Gift of the Gab - Hardcover

Gleitzman, Morris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670888362 ISBN 13: 9780670888368

Publisher: Puffin, 1999

Synopsis

Rowena Batts has never been able to speak and now there's a suggestion that this is due to her mother's exposure to harmful chemicals whilst pregnant - chemicals her father used on his crops. Rowena and her dad escape from Australia to France to avoid the media. Rowena discovers that her mother died in a road accident in France and is determined to find the person who killed her. Rowena's life is turned upside down, but her fiesty character and love for her dad help her to cope. A story packedwith humour as well as serious issues.

About this title

Review:

Morris Gleitzman rarely fails to please with his sly, sideways glance at life and has a talent for taking his tortured and endearing characters to extremes as he moves effortlessly from out and out slapstick to lump-in-the-throat twists that touch to the very core.

Gift of the Gab is no exception to the rule, taking as it does the loveable and startlingly forthright Rowena, heroine of Blabber Mouth and Sticky Beak, into the final stage of her coming-of-age trilogy.

As Rowena stumbles across the truth about her past, and indeed her future, Gleitzman pulls no punches as he sweeps from the never-quite-dull normality of an extraordinary young girl to the rampaging shenanigans of a typical Gleitzman heroine, culminating in the trip of a lifetime to a small village in France, where Rowena and her long-suffering dad are led towards a life-changing voyage of discovery.

Be prepared to laugh out load, and be just as prepared to weep buckets as Gleitzman waves his magic wand in an hilarious, touching and unforgettable book which, quite simply, takes your breath away. (Age 9 and over) --Susan Harrison

Review:

"This book is one of the best I have read." (Amazon)

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0670888362
• ISBN 13: 9780670888368
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192