Raspberries On The Yangtze - Softcover

Wallace, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1471121224 ISBN 13: 9781471121227

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK, 2013

Synopsis

It all began the day my brother and I decided to poison our mother. This is Nancy's story. Naturally inquisitive, she's always getting into trouble, along with her dreamer, pain-in-the-butt older brother Andrew, best friends Clare and Amy who live in the back of an old car, and weird sisters Sandra and Tracy, with their magazines full of boys., The children have known each other and their families for ever, but everything they thought they knew, is about to change. Filled with sparkling ideas and vivid dialogue, this is the story of a summer when old dreams are shattered and new dreams are born. For Nancy and her friends, things will never be the same...

About this title

Review:

Every now and again a book comes along and takes you by surprise, forcing you to assess every emotion as you read through the pages, desperate to find out what happens yet unwilling to believe that very soon the story will be over.

Raspberries of the Yangtze is such a book. On the surface this is a simple story of childhood in the backwoods of Quebec in Canada, with a cast of characters that at first may seem somewhat stereotyped but who, as the story progresses, show their true colours one by one.

Set in a time when children could wander free, where hopes and dreams are built, shattered and reborn as a group of friends meander through their own little world oblivious to the changes that will soon be forced upon them, this stunning book is deceptively simple. At first this lazy-day story allows the reader to sit back and wallow in the atmosphere, but soon begins to move on a pace as the author harnesses her talent for the narrative and complements each twist of the unfolding tale with authentic dialogue that cuts to the quick.

Raspberries of the Yangtze is superb; the characters, particularly Nancy who tells the tale, are strong and believable; the story, which begins slowly and gradually builds as the heat of the truth of the children's lives begins to bubble over, is well-crafted, and Wallace shows a particular talent for creating a true sense of time and place.

This book is deliciously atmospheric, with its nod toward better days and the golden summers of childhood, and deserves to be savoured by its readers, no matter how young or old they may be. (Ages 11 and over) --Susan Harrison

Review:

""Can a book be funny, perceptive, moving, and utterly absorbing at one and the same time? This one can. Brilliant." -Michael Morpurgo, author of Waiting for Anya "From the Hardcover edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1471121224
• ISBN 13: 9781471121227
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160