The Gone Book
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This issue’s cover illustration is from Pests written and illustrated by Emer Stamp. Thanks to Hodder Children’s Books for their help with this May cover.
Matt was ten when his Mam left. That was five years ago and over these years he has been writing to her – letters he has never sent but which he keeps as his Gone Book. Now with his family falling apart – his father struggling with alcohol promles, his elder brother turning to drugs, owing money, his younger brother needing support, Matt decides he must find her. And he does – but the consequences are very different to his expectations. The truth can be very uncomfortable – and the consequences devastating.
Helena Close catapults us into the chaotic, emotional world of the adolescent facing the challenges of life. We see a contemporary environment that is messy, complicated, full of difficulty – even tragic - but there is also humour. Indeed there are moments when the reader might be forgiven for thinking that the scenario is beyond belief – and yet will know that often reality is even more unbelievable. The narrative has an authenticity, and moves at a pace through dialogue and the personal experience of Matt rather than description or reflection seen from the perspective of a third person. Indeed the language is so contemporary and colloquial that adults recommending this book – and it is worth recommending – should be aware that it makes . Young readers will feel its reality and find in Matt someone they can recognise; his world will be one they themselves can imagine, or indeed may be living. This is a debut author well able to join writers such as Brian Conaghan or Alex Wheatle in putting teenage experience onto the page.