Everything is hard for Kasienka. She and her mother have travelled from Poland to Coventry in England. Mama hopes to find her husband who left the family. Kasienka is not hopeful. The first day of school is simply awful. Swimming is her only refuge.
The Weight of Water is a verse novel. I am a huge fan of verse novels. Here are a few text quotes which show the power of this writing and give you a glimpse of the plot:
Pale
The brown children
Play with the white children
The black children
Play with the brown children ...
I'm not welcome to play.
The reason I'm too white.
No-one likes too white,
Eastern white,
Polish winter white,
Vampire fright white.
Teachers
Why can't they see what's happening?
Why don't they notice the looks,
The smirks, the eye-rolling?
And why don't they ask if I'm OK?
I'll tell them I'm not.
Wanted
Mama is wasting money
We don't have.
She prints posters
With Tata's picture on them
And the word MISSING.
She makes one hundred copies
On purple paper,
So people will notice them
Stapled to the trees
Around Coventry.
I wish I knew how I found this book. I keep a 'list' of books I see that I want to read. A local bookseller was offering free freight so I ordered The weight of water. This is a profound and moving story and one I would like to put into the hands of many Young Adult readers.
You can find a reading guide on the Bloomsbury web site. You can see some pages from the book here. This is a Young Adult title for readers 13+ - the themes and strong language are not suitable for younger students.
Narrating in image-rich free verse that packs an emotional punch, Kasienka describes what life is like for a new arrival while also exploring universal themes of abandonment, loyalty, bullying and first love. Kirkus
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