Carnegie Book Club

Mrs Wilkinson writes about the latest Carnegie Book Club meeting.

Away with Words by Sophie Cameron

This week Carnegie Book Club discussed Away with Words by Sophie Cameron. The book has an unusual concept - it is set in a world where words appear physically when people speak. 

Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluña to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi’s boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn’t speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people's discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method – and the girls are blamed.

We liked the idea of words being visible and enjoyed the description of the variety of colours, fonts and sizes depending on the emotion and intensity. The print of the book also displayed this with words falling to the bottom of the page, slipping and twirling.

The group were not particularly convinced by the idea of sending and receiving encouraging poems and felt it was “a bit weird”. Nevertheless we enjoyed the book and enjoyed the fact that it didn’t come with a moral agenda that many of the other Carnegie Shortlisters do. A good book for ages 10 – 14.

It scored a safe 7/10