The Light Jar

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I found the balance of characters, the ease of being able to relate to them and empathy you felt towards them was brilliant and the dynamics were real to life and accurate. The topics touched on (though difficult & sad at times) is executed with understanding, sympathy and accuracy and has the right balance of emotion and truthful insights of the topics featured (but never over the top) for her main audience of 9-13 year olds to be able to take in and understand which I think is really important. Yet as you read on, there’s this innate sense of unburdening hope; optimism; faith; belief; warmth; courage; strength and character that shines through to the very end and that is what will stay with me from reading this story. That even after adversity, if you’ve got something to hold on to and can grasp even a glimpse of positivity then that can sometimes feel like the most powerful feeling in the world as Helen Keller once said “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart”. De spanning wordt opgebouwd: want komt Fiona terug, overleeft Nathan alleen in het tuinmanhuisje, komt Gary erachter waar ze zijn, ziet hij zijn oma weer, viert hij zijn verjaardag alleen? Lees zelf hoe dit verhaal verdergaat. Op het eind wordt alles duidelijk, ook de gloed rondom de vriendschappen en het belang van een lichtpuntje in donkere situaties. When I was five we had a street party and I came 2 ndin a fancy-dress competition and won a kite. I was dressed as the Queen. Nate and his mother are running away, hiding out in a tumbledown cottage in the middle of a forest.

The treasure hunt. I am sorry, but Kitty took weeks/months to try and solve 1 effing hint, and Nate just pops in and suddenly everything is hunkydory and he solves the clues within minutes or hours? That just made my eyes roll as it was just too ridiculous. I get that they probably can't take months to solve a clue, as Nate is only here temporarily, but yeah, it still stood out like a sore thumb. was a superb year for children’s literature. Established authors produced some outstanding books, but, for me, 2017 was about discovering new authors. One of the outstanding breakthroughs of 2017 was Lisa Thompson’s Goldfish Boy, a whodunnit seen through the eyes of a teenager with OCD. It was a captivating read which shed light on mental health issues for children.De Nachtlantaarn is een met zorg vormgegeven boek. Een aansprekende en opvallende omslag, een mooie binnenkant van de omslag en boven ieder hoofdstuk een bijpassende illustratie. In een prettig lezend lettertype, fijn papier, niet te lange hoofdstukken en voldoende dialoog, leest dit boek vlot weg door de prettige schrijfstijl. Leuk detail: in het verhaal staan diverse ‘waanzinnige weetjes’.

I wrote my first book when I was nine or ten. When I was little I really wanted to have horse riding lessons but my parents couldn’t afford them so I wrote a (very) short book about a girl who started a rescue home for horses. I could then immerse myself in the horsey world I was so keen to join. I even did my own illustrations! I found the book when I was about thirteen and was so embarrassed about it I ripped it up and threw it away. Big mistake! I’d love to see that book now. (Oh and I did get to go on a horse when I was in my 20’s and I was so scared I asked to get off.) The author is Lisa Thompson, also know of writing the Goldfish Boy! So, if you enjoyed that book, then I recommend reading this one! The story’s many layers continue to unravel themselves to allude to and reveal elements of the troubling home life and the manipulative, coercive and damaging behaviour of his mum’s emotionally-abusive new partner together with the lingering control he progressively possesses over Nate, his mother, his social life and even the fixtures and fittings of his own house. The worldbuilding, even though it takes place only at the cottage/grounds (and in the past parts also at Nate's school/home) I could just see everything. I could see the overgrown maze, I could see the cottage, about to fall apart, when those kids wandered I wandered with them. Lisa Thompson’s The Goldfish Boy, about a troubled 12-year-old with OCD investigating the disappearance of a toddler, was one of 2017’s bestselling children’s debuts. Her follow-up, The Light Jar, is another mystery/thriller wrapped around psychological themes. Nate’s dad ran off with a colleague when he was six. Now 11, Nate and his mum are bedding down in an abandoned cottage, on the run from Gary, her emotionally abusive boyfriend. When his mother fails to return from a shopping trip, Nate must fend for himself – and convince Kitty, a girl who lives in the neighbouring stately home, that he has not been abandoned.The parts were Nate tells us about Gary, about his life before he ended up at the cottage. Those parts were really interesting, they pulled me in, I wanted to know more about his life, about Gary (and how terrible he was/is), about his mum. Everything! These parts were the best out of the entire book. And I wouldn't have minded if the whole book was about them. Will Nate find the bravery needed to face the troubles of his present and ultimately illuminate the future? Forward a bit, and his mother goes to the nearest grocery store they saw on their way. This seems fine and dandy at first, I mean, it may be a little scary for Nate, but what could go wrong? A few hours pass and his mother hasn’t come home. After frantically running around the cabin and trying to find some way to survive, he meets an odd girl name kitty who is trying to find a secret treasure.