Julia and the Shark

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One of the best middle grade books I've read that deals with real issues, and I knew Kiran Millwood Hargrave had the talent to pull off such a huge feat. Het gaat niet iedere bladzijde over haar moeder/ouders, maar logisch is Julia daar wel veel mee bezig. That comparison alone is some of the highest praise I can give a book, if you know my feelings on the former.

Julia loves language more than numbers (something she and I have in common) and therefore narrates this story beautifully.Julia has followed her mum and dad to live on a remote island for the summer - her dad, for work; her mother, on a determined mission to find the elusive Greenland shark. Hargrave treats the shark as both a real creature and a metaphor for all that lurks – all that we fear and don’t understand. Niet goed uit te leggen, maar je merkt dat de woorden allemaal bij elkaar passen en de sfeer dus overkomt op de lezer. With breathtaking black, white and yellow illustrations created using the ashes from the fire that destroyed de Freston’s studio, Julia and the Sharkis both a testament to artistic rebirth and an exquisite reflection on family, science and the fragile yet sublime beauty of the environment. But when her mother's obsession threatens to submerge them all, Julia finds herself on an adventure with dark depths and a lighthouse full of hope.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied. It was much darker and the themes so much more intense than I expected, but it's an important topic. Julia and the Shark is a stunning middle-grade novel about family, friendship, compassion, and coming of age, and the ripples of a chronic mental health condition throughout all of it. No stranger to bullying herself, as she was targeted by girls because of her weight, Julia (who is White) and Kin develop a friendship based around looking at the stars through Kin’s father’s telescope.Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston met in 2009, when Kiran was a student and Tom was artist-in-residence at Cambridge University. Es war düsterer, die Themen heftiger als ich erwartet hatte, aber es war auch so ein wichtiges Thema. Kiran Millwood Hargrave explores the confusing effect of a parent’s deteriorating mental health in a story that is lyrical and empowering as well as profound. Silke is samen met haar tweelingbroer Janis gevlucht uit angst voor de voorspelling van waarzegster madame Petrova.

Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives.It's one of those stories that transcends its age-demographic and moves straight into instant-classic territory. Aan het begin van het boek vertelt Julia al dat haar moeder meer is dan de getallenreeks op een polsbandje, maar getallen zeggen niets over wie haar moeder is. However the story didn't grab me as much as I wanted it to, and I had a major issue with the illustrations that I couldn't ignore. Jeden z moich ulubionych plot-twistów ma miejsce wtedy, gdy grupa docelowa książki zmienia się na moich oczach.