A Corner of White

How did I not know about this wonderful book?

How have I not heard about the delicious and most satisfying story within the covers of A Corner of White?

I have been missing out! My students have been missing out. Our library has had this book for at least two years and although I had heard good reviews about it when it was purchased, it just hasn’t taken off.

So, when I saw the gorgeous new cover of A Tangle of Gold, the third book Jaclyn Moriarty’s ‘Colours of Madeleine Trilogy’ I decided it was time to read the series. Actually, I decided it was time to listen to the series, so I borrowed it from the Auckland Libraries eAudio collection and listened to it on my great commute from the ‘Magical North’ (reference from The Kingdom of Cello, in A Corner of White).

The eAudio experience of this version made it even more stunning. I absolutely adored the voices of Fiona Hardingham as the distracted Madeleine and Andrew Eiden as Elliot, the hero boy from ‘The Farms, Kingdom of Cello’. Kate Reinders and Peter McGowan also join in to bring to life the entertaining characters emerging from ‘Cambridge England, The World’ and the mysterious ‘Kingdom of Cello’. 

                                                                                               

Fast-talking Madeleine is living in poverty in England with her dysfunctional mother. They have run away from their former lives of privilege and even Madeleine isn’t quite sure why. To fill their days Madeleine’s mother has coordinated home schooling lessons with two other teenagers, Jack and Belle. Jack, Belle and Madeleine and their ensuing conversations are cracked and crazy, as are their tutors, one of whom suggests they research a famous person from Cambridge University as an assignment. Thus connections with Isaac Newton begin to unfold.

In the other world, Elliot is a strapping, handsome, down-home boy from a small town called Bonfire, in the area known as ‘The Farms’. Elliot is quietly confident in himself and the dependable farm folk around him. Tragedy had struck his family the year before when a ‘colour attack’ had swept through the town, killing his uncle and taking his father. The mystery around this disappearance and the role played by the sheriff and his team to solve the crime was one of the very addictive aspects of the story. ‘Call myself a caged bird in a lava lamp’ (more Cellian references!), but I just couldn’t get enough of the suspense around the Twicklehams and their mute daughter from the town of ‘Old Quaint’!

Okay, so you can see there is a lot to the plot! To cut to the chase, Madeleine and Elliot’s world connect through a crack in the two kingdoms, which leaves a portal open in Cambridge, England that has attached itself to a parking meter. Madeleine spots a small note sticking out of the parking meter and the two teens begin to communicate - a totally illegal activity in Cello – and, although neither understand the other’s world they both have wisdom they can offer each other in desperate times.

As the publisher summary says: ‘The Colors of Madeleine is a rousing, funny genre-busting series’. It is a series that does not get enough attention. I give it five stars *****. Get out there and find this book – you are missing out!

But wait, there is more. I’m not a big Tweeter, but I enjoyed this book so much as I was reading it that I felt I needed to tell the world. Here’s what happened when I did: 

 It’s so cool when an author responds to a name drop! Go read this book pronto. 

Goodbye Stranger

Rebecca Stead

Totally enjoyed getting into the books of Rebecca Stead this summer. I started off with Goodbye Stranger and quickly continued with When You Reach Me and Liar and Spy. All were delightful and crammed with credible characters going through real and relatable life issues.

Stead has the gift of creating the perfect story. She received the Newbery Medal for When You Reach Me in 2010; Liar and Spy won the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize for 2013; (the first American to take out the award);a and Goodbye Stranger has appeared on all the Best Books of 2015 lists.  Stead’s stories are all excellent for middle schoolers and up. The richness of plot lines and themes covered in the books make them thoroughly enjoyable for any age.

In Goodbye Stranger we meet Bridget (Bridge) Barsamian who is remembered by all in her neighbourhood as ‘the girl from the car accident’. Bridge endured a long recovery in hospital after the accident, but now she is back at school, in the company of her two best friends, loved and accepted.

For as long as they can remember these three friends had kept a pact – a promise to each other that they would never be split by a fight.  But as they mature and change (at different paces) this pact is challenged. When one of the friends gets a ‘sort of’ boyfriend the dynamic of the trio begins to change. Bridge and Tab start to worry about the direction Em’s fun new activities are taking her.  Lessons about text bullying and safety are raised through the storyline as the trio navigate the growing up process.

I loved the l  ayering of several stories happening at the same time in this novel and the inclusion of descriptions of complex parent and family relationships. Especially delightful was Tab and her parents; the way her family traditions were brought into the story and the role Tab’s sister plays in advising the younger girls.

Families are complicated – complicated and yet ordinary at the same time. That’s what I love about Rebecca Stead’s writing – it’s so very relatable. Stead is the feel-good champion of the average family!