Fifteen days refers to 15 hot days in the middle of summer when life begins to unravel for fifteen-year old Lawrence, his six year old brother Jay and their ‘walk-about’ Mum who uses alcohol to blot out the death of the boys’ father and the struggles of bringing up two boys on her own with very little money.

Written in the present tense, the reader is right there alongside Lawrence and Jay during those 15 days as they struggle to keep their family together.  I “sweat like a kebab” too as I run with Lawrence in his desperate attempt to make it into school each morning, sneaking under the radar of Mr Buchan, Lawrence’s Head of Year; I feel sick too when Lawrence loses Jay amongst the tide of bodies leaving the fairground; and my anger also rises as nosy, interfering neighbours start asking awkward questions about their Mum and wanting to take a look around the flat.

And…and I hold my breath when, each night, Lawrence squeezes his six-foot frame and his squirming little brother into the telephone box across the road, pretends to be his dead Dad and agonisingly limps his way through the general knowledge questions during each round of a local radio phone-in competition to try to win an all-expenses-paid, luxury holiday for his Mum.  Like Lawrence says, “If there’s anything that is going to cheer Mum up enough to stop drinking, it’s a two week, all-expenses-paid holiday in the sun”.

Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust, and writing in the Daily Telegraph, is passionate about instilling in children a desire to read for pleasure and to encourage this by putting in front of them books that “resonate with who they are”.  I believe that 15 Days Without a Head is one of these very books.  As Douglas puts it so well, these are books that “give them access to truths that adults are sometimes too scared to tell them”.  Douglas suggests other books in this category might include Junk and Nicholas Dane by Melvin Burgess and the books by Malorie Blackman.  Books such as these provide a safe environment in which teenagers can explore issues that they too are experiencing.

I, myself, can’t recommend 15 Days Without A Head more highly, especially to teenage boys.  For more information about the book, take a look at Dave Cousins’ very informative website where you can find out more about Dave, links to websites which carry advice for writers and reading group notes and ideas to accompany his book.

Award winning author, Polly Dunbar, and puppets bring the Write Stuff to schools

Award winning author-illustrator Polly Dunbar is set to be the star of a magical free event on Thursday 25^th April, which will be broadcast live over the internet to tens of thousands of primary school pupils across the UK.

Young fans of Polly’s books are invited to tune in as she brings her latest picture book, Arthur’s Dream Boat, to life with a little help from the Long Nose puppets, a variety of charismatic hand puppets, full body costumes and masks, all with huge personalities. This event is suitable for children aged 4-7.

Primary schools, families and, of course, kids will love this free Authors Live event, run by Scottish Book Trust and BBC Scotland Learning. The live event will be streamed live from the BBC Scotland Learning website on Thursday 25^th April at 11am but will be available to watch again later the same day at: www.bbc.co.uk/authorslive.

The author and illustrator of many picture books, Polly is the daughter of the distinguished author Joyce Dunbar whom she collaborated with on the picture book Shoe Baby. Polly’s Tilly and Friends series of books has recently been made into an animated adventure for CBeebies and her best-selling book Penguin won the Nestle Silver award 2007, The Book Trust Early Years award 2007, The Red House Award 2008 and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Polly is also the co-founder of Long Nose puppets, a touring puppet company who create inspiring, inventive and colourful puppet shows for the very young and have made successful adaptations of the books Shoe Baby, Fly Away Katie and Penguin.

Speaking about her upcoming Authors Live event, Polly said: “I’m very excited that the Arthur’s Dream Boat puppet show will beamed in to hundreds of classrooms across the UK! We approach making our puppet shows as though we are making a giant picture book; each scene change is like the turn of the page. With theatre you can bring a book to life with many different layers: music, movement, lighting and of course the key part to bringing a story to life…a live audience!” 

Polly has also put together an exciting list of children’s stories that she feels would make the best adaptations for puppet shows.  So, if you too are inspired to design and make puppets and put on a show, here are Polly’s suggested adaptations:-

Polly Dunbar’s top 10 books that would make great puppet shows

What is Authors Live?

The award-winning Authors Live programme is an exclusive series of authors’ events streamed live over the internet to provide young people, parents and teachers with the chance to get up close and personal with some of the world’s leading children’s writers. Run by BBC Scotland Learning and Scottish Book Trust, Scotland’s leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing, the programme was the first of its kind in the UK. Anyone can sign up to watch and it is completely free. 

Over 800,000 people from 153 countries across the world have tuned in to watch the Authors Live events. The programme began in March 2010 with poet Michael Rosen, followed by author of The Gruffalo and Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson. The programme has also seen events from world class authors Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Charlie Higson and Francesca Simon.

All the events are available to watch again at www.bbc.co.uk/authorslive and   http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/authors-live/on-demand.

Scottish Book Trust is the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland. It develops innovative projects to encourage adults and children to read and write, supports professional writers with a range of projects including skills development and awards, funds a variety of literature events and promotes Scottish writing to over 10 million people worldwide. www.scottishbooktrust.com

Authors Live is funded by Creative Scotland is the national development agency for the arts screen and creative industries. www.creativescotland.com

This is the picture emerging from a study commissioned by children’s publisher, Egmont UK. The study is following the behaviour of 12 families up and down the UK over the course of a year to understand the changing nature of children’s reading and its first set of findings, released this month (April 2013), reveal that excessive screen time, a focus on homework (no doubt prompted by the excessive testing regime of the British educational system) and parents inability to say ‘no’ and so taking the course of least resistance when trying to secure family harmony, are all combining to squeeze out time for reading for pleasure.

It is time to give back time to reading for pleasure. Switch off the television, the computer, the hand-held device and open a book.  And lose oneself in the simple pleasure of reading.

Here is the full story on Egmont’s Reading Street report and first findings into children’s reading.

Board games work across generations, bringing together the youngest and the not-so-young, sometimes with hilarious results (as just described).  They can also be enjoyed over a meal and a glass of wine with your closest of friends.  Perfect.

So switch off the TV, smart phone, iPad, Wii, Nintendo, Playstation, etc, etc and open a box of intrigue, strategy or just plain hilarity.

Ingenious by Reiner Knitzia, published by Esdevium Games    This game is genious because of its simplicity.  Very quick to learn (my seven year old grasped the objective and rules instantly), yet absorbing and very beautiful to look at.  The board is laid out in front of the players who each start with a rack of six tiles (each tile has two colour symbols on it, 2 different or 2 the same).  The game progresses with players taking turns to lay down a tile, making sure that one of the symbols on the tile being laid abuts a symbol of the same colour and shape on a tile already placed.  Tiles are scored by counting the number of straight lines emerging from the symbols on the tile placed.  The player then records the score for each symbol on their own scoreboard and refreshes their hand.  However, there is a very clever twist to this game.  When the board is filled, each player’s LOWEST positioned marker defines his result and the player with the highest ‘lowest’ result wins.  Therefore, you really have to make sure that you score with all your coloured tiles and not leave one colour trailing behind.

Don’t Say It! Published by Paul Lamond Games   Can you get your team member(s) to say “cow” without saying “moo”, “milk”, “beef” or “animal”? It’s harder than it sounds and hilarious too!  Playing against the clock can leave you completely tongue-tied when trying to describe the simplest of everyday objects.  Each card has a main word that a team member has to describe to his team but without using the words underneath.  The cards are coloured coded, some scoring more points than others.  The game can be set to different levels of difficulty – easy, medium or difficult.  The difficulty levels are determined by how many words you are NOT allowed to say as you try to get your team to guess the main word.  So younger players may choose ‘easy’ (can’t say two words) while older members may choose ‘medium’ (can’t say three words) or ‘difficult’ (can’t say four words).   Don’t Say It is an excellent game for building up children’s vocabulary and developing skills in describing objects and finding alternative words.  I have used this game a lot in classroom settings too and all the children love it. Without fail.

Labyrinth published by Ravensburger   What looks like a straightforward maze game is transformed by the fact that the playing board and hence the maze is constantly changing.  You think you have worked out a straightforward route through the maze to the next piece of treasure …but WAIT… one of your opponents has blocked your way by inserting the extra tile.   The game can be easily adapted for younger children by allowing them to choose which treasure they are going after before their next turn.  Ordinarily you have to look at and find the treasure on the top card in your stack.   Labyrinth involves lots of strategy and sequential thinking skills.  Sometimes it can be fiendishly difficult to see a route through the maze and just when you think you’re there, it all changes once more.  Frustratingly good fun.

Carcassonne published by Z Man Games  Another tile-laying game (there’s no board at all).  Each player takes it in turn to lay a tile down, placing it side by side to a tile already laid and building up roads, cities, monasteries and fields (along with rivers, inns and cathedrals if you have the expansion packs).   Gradually the area surrounding the famous French city of Carcossonne is created.  As the landscape grows, players choose whether or not to place one of their followers with each tile laid – a knight if placed on a city, a robber if placed on a road, a monk if placed on a monastery and a farmer if placed in a field.  When each feature is ‘completed’, then the follower scores points for its owner.  When playing you are required to make decisions all the time, where to place each tile in order to build and complete features, where to place your followers (they run out quickly so they have to be used optimally), at the same time keeping a watch on how your opponents’ features are developing. Carcassonne is a fast moving game which is different everytime it is played.

Junior Cranium published by Hasbro  This game is an absolute joy for bringing together several generations together for one hour of laughter and fun.  Players either team up or fly solo to complete challenges – crafting objects in clay, acting out secret words, drawing secret words, all for others to guess and answering questions or seeking specific objects against the clock.  The results, or should I say the attempts, can be hilarious.  Junior Cranium allows children to perform and be creative in a safe and fun environment.  Highly recommended.

Imagine a world without the Internet.  No Internet to listen to music, watch films, find out what friends are doing (or perhaps what they’re pretending to be doing), no online banking, no online dating, no quick answers to the kids’ homework (because we’ve all become so reliant on computers and the Internet, we now can’t  remember how to work things out in our own heads).  You get the picture.

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow tells the story from the perspective of Trent, a sixteen year old movie obsessive who likes nothing more than downloading film clips of his favourite actor Scot Colford and reassembling the footage to create his own movies.  Only, this is near-future Britain, power is in the hands of the big media moguls (and their Parliamentary cronies) who use their money and muscle to get their brutal anti-piracy laws onto the statute book.  They do this because they are terrified of the free Internet and what this means to their bottom line.  The result?  Get caught downloading copyrighted material from the Internet three times and your Internet connection is suspended… as from now.  No evidence required.  No messing.

The Knock came to Trent’s family’s flat door one evening after school.  He thought he’d been careful.  After all, Trent is proper switched on when it comes to computing and he’s very much aware of how reliant his family are on the Internet for…well, pretty much everything – his Dad’s job, his Mum’s sickness benefits (only accessible via the Web) and his sister’s coursework and studies for her exams.

 ”‘Mrs. McCauley?”
“Yes?”
“I’m Lawrence Foxton, a Police Community Support Officer here on the estate.  I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?”
…”I don’t think so, Mr. Foxton.” Mum had the hard tone in her voice she used when she thought me or Cora were winding her up, a no-nonsense voice that demanded that you get to the point.
“Well, I’m sorry to have to meet you under these circumstances.  I’m afraid that I’m here to notify you that your Internet access is being terminated, effective” – he made a show of looking at the faceplate of his police-issue ruggedized mobile – “now.  Your address has been used to breach copyright through several acts of illegal downloading.  You have been notified of these acts on two separate occasions.  The penalty for a third offense is a one-year suspension of network access.”

…”I could hear them them shouting through the thin wall.  No words, just tones.  Mum nearly in tears.  Dad going from incomprehension to disbelief to murderous rage.”

“Trent!”

Disgraced and unable to hack the constant, pointed glares from his Dad, his Mum, his sister, Trent runs away from home (Bradford) to begin a new life in London, learning quickly the art of surviving on the street.   He squats in abandoned buildings, retrieves (actually, pretty decent) just past its sell-by-date food from bins outside a well-known supermarket chain and falls in with a crowd of young, passionate and creative activists.  Together they begin the fight to overturn the biggest evil of them all – the Theft of Intellectual Property Act.

Doctorow employs a useful and clever tool to explain the weighty issues that arise during Pirate Cinema – discussions, conversations, late night chats even – between the main protagonists; a technique that I feel works really well by educating readers who may not be completely up to speed with some of the subject matter.  I certainly appreciated the discussion between Trent and Aziz about trusted computing. Trust me, I knew nothing about trusted computing but Doctorow has enlightened me, warned me even.  It is, in case you were wondering, a hidden component engineered into a computer’s circuit board which can be used by computer manufacturers to get up to all sorts of mischief - to “make sure that computers never copied when they weren’t supposed to.  You could spy on peoples’ private communications.  You could embed hidden codes in the video and photos and network packets they made and trace them back to individual computers.”  Scary, isn’t it.

All that is wrong with politics and the version of democracy that we have in Britain (and the West) is a theme that runs throughout the book – the growing separation of ordinary people from the wheels of Parliament and the decision-makers; the power of money and the whip.   It all feels so hopeless for Trent and his comrades.  So they turn to the thing they do best – film-making, and come up with a very innovative way of reaching the hearts and minds of the British public and giving the power back to the People.

Pirate Cinema is a powerful YA novel which will resonate with many young readers who have grown up in a world of freely available, unregulated Internet.  It examines creativity and culture – how they are defined; how they might be be regulated, owned even?  It is also not a million miles away from reality – there are attempts by Governments all over the world to introduce controversial and stringent copyright infringement laws – see here for the Guardian’s column on the progress of the Digital Economy Act. Again, pretty scary stuff.   Be prepared.

I have mentioned before how good children’s writing competitions are for developing children’s creative thinking and writings skills. And here are two more children’s writing competitions sure to set minds thinking, pens twitching and fingers racing over keys.

RSPCA launches children’s short story competition to celebrate Britain’s wildlife

Animals feature heavily in many classic children’s favourite story books, right from the first story books for the youngest readers – The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) - to jolly good reads for new readers - Fantastic Mr Fox (Roald Dahl) – and books that deal with more weighty issues such as Watership Down (Richard Adams) for older readers. All favourites of mine as I grew up.

This Autumn the RSPCA have launched a children’s writing competition and, as you would imagine, it is wild-life themed. It follows a survey the charity recently commissioned to find out the nation’s favourite children’s wildlife story books. And topping the wildlife poll as the nation’s favourite children’s book is Fantastic Mr Fox , followed by The Beatrix Potter series and Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham.

Ophelia Dahl, Roald Dahl’s daughter and chair of Roald Dahl’s literary estate, said: “I am thrilled that Fantastic Mr Fox has been voted the nation’s favourite wildlife story. I recall my dad trying out the tale on my sister Lucy and I, as a bedtime story. We’re delighted that clever Mr Fox is still a favourite across the country. I hope that such classic tales and memorable characters will inspire a generation of budding writers to get involved in Wild About Britain which I am delighted to be supporting. This is a brand new and hugely exciting competition for children where they can explore Britain’s great outdoors for inspiration and create their very own adventure.”

Chris Packham, RSPCA Vice President and ambassador for the competition, also commented: “What could be a more perfect way to get inspiration for your story than go out into our autumnal woods and search out signs of animals like hedgehogs, foxes and badgers. With the Olympics, Paralympics and Jubilee it has been an incredible year for Great Britain – now it is time to remember that our wildlife is great too.”

There are two age categories in the Wild About Britain competition – 11 years and under and 12 to 16 year-olds. The closing date for the competition is midnight on Monday 10 December 2012 and the winner will receive a selection of books from Random House publishers and be published on the website. The full judging panel is to be confirmed but will include Chris Packham.

For more information see http://www.wildaboutbritain.org.uk

Kip McGrath Education Centres launches Dream a Big Dream – a new national writing competition inviting young people to write about their own hopes and dreams inspired by those realised at this year’s Olympics and Paralympics.

“Dream a Big Dream is a new writing competition for children aged 9 to 14 which is designed to encourage them to think big about their hopes and dreams.

Organised by Kip McGrath Education Centres, it’s a great opportunity to invite your child to write about their ‘Big Dream’. Whether they want to be an astronaut, a film director, a footballer or an accountant! Dream a Big Dream is all about encouraging them to put down in words what they hope to achieve in the future.

Entrants have the chance to win some fantastic prizes including £100 worth of Amazon vouchers and a commemorative book featuring the winning entries.

The competition website is full of ideas and inspiration including  videos from three amazing athletes who are all training to pursue their Big Dream of representing Great Britain at the Rio 2016 Games.    The closing date for this competition is 22nd February 2013 so you have a little more time to enter this one.  Get dreaming and get writing.

For more information visit www.dreamabigdream.info.

Autumn by Yvonne Keen

Autumn by Elli Woollard

Elli writes beautiful and funny and very original poems.  And they can be found on her website called Taking Words for a Stroll – Original Poems for the Young at Heart.   Please take a look and immerse yourself in her rhyming worlds.

Beautiful books newly available from Barefoot Books’ Autumn list (Part one) – picture books and books for newly independent readers

The Kite Princess written by Juliet Clare Bell, illustrated by Laura-Kate Chapman and narrated by Imelda Staunton  Trapped in the stuffy confines of court with her terribly posh and terribly rich parents, Cinnamon Stitch is desperate to escape the daily yawn of learning to be a girly princess.  All she wants to do is cartwheel through puddles and swing from the trees.  So her parents breathe a huge sigh of relief when Cinnamon suddenly starts to enjoy sewing.  But what exactly is Cinnamon creating with her yards of colourful fabric and cottons?  At the end of the book is a lovely section on how to make your own kite!

Little Red Riding Hood told by Lari Don, illustrated by Celia Chauffrey and narrated by Imelda Staunton  A beautiful retelling of this well-known tale, full of humour and sumptuous illustrations, detailed yet boldly coloured and with lots of red running through the whole book.  I particularly like the way Chauffrey has illustrated the plants in this book – almost William Morris like.

Animal Stories Book 1 – The Tortoise’s Gift, A Story from Zambia, retold by Lari Don, illustrated by Melanie Williamson    Part of an exciting series of books for early readers which use simple vocabulary, short sentences, short chapters to break up the text.   Drawn from a tradition story from Zambia, The Tortoise’s Gift tells of the brave, steady and determined tortoise who travels across the grasslands to the mountain and back in order to wake the ‘wonderful tree’ and save all the animals from their hunger and thirst, a task which some of the other animals have already tried and failed.

Animal Stories – Never Trust a Tiger, A Story from Korea, retold by Lari Don, illustrated by Melanie Williamson   A merchant is on his way to market when he finds a tiger stuck down a pit.  He rescues the tiger “it was wrong to trap something so bright and beautiful in such a dark place.”   However, the tiger repays his kindness by deciding to eat the merchant!  The merchant talks his way out of trouble and they both agree to consult two animals and a tree nearby – is it fair to follow a good deed with a bad deed?  How will the merchant’s and tiger’s impasse be resolved?

Fire City by Bali Rai : a review by Sophie Thompson

Twenty-five years ago, humankind lost the war against the demons. Now the demons have taken over, yet there is still hope, there is Martha and the rest of the resistance, who fight to save the unwanted. It all changes when a stranger called Jonah arrives. Together Jonah and the resistance fight against the demons. Will they succeed?

This urban fantasy, which is set in the future, has a wonderful storyline and an unexpected ending. This book is full of surprises, yet not all positive for the characters.  I enjoyed the book because it was so easy to lose myself in it, felt like I was there with the resistance, with the demons and mayor, and I shared the reaction of rejection to Aaron from Martha. The book had me gripped all the way through.

“It was blood. Human blood…” When one reads this, it leaves a sense of terror from the victim; and the panic and anger from Jonah and one shares the dilemma of running after the victim to save them, but the common sense of not to follow. I enjoyed how the book discreetly led one easily to read between the lines and into the thoughts of the characters, without them actually being said.

However, when Jonah’s secret is revealed, it is not surprising, but once the secret is stated the story just gets even more exciting. Therefore I would recommend this book, as it’s easy to read, yet has a large range of vocabulary, very fast paced in places, and yet still descriptive.  It is easy to feel like one who lives there.

I am delighted to welcome Ed Eaves, children’s book illustrator and one part of the writer/illustrator partnership that have created Welcome to Alien School, shortlisted for the Younger Children category of the Red House Book Award 2013.

First of all, of course, congratulations goes to Ed (and Caryl Hart) for their success so far with Welcome to Alien School and for being shortlisted.  The Red House Children’s Book Award is the only national children’s book award voted for entirely by children. A shortlist is drawn up by children and then any child can vote for their favourites from each of the three categories.  To be honoured at these awards must be particularly rewarding for any children’s writer or illustrator.

And now over to Ed, who delights us with his list of most favourite books ever, EVER, that he enjoyed when he was a kid.  I am pretty sure there will be one or two of your favourites here too!

Ed Eaves’ favourite five children’s books…ok, make that six!

I thought I’d write about my top five favourite books when I was a kid.  I’ve always loved books and it’s been great fun remembering the ones I enjoyed reading the most.  In fact there were so many books I loved I’ve cheated and sneaked in an extra one!

1. 1958 Lion Annual 

This book belonged to my dad when he was a little boy.  It’s full of brilliant old fashioned stories about spaceships and cowboys and indians and arctic explorers who wrestle polar bears!  

2.  Richard Scarry’s First Omnibus 

Richard Scarry created an amazing world full of animals behaving like people.  They drive around in cars and trucks and boats doing the ordinary things that people do, but every page is jam packed with funny goings-on!  A mouse driving a tiny car, a gorilla driving a banana car, a pig driving a fire engine.  My favourite picture was a tiny wrecked bug car being towed by a bear’s big breakdown truck which is being towed by a mouse’s little breakdown truck! 

3.  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 

This is one of the most famous children’s books ever, and one of the best.  When he puts on his wolf suit Max is a very naughty boy.  His mum sends him to bed without his tea, but Max ends up going over the sea to where the wild things are, and the wild rumpus begins!  It’s like the best dream you ever had.  Who wouldn’t want to put on a wolf suit and be the king of all wild things, just for a little bit?  

4.  A Fish Out Of Water written by Helen Palmer and illustrated by P.D. Eastman 

A little boy buys a goldfish and calls him Otto.  Mr Carp the pet shop owner tells the little boy “When you feed a fish, never feed him a lot.  So much and no more!  Never more than  a spot, or something may happen!  You never know what.”  Of course the little boy thinks Otto looks hungry so he feeds him too much, and something happens….  It’s a hilarious book with lovely simple illustrations, mostly done in black and white with a little bit of blue and orange for colour.  

5.  Matilda by Roald Dahl 

Roald Dahl wrote so many amazing books, but I think Matilda is my favourite.  And of course like all Roald Dahl’s books it’s full of Quentin Blake’s wonderful illustrations.  It’s a story about the love of books and learning, and it’s got Miss Trunchbull, one of the best baddies ever in a children’s book.  Every time I eat chocolate cake I think about Bruce Bogtrotter getting the better of Miss Trunchbull by eating a whole chocolate cake all in one go!  

6.  My Side of the Mountain by Jean George 

I read this book over and over again as a kid.  It’s about a boy called Sam Gribley who runs away from home in New York to live in the Catskill mountains.  He lives in a hollowed out giant hemlock tree and learns how to hunt and fish and live off the land.  I loved playing outside when I was a boy, crawling along the ground pretending I was climbing Sam’s mountain and hiding in the hedge outside my house imagining it was my own house in a tree.  I think a little bit of me would still like to live in a tree in the woods!  

And here they are.

Ed Eaves most favourite books EVER when he was just a kid

Happy reading!
Ed Eaves

Thank you Ed and best of luck for the Red House Children’s Book Award!

The Red House Children’s Book Award – details of all shortlisted books, how to vote and other book bloggers taking part in the blog tour

Full details of all the shortlisted books, writers and illustrators can be found at the Red House Children’s Book Award website.   You can also vote here for your favourites in each of the three categories – Younger Children; Younger Readers; and Older Readers.

Other bloggers taking part in the tour:

FCBG Blog @FCBGNews http://www.fcbg.org.uk/blog/  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Federation-of-Childrens-Book-Groups/119682808115620

The Book Sniffer @maybeswabey http://booksniffingpug.blogspot.co.uk/    https://www.facebook.com/book.sniffer.1

5minutespeace @LucyRoseT http://5minutespeace.wordpress.com/

Book Reviews for Mums @Bookreviewsmum http://bookreviewsformums.co.uk/  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Book-Reviews-For-Mums/364273246917860?ref=hl

Read it Daddy!  @Readitdaddy http://readitdaddy.blogspot.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/readitdaddy

Child-Led Chaos @ChildLedChaos http://childledchaos.me.uk     http://www.facebook.com/childledchaos

Library Mice @librarymice http://www.librarymice.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Library-Mice/176616309038052

Playing by the Book @playbythebook http://www.playingbythebook.net/

The Little Wooden Horse @Pollylwh http://thelittlewoodenhorse.blogspot.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Little-Wooden-Horse/226691044080629

Girls Heart Books @GirlsHeartBooks http://girlsheartbooks.com/ https://www.facebook.com/girlsheartbooks

Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books @Enchantedbooks http://mrripleysenchantedbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

Red House Blog @RedHouseBooks  http://my.redhouse.co.uk/read/blog

Aren’t we always told to tell the truth?  It’s drummed into us right from the start by our parents, our teachers.  Look what happened to the boy who cried wolf, we are reminded.  But what if you think the truth is too painful to bear?  Especially for someone who is dying anyway.  Then it’s ok, right?

A Beautiful Lie by Irfan Master is set in the turmoil that was the months, the weeks, days, hours and minutes before clocks struck midnight on 14th August 1947 and the world witnessed the harrowing birth of a new nation, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, born from the break-up of India – in the West (now Pakistan) and the East (now known as Bangladesh). The unfolding events are witnessed through the eyes of young Bilal, the younger son of Bapuji.  Bapuji is dying and Bilal is desperate to protect him from what is happening just beyond the wall of books that is used to make a room in their simple mud hut, what is happening in their town where Bapuji had once proudly been the market organiser, like his father before him. What is happening is the breakdown of a community, of friendships, of trust, along religious lines; played out in the market, in the open spaces, even in the town’s cemetery.

So Bilal tells a lie.

He tells his father all is well with his beloved market, his town, his India.  And to preserve this version of events, the lie gets bigger and bigger, gaining a momentum and dragging others into its conspiracy – Bilal’s friends, the town doctor, his schoolteacher and Mr Singh who prints the town’s newspaper.

Throughout A Beautiful Lie, Irfan Master explores what it is to lie.  Is it ever ok? For example, Doctorji (the town doctor) is faced with just such a dilemna when he and Bilal return from a trip to some outlying settlements having been set upon and beaten by villagers who thought they were spies.

“‘Bilal, we mustn’t tell anyone about this.  Certain members of the committee might use this trip to tip things over the edge. Leave it to me. If we don’t say anything, technically we’re not lying.’

Looking at Doctorji’s haggard face, I nodded.  So it’s not technically a lie until you open your mouth. Right. It seems the rules of lying are more subtle that I thought.

‘I’ll keep it to myself.’ I can do that.”

And then there’s the way lying makes you feel.

“When you tell the truth, nobody bats an eyelid.  When you lie, still nobody bats an eyelid. The only difference is how you feel.”

A Beautiful Lie speaks through the watchful eyes of a young boy.  We see what he sees, we feel what he feels.  We might understand more in terms of what is actually happening.  But in other ways we understand less because as we get older we taint our judgement with fear and past hurts.  But we still feel the weight of a lie when it passes our lips.

Irfan Master has an excellent website which includes some really useful teaching resources to support classroom working with A Beautiful Lie.