Shell by Paula Rawsthorne and Stranger by Keren David
Books of the Week: 9 December 2018
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Design by Ellen Rockell
Monday 10 December sees the announcement of the winner of the Warwickshire Year 9 Book Award. Teams of Year 9 students throughout Warwickshire have been shortlisting, reading and voting on books chosen initially by school library staff and are now waiting to find out which book has won. We started in September with a longest of nine books, narrowed it down to four, and have been reading and discussing them for the last couple of months. It has been a hard choice as there were so many wonderful reads.
Two of the four shortlisted books have already been Books of the Week: Orphan Monster Spy in May and Outwalkers in April, so now it is the turn of Shell and Stranger to be joint Books of the Week.
Shell raises all sorts of questions about the ethics of body transplants and what makes you the person you are. Lucy is terminally ill, but a revolutionary and risky new medical procedure allows her brain to be transplanted into the body of a donor. Although she is happy to have escaped death, she finds adjusting to a new body an alienating experience. She is now pretty and popular which alters her relationships and forces her to keep secrets from everyone around her. She needs to find out more about her donor and, in doing so, uncovers things that others wish to remain hidden. This is a grippingly told story with plenty of dramatic highlights.
Stranger is a novel where the action takes place in two different eras: Astor, Ontario in 1904 and the same location in 1994. It is about outsiders and people who feel they don’t belong and how events have lasting repercussions over time. It begins in 1904 when Emmy and Sadie are out walking and encounter a naked, bloodied young man who emerges from the forest distressed and unable to talk. Sadie runs away, but Emmy tries to help. Ninety years later, Megan arrives in the same small town for Emmy’s 105th birthday. She is Emmy’s great-granddaughter with her own secrets and unhappiness. How the lives of the two women intertwine is something we discover as we read the dual narratives of this compassionately told story.
Whichever book is voted the winner on Monday, I’m sure Year 9 judges will tell you that they are all worth reading and are books that will stay in your mind long after you have put them down.