One Long Thread

Title: One Long Thread
Author: Belinda Jeffrey
First Published: 2012 by University of Queensland Press

Ruby's life was torn in two when she was 13, her mum and twin sister moved to Darwin to be part of The Aberdeen, a new church with very strict rules, while she and her father stay in Melbourne. Now, at 17 life seems to be going well for Ruby she's about to finish high school, she likes her friends and she has a great job is the local fabric shop. Then tragedy strikes and is at risk of losing what seems like her whole family.

Quick Review
A solid novel about first love, family and vocation. One Long Thread is well written and has well developed, unique characters. the description and setting was vivid, leaving us with an interesting and textured novel. If you like Sue Lawson, and even most fans of Melina Marchetta should enjoy this novel.

Quotes
"No one is responsible for our happiness or lack there of. No one except us."

“I began to understand what bound Pearl to their simple mystery because i felt the same connection. in front of us, all around us, was the energy of life and growth. beauty was only a month away and it depended, in part, in what i could do.”

Ramble Review
The thing that made this novel was the characters. I really liked Ruby, or Button as her family call her (you have to read the book to find out why. hehehehe). there was nothing stand out spectacular about her she was just solid, sensible and well, likable. Her twin sister Sally, who we really only meet through Ruby's memories, also came across as a lively character, though we don't get to see her much. Her mother was painted as a terrible character, but slowly. as the novel was written in first person you could hear words of love, compassion and shared memory as well as the bitter, hurt and digusted ones. It's her actions towards the end of the novel that really show, unfortunately, her true colours. the best character was Pearl, Ruby's grandmother. She was so lively, she shone with originality. while at times it seemed a few characters had cliche characteristics, Pearl never bought into the stereotype of 'crazy grandma'. I Dare you not to love her. While this novel is about the relationships between Ruby and her female family members, sister, mother and grandma, the male characters in this novel are so lovable. Ruby's father, Brett Moon, is the ultimate pacifist going to have no opinion to save himself conflict. He shows himself to be an Amazing father and funny character in himself-and i loved that he got his happy ending too! The other male of note is Mr Grandy the middle-aged man who runs the fabric shop. He is just so sweet, and his relationship with Ruby is almost grandfather like. they have the best jokes and he gives her the advice she could take from no one else.

The plot was pretty typical, not bad, but no surprises. the use of cult like religious groups was well done, but always results in drama, but it does work well. i did feel that i didn't quite connect with the 'dramatic events' in the middle as much as i wanted too. it didn't quite feel real enough, especially compared to the fantastic beginning and end. The other major fault was that the author abused the use of first person. In parts, mainly the middle scenes in Darwin once again, a little more 'show not tell' would have really added to the book. the words 'i felt' were a little too common.

The other thing i LOVED was the use of fashion and the silk worms, which fitted together nicely. Not only did silk worms and fashion fit with each other, but with the story. it was really what took the novel from average story to lovely. There were some really special scenes and simile and metaphors using these to themes which tied the novel together. it added to the texture, if you'll pardon my fashion pun.

Over all a really book, it was definitely a book which somehow left me smiling.
Also, don't you just love the cover?

Pan's Whisper

Welcome to Pan's Whisper day. let's kick it off with a review.

Title: Pan's Whisper
Author: Sue Lawson
First Published: 2011 by Black Dog Books

Pan Harper is angry. she's been placed in foster care, and is mad at her mum and older sister. she is sure she knows her life story better than anyone. but does she? memory is a tricky thing. then she meets her foster family, teachers, and most importantly Hunter. is he worth breaking her most important rule, Never Trust Anyone?

Quick Review
Pan's Whisper is a story of family and friends. Pan may be angry, but you can't help but like her. the more of her story you learn, the more you respect her, even as she makes mistakes over and over again. Sue Lawson once again has created an emotional rollercoster of a story which is amazingly true to life.

Quotes
know where i am? right in the heart of legoland, living with plastics and going to a school filled with spastics. why? because of You. Pan- page 37

"come on Panda, we have to get to Grady's before the hairy-nosed, boogie-bummed bunyip catches us." Kylie stomped up the hall..."get back here now"- page 95/96

i grab the 1st harry potter book and settle into read. Sure I've read it 1000 times but there's something comforting about the familiarity of the characters- page 236

babble
Pan's Whisper is told in three forms. most of the story is in 1st person from Pan's point pf view, but the story is also told in letters to Morgan and in memories from Morgan. they link together in little groups to tell the story. you slowly build a picture of what actually happened, as pan does. it's really clever. it builds suspense also me and you get to know Morgan.

they characters are fabulous. you don't really meet Morgan, or Grandy or Kylie but you know them really well, which i think is quite an achievement. in building them up you really get in Pan's head. the new people she meets, like hunter, Ari and her foster family were good characters, but i would have liked to get to know them even more, but you got their background story, which really added to the story.

over all i really enjoyed Pan's Whisper, and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

luckily for all you Perth readers a copy is going to be up for grabs on Perth YA Fans Unite very soon. so follow us to be eligible to enter.

Have you seen Ally Queen

yes, I'm a lazy blogger. sorry :) i did in fact read this a week or so ago :/ so if it's a little vague i apologise.

Title: Have you seen Ally Queen
Author: Deb Fitzpatrick
First Published: 2011 by Fremantle Press


Ally Queen is 15 and not happy. forced to move from her home, friends and well-stocked deli down south go the tiny beach town of Melros near Mandurah. and now they've moved things seem to go from bad to worse. all the kids are bogans and surfies. the only good thing she can find is the beach.


i really enjoyed Have you seen Ally Queen for the most part.
to start with Ally annoyed me a bit, she complained quite a bit and she was Dramatic, but to be fair, teenagers are. i grew to like her though, her voice is genuine and the writing is spot on except for a few words, like poxy. Capitalism and her identity are big themes. as she learns to like herself, you find yourself fond of her too. if you find her annoying to start with it IS worth persisting. 100% worth it.

i quite like that her parents are characters too, more prominently than in most YA. i like that they were flawed!! while they showed Ally's faults the parents weren't perfect, which was nice. so often as a teenager i see something the teenager's doing wrong, often something I've done, and the parents being perfect. the author trying to teach the teen (often nicely) that they're over-reacting or upsetting their parents when they shout. never though have i read a book where the parent and child were both responsible for the fight.

the description in the book was good, especially of Ally's feelings, but i feel Deb Fitzpatrick missed a great opportunity to describe the beautiful beaches and scrubby mountains that are down-south of Perth. i really loved how i could picture it all because these are places i know, or at least roughly. it's so nice have a book set in Western Australia. i love it if other people got a little more of the view.

i found the discussions of the happiness a bit full on, though very interesting. i really took a lot of it to heart. characters with such strong convictions made for an strong story. i loved the deceptions of Ally and Rel's relationship, it was much more realistic than normal in YA. they were friends, and the Love stuff was a little awkward, unsure, but beautiful. the descriptions of some of the things Ally did like mountain climbing and fishing made me jealous. it was familiar of holidays and school camps, and made me want to do things like that more often.

the best thing i can say though, is that it captured Australia's love of the beach in the best way I've read.

Graffiti Moon

Title: Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley

Lucy is in love with Shadow, a mysterious graffiti artist.

Ed thought he was in love with Lucy, until she broke his nose.

Dylan loves Daisy, but throwing eggs at her probably wasn't the best way to show it.

Jazz and Leo are slowly encircling each other.

An intense and exhilarating 24 hours in the lives of four teenagers on the verge: of adulthood, of HSC, of finding out just who they are, and who they want to be.
From the Pan Macmillan Australia Website


loved it, one of my favourite reads of the year.
i loved the characters, the original plot line, the dynamic writing. it dips into memories building to this night, while driving the adventure forward smoothly.
the use of detail was so good, i could almost feel the heat.
my favourite thing though were the poems. Amazing.
it's funny as well :)
i read this months ago while i was having tests/assessments etc and didn't get t review it, but i feel I've said all i need to.
so sweet, so true. not quite like anything I've read before.

Quotes
"Your idea of romance requires a corset and a time machine. Loosen up for once." - Jazz

"... but I guess love's kind of like a marshmallow in a microwave, on high. After it explodes it's still a marshmallow. But, you know, it's a complicated marshmallow." -Lucy-

"he can't remember when he lost them
But he lost the daytime things" -Leo-

Straight Line to my Heart

title: straight line to my heart
author: Bill Condon
Published: to be published August 2011

Tiff and Kayla have finished school, they know things are about to change. the summer is coming to an end, and decisions are being made about the future and in one week everything is going to change. Tiff has a cadetship at the local news paper, but her boss is a crazy old man who insists everyone calls him 'the shark'. her grandad Reggie seems to be fading away, her uncle/brother Bull's girlfriend is around, her and Kayla can't stay in this small town forever, what will happen once they leave, and most importantly there's a boy who seems to be interested in Tiff. in one week Tiff's world crashes down and she builds it up again stronger than before.

Quick Review Straight Line to my Heart is a great novel. Bill Condon really hits what it's like to be a teenager on the head. without any melo-drama or soppy romance he's created a light-hearted novel all about the massive changes that occur once school finishes forever and first love. add in the great humour, and interesting characters and you've got a clear winner. i was up all night giggling while i finished it.

favourite quotes
"she could help me in my never-ending campaign. some people want to save the river or save the whales, or even save the whole planet-i just want to keep the toilet seat down" the whole book is full of funny lines like this.

Babbling Review
Bill Condon has an incredible style which doesn't fit a genre, it just seems like a real story. the characters are flawed, every character has a different personality. the blokes, Reggie and Bull, are typical Aussie blokes. the love footy, beer, action films and burping, yet they're sweet and kind.

the setting of Gungee creek is also full of character, and well characters! it's a typical town. the thing that got me was the description of footy on the weekends, it just seemed so familiar. everyone cheering, even though they play terribly. it turned out to be rugby as opposed to AFL, which is footy in Perth, but the atmosphere was the same. for us who live in Australia it'll be so familiar that you'll be laughing going 'that;s so true' and to others it'll be just as enjoyable.

i loved Kayla and Tiff's friendship. best friends since they were very young. there was very little talk, just silliness and closeness. they weren't always lovely to each other, but it was so honest.

the romance element in this novel is quite small, but important. he's an idiot, tiff admits he an idiot, but they like each other anyway. it's all awkward, yet sweet moments. it ends just leaving you wondering where it would go.

the humour is also genius. it's a simple, lovely funny novel. a perfect light read dealing some important teenage issues.

Dare You

Title: Dare You
Author: Sue Lawson
First Published: 2010 by black dog books

for those of you have been hanging around this blog for a while you'll know that i love Sue Lawson's novels, so you would guess that when i walked into the school library for a reading period and discovered this little gem on the bookshelf i was extremely happy. this was before I'd even started reading.

Dare You is the story of a childhood friendship that starts to fall apart as Sas, Ruby and Kahden reach the middle of high school. they'd been best friends since the beginning of kindy, they've never known it any other way. Now though, with summer holidays around the corner, all there little problems are coming to light. the girls bickering and competing is reaching a dangerous point and Kahden and Sas are starting to think of each other very differently, but they can't let go. so they cling to their childhood games, but they aren't little kids anymore so the rules start to change. it starts to get scary. each of out main characters has their own secrets and problems hidden away, in usual Lawson style, which are making things tense and come to head at a critical moment.

the story is divided up into chapters from all three of our characters, Ruby's in first person, Sas' in first person diary style, and Kahden's in third person. i thought it worked quite well and though i had a favourite character, i LOVE Kahden, it didn't affect my reading of the story and it was nothing to do with the quality of the writing. there were moments where i wanted to grab Sas and Ruby and yell at them, because they were so believable. i felt the language was spot on, I'm about the age of the characters and it was the way i would speak or write. I'll admit i did sometimes find myself checking which character was supposed to be narrating because i was confused, but this is a common occurrence for me once we get 3 or so characters. i really thought the characters were fantastic. though we don't know much about the parents, you feel their side of the story as well, which is true to life and really nice to read.

one thing to know about this book, DON'T be tempted to flick through. i found myself wanting to know what happened next and flipping forward. this was a mistake because Lawson starts her chapters with sentences about Major events. i was unlucky and flipped to the chapter with i very informative start and regretted it for the rest of the book.

the only significant problem i had was with the ending, I'll try my best to keep this spoiler free.
there is a Massive event towards the very end and then the ending seemed to go very fast. i felt a bit cheated almost. i don't think this big event was a cop out, so she wouldn't have to solve the friendship problems. i would have liked to read a bit more either before the big event or after it, just to see that everything was resolved properly. it might have just been me, I'd really like to hear what you think. keep that in mind if you every read Dare You. i strongly recommend you do.

Where the Streets Had a Name

Title: Where the Streets Had a Name
Aurthur: Randa Abdel-Fattah
First Published: 2008 by Pan Macmillan

Where the Streets Had a Name is about the journey that Hayaat and her best friend Samy take from their homes in Bethlehem to Hayaat's grandmother's, Sitti Zeynab, ancestral home in Jerusalem. Hayaat believes that she can save her sick grandmother if she gets soil from her homeland. luckily they have a curfew free day to go ahead with their adventure.

this book tells the story of 3 people's loss and how because of it they lost who they were. we also are shown how strong people find a way to move forward and keep living, even though it's a hard thing to do. those 3 stories are of 13 year old Hayaat, her father and her grandmother. it's written in first person from Hayaat's perspective, but we are learn of the others' through Hayaat and more importantly we can see the effect it has on everyone and how they feel.

i found the book a bit slow to begin with, but it wasn't long before i wanted to know all about what had happened to Hayaat. the story unfolded neatly and naturally, without leaving you in suspense for too long, but not just giving things away either. i think the reason it took me a while to get into was because i knew nothing of the politics relating to Israel/Palistine. i must also admit i was greatful for the glossary at the front of the book as well.

my favourite thing was being about to look at the loses of all the family members and parallel them.. i also LOVED how much Where the Streets Had a Name stresses that all people are people and deserve respect and that live is always worth living brilliantly.

i think everyone should read this book, just as a chance to see what racial conflict can do and how it makes the people feel. the characters are easy to get to know. if you don't know anything about politics in Israel/Palestine just get someone to explain the basics to you, it's well worth it.

Jarvis 24

title: Jarvis 24
author: David Metzenthen
published: penguin

i actually read this a few weeks ago, but somehow never got round to reviewing it. Jarvis 24 has been a big award winner in Australia this year taking gold in the children's book council, and i gotta agree that it deserves it. it really enjoyed it.

Marc Jarvis has to do work experience, it's either that or spend a week in the school library doing assignments. as he walks past the local second hand car yard he decides to see if they'd let him work there for the week. only partly inspired by the beautiful girl walking out of the gate. from here the story unfolds. new and old friends and relationships.

this book kept me up all night, just because i couldn't bring myself to put it down. I'd also like to say that thanks to David metzenthen everyone who was near me while i was reading this book thinks I'm crazy because i couldn't help but laugh out loud.
i also loved reading from what seemed a typical guy, because it's rare in a non-adventure, sport, action book to have a main protagonist, especially one as realistic at Marc Jarvis.

over all i thought this book had a great, gentle ending, but there was one thing i was left wondering and i actually looked for a way to contact the author so i could ask him, unfortunately i couldn't. apart from that i loved the whole book.

I Am the Messenger

Title: I Am the Messenger (even thou my copy just says the messenger his website says I Am the Messenger)
Author: Markus Zusak
First Published: by Pan Macmillan in 2002

before i review this i should warn you that I'm still very mixed up about this book. i know i loved it, but it was very deep and complicated. in fact I'd love to talk to the author so if any of you happen to be Markus Zusak or know him leave a comment.

Ed is ordinary, it's just Ed. he drives a Taxi, he plays cards, talks to his Dog and sucks at sex. then the 1st card turns up and everything changes. Ed is given a mission, a purpose.

from the blurb, i didn't get the story i was expecting, though it would have helped if i had read the blurb properly. i was expecting an Alex rider or Artemis fowl type of mission, but this was much more ordinary. this book wasn't about the extraordinary part of having an adventure or mission, it was about what Ed did.

i feel i should explain a bit more about what this book was about, so I'll try. this is a story about Ed who is chosen to care, but not only for others, for himself, for life in general in a world that sometimes seems to not give a shit. it's about "small things that are big" (page 239.)

i really loved the beginning, it's one of the best intros ever. the story starts in a bank robbery. yes, lying on the floor while a man with a gun steals money and from there it all springs or so we think. Ed becomes the messenger, caring about people, changing things in his town.

the one thing i wasn't too sure about was the ending, in some ways i loved it and in others i hated it. but i can't say because it would spoil it and i HATE people who do that.

over all it was a book about life having meaning, about wanting to live and about the need to care. if somebody as ordinary as Ed can do it, so can the rest of us. we can change things and we can live.

do yourself a favour and read I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. then do me a favour and come chat to me about it, because i want to talk about it, but can't get my head around it to review it.

this book left me feeling like my life was special.

So Much to Tell You

Title: So Much to Tell You
Author: John Marsden
First Published: 1987 by Walter McVitty Books

So Much to Tell You is the incredible diary of a 14 year old girl sent to boarding school and her family life explodeds. there is one thing making her diffferent from every other girl in the school, she doesn't speak.

slowly through her diary enteries we learn all about her, she didn't plain to put all her secrets into this diary but once she started she couldn't help herself. once she started she couldn't stop. over the course of the novel she slowly starts to be herself again, still silent, but with some patience and kindness from a few other people she starts getting there. slowly.

not only do we learn all about her feelings and her life, we get her insightful observations of the people around her, some of which no one but the silent girl would notice. i loved how she learnt that she wasn't the onlt person feeling things. through English, with her awesome teacher the girls learn that lots of other people are feeling things like they are. it was a great reminder for me.

my faveourite thing was that we didn't find out her name until the last page. i felt is very symbolic, like she had finally found herself in all the mess and put herself back together.

i think that everybody should read this book, it's reallu sticks with you, especiaaly because it is based on a true story. if you are not convinved it's written by the man who wrote Tomorrow When the War began. in my opinion it's even better.

The Running Man

Title: The Running Man
Author: Michael Gerard Bauer
First Published: in 2004 by scholastic

Joseph is a quiet, shy boy who lives with his mother, while his father does construction work in far away countries. this story begins when Joseph is asked to mow the Leyton's lawn. Caroline Leyton convinces him to paint a portrait of her brother tom, a reclusive Vietnam war veteran. a very special relationship forms over silkworms, books and secrets. but their can be problems of relationships built on secrets, what happens if someone else says different, who do you trust? Tom and Joseph give each other just what they've needed for a long time.

i love, Love, LOVE this book. i have no criticism, i thought it was perfect. it was perfectly paced, i was hooked from very early in and read it all one Friday night. this is quite a philosophical book, so i was very surprised to find that it was so suspenseful and interesting. most books that are about thoughts, feelings, relationships and life in general usually have a relaxing pace, but The Running Man is quite eventful.

like i said, this book is very philosophical. it talks about life, death, views on life, perspective, judgement of others and even miracles. i learnt so much from just reading it. The Running Man is the kind of book you feeling happy and hopeful after reading, it just sticks in your mind.

i feel i haven't done this book justice in my review, i highly recommend reading it. please give it a go.

Mama's Trippin'

title: Mama's Trippin'
author: Katy Watson-Kell
first: 2006 by Fremantle Press published

Von leaves the life he knows in fremantle and travels to New Zealand to meet the mother who left when he was 6 and his new baby sister. he feels at a lost end in WA, fighting with her girlfriend, isn't doing so well at school, not sure what he cares about or what he wants anymore and isn't feeling right with his mates. his dad's heading off to the station with his mates for a week, so when Von's mum rings out of the blue and invites him to come stay he jumps on the chance. when he gets to Wellington he realises in an instant things aren't as magical as his mum, Charlene, made out. her boyfriend's running from the cops, she's working all might as a dancer at a nightclub and then their is Stella, his silent sister. it isn't long until things so from slightly hectic to crazy. soon people are turning up dead. Von travels to the place of his Moriori ancestors and they reach out to help him. at this point is he able to trust a culture he's felt no connection to before now. does Von have any choice?

i quite enjoyed this book, it's easy to read and flows really well. their have been other books about sons who find their mothers and have their lives turned upside down, but this one was different. i think the main difference was that it was told from lots of different perspectives. even though this book is written entirely in third person it's always easy to tell who's point of view it is from and if you can't tell you can look at the symbol at the start of the chapter. it was very int resting to get the mother's view of her long, lost son as well as his of her.

i also liked how realistic the relationships in Mama's Trippin are. instead of hating or suddenly loving each other, Von and his mother slowly and clumsily get to know each other. how stella, the 2 year old sister, and Von get along is also right on the mark, at first Von hasn't a clue what to do, but it isn't long before they are inseparable. how henry, the neighbour from down stairs, weaves his way into their lives was quite funny. it's nice to find an authour who remembers that young guys tend to think with what's in their pants not what makes sense.

this book also had a very good ending. not everything was resolved, but we had a feeling things would work themselves out over the next few months.

i felt this book left a few things unexplaned. Von is a diabetic and we get the feeling right from the beggining that he isn't comfortable with it, but that is never explored. we also hear nothing about his mates except his girlfriend Juice. all we know about his guy friends is that they play footy. i think that if i read Katy Watson-Kell's other book, Juice, that both of these things would be in that story.

a bit of background knowledge about the Moriori people could help understand this book a bit better becuase this book really shines when it comes to spiritual and cultural ideas. i plan on finding out more becuase it was the connection with Von's ancestors that made the ending so special.

sorry for the long review. it's a good book and i will deffinetly be trying to get my hands of Juice, which is also about Von.

With Lots of Love from Georgia

Georgia is a 15 year old girl who would die to get to the natural affinity concert and meet Jakob. to do this she has to save up 500 dollars. Georgia is very mixed up, she loves her best friend, but it isn't quite right. she loves her mum but why does she always think she's right. she loves food, but why does it have to make you fat.

things are changing fast in Georgia's life and she's caught up in a whirlwind she can't control and is left feeling lost and lonely. but in the end, everything leads to something good. sometimes we just have to wait and see what comes next.

like always Brigid Lowry has written a beautiful book, not in the collage style of Guitar Highway Rose, but it is scattered with lists written by Georgia herself. I didn't like this novel as much as Guitar Highway Rose or Tomorrow All Will be Beautiful, but it was still a great read, once again Brigid Lowry has captured the confusion of being a teenager. suddenly your diving into an adult world, your parents no longer holding you up. you're realising that maybe you're a better swimmer anyway, but still you might not be ready to let go.

a beautiful book, read it.

The Night They Stormed Eureka

Title:The Night They Stormed Eureka
Aurthur: Jackie French
First Published:2009 by harpercollins

Sam has lots of family troubles and decides the only thing she can do is to run away. she ends up on the Ballarat gold fields in 1854, not long before the Eureka Stockade. she is picked up by a couple who run the 'best little cook shop on the diggins' and gets everything she's ever wanted, a family that loves her and friends who help her. life in the diggings is very different to life in the 21st century, to Sam seems so simple. the longer she spends there, she realises it is just a hard. she has to make some incredibly hard choices that could effect Australian history and culture from then on. she knows about the bloodshed and death, should she warn them that they will be attacked at dawn on Sunday so they save lives? would Australia be better off as a republic? with the help off her friend the professor she learns that all she can do is ask her self weather this bit is good or bad. Sam's trip back in time teaches her so much. it showed me how far we have come in 150 years, things people thought were impossible, like education for women, are now standard. my favourite lesson, and the most predominate, is that people can achieve things when they stand together that they could never get near alone.

i really enjoyed this book, but i found not a lot really happened. it was not boring in the least, but they're was really only one exciting or major event. this is mainly because even though their are no battles or fights Sam is the characters are constantly fighting themselves. Mrs Puddleham, Sam's adoptive mother, is battling with the memory of the baby she lost on the ship to Australia and her friend George is pushing the strains of being a half aboriginal who wants an education.

this is very easy to read and understand compared to other historical novels because Sam knows as little as we do. there are also appendices at the back including recipes from Mrs Puddleham and an explanation of things that you might not understand, including terms like "redcoats" and some extra information of the stockade which was useful and interesting.

i am very happy that this novel wasn't ruined with an "it was a dream" ending. towards the end i was worried that Jackie Frech would cop out have her wake up and say she was dreaming, but instead she gave us a propper believe ending, which left me wondering what happened to Sam but sure that she would get the help she needed and be happy.

Dodger

title: Dodger
Aurthur: Libby Gleeson
First Published: 1990 by Turton & Chambers

Mick is cast as the artful dodger in the school musical, Oliver. on the edge of the popular crowd he isn't sure what they'll think but after a couple of mishaps he is convinced to take the risk. but being in the musical doesn't always go smoothly. what mick doesn't know is that his history teacher Penny has stuck out her neck to have him in the musical because she wants to give him a hand. after a run in during the first lesson mick penny's special project, for reason she can't explain she is drawn to him. in a letter to her friend she writes "i see him as one of those immature kids who's got to prove himself to kids who are a bit older and a bit more established in groups or friendships. the responsibility of being in the play could be really good for him, make him grow up a bit". this is exactly what mick does, it also gives him a change to make some friends who aren't footballers who don't give a stuff. with all these changes stuff gets mixed up for mick and lots of old issues come to head, unfortunately in the middle of the play. mick had kept a lid on how he felt about his mother's death and his father working as a long distance truck driver for 3 years.

i really enjoyed this book and found it over all very realistic and easy to understand and relate to. the letters from history teacher penny to a friend help us get a very different view of mick and life as a teacher. for someone like me who is considering being a teacher she is exactly the type i want to be, interesting, nice, but still in control. it shows teachers in a much more human light which i think is a nice change, it's something i forget while I'm at school. the book flows very well but i found the ending a little sudden, i would have liked to know more about what happened after the musical. even though the ending was quite sudden it was a good ending. some novels about grieving over a death have very dramatic endings, with Dodger the ending was much closer to life. though this is a very good, and over all very realistic book i found how quickly and easily Mick turned his life around a bit fake. in my opinion at least, you don't just stop being friends with 2 popular and quite mean guys. especially because at the beginning he was very concerned of what they thought and what they would do. i also felt that time wise it was strange, at the start it was first term and suddenly it was third term. once you are caught in the story neither of those things things matter much. it was only when i got to the end and went WHAT!? that i noticed these faults.

this book was very good and a had subtlety i've never seen before in a book about a child losing their mother.