The Broken Bridge by Philip Pullman is one his less well known books, but will both entertain and stretch the older children in our age group.
Ginny is a mixed race teenager with a talent for art she inherited from her dead mother. Growing up in Wales with her father, she has worshipped her mother: loving French because her Haitian mother spoke it, and feeling close to her mother when she was creative. Her realtionship with her father has alway been close, despite a series of breakfast ladies (women who were there in the morning for breakfast, obviously her father's girlfriends). She loves the landscape which she feels she owns. The summer she is 16 feels wonderful: she has her art which she believes is her future, she has a close friend, she has two part-time jobs she loves, and the area's only other ethnic minority, her enchanting friend Andy, is back home looking handsomer than ever.
This is not a conventional teen romance, nor a conventional coming of age story. From the start something ominous is hanging over Ginny's idyll and she gradually realises nothing about her family is what it seems.
So often, much though I love Pullman's books, you feel an axe to grind behind the stories, the anti-Narnia of His Dark Materials, the critique of Victorian values and social conservatism of the wonderful Sally Lockhart books. Here though the dominant feeling eminating from the implied author is not the irritation and anger of the more famous books but love: love of landscape, of the potential of youth, of real families, of art.
What I particularly like for our age group is the sections on art. I love the way Ginny thinks about her talent and her work. I like the way we see the embryonic artist's point of view. There are also some wonderful discussions of art amongst the characters.
Just as many children are no longer taken to the theatre, not even to pantomines, many children never go to art galleries, never stand in front of an impressive canvas and have someone explain it or ask them what they think. In this, as well as in the quality of writing, The Broken Bridge demands to be on any reading list for 13 or 14 year olds. Slightly younger children may get something out of it if they are particularly emotionally mature.
Watch points:
Any peril is emotional and there is not really any violence though there are angry scenes including some mild domestic violence.
Death: the consequences of death are dealt with.
Relationships: relationships are the crux of this book. There are family relationships of all kinds as well as friends and boyfriends though it is not a romance. There are no explict scenes but a knowledge of the facts of life is assumed throughout. Homosexuality is referred to a few times.
Anything else: there are a few swear words: pissed, for example. There is lots on the nature of marriages, why relationships break down or twist into something unacceptable, on parents and children, on parental abandonment, on adoption and fostering, and on truth and lies in families. There is also much about love and forgiveness and moving on. There is something on identity as it pertains to race but this is not the central thrust of Ginny's emotional difficulties. There are some fantasy voodoo moments.
Overall: The Broken Bridge is a wonderful uplifting story, tightly plotted and exciting, with a wonderful central character. It is a coming of age story but is not the slightest bit sentimental, being intense but never truly dark. The way art and landscape are made part of the novel is unusual and very enjoyable.
Availability: it appears to be out of print but lots of inexpensive used copies appear to be available.
Other reviews and useful sites:
Philip Pullman's page on this novel is here.
There is a review on Kirkus here and on Publisher's Weekly here.
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