October, October: WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022

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Life in London is a lot different from the world that she used to live in with school and a mother that tries to make October to love her. The story leads to a mudlarking-project assembly that she and Yusuf present to the school, sharing the stories attached to the treasured items that can be found. They revel in the nature and the seasons, they take care of their environment and the woods take care of them.

Your words, like your reviews, bring books to life and give them a voice before the front cover is even turned. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul. October is a young girl thriving in her alternative off-the-grid lifestyle when she’s suddenly plunged into one of the biggest cities in the world and is forced to grapple with the fast-paced and metronomic nature of urban life – as well her own hostility towards her mother, who she holds responsible for this unwelcome change. A lovely story about family, friendship, growing up and learning to get along with those around us, Katya Balen’s story is one I very much enjoyed. This is what language can do - tell a story that burns with intense, furious passion, and yet be so disciplined that one never doubts, not for one moment, the emotional truths driving it.

She has pushed her mother away all her life, however when she climbs away from her on a birthday visit, October's Dad follows her up the tree and falls. Balen's immensely touching, well-written story about the pleasures and perils of wildness combines a lush, autumnal sensibility with a perceptive story about a transitional phase in a young girl's life.

As an adult reading this novel I sense there is a lot more to October than being “wild” and it took a lot for me not to try and put her in a box and label her. Well I'm a cynical cow and it takes a lot to move me but whew, I shed a little tear at the end of this fabulous tale. Her debut novel, The Space We're In , was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award, October, October won the Yoto Carnegie Medal and the UKLA Book Award, and The Light in Everything was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal. But, with the fate of two worlds in their hands, will the twins be able to work together for once to defeat Morg and her dark magic?We see her come to terms wit( letting Stig be reformed to take her rightful place in the wild…and we see her come to accept the change in circumstances and accept both parents playing a role in her life. Alternatively, we suggest that you visit your local library and request to borrow a copy from a friendly librarian. I read this to my 9-year old and we were both gripped from the beginning and loved it all the way through. The other character to mention is the owl Stig, an obvious parallel to October herself: lost and abandoned on its mother’s death, the baby barn owl is cared for by October and even brought to London on her father’s accident.

Her journey from feeling trapped and scared through to her gradual realization that beauty and wonder can be found anywhere (if you look hard enough) is one of the captivating themes of the book.Everything in the city is wrong, from the cars and underground trains that make her sick to school, where the other kids tease her. I would've been enchanted with this book as a child, and as an adult I was completely charmed by it too, recommended for middle grade readers and soft hearted adults alike.

I read this after reading A Place To Hang The Moon, and it’s interesting how both characters are pulled from their homes and placed in another world different from theirs, but APTHTM has clear pictures of repentance and redemption — this book does not.She lives in South London with her partner, two lazy dogs and an assorted collection of dying house plants. However he cannot… Soon, October’s caught in the clutches of screaming hospitals, whitewashed bathrooms and the glare of the city while her father lies fighting to mend after a fall. Mafalda is a nine-year-old girl who knows one thing: some time in the next six months her sight will fail completely. Through October’s passionate and, at the same time, innocent thoughts, we enter her world surrounded by wilderness and freedom. In particular, I loved that our eponymous young protagonist is never made to apologise for her feelings, chief of which is anger.