Adults Love a Child Narrator #1 - Boys

It is almost a year since my novel Ways of the Doomed was published and I am astonished at the mixed readership it has attracted.  When the marketing was first planned it was agreed to pitch mostly to the Young Adult market.  I have been visiting schools all year and it's true, the kids are enthralled.  When I wrote the novel I had no audience in mind, I just wrote the book I wanted to write, so I am delighted that adults are also loving reading the harrowing adventure of my young protagonist Sorlie Mayben.  This got me thinking about other books narrated by children that have an overwhelming adult appeal, often because the subject is bigger than the narrator’s story.  I trolled through my book journals and began listing and as the list grew I realised, if I was going to highlight the best, I’d need to separate them into two posts: boy narrators and girl narrators.   Boys first for a change.

1.    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 

The charismatic Huckleberry Finn must be the original teen on the edge.  He is boy of about thirteen years old who lives with his drunk father in the deep south of the United States of America.  His schooling is neglected and he is placed into the care of Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who try to civilise him with religion.  Huck feels trapped and escapes with his friend Jim, the black slave of respectable Miss Watson, to go adventuring.  The treatment of racial issues can be shocking for today’s reader despite the fact that the main protagonist is anti-racist. This is a fun adventure story with a rock hard moral attached.

2.    A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines first published 1968

Many fictional edgy teens are poorly treated at school and Billy Casper is no exception. Brought up by a wayward mother alongside a brutal half-brother, in a Yorkshire mining village, Billy has few choices in life. His world is turned around when he finds a kestrel to train.  The story is told over the course of one day with flashback sequences which lay out the hopelessness of Billy’s life.  The reader has no option but to hold their breath and hope for a happy ending.

3.    Let the Right One In by  John Ajvide Lindqvist

The story of a friendship between young vampire Eli and a twelve year old bullied boy Oskar is perfect for a youth reading project. The story is an easy read and gruesome enough to keep young boys interested but it also has sociological merit.
The story takes place in a deprived area, in 1980's Sweden, and shows a different Sweden to the one we are used to. The sense of place is probably the best aspect of the book. I have worked in a Stockholm 
suburb in summer and that was depressing enough. This novel is set in winter and there is a chill that lasts from page one until the end. 

4.    Maggott Moon by Sally Gardner 

This novel takes place in 1956 in an occupied Britain. The narrator is an imaginative fifteen year old boy Standish Treadwell.  He lives in in Zone Seven where the Motherland keeps everyone under surveillance.  His ball ends up on the wrong side of a wall and when he goes over the top to retrieve it he finds a moon mission mock up and a heap of propaganda.  This subversive fable is told in one a unique voice that rings through your head for days. Another story you can’t pin a reading age too.  A story of what ifs and an excellent read for any age.

5.    Butter by Erin Lange 

Butter is a morbidly obese teenage boy with a passion for the saxophone and a girl in his class who he contacts anonymously on line. This is a tale of all the loves in Butter's life; his mother's suffocating love that is killing him, his father's love that Butter is denied, his love of music and his love for this on-line girl.

It is at times funny and is often very sad. I found the character of Butter believable - he could be pretty tough and very funny but also obnoxious and sarcastic.  At no time did this novel fall into sentimentality but retained its focus to the end. A good well rounded tale.

6.    The Wall by William Sutcliffe 

William Sutcliffe chose a fictional, almost dystopian setting to tell a story set in a situation similar to the Palestine/Israel divide.

Thirteen year old Joshua loses his football, discovers a tunnel and finds himself on the other side of The Wall. There he befriends a young girl and her family and agrees to look after their olive grove which is on the wrong side of the wall from them. He faces many obstacles not least his violent stepfather. This is a story about fear, and how that fear controls the lives and the choices made by the characters on both sides of the wall. It is well balanced and does not try to answer any of the questions raised in this very complex situation. A great novel for everyone young and old to learn about this Middle East conflict.

7.    Shipwrecks by Akura Yoshimura

This is a simple yet heartbreaking story of nine year old Isaku and his family. They live in a poor village by the sea. While Isaku's father has gone into bondage for three years to allow the family to have some money to stay alive Isaku finds himself head of the household and main breadwinner.
The cyclical style of prose emphasizes the monotony of trying to stay alive year in year out and poetic descriptions of the element are always in connection to that struggle. The pace is gentle, in keeping with the changes in the seasons and the paradox between Isaku's childlike thoughts and his strength give the story a sad tone which is sustained throughout.

8.    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A coming of age horror story that Stephen King didn’t write! Middle America is visited in October by a carnival with a difference. The carousel can rejuvenate or age depending on the direction it turns, a maze of mirrors shows your nightmares and Mr Dark is hovering in the side lines. Two boys and a dad take on the evil owner and try to save themselves and the town from a wicked end. A horror masterpiece.

9.    Chronicle In Stone by Ismail Kadare

Albania’s leading literary figure and Booker prize winner, Ismail Kadare is one of my favourite authors.  Chronicle in Stone is set in his home town Gjirokaster, which is also the home town of the communist partisan leader and eventual dictator Enver Hoxha. The story is narrated by a child and at first shows normal family life in an ordinary Albanian town during WWII. The town is occupied and changes hands and allegiance several times. This situation makes for a fascinating and often cruel tale of gossip, superstition and injustice.

10.  The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy

All the Pretty Horses #1; The Crossing #2; Cities of the Plain #3

The Border Trilogy is, in my opinion, the best of McCarthy. John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, two young cowboys travel over the border into Mexico to begin their own adventures and a passage into adulthood that is far from pretty. The cowboy story brought up to date using all the elements, McCarthy excels in; tight, often witty dialogue, magnificent desert descriptions and a cruel sense of inevitability. 

#Hattastic Big Knit Challenge -The Results

Every Picture tells a story and the #Hattastic Gallery shows some of the hats knitted and bought in aid of Brain Tumour Research.

To begin with I was a bit unsure if it would work.  I set my Just Giving Page target to £250 thinking I might get lucky.  But who would buy my hats?  I lined up a couple of friends to sell them for me but seriously expected to have to donate the remainder to the homeless.

How wrong could I be.  Within hours of launching the Big Knit Challenge I had orders flying in through Facebook.  CR Smith colleagues old and new stepped up to the mark and many people who have been affected by this terrible cancer.   I was overwhelmed.  And then came the offers to help knit.  Four CR Smithies took up the needles and joined in.  They also organised a coffee morning on the Wear a Hat Day to sell their hats.
Fiona did a great job of spreading the word about the charity.  She is a popular girl and as soon as people knew the challenge was to help her the Just Giving page rose, and rose and rose... As soon as the donations slowed Fiona began spreading the word further afield.

In the end I knitted 67 hats. I sold 50 and gave the rest to the coffee morning to sell. The grand total is;

The Just Giving Page              £1640.00

My hat sales                            £1100.00

CR Smith sale                         £1000.00

Donated to BTR                      £3740.00

THANK YOU

#Hattastic Big Knit Challenge

Many years ago I worked with a young woman who had more life and energy for sport than anyone I have ever met. Fiona is much younger than me but was happy to play me at squash. She was a tough opponent, her strength was phenomenal.  We also played in the company five a-side football team together. Somehow I always ended up on the opposite side to Fiona and was terrified of her punishing tackles.  She persuaded the company owner to let me use his personal gym where Fiona and I would train together. She taught me how to use weights correctly and often we would meet at the gym at 6.00am and cycle miles through Fife countryside before work. I thought she was invincible.  We lost touch when I changed jobs and then picked up contact again through Facebook. 

The CR Smith Football Team 1996

On the surface she was fine. Then I discovered through a mutual friend that she had been battling a brain tumour for years. All the fight and energy she used on the sports arena was now being channelled to keep her alive. Despite her illness Fiona is still the same funny, bubbly person she was during the gym years. She has one of the most infectious laughs I've ever heard. 

Fiona ans I helped to raise £1000 for CHAS on behalf of CR Smith

During one recent communication with Fiona I became very frustrated. I wanted to do something - anything to help her. I remembered her posting about wearing a grey hat for Brain Tumour Research. That afternoon in November 2015 I started to knit hats. I haven’t stopped since.

WIP hats

I decided I would ask people to sponsor me to knit fifty hats before the end of June this year. I'll be posting regular updates of  #Hattastic Big Knit on this blog as well as pictures of the hats as they grow and details of how to purchase a hat.

https://www.justgiving.com/moira-mcpartlin1/

This Just Giving Page is for sponsorship only due to Gift Aid rules. I set it up because I realised that the challenge itself is worth sponsorship and not everyone suits a hat - I don't!

To date I've knitted thirteen hats, in six different styles. I've sold three. This amounts to a total 42482 stitches knitted using 1092 grams of wool.  And not a fur pompom in sight!

‘Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer… yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research is allocated to this devastating disease.’ BTR

On the 24^th March 2016 Brain Tumour Research hold their ‘Wear a hat for a Day’ event. Do you need a hat?

Willing hat models

Shelfie Skelfie Challange

It's look back at the year time again. Every New Year I set myself a challenge for the year ahead. Last year I set two challenges, one large, one small. One I achieved and one I failed.

I'll start with the one I failed on. It was to play chess at least once a week. On January 1st 2015 when I set it I thought it was small but would be good for me.   Because my husband worked away during the week I reckoned it would be a skoosh to play my phone. I enjoy playing chess and with my phone set to easy I could even be assured of a win. In the first couple of months I did play, but there is something quite demoralising about sitting alone on a wet, dark February night before a log fire, playing a Blackberry at chess. I gave up, there seemed no point to the challenge and I never regretted the decision to quit.

Shelfie 31st December 2014

The second challenge was greater and harder - I would not buy a book for myself in 2015. This might not seem hard for most folk but I am a confirmed biblioholic. I can't stop buying books!  At the beginning of 2015 I had a whole bookcase filled with books I had bought over many years and never read (I have more in another bookcase, but more of that later). Over the course of the year I would work my way through the bookcase and use the local library.

I am happy to say I did succeed in not buying any books (ebooks included) for myself, although I did buy a few gifts and download one free ebook to allow me to take part in a Global Reading Salon event.

So how big a challenge was this really?  It was huge!  So difficult. The first thing to happen was I attended two great lectures at my mountaineering club. The first was given by John Allen, about the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team. His book Cairngorm John sounded brilliant but I couldn't buy it. Luckily one of the other club members owned a copy and loaned it to me.

The second lecture was given by hill runner Manny Gorman. This was a worse situation because Manny is a friend, I really wanted to buy his book. I had to apologise to him and explain the situation.  He came up with the solution. My novel Ways of the Doomed was due to be published in June 2015. We would swap books. Perfect.

This leads me onto the main problem I had. Many of my friends are writers who, like me, were launching books in 2015.  I wanted to support them as they supported me but couldn't buy their books. I leave this year with a list of books I must buy from these friends.

Shelfie July 2015 (books on top left are loans and gifts)

Everyone has been very understanding of my challenge. Many people bought me books as gifts, other loaned me books.  My local library has been a saviour providing me with much needed research books and new releases I couldn't live without.

I have to admit that I haven't finished all the books I took from the bookcase during the year. The larger tomes like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and Alan Bennett's Untold Stories are at my bedside but are ongoing reads along with shorter works.  I consider this challenge to be a success.

Shelfie 31st December 2015 (still some to read!)

In 2016 my reading challenge will be to work my way through the rest of these books and my 'Want to Read' list in Goodreads, (including some of the books from other shelves) but for now I will be heading out when the bookshops open in January and I will buy myself a book.

Interview with John Murray from k107FM

John Murray talks to Moira McPartlin on k107 FM by Cronullajohn on Mixcloud

A Tale of One City, Six Schools, Three Libraries, A Conference and A Birthday

On the 7th of July 2015 I travelled to London to promote my book Ways of the Doomed (The Sun Song Trilogy). Here's what I got up to.

The preparation and inspiration. I never did manage to play my whistle.

The first of my many school visits

"Moira explained her method of writing and what inspires her. Students asked a lot of questions, for example her top tips for aspiring writers: Always aim to finish a text. Always get feedback on a text. Always read many other books to get inspired. In the end students felt very encouraged to continue their own writing, we are looking forward to reading some great new stories!"  Ulrike Kohnen-Zuelzer, LRC Co-ordinator, Harris Academy, Peckham

I hummed the theme tune to The Good Life all the way to Surbiton.    

" We felt honoured to welcome Moira McPartlin in our School Library to talk about her new book 'Ways of the Doomed'. The students enjoyed her workshop and they participated with interest and enthusiasm but most importantly it made them think about words and language and how they are used to influence people."   

Mareke Martens, School Librarian, Stepney Green Maths, Computing and Science College

Harris Academy Bermondsey. The Harris Federation was set up by Lord Harris of Peckham, the CEO of Carpetright, to provide good quality education to the children of London. There are now over thirty Harris Federation Schools in London. 

"It was one of the best author visits we have ever had. Thank you especially for the enthusiasm, your positive outlook and most of all the time you were able to give to our students, which is what many of our students are deprived in.

The students were really engaged with what you had to say.  You really connected with the groups, especially the Year 9 students.  The cracking powerpoint, the evocative film, and your own story which was somewhat different from the career orthodoxy preached at the school.

I have spied badges have been on lapels all week and the books will form basis for Year 9 book groups next year and prizes for the more resilient readers and writers."   Sean Delaney, Lead Librarian, City of London Academy, Bermondsey

  Easy transport too - door to door to Walworth Academy on the Number 168 bus!




Plane, train, underground, overground, DLR and foot.

My last school visit was to Walworth Academy where I was made to feel very welcome indeed.

" It was an excellent presentation.

... a joyous experience - definitely for me and for most of the students too! After your visit the students have been happily borrowing books, totally enthused. Your visit also encouraged our students that reading can be hugely enjoyable." Cecilia Johnson, Librarian, 

Walworth Academy

One of the highlights! My London book launch at The Barbican Library.  The Library is situated in The City of London and is the largest lending library in London.  I ran a lunchtime writing workshop for adults there earlier in the day.

The very funny and talented Candy Gourlay interviewed me in front of an audience of family, old acquaintances (some I hadn't seen since primary school) ex work colleagues and many writers I've met through SCBWI (Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators). 

The brand new Greenwich Library where I met many Celts.  One was the grand nephew of Francis Ledwidge.  What an honour.  Makes me want to go to Ireland.

Victoria Library in Westminster.  I met a genetics student who was intrigued by WOTD's book cover.  He was persuaded to read the book. I hope he likes it.  

YALC - The Young Adult Literature Convention,
held exclusively at London Film and Comic Con, Olympia.

'Apocalypse now'. With Virginia Bergin Marie Rutkoski, Francesca Haig, Moira Young, Teri Terry and Gemma Malley.  I asked what the panel thought of the term CliFi. They agreed the genre of dystopian fiction was limiting, adding another term like CliFi was even more limiting.

'YA: The next generation'. With Alice Oseman, Lucy Saxon, Helena Coggan, Taran Matharu and Samantha Shannon.  Very impressive. Nearly all these young writers had great book deals before they reached the age of twenty. Taran Matharu told a great example of how Wattpad and NanoWriMo can work.

No YA Convention would be complete without Judy Bloom to admire and some fun writing pals, Christina Banach and Chitra Soundar, to share the events with. 

Good craic with Christina Banach and Chitra Soundar

I skipped the last day of the conference because it was my birthday!   My birthday treat was a trip to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see Richard II.  What an amazing place.  The acting was fabulous  and the actors interaction with the audience in the pits was hilarious.  A real treat indeed. 

The globes of Shakespeare's Globe with Tate Modern in background

I was in London for 15 days. It was hot and muggy. I travelled to places I had never been to before by tube, bus, train, DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and foot.  I met hundreds of enthusiastic kids and many hard working and generous librarians. I'll be back.

I saw this in use on the day of release. The user held up the queue a nanosecond longer than usual.

#LoveLondon