A moving, first person story that captures the frustrations and pent-up fury of a boy with a lot of problems. Jason has been told to write something in his new journal everyday. The trouble is there is nothing he wants to write about. Gradually, Jason begins to put everything down on paper and in doing so he tells the sad story of his own complex emotional state and the reasons for it. Jason’s journal portrays a journey from despair to hope for a better life ahead.
The story of Jason, a boy at Heronford School for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. His journal tells of the comic and sometimes uncomfortable day to day events at the school, with Jason, his teachers and classmates. And it explores his family life with his mother, who has recently given up taking heroin, and her violent, drug-taking ex-boyfriend, who returns unexpectedly. And then there is the storyteller who works at the school. He tells the boys the Russian folktale of a young man with a faithful horse, who overcomes a manipulative king. Jason is searingly, touchingly honest about his life and relationships, and through his journal he begins to reach an understanding of himself. This is a brilliant debut teenage novel, to be compared with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
This is the debut teen novel from an author who already has an international reputation for his young fiction and picture books, drawing on the author's own experience as a storyteller in a school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Sean Taylor has written more than 40 books for young readers. These include the Purple Class series of comic adventures set in an urban primary school, a collection of folktales from the Amazon called The Great Snake, a novel for teenagers called A Waste of Good Paper, and picture books such as The World Champion of Staying Awake, illustrated by Jimmy Liao and Boing!, illustrated by Bruce Ingman. He lives in Bristol with his wife and two sons. Visit Sean at www.seantaylorstories.com
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