Book Review: The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Book Review: The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Monday 30 April 2018

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If you would have told me, a few months ago, that I would be reading a debut novel about a Chinese immigrant in New York City and loved it as much as I did, I would probably have been pretty surprised about it. Not because of the genre, or because of the culture, but because I never imagined that I would love a book as much as I did this one.

Let me start by saying that Ko’s prose is beautifully written – I found myself instantly attracted to the novel, primarily because of the bold colour of its beautiful cover and then because of the way it presents itself as a piece of literature. Instantly I was sucked into the story and wanted to delve as deep as possible to understand the reasoning behind Deming’s mother’s disappearance. Deming naturally feels resentment for his mother after she disappears without a trace after heading to work for the day. This resentment builts to the extent that he has absolutely no interest in finding out what happened ot her – until of course, he hears news of her and the natural, questioning instinct of humanity sets itself upon his mind. He feels guilt for wondering about her, having been adopted by a middle-class American couple shortly after his mother left. He is the only Chinese boy in his year group at school and he quickly establishes himself quite unintentionally as the outsider – making friends with another outsider, a Mexican boy who he later plays in a band with.

The second part of the story directly parallels the first part and we hear Polly’s side of the story and follow her journey as immigrant from China to self-sacrificing mother in the States. In doing this, she aims for freedom but this does not happen to her in the way she desires.

It is clear that Deming feels a significant degree of cultural displacement, struggling to fit in within the white suburban family he is adopted by and feeling locked down by his adoptive parents’ expectations – they want him to succeed so that they succeed in themselves and in their task to socialise this seemingly ‘lost’ child. Ko, as the author, does well in subtly critiquing this, depicting the family as being unintentionally condescending in a society where migrants and minorities are seemingly overlooked.

There’s a reason why this book was a bestseller in the US and I have no doubts that it will have similar success here in the UK.

4.5/5.

Exploring Children’s Literature #3 – Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo

Exploring Children’s Literature #3 – Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo

Wednesday 25 April 2018

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When I was 10 years old, I was introduced to the wonder of Michael Morpurgo through Kensuke’s Kingdom. Of all of the books I read whilst at school when I was a child, there are only two that I specifically remember studying and being completely engaged by – this one, and The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson. Morpurgo’s style of writing thrilled me beyond any feeling I’ve ever experienced and it is probably his influence that encouraged my love of reading further. Since reading this book, I have read countless books by him and am constantly on the look-out for new releases.

Now that I am a primary school teacher myself, using class readers to help with engagement and encourage children to read good quality literature makes a lot more sense to me than it did back then. I’ve realised it wasn’t necessarily just the book that attracted me, but the way it was taught- with insightful activities, memorable pieces of artwork and an enthusiasm that came directly from the class teacher. I have learnt that to encourage a child to love a book, you have to love it yourself, so being able to teach Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo this half term has definitely allowed for that intention.  

Anyone that knows me well will know that, as well as my love of books, I have a love of football and of the wartime period. This book manages to combine all three of my loves and brings us a story full of beauty but also incredible sadness. Reading this story aloud to a group of children full of innocence and belief in the world is poignant – they understand how deep the words are and the room is brought to a complete hush as I read.

The story follows Billy, an 80 year old man looking back on his life. He reveals his talent as a footballer and how, back in the day, he played professionally for Chelsea Football Club. He tells of the trials and tribulations that he experienced to get to the point, including the loss of his father and later on, the loss of his brother in the Second World War. It is this loss that finally breaks him and he signs up to join the army- specifically, to drive ambulances – to make his brother proud of him and as a means of allowing himself forgiveness for the war he treated the same brother when he told of his decision to enlist. His war days are told in detail and his suffering is vast – to the extent where he returns from the war, years later, a changed man – he comes back to nothing and no-one and has to make do with living on the street. It isn’t until he meets a young family who understand his difficulties, take pity on him, that he realises the extent of his trauma.

This book is beautiful. I’ve noticed recently when reading war based literature that it can often be problematic- this book, for the most part, comes without political agenda. The story focuses more on Billy and his personal experiences of the war, as opposed to the experiences of the war as a whole. Morpurgo writes in a way that is enjoyable to both adult and children, and I am not at all embarrassed to admit that the story brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion. (Embarrassingly - on the train. Why do I always read heart-wrenching books on the train?)  My class and I are around three quarters of the way through the story and they too are enjoying it immensely. The work that’s being produced as a result of the reading is fantastic.

I can’t wait to read Morpurgo’s newest book Flamingo Boy in the coming weeks – I imagine I’ll love it just as much as I loved this one.

4.5/5.

Goodreads: The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

Goodreads: The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

Saturday 7 April 2018

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I’m really getting back into the swing of this reading thing, aren’t I? Get me, with yet another book review! Last week, my friend and I were lucky enough to be invited to a brunch at Santa Maluco and inevitably, brunch led to a little shopping trip and a shopping trip wouldn’t be a true shopping trip if it didn’t end in new book purchases. I was quite good, all things considered, and only left Waterstones with two books: The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed and A Hero in France by Alan Furst. I’d heard a lot about the former online and thought it was about time I found out what all the fuss was about. The second book was a bit of a spontaneous purchase, but sounds like it’ll be right up my street – historical fiction at its finest. The Nowhere Girls is of course the purpose of this blog post so enough babbling on about nothing, Hol. Let’s get stuck into the review.

The Nowhere Girls is set in a high school in the States and revolves around a trio of girls who come together with the sole intentions of avenging the rape of a girl from their school. In a particularly misogynistic environment, the victim of the rape is made into a laughing stock and driven from the school with absolutely no consequences for the boys who committed the act. Grace Salter has just moved to the town after her and her family were run out of their town because of her mother’s more liberal views towards life in a particularly conservative church constituency. Rosina Suarez is the daughter of a family of Mexican immigrants who dreams of becoming the next big thing in the rock n roll world. Erin Delillo is neurodivergent, obsessed with Star Trek, and has a secret of her own that she hasn’t even shared with her best friend. Seperately, the girls lead lives that aren’t particularly intriguing – they are not cool, they are not popular, and they are certainly nothing special – but together they make up the forefront of the Nowhere Girls, a revolution created to fight sexual abuse and change the misogynistic views that had settled in the minds of the town’s inhabitants. As a group, they meet, inviting the female population of their school to join them – to raise awareness and collectively make the decision to refuse sexual contact of any kind until they start receiving the respect they deserve. They raise the importance of understanding that sex is not a right- it is something that someone chooses to do, without the sense of entitlement that a lot of the men around them seem to have.

The book focuses on the perspectives of multiple characters throughout and is incredibly poignant. It’s very rare that I read a book that has such a massive affect on me. I found myself unable to put the book down, whizzing through it in a matter of hours and feeling the need to talk all about it at every possible opportunity. Just like The Hate U Give, the book focuses on a topic that needs to be talked about and approached in a thoughtful way; and if people stop talking, remind them of it. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to some people, as there are quite detailed accounts of sexual assault, and there are also (intentional) examples of racism in the pages. Immediately, the principal of the school decides that the only person who could possibly be responsible for creating the group is Rosina, the ‘angry’ Mexican in a principally white town.

The book is dark- there’s absolutely no hiding that fact. In spite of this, it is beautifully written and gets its message across well and truly. It paints positivism and shames victim shaming. Amy Reed has done a mighty fine job here, and I’ll be recommending this book to everyone who asks for the foreseeable future.

4.5/5