older readers who are interested in genocide, refugees and human rights, Never Fall Down is the story of a teenage boy living through the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge killings in Cambodia. Never Fall Down is a much starker read than Now Is the Time For Running.

Another teen novel about contemporary Zimbabwe is Jason Wallace’s Out of Shadows. We haven’t read this but it did win the Costa in 2010.

The younger brother caring for an older brother theme also runs through My Brother Simple by Marie Aude-Murail. But that is a very different book.

M's review - Maggot Moon

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Compared to a lot of the recent teen dystopian that is out there, Maggot Moon is an invigorating read in much the same way as fizzing colas on your tongue. Maggot Moon is a what if story. What if things had happened differently? Sally Gardner poses this question by setting the story in an alternate past. At the beginning of the story, Standish Treadwell asks himself this question. What if?

Standish Treadwell is an imperfect fifteen year old. He has two differently coloured eyes and cannot read, write or spell. He has dyslexia and lives in Zone 7 with his Gramps. This is not a good zone to live in and you have to do everything you can to ensure you don’t become maggot meat for the Motherland, an oppressively brutal and stratified regime. This is difficult when you stand out as different, the way that Standish stands out. 

The novel takes place on 19^th July 1956. More than anything, Standish wants to get on a rocket to the planet Juniper which he has discovered. What if he did? But the Motherland is much more interested in launching the first rocket to the moon- and nothing is going to stop them. But what if something did?

Other important parts in this what if story are a wall, a red football, Hector and Gramps.

Maggot Moon is stark both in its story and in Standish’s narrative. There’s no messing about with softening blows but there is a lot of messing with words and realities. There is also love. Not romantic love or lust. Just real plain love, loyalty and sacrifice.

Sally Gardner plays wonderfully with words, associations and meanings. I think she might have had a lot of fun with this novel and she (or was it the publishers?) describe it as a "bookful of Sallyisms". Don’t get me wrong. Maggot Moon is not a funny novel by any stretch of the imagination. And it might stretch your imagination. If you let it.

Maggot Moon. It really will mean something to you by the time you finish the book. And it won’t take you long because Maggot Moon is a fast read. It’s a real pageturner with perhaps the shortest chapters I’ve ever seen. This makes it difficult to put down (and it might make it difficult to quickly pick up from where you left off if you do put it down). 

If you liked Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, you should try this. If you liked Lois Lowry’s The Giver, you should try this. If you liked SD Crockett’s After the Snow, you should try this. If you like a good story that makes you think, you should try this.

This story DOES NOT contain girls. What if it did? Would it have been a different story…..?

This story DOES contain swearing and violence. It may upset some younger readers.

Publication details:

Hot Key Books, 30 August 2012, London, hardback, pp.288

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

M's Review - My Brother Simple

My Brother Simple by Marie-Aude Murail

The troublesome Mister Babbit on the cover of My Brother Simple

Think of the film Rainman and just make the characters years, years younger. Like seventeen and twenty-two. And put it into French. That’s almost My Brother Simple for you. Except of course, this is a new edition translated into English. The original French edition was published in 2004 and has won numerous awards across Europe.

My Brother Simple is a coming of age story from a boy’s perspective which is a refreshing difference for me. Kleber is seventeen, about to start at a sixth form college in Paris, desperate to get ‘to know’ girls, and he has a big heart. He’s totally committed to keeping his ‘I-di-ot’ brother Simple (real name Barnaby) out of institutions and this means having to find a flatshare that will accept them both.

Finding a flatshare is a bit difficult when twenty-two year old Simple insists on bringing out an army of Playmobil and revolvers, and threatens to brandish his ‘knife’ (something he keeps in his trousers and that girls don’t have). And that’s even before Mister Babbit makes an appearance – which is frequent (like always)! This obviously also provides plenty of comedy for the story.

There are some bits about this book that I’m not so sure I like. For example, I didn’t like the way the boys (or young men; Kleber is the youngest) thought about girls. They were a bit crude and a bit gross for me (I suppose that might be young lust for you but guys, you could be a bit nicer!). I’m not sure the novel challenges stereotypes as much as I thought it would.

But I also laughed reading this book. Actually, I smiled to myself and laughed quite a lot. It’s probably up there among the funniest books I’ve read.  And I kept on wanting to read on. It really is a very funny book. And, their grossness aside, some of the boys in it are actually lovely characters, like Kleber and Enzo.

I did enjoy this book and I would recommend it for older teen readers. The publishers recommend it for ages 14+ and they’re probably right if I think of the teens I know. I think many adults will enjoy this novel too.

Publication details:

Bloomsbury Childrens, London, 2 August 2012, 288pp., paperback

This copy: received for review from the publisher

Review - Never Fall Down

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Never Fall Down is based on real events that took place in the 1970s. In Cambodia, nearly two million people were killed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime. Arn Chorn Pond survived and this novel is based on his story.

It starts in 1975. The Khmer Rouge have designated it Year Zero in Cambodia because everything is going to start afresh. Arn is eleven and this story tells the tale of how a young boy took his aunt’s advice and learned how to bend like grass in the wind.

Amidst the manure piles, mango groves, rice, shit, cannibalism, and music that masks death, the reader follows Arn’s story as he learns that some people will do anything to stay alive. The question is, will he? And can he trust anybody – Kha, Siv, Sambo? And Mek - who treats him like a son? And can Runty trust Arn? Whatever happens, many of these characters will become very dear to you.

Have you ever had that feeling when you’ve walked for so long that you don’t think you can go any further? If you have, you might have some mental preparation for this novel.  If you haven’t, prepare yourself first.  Go for a long walk ‘til your feet hurt and you just want to collapse.  But! Never fall down.  Now, steel yourself and you might be ready for this novel….

This is not a happy story but reading it could make you a better person. If it wasn’t for the fact that Arn survives (which you know from the start), this would not be a YA book. The sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in gritty YA novels doesn’t even compare to scenes in this story. Of course, the distress caused to any reader will not match the distress and deaths suffered by the characters or real people whose history informs this novel.

The language in the book is a bit unusual (Arn probably wasn't a native English speaker) and the narrative and plot is also fairly monotonous for the first half.  And then, chillingly, it changes. I was on tenterhooks the whole way through. There are also moments of light relief. You'll probably even have the occasional chuckle.

A truly absorbing and heartwrenching read, if Never Fall Down makes you burst out with convulsive sobs when you’re standing and waiting on a train platform, don’t blame me for recommending it. Blame the Khmer Rouge.

Publication details:

Random House Children's Publishers, London, 2 August 2012

This copy: manuscript from Random House Children’s Publishers

****

Author, Patricia McCormick will be answering some of We Sat Down's questions about Never Fall Down on Tuesday 31st July.  Her answers made me cry so I thoroughly recommend you come back to read them.

Review - Noughts & Crosses

 Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Noughts & Crosses is a critically acclaimed alternate history that tackles racism, oppression and rebellion. But it tastes like Marmite. You’ll either love it or hate it.

Noughts & Crosses tells the story of Callum and Sephy who live in a society that is cruelly ruled by the dark-skinned Crosses at the expense of the almost-enslaved light-skinned noughts. Callum is a nought and Sephy is a Cross. Once childhood friends, an event happens that tears their families apart. From all parts of the community, brakes are harshly applied to their continued and blossoming relationship. Noughts & Crosses is Callum and Sephy’s tale.

The dual narration by Callum and Sephy works really well and, for me, is flawed only by the similarity of the two voices.  I didn't think they were distinct enough and I had to keep flipping back to the header to see whose tale was being told.

There is a lot of plot movement.  Too much for me but perhaps this is what many Young Adult audiences relish. And more importantly, a busy plot signifies the multiple difficulties that many people deal with on a daily basis - especially in societies that set out to destroy the very fabric of your souls.

It’s certainly not an enjoyable read but I don’t think it was meant to be. What I usually love about alternate realities is the hope they provide for the future.  Sadly, Noughts & Crosses lacked this for me and by the end it really felt like a punch in the stomach. On Malorie Blackman’s own website, she admits that there is mixed feeling over the ending. As a result, some readers may find it unsatisfactory.  I know I’m one of them. But there are plenty of readers who don't feel this way.

Perhaps the thing that stands out for me most in the novel is the issue of choices, consequences and individual action. So many characters make really bad choices and the unexpected (and sometimes unintended) consequences are very painful – and far reaching. After the punch that this novel delivered, which left me feeling cold inside (as Callum felt too), I’m starting to find peace with the novel. I see it now as an indictment against forms of violent action – and a call for people to think their choices through.

Noughts & Crosses is the first in a series of books (all of which are published so available to buy or borrow from libraries).

The copy I read has a warning printed on the back cover: Not suitable for younger readers.  I think anyone recommending this to a young teen should do so believing that the child has the mental maturity to evaluate the actions characters take in this novel.

Publication details:

Corgi (Random House), 2006, London, paperback (special edition including An Eye For an Eye)

This copy: our own

                      

Review & Interview - The Seeing

The Seeing by Diana Hendry



The Seeing by Diana Hendry

Can evil ever go away?

This is an extraordinarily powerful novel but The Seeing tells a very dark and painful story. And it tells it exceptionally well. You’ll wish it didn’t.

It’s 1953 at the seaside in Britain. Thirteen year old Lizzie smells of baby soap and lives in a big, comfy house. Natalie is wild, exotic and lives “off the beaten track” in poverty with her troubled mother and brother Philip. Philip can see things and he gets messages in his dreams. He can see inside people in ways that other people can’t.  He can spot the hidden swastikas lurking in people’s hearts. And Natalie has a plan for the summer….

The Seeing is Lizzie’s story about the summer plan that takes them all somewhere terrible. Really terrible. Her story is about love, friendship, care, and cruelty. But mostly, I think it is a novel about loss: all the kinds of horrendous loss that result from war, the loss of innocence and love but also the loss of perspective.

The Seeing explores how important it is to realise that there are different ways of seeing things – and things can go wrong if you allow just a single view to dominate your thoughts. Of course, there is Philip’s seeing.  He has the sight but he also wears glasses. Hugo, the artist observes people so that he can create his art. Lizzie starts to see things differently too.  Although this is Lizzie’s story, each chapter contains different ways of seeing the events and people from the perspectives of Lizzie, Natalie’s journal and Hugo’s letters.

Diana Hendry’s writing is excellent.  It draws you right in to the story so that you feel like you are looking down on the events as they happen. Uncomfortably for me, my own reading became part of The Seeing and I wanted to jump in and stop things. There is a particular page, early on, that sent a shiver down my spine – twice! It’s at the end of chapter five.  

And be warned, this book won’t let you go easily once you’ve finished it! Anyone who’s ever read books by Robert Cormier or William Golding’s Lord of the Flies will know how this feels. It’s when the dark side of life that goes on in even children’s minds leaks out into everyday life – smack!

This is a very unsettling novel. An uncomfortable but compelling read. Diana Hendry creates an atmosphere that holds you in true suspense the way psychological thrillers do. But she also paints a very dark picture of how the immediate post-war period affected people in different ways. The children’s story excels in showing how difficult it must have been for them to make sense of it all.

I thoroughly recommend reading the short interview with The Seeing’s author, Diana Hendry, which follows this review.  Read it before or after The Seeing. Your choice. But after you read it, I think The Seeing is a book you’ll want to talk about. I did.

It’s also a book that I’ve already found myself recommending to people, adults and young teens alike.

Publication details:

Bodley Head, 5 July 2012, London, hardback

This copy: received for review from the publishers

****

We Sat Down for a Chat with Diana Hendry

M: What inspired you to write this novel?  

Diana: I suppose I've been rather haunted by my childhood memory of that that post-war period.  It was a story that nagged at me to write.

M: Have you ever been inside a bomb shelter?  

Diana: Yes - the one in the story, though I've fictionalised it quite a lot.

M: Did you know any 'post-war' children from the same time as the characters in your novel?  

Diana: I was a post-war child myself as were most of my school friends.

M: The novel includes an adult's point-of-view and is important to the plot. This is different to lots of current teen fiction I have read. Did you set out to write The Seeing as a 'children's' book?  

Diana: No.  It began as an adult story with a lot of autobiographical episodes in it.  But the story of the children came to dominate it and in the end I cut out all the autobiography!

M: Do you think that children's books should offer hope?              

Diana: Yes.  I'm really sorry that this book doesn't have a happy ending but I couldn't force or fake one.  I wanted to convey that there's a creative way of seeing and a destructive way - I hope there's hope in that.

M: In the last chapters, the patterns in the chapter points-of-view changes. Why is this?  

Diana: Well, it's quite pleasing to avoid expectations and change a pattern.  But importantly, I wanted to get in some episodes about Philip         and his dreams.

M: Are there any other things you would like to say about The Seeing? 

Diana: It took me a long time to write - many drafts.  I still find it a painful book.  But I hope you've enjoyed reading it, if 'enjoyed' is the right word.

***

Thank you very much, Diana, for answering these questions. Your answers certainly helped me to feel more at ease with the book.  You can find out more about Diana Hendry on her website.