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My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher deals with the aftermath of a terrorist attack. When Rose is blown up in Trafalgar Square during a terrorist bomb blast the rest of her family survive physically but, emotionally, the blast blows then apart too.

Told from the point of view of ten year old Jamie, we meet the family 71 days after Mum has left them for a man from the bereavement support group. Dad is falling apart drinking, sleeping and failing to participate in family life. His sister Jas, Rosie's twin, is struggling to find her own identity out of the shadow of her murdered other half. These are serious topics, in an engrossing storyline, and Pitcher handles them beautifully.

The family, minus mum, move to the Lake District as Jamie's father wants to get away from the immigrants he blames for the (presumed Islamist) bomb. Jamie struggles with no proper parenting except from Jas, he struggles to fit in at his school, and he misses his mother. Meanwhile his sister's ashes are on the mantelpiece, unscattered, a sign his father just can't let go.

I found this an extremely readable book, with excellent characterisation and lots of flashes of humour in and amongst the tragedy. The extremely difficult subject matter is handled with real sensitivity, and should be okay, with caution and a bit of adult support, for most children in our age group.

In handling the drinking, the divorce, the teenage Jas's romance and rebellion, the grief, and the terrorist attack, Pitcher shows a remarkable ability to talk straight, and not down, to her young audience. At odds with this is the friendship between a muslim girl and Jamie at his new school. Pitcher is trying to show hope for the future in the positive relationship, but somehow she suddenly sounds like a teacher. Sunya is a great character, she truly sparkles, and deserves her own story, not to be tagged onto Jamie's for diversity training. Pitcher's heart is in the right place with this aspect of the plot but it doesn't work.  In the end the narrative gets a bit worthy, and disbelief is suspended.

All that said, there is much for discussion in the book with your gifted reader both in literary and social terms. It is well written, engaging, and a range of social problems and differences are handled with understanding and empathy, not just of the characters and events, but also of the young readers who will engage with it. Highly recommended but do read it first!

Watch points:

Death: a child is killed, blown apart, by a terrorist bomb, only parts of the body are found and the warring parents split them. The father's half of the child's ashes remain on the mantelpiece and are a key part of the book. There are descriptions of ashes scattered (and failing to scatter). A cat also dies.

Peril: in the past is the bomb which happened on an ordinary shopping trip. There is also bullying in the present.

Relationships: we see something of Jas's relationship with her boyfriend. There is some slight scrutiny of the parents' relationship and the disintegrating marriage, though this is largely from Jamie's point of view.

Racism: Jamie's Dad has become very racist as a result of the bombing. There are a lot of things said and shouted which, whilst realistic, may need discussion.

Anything else? This is a socially complex book that deals with many problems, including grief, divorce, drunkenness, alcoholism, and abandonment by parents. Jas's story within the book is an interesting one of sibling identity as well as body piercing, eating problems, and teenage rebellion. There is also an interesting running thread on the subject of hair covering for muslim women.

Other reviews and useful websites:

Some editions have the short story 'Jasmine' appended, and this is well worth having. ISBN 9781780620299.

Video trailer for the novel can be viewed here.

Annabel Pitcher's website is here and she is on twitter here.

There are two reviews on The Guardian, one by author Philip Ardagh here and one by a 14 year old critic here.

There is also an excellent review, particularly focusing on the grief of children, by Lynne Hatwell on her Dovegreyreader blog, with an extract from the audio book read by David Tennant.

The Broken Bridge by Philip Pullman

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.

Varjak Paw by S. F. Said

Varjak Paw by S. F. Said is not quite like anything else that I've read. Martial arts for cats did not grab me as a premise but this is an excellent story, more challenging in its concepts than its language.

Varjak Paw is a kitten. He lives in a house with an indulgent elderly owner and a large family of pure bred Mesopotamian Blue cats. The cats are led by his grandfather the Elder Paw.  Varjak is lonely, bullied by his siblings, and longs to go outside beyond the high walls of the garden.  It becomes evident that the elderly owner has died and the new owners are mysterious and rather sinister but the indulged cats have blunted instincts and cannot see the danger. Only the Elder Paw believes Varjak about the unpleasant new cats and the danger.

When the Elder Paw is beaten in a fight by one of the family who don't believe Varjak, and has to give up as leader, all seems lost under the new, blinkered regime, until the Elder Paw sees a way for Varjak to get out. He tells him to find a dog to chase away the sinister new cats, and teaches him part of two of the Seven Ways of Jalal, an ancient martial art largely lost to the cats. This is all Varak has to defend himself with as he leaves home.

What follows is in many ways a typical coming of age story as kitten becomes cat and learns to stand on his own four paws. However it is interlaced with periods of unconsciousness, sleep, fainting, a blow to the head etc., and during these periods Varjak is in a transcendental state where he goes back in time to Mespotamia and learns all Seven Ways of Jalal from the great cat himself. Both the idea of these states and the Ways themselves are all conceptually quite difficult for a western child with limited understanding of eastern religions. It is in the philosophy of the book that the challenge lies for a bright child.

Watch Points:

Religion: it obviously draws on eastern religious concepts, but actual theism is not discussed.

Violence: Varjak has to learn to hunt and to fight other cats. There are 'disappearances': cats are stolen and this happens to one of Varjak's friends. The cats that disappear are being stuffed for toys. This is not described in detail, but is clearly referred to. Might be a problem for the very squeamish, and anyone who has lost a cat recently.

Peril: Varjak is in mild peril all the time once he is outside. There are more definite episodes of fear including when he is beaten up by alley cats (inducing one of his transcendental states), meets the gangleader Sally Bones, and at the climax when he and friends storm the old house to rescue his family.

Death: The Elder Paw is killed in front of Varjak as he sacrifices himself for Varjak to escape. Some other cats die, though none are personally know to Varjak, but it is distressing for all the cats in the story. Varjak hunts and kills a mouse.

There is no bad language and romantic relationships are not really touched on, though his closest friends are female.

Summary: a story that is a bit different, and makes a change from mainstream western European traditions. Contains strong female characters. There are quite a lot of cat fights. A quite quick read, and an entertaining story that is conceptually difficult rather than linuistically challenging. Providing the child was okay with cat fights I think this suitable across the whole 9-14 age group. The kids in my book group loved it.