reviews


somehow implies she isn’t entirely pleased that Cait’s shown up. It’s clear that something happened the previous summer involving Marko, Hannah and Ifan. Whatever it was, it had to do with a girl called Alys whose face, Hannah is certain, is on a Missing Poster which has recently appeared all over town. The others aren’t so sure it’s Alys on the poster, especially as the missing girl is called Ceri. Cait feels very much the outsider in the group. chapters,


During although these early


happens by way of events and there’s a fair amount of


chat, readers are getting to know Cait’s character;


she’s


nothing much inconsequential perceptive,


vulnerable, self-critical – yet wanting to reach out to others if she can. Then Bird switches time and pace


as Hannah takes up the story. Her chapter


is titled ‘Last Summer’,


when Alys had burst into the lives of Marko, Hannah and Ifan, persuading them to join her on a day’s expedition into Snowdonia. At a lake in the mountains, she challenges them to take risks which could easily be life- threatening. The boys can’t resist her dare; reluctantly – and painfully – Hannah follows. That day triggers revelations their


about themselves and feelings towards each other


which disturb all their lives. From now on, the narrative shifts between past and present and between Cait, Marko, Hannah and Ifan. Now we learn why Ifan initially seemed so preoccupied. Up at the lake, Alys had confided in Ifan, telling him she’s lost her mother and step-sister in a car crash which she survived; now she’s living with a step-father with whom she shares nothing but


loss, loneliness and


despair. ‘Being alone,’ [Alys] said, ‘Losing everything, Not being loved. These are my monsters ....Things always go wrong for me.’ Ifan is drawn helplessly closer to her than he’s ever been to anyone. One day of intense experiences; and Alys is gone. Those shifts in time and narrators


mean that although Cait may not know what happened the previous summer, readers have seen more than she has, and so can recognise the similarities between the emotional desolation Cait and Alys have both suffered through the death of a loving parent. As the mysteries


unfold,


things become clearer for Cait about her new friends and about her own life. Bird’s handling of the complex structure


is to be admired, as it


reveals the increasing understanding between her small cast of characters. The tensions of the story lie with the


psychological shifts, fed lifetimes still to be played out. GF by


only occasional dramatic incidents. Rightly, readers will surely feel, Bird avoids easy conclusions. There are


‘It was seven days of


14+Secondary/Adult continued The Stolen Ones


HHHHH


Vanessa Curtis, Usborne, 349pp, 9781474915038, £6.99 pbk


Lebensborn was the Nazi programme of either having German women of the right Aryan type bear babies by officers, or taking children from their homes in occupied territories if they fit the required description. This was in order to give children to Nazi couples unable to have their own children.


Inge, the only child of a


German army officer and his wife lives a happy existence in Munich in 1956. There are still reminders of the war around them, in the form of damaged buildings, and there is a portrait of Hitler in her father’s study. Inge has a secret boyfriend, Wilf, who is a Jew, and therefore cannot be introduced to her parents. A Polish woman comes one day to the house and sets in train a series of events that will shake Inge to the core, and shatter her family’s life. The woman is her mother who has come from Poland to find her after she was taken, aged four, to be part of the Lebensborm programme. This is a heart-rending story and


one wonders whether this is based on Vanessa Curtis’ own family history as the book is dedicated in part to the memory of her great-grandfather who was born in the Polish village from which Inge was taken.


Inge’s growing and spewed me out,’ seventeen


year old Saffron tells us. She shares the narrative of this maelstrom of emotions and incidents with Tom, her friend of many years. Saffron has much to learn and Shrimpton has much to teach through what at times becomes a modern morality tale. The author’s ‘Acknowledgements’ pages imply hands-on research into issues many of us know little about, though they are readily visible on our streets. Saffron’s home is affluent middle-


class. Dad’s a chartered surveyor and she and her two younger brothers have enjoyed every material comfort. However, ten or so years ago, Mum ‘walked to the shop to get some milk, and had never come back’. Dad told them Mum wasn’t well, that the police had found her, she was too ill to be visited; and, eventually, that she’d


died. Step-mother Melanie


arrived and a baby had soon followed. Saffron resents both of them. Now, Saffron has stumbled upon an old brief-case in the attic; its contents show that Dad’s been lying all along. Somewhere, Mum’s alive and well. Saffron packs a bag, rages at her father over the phone, and runs away. She hopes her old friend Tom can


The reader


follows the series of discoveries about her past and that of her parents with growing horror until the final horrifying climax of the story.


realisation that all she had taken from granted was based on a pack of lies and that things had been hidden from her, is beautifully unravelled, step by painful step, the saving grace being the comfort she finds with her boyfriend and his father. There were a couple of things that


perhaps stretched the credibility a little; would a Jewish father and son really have settled back in Munich after the death of Wilf’s mother in the concentration camp at Dachau not


too far away? The


give her a bed for the night – they’d met as kids in the park and their friendship has grown through the years, though Tom’s never invited her home to his council flat. No, he says, she can’t stay – no reason given, though we realise he has secrets of his own. From there, Saffron’s story unwinds rapidly into sleeping rough, getting to know several homeless people,


surviving grooming by a terrible


confrontation at the end somehow seemed a little too far, if horrifying, but these are small criticisms of what is a very good novel, showing a light on a perhaps not well known part of the Nazi story.


This reviewer could


not put this down and I am sure that particularly girls 14+ will find the same compulsion to sit and finish it in one sitting, travelling with Inge on her terrible journey of discovery. JF


The Colour of Shadows HHH


Phyllida Shrimpton, Hot Key Books, 360pp, 978 1 4714 0761 1, £7.99 pbk


revelations,


realisations and unexpected events that spun me round, shook me up


phoney charity worker. Tom never ceases to look out for her and, despite her furious rejections, her Dad and all her family (including bitch-witch Melanie) continue to beg her to come home. Some readers may empathise with Saffron’s sense of betrayal and think her courageous in facing her difficulties; others may think her petulant and self-absorbed. Even the ever-patient Tom points out that she’s never asked him anything about his life. Tom, incidentally, is something of a paragon: sensitive, articulate, loyal, funny, and so handy that he’s already refitting an old narrow boat in which he’ll one day sail away to explore the world. He’s also an old romantic - he won’t tell Saffron how he feels about her because he couldn’t offer her anything to match the home she’s used to. In turn, Saffron adores him but she doesn’t dare risk saying so for fear he’ll walk away. In Saffron’s week of revelations, she mostly learns about her own shortcomings through encounters with homeless people. Beneath the stench of booze and grime, Crazy Maggie, the town’s wild woman, turns out to have a ‘posh’ background and to be a trained musician. William’s life (and financial support) fell to bits when his parents were killed in a car on the M25 when they were driving him back for a new term at uni.


A Books for Keeps No.236 May 2019 31


couple of veterans suffering from PTSD are camped out under a road bridge. Middle-aged Ronnie lost his job and his home but is determined to climb back on the ladder. You’d guess that these characters – and their accounts of how they drift through their days – have grown directly from Shrimpton’s researches. Her concern that readers should see people, not stereotypes, is very evident. So often with YA fiction, adult


reviewers must surely wish they could listen


to teenage readers talking


together about a book. Comments on reading sites on the Internet range from ‘Loved it, especially Tom’ to ‘She’s a spoiled brat’.


It’s certainly


a novel to provoke strong reactions, perhaps in a school book group; which, no doubt, is what author and publisher would very much hope. GF


The Hand, the Eye and the Heart


HHHH


Zoe Marriott, Walker, 448pp, 9781406383546, £7.99 pbk


This story is set in an Imperial China at a time of insurrection and war. Zhilan has been brought up as a girl, the daughter of a famous warrior and has been taught the martial arts that their father was renowned for; they also have a secret talent for illusionary magic. When the Emperor calls for men to join the army Zhilan decides to take the place of their father and dressing as a young man enrols as a foot soldier. Now known as Zhi they have their


life altered dramatically


as they save the life of their general, who happens to be the Emperor’s nephew. What follows is a dramatic story of politics and intrigue, where it is almost impossible to know who to trust. The final element of this story is the part that Zhi plays in saving the life of the Emperor and unveiling a traitor within the inner court circle. This is a complex story that can


be read at several different levels. For those who want to, this can be seen as a straightforward story of a young girl who is forced to take on the role of a man because of social restrictions and her need to maintain family honour.


this is a story of a young person and their


struggle


On the other hand to learn their


true identity as a human being. We live in a world where we are more aware of the variation in the way that people think of themselves and this story beautifully deals with the questions and uncertainties that Zhi feels as they travel through a period of discovery and understanding. The themes are treated sympathetically and with a light touch so that we are always empathetic to the struggles the Zhi has to cope with.


This will


make a superb addition to the school library and will hopefully help young people in their questions about their own gender. MP


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