The Amazing Edie Eckhart by Rosie Jones - Review

 

My friend Philippa mentioned that the comedian Rosie Jones had written a middle grade book, so I bought it soon after. Rosie has Cerebral Palsy herself, as does Edie! I've seen some of her comedy but don't know her super well, but I was excited to read her book. I am pleased to report that this is a gorgeous middle grade book, almost perfect in its execution. I really hope that there's a series as it would definitely lend itself to it! 

So Edie lives in Bridlington in Yorkshire (yay Yorkshire based books!) with her mum, dad, and little brother Louis. Her dad works long hours but the family is close knit. Edie has a best friend, Oscar, who is Black. Edie has cerebral palsy which makes her a bit "wobbly" on her feet. She often falls over but has quite a sense of humour about it. And Oscar is always there with a first aid kit and a replacement pair of tights.

Edie wants to be a writer so her mum encourages her to keep a diary. Edie and Oscar are about to start secondary school, but when they do, everything starts to change. Oscar joins the football team, then gets a girlfriend, Georgia, who doesn't seem to like Edie at all! Edie feels pretty scared to not have Oscar by her side, but her form tutor encourages her to try out for the school play. Edie tries to get over that she wants to write the school play, but no dice,

She meets a girl called Flora who is painting sets on the play, and the two become friends, and she makes friends with Georgia and her friends, which happens in such a lovely way. I liked how the girls showed a really positive form of girl friendship, instead of being awful to each other. Flora is mixed race too - I think her mum is Japanese - and I loved her. 

I also LOVED the ending, it was SO good, it's why I think there MUST be another book, because I want to see what happens next! Edie is such a good character and I just want more of her. I'm giving this five out of five because I loved it. 

Lark by Anthony McGowan - Review

At the end of February I saw tweets about the Carnegie longlist, and thought I should definitely get to reading some of those books. The longlist seemed incredibly strong this year, and I was eager to get to a few in particular. I keep a bullet journal/catch all journal hybrid, so I wrote the list down in there, and then used my local library website to see which of the books was available for me to request. About six or seven were, so I requested three and then picked them up at the library in the middle of March. I've scheduled this post for the end of March, but as I type the government is advising to stay at home if you can because of Covid-19, and I hope that many libraries will shut down to help stop the spread of the virus, although I'm sure this needs to be a government directive unlike currently. All this to say, I didn't go to the library recently but I do believe passionately in supporting your local ones when it is possible.

Anyway Lark by Anthony McGowan was one of the books I requested. It's a Barrington Stoke book, meaning it's quite short, and printed on thick paper and with a font intended to be reader friendly. I really like Barrington Stoke books and have read quite a few. They're fun little stories, always brilliantly done by the author. This book is the third in a series about the same two main characters, apparently, but it works perfectly well as a standalone story. There's definitely enough background for the reader to understand where the characters come from.

The book is about brothers Nicky and Kenny, who are youngish teenagers in the book. Kenny is older, but has some kind of learning disability and goes to a special school, so Nicky is the one to look after the two of them most of the time. I think they're about 13/14. They live with their dad and his girlfriend Jenny, and have done ever since their mum left when they were about four/five. Their dad had an alcohol problem to which is written about, but not in much depth (I assume there's more about it in the previous books).

Nicky and Kenny are about to see their mum for the first time in years and are understandably anxious about it. Their dad suggests that they go for a walk somewhere on the Yorkshire moors one day while he's at work. They live closeish to Leeds so have to get on three buses first, and then they set off along a public footpath.

However, it starts to snow, and darkness is setting in, and neither boy is really dressed for cold weather. Nicky has the idea to go over the hill instead of around it, and then something terrible happens, and the boys have to work together to get back.

I loved the book, I thought it was a really good story. I liked Nicky and how much he looked after his brother. I loved the northern setting (still so sorely needed!) and the story is really complete. I utterly recommend the book! I'm giving it four out of five.

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando - Review

First of all this is a book about a boy who has just lost his brother to suicide, so there is obviously a lot of chat about suicide. Danielle talks at the beginning of the book about how she was bullied at school and attempted suicide because of that, so obviously this book is very personal for her. 

I also have to say that I have the experience of surviving the suicide of a loved one. I lost my dad to suicide when I was 24, when he was 55. He had been ill for quite a while beforehand, but we obviously didn't know it would end in suicide. It's twelve years later and I still deal with the grief of it. Suicide is a grief like no other - not only is it a sudden death, but it's got a unique grief to it because there's understandably anger, abandonment, and an eternal questioning of why it happened and how you could have done something to help. After Caroline Flack's recent death, I wrote this piece for Global Comment about surviving a suicide, which I would encourage you all to read. What I'm saying is, this is a subject close to my heart and I really wanted the book to do it justice. 

Where did I get it? Netgalley, so many thanks to Simon & Schuster for granting me access to this book. 

What's it about? Nate is fifteen years old and lives in Wythenshawe in Manchester with his mum, two brothers Saul and Al, and sister Phoebe. At the very beginning of the book, it is just a couple of days since Al has taken his own life. Nate found him and is obviously very shocked and dealing with his grief. Nate also feels really guilty because Al phoned him just before he died, but Nate didn't pick up and now he thinks that if he had, he could have saved Al. 

He makes friends with Al's friend Megan. Half of the novel is told from her point of view. Al was an artist, and Megan starts to work with Al's artwork to find out what he was going through. There's also excerpts from Al's sketchbook, things he wanted to write down, at the beginning of each chapter. 

Nate is convinced there's some reason as to why Al died, and he tries to uncover why Al had stopped talking to her best friend Lewi. Lewi hangs around with these idiots Eli and Connor now, and Nate isn't sure what happened. However, Saul, Nate's eldest brother, wants him to leave things alone.

Meanwhile Megan, who liked Al but never really stood up for him, mostly because she feared teasing from her best friend Tara. Now that Al is dead, she feels awful about it. Tara keeps saying awful things to her and Megan starts to put some distance between them. There's more bullying going on, especially online. There's quite a few excerpts of online harassment and so on. 

This book is great because it's set in the north and features a working class family! It's something we badly need more of in YA fiction and I am so happy I got to read this book for that reason as well as many others. Go, buy it immediately. 

What age range is it for? 15+ as there's some violence and obviously talk about suicide. 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, and that's all I'll say. 

Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, Nate and his family are mixed race. Their dad, who walked out a couple of years prior to the book, is black. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? No, but there's obviously chat about bad mental health and so on. 

Is there any sex stuff? No 

Are drugs mentioned or used? I think there's a few mentions of weed, but nothing graphic or too strong. 

Is there any talk of death? Yes, obviously. Some of it is graphic as Nate comes to terms with his brother's death, so be careful. 

Are there swear words? Yes, judiciously used. I actually loved the way language was used in the book, and the way that especially Nate's personality came out through the slang he used. It felt really northern, too, for instance there was a lot of "I weren't" instead of "I wasn't". 

What criticisms do I have? Almost none, but there were a couple of times when I thought discussion of how Al killed himself was too graphic. This may have been changed before the final print, though.  

Would I recommend the book? Yes absolutely, it's brilliant. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? I just wanted to get to it quickly!

What do I think of the cover? I think it's really vibrant and eye catching, and it's a bit like some of Al's artwork, so it works really well. 

What other books is it like? It reminded me of Jackpot by Nic Stone, the family situations are written about similarly. 

How many stars? Five out of five, it's absolutely fantastic. I loved both Nate and Megan and thought their grief was brilliantly done. 

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly was published on 9th March 2020. I was given a free electronic copy of the novel but was not compensated in any other way for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.