Spoiler alert: RJ never makes it out, but gives Will the gift of drumming and much else Wolkenstein’s transposing of emotion into rhythms is just one of this book’s strengths.Įlle McNicoll: author of the ‘vividly drawn’ A Kind of Spark.Īutism is often associated with boys, partly because girls can better mask it.
Scowling from within a hoodie to hide a jaw problem, Will is shy, hurting and angry, but the friendship that very slowly ensues between him and RJ is never cheesy. Herpetology fan Will is wrestling with the prospect of surgery when his hippy rabbi suggests visiting an older boy, RJ, in hospital to overcome his fear of medical settings. Stead’s characters are recognisable kids of flesh and blood who Skype and try oysters and face down homophobes, and her resolutions manage to be both unsaccharine and heartening.ĭebutant M Evan Wolkenstein’s autobiographical Turtle Boy (Usborne) grew from a comic strip, which might explain why the cover art is a smidge younger than the story inside. Bea’s dad is marrying someone else – the lovely Jesse, a man whose daughter is a prospective stepsister for Bea. American author Rebecca Stead is a Newbery Medal and Guardian children’s fiction prize-winner and her excellent latest outing, The List of Things That Will Not Change (Andersen Press), enumerates the comforting constants Bea wrote down when her parents (amicably) divorced.īut Bea’s childhood tendency to lash out has had lasting consequences, and change is afoot once again. Then, there’s the more everyday kind of fear.
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