The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke by Kirsty Applebaum illustrated by Matt Saunders

Back cover blurb: What if you could save lives? What if, with just the touch of your hand, you could stop an animal, or even a person, dying? You'd do it, wouldn't you? But what if it meant you got older each time? Older and older ... until you had not time left yourself. Would you do it then?

Lonny lives with his father, grandfather and younger brother, Midge, in a remote part of the forest. Very early in the story you will get the sense that this family are hiding. As the story opens Lonny comes upon a rabbit that has been attacked by a fox. The rabbit is only minutes away from death. There is a strong buzzing in Lonny's head. Lonny has a special power. He reaches out and gently touches the rabbit. As Lonny watches the wounds are healed and the rabbit jumps up and hops away. But as you read in the blurb above there is a price for this healing. Lonny has aged a little more. He is twelve but he looks and sounds much older. This is not the first time he has touched a dying creature.

The family are only just surviving in their remote hide away. Mr Quicke repairs old pocket watches but there as not too much demand for these. When a fox kills all but one of their precious chickens Lonny decides to head into the nearest town called Farstoke for work. The lady who buys the repaired watches offers to take him and Midge also tags along. When they arrive in the city everyone is preparing for a festival - the festival that celebrates Lifelings. People in Farstoke have created stories about Lifelings. Many people probably don't even believe they are real but Lonny is a Lifeling and Alison, mother of his new friends Erin and Katy is gravely ill. Click these review quotes for more plot details.

Sometimes middle grade literature can pose the biggest questions with such grace, and this is one of those titles. Did you Ever stop to Think

As with all of Applebaum’s works, friendship runs strongly as a theme throughout with the constant pull of opposing forces drawing the reader into the action of the story – safety and freedom, life and death, friendship and isolation.  Just Imagine

Have you read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt?  This book poses similar questions about power over life and death. 

The Life and Time of Lonny Quick is one of those books that became my reading obsession last week. I kept trying to snatch reading minutes so I could find out what would happen to Lonny. I want to give this book five stars but, while the ending was very, very dramatic, the final pages were a little too perfect (and devastating) but having said that please please don't let that stop you reading this wonderful and thought provoking book. I also had a few unanswered questions about Lonny's grandfather - but again this is not meant to be a criticism. 

Nosy Crow blurb: Lonny is a lifeling. He has the power to heal any living creature and bring it back from the dead. But he pays a price for this gift – by lengthening the creature’s life, he shortens his own. So Lonny has to be careful, has to stay hidden in the forest. Because if people knew what he could do, Lonny would be left with no life at all…

You can read the first few pages on the Nosy Crow web site. This book was published only two days ago (as I pen this post). The paperback edition is fairly expensive but I do highly recommend this book for readers aged 10+.  With just 270 illustrated pages and a very fast paced plot this is a book you will want to devour in one or two sessions. Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance copy of The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke.

One more thing.  Have a think about the title.  The Life - Lonny's life - and time - time is precious, time is short, we all live one life - of Lonny Quicke.  If you think about the bible words "the quick and the dead" quick in this context means alive and quicken (verb) means revive or make alive. 

I loved a previous book by Kirsty Applebaum - Troofriend. And I have just ordered her first book The Middler. 

Matt Saunders (illustrator of The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke) also designed the cover for The Threads of Magic.