This one arrived this morning from Oxford University Press, along with a couple of lovely picture books, and something that looked funny, so Small snaffled it 😉 I scanned the back of this and decided that it looked a bit harrowing so I’d read it before letting Big have a look.
I’m glad I did. The Irish famine is not a period of history I know much about, and tbh, I’m not sure I want to know much more than this. Written from the perspective of a brave Irish boy, the unquestioning acceptance of a life of starvation as his relatives die around him one by one is really very upsetting. I wouldn’t pass this to any emotional child, and perhaps would hold it back for older teens or even adults wanting a flavour of the time. But be warned, it is not for the faint of heart, and while I’d quite like to know what happens to the narrator, it might take me a little time to summon up the courage to read the sequel.
Don’t get me wrong, the book in itself is well written, but the subject matter is depressing. It would be hard to write in a cheery way about ppl being evicted, starving, losing their jobs and dying though, wouldn’t it?
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