Mrs Cummings
Thanks to SPJ exam week only seven of us were available to meet today. The shifty expressions and unwillingness to start a conversation said it all. We really did not like this book!
When shadows fall tells the story of Kai and his friends who spend happy days playing in a patch of wilderness near their homes. Kai's family is hit by a devastating tragedy. As he tries to cope with his own and his family's grief he makes some bad choices and is drawn into a dangerous crowd. He watches his dreams fade until it seems like there is no hope. Can his friends help him back?
Told through a mix of prose and poetry, and with beautiful illustrations, we were all hoping for so much from this book. Sadly, most of us failed to finish it, finding it relentlessly depressing. The author told us the ending at the start of the book so there were no surprises to draw us on. At the same time there is a lot of repetition and we felt the book should have been a lot shorter. Most of the characters felt two-dimensional with the exception being Kai's refugee-survivor friend Om whose story we wanted to see much more of. There is a raven theme which we found clunky and confusing, particularly when they take over the narration. There is a very worthy message about the value of talking about emotions but it felt laboured – 'like an assembly' in one rather pointed comment.
The Carnegie Medal's mission is 'recognizing outstanding reading experiences created through writing and illustration in books for children and young people'. We had four who Did Not Finish and three who forced themselves through, so we have to say no, not this time.
Average score : 4.85
Recommended reading age 13+
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