Flying Through Water by Mamle Wolo

We all grabbed bailing vessels. Thunder cracked, and lightning streaked across the sky like a celestial tree revealing its branches for a split second. I felt as though I were caught in a different dimension where death was as present as life, and everything was elemental and terrifying.

I thought about this world and the things we humans struggled for, and all the ways in which we imprisoned ourselves, and each other. It seemed to me that greed was just as much of a prison as poverty, only worse. Here I was alone on this island in the middle of nowhere, stripped of whatever meager possessions I had ever owned. And yet in nature’s heart I felt liberated and endowed with a splendor beyond anything humans could ever purchase. 

What greater wealth was there in this world than freedom?

This story is told in three parts. Sena describes his life in Ghana and his special relationship with is grandfather who tells him stories of his village life before the artificial creation of Volta Lake and the Akosombo Dam. Sena lives with his mother, sister and baby brother. They are very poor but he has been able to go to school. His education is not perfect and the teachers are often absent and they do beat the students but if he can sit the final exam there is the promise of further education and hopefully a better life for his family. But there is a young man who visits their village with promises to the young boys of work and money and perhaps even adventures. Sena is suspicious of this flashy man who they call 'Jack of Diamonds' and he has heard stories of boys sent to work with cattle - boys who are given little or no food and forced to work in dreadful conditions. Sena is determined not to follow this path but then his grandfather dies, his mother is gravely ill with malaria and his best friend declares he is heading away to work because he is sure the promises from 'Jack of Diamonds' are true. 

Sena loves his family and he really wants to help them so after his final exam he leaves a letter under his sister's pillow and he heads off - what he does not know is that this will be a journey into hell. So begins part two. Sena is taken to work as a slave for a cruel master catching fish and diving deep into treatrous waters to untangle the fishing nets. He is given virtually no food, he is beaten and the group of about ten boys are forbidden to talk to each other except about their tasks. Yes this is illegal human trafficking. Can Sena escape? Where will he go? What will happen if he is caught? He does befriend one of the boys and then that boy is killed - possibly murdered by their master - so now Sena must leave. He arrived at this place terrified of water and unable to swim. After several months of this cruel work he can now swim but he is still terrified of the dark water and the waves and he has not learned how to float. Part 3 is all about survival because he does find his way to a small deserted island with only monkeys for company but of course he must also find a way to get back to his family. He also carries huge guilt about the boys he left behind and he has made a new wonderful discovery of a special and rare underwater animal - the lake Manatee. The book ends with a sense of hope for the future for Sena himself but also for other trafficked boys and hopefully also for this very special wild creature who is also trapped in the waters of this lake.

Here are a few text quotes from this book:

Treatment by teachers: The humiliation hurt almost more than the lashes, but I hardened myself to it even though it upset me that the teachers beat us when they knew how hard our lives were. They knew we weren’t late out of laziness or what they called I-don’t-care-ism. But I got used to that too—the callousness of powerful people and the way they didn’t care what was fair.

Kekeli - a description: She had a round face, and when she smiled it was as if the distance between her lips and chin had been measured with a protractor and traced with a compass, their curves were so perfectly parallel. Her laughter was like that of a baby discovering funniness for the first time and too little to contain it. She could spark off the whole class.

Grandfather the storyteller: He said stories took us where our legs couldn’t go and showed us what our eyes couldn’t see, and that the best thing about books was that they were still there when storytellers were gone. I could see what he meant when I thought that one day, he wouldn’t be here to tell us stories anymore—a prospect I quickly banished. I loved his stories more than any I’d read in books.

Jack of Diamonds: Everyone was excited and following his every move, but something in me held back. I wondered if I was the only one to whom his mannerisms seemed somehow familiar, as if he’d studied them on someone else, like Shatta Wale or Burna Boy. Perhaps I was just being silly, but it made me uneasy that we couldn’t see his eyes, because he never took off his sunglasses. And it was amazing how he kept that black jacket on in this heat.

Publisher blurb: Sena treasures his life in rural Ghana-playing soccer, working the family farm, striving to do his best at school-but he is increasingly aware of his family's precarious security in the face of poverty. When an alluring gentleman comes to town to befriend local teenagers, offering promises of a better future, it only takes one more unsettling turn of events to send Sena into the clutches of human traffickers. Sena's ordeal, escape, and remarkable survival makes for a page-turning adventure of self-discovery and empowerment.

Searing and eye-opening, readers will devour Sena’s story in a day. School Library Journal

Wolo skillfully sheds light on the horrific practice of the trafficking of children, and the grim situations many are forced to live and work in—but she also tells a story of hope and perseverance. The vividly described settings include imagery that paints the scenes for readers as the story unfolds. A powerful look at human suffering and the will to survive. Kirkus Star review

Jack of Diamonds turns out to be a pied piper for a human trafficking network and thus, Sena finds that he has been sold into indentured labour to a fisherman who employs a motley crew of children, some as young as three, in a bid to compete with foreign trawlers working the Volta Lake. Cold and brutish, Sena’s master is a formidable antagonist, the like of which populates Dickensian novels, but the real villain here is the systemic poverty that has left intergenerational scars and threatens the possibility of a future for its under aged victims, who are malnourished, overworked, and constantly exposed to the risk of drowning. The Lagos Review

Fans of Hatchet and A Long Walk to Water will find Flying Through water an engrossing book. Sadly I have no idea how I discovered this book - I must have seen it recommended somewhere.

Listen to an audio sample here. This book only in hardcover so far is too expensive here in Australia (AUS$32.50) but I read a copy on a Kindle.

I recommend this moving and atmospheric story for readers aged 12+ especially those with an interest in social justice. Your senior students could also investigate the work of our Australian organisation that assists victims of modern slavery - The Freedom Hub.

I recently read this book which also explores the topic of human trafficking:

Stitched up

Stitched Up by Steve Cole

Hanh is sold by her parents to two strangers who offer her a good job as a shop assistant in distant Hanoi. She and other girls from her village are taken to the city but that's when all the promises are broken. They are locked inside a factory, fed only rice, they are only allowed to use the bathroom twice a day, and all of them are forced to work in very dangerous factory conditions manufacturing jeans for the fast fashion industry. Perfectly good denim is distressed by sandblasting. Fabrics are dropped into vats of dangerous chemicals. Machines are used to press creases into the legs of the pants. And embellishments are added by machine and by hand. The young overseer girl wields a stick and she beats any child who does not perform their tasks quickly. Quotas, money and greed drive this industry. Reading this book will most certainly make you reconsider that next purchase of fast fashion.

The story does have a resolution but clearly Hanh will be damaged for the rest of her life and her parents suffer from the most dreadful guilt. They never did receive the promised money. In this book you can read about modern slavery and organisations who are working to rescue children like Hanh and her friends. There is also an afterword about ways to avoid fast fashion. I had no idea 8,000 litres of water are used to make one pair of jeans 

This book is from the Barrington Stoke (Dyslexia friendly) book series. They produce books for all ages and this one is most certainly a Young Adult title for mature readers aged 12+.

You're going to read about the processes which go into the manufacture of garments such as the jeans. They're complex and require a great deal of skill. Hanh and the other girls get just two poor meals a day and are allowed only two toilet breaks. Violence is commonplace - and vicious. No account is taken of any illnesses or injuries: the girls are, after all, expendable. It's a dreadful situation but Steve Coles tells the story with sensitivity and compassion but still manages not to shy away from the brutal truth about why fast-fashion clothes are so cheap. BookBag

Children who are passionate about social justice are sure to devour this book. Scope for Imagination

In the context of a High School this book could be used in many different ways. If your school runs a social justice program this book explores modern slavery. This book is also about textile manufacturing and in particular 'trendy' jeans with distressed fabrics, rips and tears and embellishments and so it could be used in Design and Tech. If you have a group of students exploring the UN Rights of the child this book could be added to a wide reading list.

Here are all the titles in this series by Steve Cole:

I would pair Stitched up with these books:

Amal Unbound

Street Child by Berlie Doherty

When we meet Jim, he is living in extreme poverty with his mother who is clearly extremely unwell and his two sisters. Jim spends their last coins on a hot pie (with plenty of gravy). It really is the last coin and so it is not long until they find themselves evicted. Mrs. Jarvis takes the children to a house where she once worked. She is able to leave the two girls there but not Jim. They walk off into the night and then she collapses in the street. Jim lives in fear of the workhouse but that is exactly where he is taken now that his mother has died. 

Jim adapts to the brutal life in the workhouse, but he dreams of escape. One day the opportunity to do just this arises but Jim has no idea that he is about to lose his freedom again.

"Nick thrust a shovel at Jim. The basket hovered just above the hold and Nick eased it down and steadied it and started shoveling coal into it ... Jim stabbed at the coals with his shovel. He had to lift it nearly as high as himself before he could tip it into the basket, and the few coals he managed to lift slid off and bumped against him."

The hours of this are long and dangerous. Jim is hardly given any food and Nick controls Jim by using his ferocious dog. It feels as though Jim will never escape.

Street Child was first published in 1993. I have listed this book for senior primary ages 10+. It looks like a junior book with only 170 pages but the violence and cruelty inflicted on young Jim Jarvis are sure to upset very sensitive readers. There were times I had to stop and take a breath as I read the way Grimy Nick treated Jim.

On her web page Berlie Doherty has links to a wealth of materials associated with this book.

Bookseller blurb: When his mother dies, Jim Jarvis is left all alone in London. He is sent to the workhouse but quickly escapes, choosing a hard life on the streets of the city over the confines of the workhouse walls. Struggling to survive, Jim finally finds some friends… only to be snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe. Will Jim ever manage to be free? (This is) the unforgettable tale of an orphan in Victorian London, based on the boy whose plight inspired Dr Barnardo to found his famous children’s homes.

I have shared four cover designs because I think this can be a good discussion starter with a class - talking about which cover the students like and why and aspects of cover design such as placement of the title, font, colour choices, and the way a cover might help you predict the plot of a story. 

Here is the Kirkus review. Book Bag review.

I do need to give a word of warning about Barnardos homes. Wikipedia says: "Barnardo's was also implicated in (the) inquiry for sending British children to Australia in the mid-20th century, where some were tortured, ... and enslaved. Barnardo's acknowledges its role in this "well intentioned" but "deeply misguided" policy supported by the government of the time."  I would not use Street Child as an impetus to research Dr Bernado and his charity, but you could use parts of this book to explore life in Victoria England and also with an older group as a way to talk about the United Nations Rights of the Child. As an adult reader if you are curious about Bernardos take a look at this article. 

Companion books:

The Fortune Maker

The Truth about Verity Sparks

A Very Unusual Pursuit

My Friend the Octopus

Other books by Berlie Doherty:

Carnegie Medal winner

Carnegie Medal winner

The Children of Nuala by Malachy Doyle

Blurb: A long time ago, before you were born, or your grandmother was born, or your grandmother's mother before her, in a land far away, lived Olan. Olan's evil father is a magician and Olan has been born with a heart of ice. When he marries a beautiful woman called Nuala, Olan casts a terrible spell upon her children. But as his icy heart starts to melt, he realizes what he has done and he sets out to bring his family back together.

Olan marries Nuala who has lost her young husband - he has drowned and she is left with her four children - Connor, Cormac, Liam and Fionnuala. His jealousy of the love their mother shows the children allows his magician father to send a dreadful curse from far away:

"Three years you must spend under the cruel spell of my father. One year as swans, a second as blackbirds and third as ducks. Only then will you regain your human form."

Olan decides he and Nuala cannot stay on the island of Inchageela but with every move to a new place the birds - either swans, blackbirds or ducks, follow them. Each move is motivated by jealousy until finally Nuala is able to explain she can love Olan and at the same time also love her children - who now are able to return to her in human form and joy of joys there is a new baby in the family too.

I have been helping a friend in her two school libraries with stocktake (inventory) and also weeding (culling) her collections especially the fiction, picture books and lately the short chapter books. That is where I found this strange book. It is an old book published in 1998 but it is in really good condition mainly because Faber and Faber used really good paper. This is a slim book with only 47 illustrated pages but I think it would better suit an older audience of readers aged 10+. 

This story is based on an Irish folk tale and it also has strong links to one of my most favourite fairy tales - The Wild swans.

With a group of older students, you could seek out the original Irish tale - The Children of Lir and also it would be interesting to compare this story with Paradise Sands which won an award from our Children's Book Council of Australia in 2023.

Paradise Sands

Here are the details of this edition

Luna by Holly Webb illustrated by Jo Anne Davies

Hannah and her family visit a Christmas market in Dresden. Hannah sees a small bear puppet toy and the seller shows her how the bear can dance. Hannah finds this quite upsetting, but she convinces her father to buy her the little bear. In the middle of that night Hannah finds herself in a different place and time - a barn with two bears - one huge and one cub. She meets a young boy who is trying to rescue the cub. He has witnessed the hunters capturing the wild creature to use in their dreadful dancing act. Hannah is a stranger, but she is able to help Matthias. Even though the mother bear has been killed the new friends find another bear in the forest who immediately bonds with the little cub - giving readers the promise of that all-important happy ending.

This book was a generous gift from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything and it reminded me of an Australian picture book from many years ago. 

Here is the Kirkus review

Luna has a junior looking cover and only 176 pages with illustrations but the topic of cruelty to animals which is explored in this book and the timeslip format mean this book is better suited to readers aged 10+.

Holly Webb needs more than one shelf in a library - she says: "Quite often people ask how many books I’ve written. At the moment, it’s 156!"

Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Matthew Cordell

What are people for?

Okay, before I tell you about Leeva at Last, I want you to locate your own book wish list or library shopping list and add this book NOW! Readers aged 9+ will LOVE meeting Leeva and her friends and teachers are also sure to thoroughly enjoy reading this book as a class serial story - not with work sheets - just for the joy of a terrific story with that all important very happy ending. There are 54 short chapters in this book which has 300 pages set in a good size font with a sprinkling of illustrations by Matthew Cordell. Fans of Matilda will love meeting brave Leeva as will readers who enjoyed Flora and Ulysses -The illuminated adventures by Kate DiCamillo.

Leeva Thornblossom has the most despicable parents you will ever meet in a story unless you have met Matilda's parents from the famous book by Roald Dahl and also the parents from The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry but to me these parents seem even worse than all of those. Mayor Thornblossom and her husband Dolton only care about fame (that's the Mayor) and money (that's her dad). Now that Leeva is old enough she has become their slave. She cooks, cleans, mows the lawn and completes money problems for her father who is the town treasurer. These parents are so completely dreadful I can hardly begin to describe them. Here is an example showing how Leeva got her name:

Nurse Blackberry needs Mayor Thornblossom to fill in the birth certificate forms for her new baby. The Mayor has been so demanding.

"She was fed up, ready to snap. And now here she was, holding the birth certificate, asking what the new baby' name was and hearing in reply, 'Don't you know who I am? You do it, nurse!'. Well, Nurse Blackberry snapped. 'Look! The last name is filled in already: Thornblossom! All that's left is ... "first name. Middle name ... leave a space."

"Each time her parents related the story, they cackled in glee. But Leeva knew it wasn't funny. In fact, it was a pitiful thing to have been named so carelessly."

And here is how Leeva makes her own shoes from the packets which contain her father's daily food called Cheezaroni:

"Cheezaroni bore a glancing resemblance to macaroni and cheese, except that the macaroni and the cheese were indistinguishable from each other and they were both indistinguishable from the box, so even when you followed the instructions perfectly, what you ended up with was a flavourless cardboardy mash that smelt powerfully of feet."

"They were her sandals - a fairly new pair. She was proud of these shoes, which she fashioned by molding tinfoil Cheezaroini trays around her feet, then strapping them on with masking tape. In winter, she molded a second Cheezaroni tray over the top of each foot to keep the heat in. The shoes were never comfortable, and the tape left itchy bands around her ankles, but the silvery flash they made when they caught the light was lovely."

More about those parents:

"Now, Reader, Leeva had known her mother and father were liars, of course. According to the stories they told each other at night, lying was pretty much all they did in their jobs ... But it had never occurred to her that they would lie to her, their own daughter."

Her father is greedy and obsessed with making and saving money and her mother is vain, greedy and obsessed with becoming famous.

Luckily, yes there is always a luckily, next door to her house Leeva discovers a library. Harry, nephew of the librarian Mrs Pauline Flowers (yes she is just like Miss Honey) gives Leeva a precious library card and the courage to step away from her parents and all their tortuous rules. Mrs Flowers also gives Leeva perfect books, delicious cookies every day, yummy lunches and later a flask of extra cold milk. Leeva also discovers toast for the first time thanks to the kind librarian.

Things that brighten Leeva's day:

• The daily newspaper - the Nutsmore Weekly and their word of the day. 
• The television soap opera - The Winds of our Tides - this is where Leeva has learnt about 'real life'.
• The program Vim and Vigor at any Age - a television exercise program
• Cookies made by Mrs Flower - chocolate chunk with toasted hazelnuts; Champurradas from Guatemala; and many more from every country in the world
• Wonderful library books such as Charlotte's Web; New Kid; Where the mountain meets the Moon; Bud, not Buddy; Other words for Home; One Crazy Summer; and Because of Winn Dixie.  By the end of her first week she has read 70 books!
• Her new "pet" Bob the badger
• Special friends - Osmund, Fern, Harry and his aunt.

There is a lot of slap-stick humour in this book BUT there are also some precious and tender moments. Leeva has never had a hug. She has never eaten hot toast with butter. She has no idea about gingersnaps. And she can only braid her her into two plaits. No mother or father have ever touched her or her hair, but she longs for a braid like her new friend Fern - a single perfect braid, with every hair in place. 

When her parents finally ban her from leaving the house ever again, Osmund arrives to find out what has happened. One lovely day some weeks ago he gave Leeva a comb - one of the first presents she had ever received.

"He pointed at the comb in Leeva's hand. 'Give it to me.' Leeva hesitated. It would hurt her to return the first thing she'd every owned all to herself. But as last she held it out. Osmund took the comb. He stood up. 'Turn around.' Although Leeva suspected Osmund would run away now, she turned around. She held her breath, waiting to hear his boots clomp out of the park. ... And then she felt him tug the rubber bands from her braids. She felt him unweave her braids and comb out her hair. She felt him divide it into three sections and lay the sections, right-over-centre, left-over-center, .... into a single braid down the middle of her back."

Read these reviews:

Splendid fun. Kirkus

Nobody’s parents are perfect, but Leeva’s are the worst. Even worse than those you might have met in Roald Dahl’s story of that long-suffering girl, Matilda.  Books for Keeps

I marvel at the variety of books written by Sara Pennypacker from the serious survival book Pax, the fun of Clementine and the powerful environmental message of Sparrow Girl.

Pax and Pax: Journey Home

Clementine

Waylon

Sparrow Girl

Little Sure Shot by Matt Ralphs

Annie lives in Ohio. Her real name is Phoebe Anne Mosey. She lives with her Pa, Ma, four older sisters, a baby sister and a young brother. They are poor but surviving and this is a loving family. Annie is a little different from her siblings because she loves to go out with Pa hunting and he can see she has skill so he is teaching her, even though she is only six, to load his gun and how to shoot wild animals to give the family food. 

Pa sets out one day with grain for the Mill but on his return journey the weather takes a terrible turn and Pa arrives home frozen and desperately unwell. The family all try to keep him alive in the hope that he might recover but sadly, after a few months Pa dies. Things now become desperate and so Ma is forced to give her baby to a childless couple and then she decides Annie will need to go to the Infirmary. Luckily the people there are kind and Annie can eat well and have some freedom but all of this is cut short when a farmer requests a girl to come and help his wife with her new baby. Annie does not want to go but there is a promise of $2 to be sent to her Ma each week. 

Mr and Mrs Grace are despicable people. They starve Annie and beat her but she stays and tries to survive in this horrible place because she knows the money will be helping her family. Little does she know (spoiler alert) no money is actually being sent. Eventually the violence becomes so bad that Annie runs away back to the Infirmary. Now her luck and fortunes change. Annie is very skilled with a gun and this comes to the attention of a local butcher. He enters her in shooting competitions and she begins to win some money - enough money to help her family. Then Annie comes to the attention of a hotel owner and he takes her to see a sharp shooter called Frank Butler. From there she goes on to meet Chief Sitting Bull (yes this really did happen to Annie Oakley) and later Buffalo Bill or Wild Bill Cody. She joins his show with her new husband Frank Butler and she then travels all over the US, Canada and even Europe.  

Publisher blurb: Annie’s family work hard to survive on their Ohio farm. Annie’s happiest when hunting game with her pa, and she doesn’t care one bit that it’s not the kind of thing girls are meant to do. When tragedy strikes, the family is thrown into deepest poverty. Until one day, Annie dares to pick up Pa’s old rifle, and find a way to feed her starving family. As the family’s fortunes worsen, Annie is sent away to work, and life becomes an ever greater struggle. Yet Annie has the courage and pluck to survive – and her brilliance with a rifle starts to gain her more than just turkeys for the pot. Can Annie’s amazing skills take her all the way to fame and fortune?

Little Sure Shot is the story of Annie Oakley but readers will not know this until the final pages and the Afterword. I really enjoyed this story of courage and survival. As a young reader I loved books set in the pioneering days of the US such as the Little House books and Children of the Oregon Trail. Readers who enjoy stories about real people are sure to enjoy meeting Annie. I was totally caught up in her story. I sat down to read a few chapters of Little Sure Shot just after breakfast today and I then I kept reading right to the end (287 pages).

I do need to give a warning - the book is filled with guns and shooting and also the domestic violence in the scenes with Mr and Mrs Grace are very distressing. I would recommend this book for mature readers aged 11+.

Shot-through with courage and adventure, Ralphs’ rendering of Oakley’s incredible rags-to-riches story is an inspiration. Love Reading4Kids

Read more about Annie Oakley:

National Women's History Museum

History.com

Companion read:

May B: A novel

Matt Ralphs is the author of Fire Girl and Fire Witch - two books which totally engrossed me. Little Sure Shot is very different in setting and style but it is just as engrossing. 

I was a Rat or the Scarlet Slippers by Philip Pullman

I was a Rat or the Scarlet Slippers is a classic book. I was sure I had talked about it previously here. It is a book I regularly recommended as a class read aloud for Grade 4 or 5. 

Publisher blurb: Standing in the moonlight was a little boy in a page's uniform . . . 'Bless my soul'! said Bob. 'Who are you?' When a small boy turns up on the doorstep of old Bob the cobbler and Joan the washerwoman, all he can tell them is 'I was a rat!'. But who is he really, and where has he come from? A wonderful, funny, surprising and sharply-observed re-telling of Cinderella.

I first read this book back when it was published in 1999. I am happy to report it is still in print and in paperback and available for a reasonable price too. Oddly there was so much of the plot I had forgotten. Some of the scenes are actually quite confronting.

Here are a few text quotes to give you an idea of this book:

"Standing in the moonlight was a little boy in a page's uniform. It had once been smart, but it was sorely torn and stained, and the boy's face was scratched and grubby."

"Joan came to the table with a bowl of warm bread and milk. She put it in front of the boy and without a second's pause he put his face right down into the bowl and began to guzzle it up directly, his dirty little hands gripping the edge of the table."

"The poor little boy was an orphan, and grief had turned his mind, and he'd wandered away from the orphanage he must have been living in."

"As soon as he saw the pencils, he fell in love with them. His whole heart longed for them. So while the lady and Bob and Joan leant across the desk talking, Roger's hand crept off his lap and slowly, carefully, over to the jar. ... (eventually) they all turned to Roger. He looked up, pleased to be noticed, but a little guilty too. The stump of the pencil was just sticking out of his mouth, and he quickly sucked it inside and pressed his lips together; but the lead had marked his mouth, and there were little flecks of red paint all round it too."

Bob and Joan take the little boy, now named Roger, to the council, to the orphanage, to the police, and to the hospital but no one seems able to help and no one has reported a missing boy. The hospital advise sending the little boy to school but that is a disaster. Roger has no pencil so the teacher makes him stand in the corner. Then when she threatens to strike him he bites her hand. Roger is taken to the headmaster.

"No one had ever heard a scream like that. When a boy went to be caned, he tried as hard as he could to make no noise at all, and some of the toughest ones managed to stop themselves from even whimpering ... But not even the most babyish victim would have screamed as long and as wildly as Roger was screaming."

Roger is so frightened he runs away. Luckily the police catch him after he knocks into a stall at the market, and he is taken back to Bob and Joan. Rumours about this strange boy begin to circulate and he comes to the attention of the Philosopher Royal. He tells Bob and Joan Jones that he will take the boy to the palace so he can study him further. This pompous man bamboozles the cobbler and his wife so they agree to let Roger go just for the day with the promise he will return in the evening but once again Roger is terrified this time by a cat and so he escapes back into the city. 

At this point the story becomes quite sinister. Roger is taken by a man who displays curiosities. Usually his exhibits are fakes but Roger keeps insisting he was a rat and so the man named Mr Tapscrew sets up a horrible cage and puts Roger into a dirty rat costume and then puts him on display. 

"We still need a bit more filth and squalor. It looks almost respectable in there. We need mud and rotten vegetables. We need dung, really, but there's a limit to what the public will stand, more's the pity ... We'll have a feeding time, every hour on the hour."

(Language warning) "Oh, shut up, you sanctimonious little mumper! Just remember - snarl and snatch and threaten. Else I'll pull your bloody nose off. Now the next lot of punters'll be in any minute, and I want 'em horrified and disgusted. ... He kicked Roger for good measure, and went out."

Then Roger comes to the attention of a thief rather like Fagan from Oliver Twist. He takes Roger away from the fair and puts him to work with his gang of house thieves. Of course all of this is very confusing for Roger and things go badly wrong with the burglary when Roger is left in the kitchen with all of the food - dried spaghetti, figs, cream crackers, dried beans, and lastly some chillies. The water has been turned off and Roger's throat is on fire so he plunges his head into a large barrel. It is water but when the water meets dried food it is another disaster.

"Something strange was happening inside him. He staggered slightly on the ground and listened to his stomach. All kinds of bubblings and gurglings and swooshings and bubblings were taking place, as the cascade of water met the dried beans and the rice and sloshed about among the bits of spaghetti."

The police arrive to catch the thieves, Roger bites the police man and fees again. This time into the sewers underneath the market place. Then the really serious and dangerous rumours begin about a dangerous rat boy - half human half rat. A reward is offered for his capture and Roger find himself in jail - naked and afraid. 

How can this story have a happy ending? Why does Roger keep saying 'I was a rat?'  There are clues along the way in the form of newspaper articles about a ball and a girl and a prince and slippers and midnight - perhaps you can put this puzzle together.

You migth like to look for the audio book of I was a Rat read by the terrific actor Robert Glenister. This book was first published in 1999 but it is still available in paperback for a good price. Philip Pullman is a famous UK Author - read more on his web site.

The Way of Dog by Zana Fraillon

"They say Cats have nine lives.

What I'd like to know as I tumble through the Sky

is how many lives do they say

a Dog has?"

Scruffity is being held in a concrete cell. He is just a pup and has been recently separated from his mother. There are nine pups in this small space. Then there are eight, seven, six and so on until Scruffity is left all alone. The owner of this ugly and dangerous place is an angry and violent man but luckily there is a boy who shows kindness to the pup. In fact he gives Scruffity his name and later, thank goodness, his freedom. But freedom comes at a price. It is dangerous in the city. The boy and his dog are now on the run. 

There is an accident and the boy is injured. Now Scruffity is on his own trying to understand and survive in the world of shoe-legs. All he has is the wisdom of the ages - the ways of dog from ancient times. 

"Dear Shoe-Legs

Are you coming? Are you? Are you?

Then shake wide awake and take my advice

throw the Burs from your fur and 

sliiiiiide on the Ice.

Come flat-foot follow and paw-pad on my way

for a I have thing

or four

to say about living this live according to

The Way of Dog."

I marvel at the way an author's brain works. The verse novel style of this book is so powerful. Every word is used so skilfully.  This is one of those special books that I would like to put into the hands of adults (and I seem to meet them regularly) who are utterly incredulous and sometimes also very negative about my passion for children's books. I am certain reading The Way of Dog would 'blow their mind' and demonstrate that the best children's books are for everyone!

This book is both a harrowing one and an uplifting one. Some pages are so hard to read but I knew I was in safe hands with this author and that she would protect Scruffity and hopefully help him find his true forever home. I highly recommend this book for readers aged 11+.

Here is some dog wisdom from this book:

"Meat is A Very Magnificent Thing. The Way of Dog is Meat."

"The Way of Dog is MyManpup"

"Run! The Way of Dog is to Run. Run. RUN!"

"To Dig is most definitely a Way of Dog too."

"The Way of Dog is to keep our shoe-legs safe."

In just one month the Children's Book Council of Australia will announce their notable titles for 2023. I am going to make a firm prediction that The Way of the Dog will be a notable title and from that list of around twenty titles, this book will go on to be short listed - one of the six top titles and in August, when the Younger Readers category winners are announced, I expect this book to be (fingers crossed) the winner!

Here is a review by a Primary school student.

What is outstanding about this engaging and emotional story is the visceral muscular poetry, crackling with energy, zooming all over the page. Fraillon captures the energy , the bounce and pounce of a young puppy, but also the loneliness and longing for family that is shared by both man and dog. ... This is the best verse novel I have read in a long time and I hope it wins every prize in the children’s literary universe. Mia Macrossan Storylinks

'Prepare to have your heart smooshed in the best possible way in Zana Fraillon’s tender and gritty The Way of Dog (UQP)...Fraillon’s unique verse novel zings with energy as she skilfully plays with language in a way that gives voice to Scruffity. His joys, losses, fears and hopes are all vividly conveyed thanks to Fraillon’s gift with words, and Sean Buckingham’s evocative illustrations. The Way of Dog has dark moments, but it’s a story that will warm readers’ hearts, not break them'  (The Sydney Morning Herald)

I think the verse novel (form) works well for something like this, because I can imagine animals might have these sorts of processes – the simple language, how they view humans as ManPups and Girlpups, what they think of what we do, wear, and the places we live – it’s their interpretation, the way they put the words they know together. It is these aspects that makes Scruffity such an engaging character – I didn’t want to leave him, because I had to know what he did next. The Book Muse

After reading The Way of Dog look for these other books with stories told from a dog's point of view:

I, Cosmo

The sequel is Everything for a Dog

For a younger reader Spunky tells all. 

For a younger reader age 6+ Choosing Crumble

Young adult novel Good Dog (contains violent scenes)

If you are not afraid of books that explore violence against dogs (for mature readers) you could also look for these:

Shiloh

The Truth as told to Mason Buttle

My Own Lightning by Lauren Wolk

The year is 1944. Annabelle, her two brothers, mother, father, grandparents and Aunt live on a farm in rural Pennsylvania. Everyone works hard - the children and adults - they are a good team. As a result everyone enjoys the rich produce produced by their farm including strawberries and peaches! 

It is Summer and Annabelle has walked over the the school house to help her teacher with some cleaning. On the way home there is a huge storm and Annabelle is struck by a bolt of lightning. 

"I was standing there, rigid with fear, when suddenly the air fizzed around me, as if I'd been dipped in wasps. In an instant, those wasps stung me all at one, every inch of me, inside and out, and I knew nothing at all except a sizzling pain in my head, a sharp dreadful heat, a sharp emptiness in my chest, and a kind of ending."

As she gains conscientiousness she feels rough hand pushing her chest. Later she feels her father carrying her home and oddly her every sense is heightened. Things smell stronger, noises are louder, her skin feels sensitive to all kinds of touch. 

"I could small the rain as I'd never smelled it before: both clean and tarnished, like hot meal and plowed dirt and pond rot all mixed together.  ... the smell of the people. Their end-of-the-day sweat. A sweetness that brought to mind my grubby little brothers. A sourness that was, perhaps, the scent of my grandmother, who was unwell."

Even more strangely, Annabelle now seems to have a deeper sense about animals especially dogs. She can sense how they feel. This is important because this is how Annabelle comes to meet her neighbours and helps her find three lost dogs and an old loved dairy cow. 

This is a story about healing. Terrible things happened to Annabelle and her friend Toby last year. She rightly blames Betty (but she is gone now) and Andy. Andy still lives nearby. Annabelle wants to hate him forever but somehow he keeps showing up. Perhaps Annabelle needs to stop and listen to Andy with her heart. Bad things are happening to this boy and yes he has done some terrible things but surely there can now be a way to find forgiveness.

My Own Lightning is the sequel to Wolf Hollow and while it will be good for readers to meet Annabelle and have some understanding of the dreadful events in this first book but I am going to say you can read My Own Lightning first and then go back to Wolf Hollow. Reading My Own Lightning first might actually be a good idea because Wolf Hollow is so harrowing (but nevertheless wonderful) if you read My Own Lightning you will experience a resolution to all that pain. Read this review for more plot details of Wolf Hollow. 

Lauren Wolk's writing is powerful, honest and profound. Read these exquisite text samples:

"Above us, the branches trimmed the sun so it lay in patterns on the road, a tawny ribbon of soft summer dust and worn-out stone, the whole day so perfect that the birds made up new songs about it as we passed by."

"As I looked at her, I wished I were a painter. Though I would have had to be a good one indeed to capture the look in her eyes. Hard and sweet at the same time."

"I could imagine that hitting Buster (in a truck) must have been an awful thing for them both. And I knew that even the best people sometimes looked for someone to blame when things went wrong."

When an author describes a character it sometimes only takes one word or a short phrase to alert the reader that something is amiss:

"He had a well-trimmed moustache, though no beard - which was unusual in these hills, where the two usually went hand in hand - and green eyes, my favourite kind. A big man, especially across the shoulders, with a barrel chest, like a lumberjack. Except he was dressed more like someone from town, in clean, tidy clothes, his cuffs buttoned, the kids of hat my father wore to church. The word gentleman cam to mind but his eyes were curiously flat, and I had a vague suspicious that he might not be quite what he seemed."

Compare this with Dr Bloom:

"He didn't smell like a flower, either. He smelled far to clean to be anything wild. And he didn't look like a flower either. He had parched brown hair, eyebrows that looked so much like caterpillars that I expected them to crawl off his forehead, and a thick shiny scar that ran down the side of his face. But none of that mattered as much as his kind eyes and soft voice."

I recommend this book for readers aged 11+. If your young reading companion is a dog lover please be aware (spoiler alert) the descriptions of dog fighting in this book and the wounds inflicted on these innocent creatures is quite graphic and disturbing. 

Written with warmth, Wolk’s complicated characters keep readers guessing. Annabelle learns tough lessons about making assumptions and building trust on the path to forgiveness. Kirkus

This is a journey of the heart that takes us through the pain of someone else's life and shows us that what people show us isn't even half of who they really are.  Powerful lightning indeed. A Book and  Hug

We often talk about the first lines in a book but in this book the lines that made me sigh with happiness come right at the end. 

AND the food in this book is scrumptious. I loved reading about a family who enjoyed delicious meals prepared with love and care.

"I helped put supper on the table: sliced beets we'd canned the year before, mashed sweet potatoes with butter and cracked pepper, hot buns stuffed with roasted carrots, and thick crusty slices of applewood bacon. ... but save room for dessert. My mother made a strawberry pie with shipped cream."

"Potatoes ... steaming quietly in a bowl in the sink, cooked and soft waiting for someone to peel away their loosed skins. So I did that, dicing them in a second bowl, adding in chopped onion, celery that I had sliced into little green boats, boiled eggs I diced in the palm of my hand, mayonnaise whipped up with cream, salt, pepper, all of it folded carefully together so the potatoes would keep their cut, a bit of Hungarian paprika sprinkled on top. ... (I) added a platter of cold fried chicken, a bowl of dilly beans we'd canned the year before, a basket of warm rolls."

I would like to suggest this very old Australian novel as a companion read (sorry this might be very very had to find). Here are a set of different covers

I was curious about Andy's favourite book Honk the Moose and delighted to discover it is a real book. I was a Newbery honour book in 1936. 

Here is the US cover for My Own Lightning: