October, October - Another Gem From the Junior Fiction Collection

One of the joys of working in a library is coming across books you might not otherwise be aware of. While shelving in the Junior Fiction section last month, I picked up a book with a stunning cover illustration in woodcut style. Katya Balen’s October, October (gorgeously illustrated by Angela Harding) is one of those books that you read with your heart in your mouth and tears in your eyes, and which stays with you long after the final page.

The back cover says, “October and her dad live in the woods and they are WILD.” Told from young October’s point of view (mostly as a ten and eleven year old), the prose is simple and breath-taking. She loves her wild life in the British woods. She loves her dad, and the trees, and the tiny baby owl she rescues against his orders. In telling the story of how she got her name, October also tells us what she values in the world: “Dad said he and the woman who is my mother threw names for me around the room, but they bounced off the walls and hit the floor with a thud because nothing felt quite right. They brought me back to the woods and the fire-bellied stove and the birds and the badgers and the falling leaves and Dad said October and that name flew.”

Children will enjoy the story of a wild girl faced with incredible challenges, the relatable characters like October’s self-described ‘naughty’ classmate Yusuf, and the way she describes her experiences:

Her first time visiting a big box store: “Dad puts his hand on my shoulder and the weight of it stops me floating off into panic […] It takes ten thousand years to walk a hundred steps.”

When she rescues her baby owl: ”She’s beautiful and she’s my first real friend and I love her with a fierceness that catches me in my chest.”

When the other kids at school meet her for the first time: “They circle me. They are sharks who smell my blood as it pounds against my skin. […] there are questions and hisses and shouts and so much noise that it’s a wall all around me and I can’t swim away.”

As an adult, what draws me in is the heart-breaking story of how she relates to her mother, who couldn’t cope with their wild life in the woods, and lives in London. “She says that when I was tiny and could only just walk I was like a magpie and I’d pick up everything I found and cry if it was taken away from me even if it was just a pebble. And I want to say I’m still like that and she’d know this if she hadn’t left us but she turns to me and her eyes are bright and she says we’re not a million miles apart, October and I can feel my face harden.” The hurt October carries, and her yearning to be wild and free, sit heavy in me. Every time she’s anxious or afraid, I want to hold her close and lift her high and show her how wonderful she is.

October, October is perfectly crafted. It’s full of beautiful examples of the “show, don’t tell” principal for writing, and the story is funny and hopeful even as it deals with hard, heavy emotions and situations. When I finished it, I immediately started raving about how much I loved it, and searched the library catalogue for Balen’s other books (fortunately, she’s written a few).

Highly recommended for anyone aged 8+.  287 pages. Ideal for reading a chapter aloud to the kids each night before bed.

Posted by Emma

31 October 2024

Back to Library Blog