This is a place of staffies and cider and exhaust pipe smoke.'
You know where you are immediately, you really understand where Nate, his two brothers and his mum live in just a few sentences.
Nate tells us about his brothers and their life and the 'darkness' that surfaced (or rather, exploded) in year two, although mum says he's being throwing tantrums for a long time. Things are put in place - therapy, councelling, learning breathing techniques - that all help Nate to cope when the darkness starts to rise.
It's a week before year five ends and the transition day reveals that Nate and his best friend will be in seperate classes and Nate will be having the new year six teacher. This is where the meat of the story begins and it's best if I let you discover that for yourself, but let me tell you why you should. It's poetry and it's glorious. It is so free,the spacing/shaping/capitalisation of the text is so clever - the spaces say as much as the text. Joe Todd Stantons illustrations serve to elevate the text too, sensitive and brilliant as always.
This is such a love letter to David Almond's stories. In his own tale, Nate feels like Almond is writing about him and his place in the world and the assosiations only become stronger as the story develops. I love the way the characters are written, you are invested in them from the get go. Mum is loving, funny, feisty, flawed and lonely, striving to keep her head above water. The brothers have strong bonds and keep each other putting one foot in front of the other. All three brothers have different fathers but Nate's dad is the one his mum misses. Their neighbour, Aunty San, helps mum in her loneliness and this friendship is beautifully but delicately drawn and I loved it ( I think a child may just skip over it but as an adult I thought it leapt from the page)
The lay out of the book- sorry to go back to that again! - just perfectly portrays the way life and emotions expand and contract, sometimes spaced and free, sometimes tight and constricting, sometimes sparse and desolate.
Matt and Todd have really nailed this. Exquisitley drawn characters and setting. A story that should feel bleak but ultimately feels truthful, honest, hopeful and is peppered with such heart and poignancy.
" A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good story in the slightest." C.S. Lewis had it right on the money there!