Book review - Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark
Two - two books!
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhhh... *g*
I actually did photograph the cover of this book for my pic above this time, because I couldn't find the same cover online anywhere - and I like it, I think it really matches the characters of the lads in the story somehow, lovely slightly odd-looking Victor in the front, and the absolute wonder of Andrew as he's immersed into Victor's life...
I didn't realise this was either Jan Mark's first novel, or that it was another Carnegie Award winner - someone (who were you? - thank you!) recommended it to me for the planes, and I coincidentally came across it about a week later in a second hand shop somewhere and so had to buy it... and it's wonderful!
It's nowhere near as self-conscious as "What I Was" by Meg Roskoff, although I also adored that - which perhaps reflects the style of the time that Jan Mark was writing, in 1976? It's set in Norfolk (again!) and is about Andrew, who has recently moved there, and how he copes with both his family (who I adore) and the strange boy Victor he befriends on his first day at the new school. Andrew is into car racing - Victor isn't, he's into aeroplanes, and especially the Lightnings that have flown across the Broads his whole life, but are now being phased out. Andrew slides into Victor's life in the way that kids can, and the summer holidays unfold in a heat-roar of burning jet engines...
There's some fab bits in this one, alot of them involving Andrew's mum, who is taller than his dad, and a librarian who borrows some of Victor's comics to read as she walks upstairs because (according to Andrew) she's always got to be reading something...
"I wonder, perhaps that's why you and he get on so well; you are just the opposite."
"What do you mean?" said Andrew, on guard. He usually tried to avoid serious conversations with Mum. She was too old to feel ashamed of herself afterwards."
And Victor's mum (about Victor)...
"He's gone to Polthorpe wiht the washing. The machine's broken down."
"Do you want my father to look at it?" said Andrew. "He's good with electrical things. He works on a computer."
"It was a computer that sent us an electricity bill for ninety two pounds," said Victor's mother, closing the door.
And finally, one from Victor himself:
That's no good, you know," he said. "That's no good you trying to teach me anything. I'll never be any use. I don't think I want to be. If you start being good at something, people expect you to be even better and then they get annoyed when you aren't. That's safer to seem a bit dafter than you are."
..."But don't you care if people think you're stupid?"
"No, I don't," said Victor. "Why be miserable just to make other people happy?"
There's a lovely gentle humour and rhythm to the story though that makes everything very un-lecture-y and lends it a lovely flow - that endless-time-to-be-in-the-world feeling that stretches everything out when you're a kid, and is full of new discoveries and wonderments, and that I want back!
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhhh... *g*
I actually did photograph the cover of this book for my pic above this time, because I couldn't find the same cover online anywhere - and I like it, I think it really matches the characters of the lads in the story somehow, lovely slightly odd-looking Victor in the front, and the absolute wonder of Andrew as he's immersed into Victor's life...
I didn't realise this was either Jan Mark's first novel, or that it was another Carnegie Award winner - someone (who were you? - thank you!) recommended it to me for the planes, and I coincidentally came across it about a week later in a second hand shop somewhere and so had to buy it... and it's wonderful!
It's nowhere near as self-conscious as "What I Was" by Meg Roskoff, although I also adored that - which perhaps reflects the style of the time that Jan Mark was writing, in 1976? It's set in Norfolk (again!) and is about Andrew, who has recently moved there, and how he copes with both his family (who I adore) and the strange boy Victor he befriends on his first day at the new school. Andrew is into car racing - Victor isn't, he's into aeroplanes, and especially the Lightnings that have flown across the Broads his whole life, but are now being phased out. Andrew slides into Victor's life in the way that kids can, and the summer holidays unfold in a heat-roar of burning jet engines...
There's some fab bits in this one, alot of them involving Andrew's mum, who is taller than his dad, and a librarian who borrows some of Victor's comics to read as she walks upstairs because (according to Andrew) she's always got to be reading something...
"I wonder, perhaps that's why you and he get on so well; you are just the opposite."
"What do you mean?" said Andrew, on guard. He usually tried to avoid serious conversations with Mum. She was too old to feel ashamed of herself afterwards."
And Victor's mum (about Victor)...
"He's gone to Polthorpe wiht the washing. The machine's broken down."
"Do you want my father to look at it?" said Andrew. "He's good with electrical things. He works on a computer."
"It was a computer that sent us an electricity bill for ninety two pounds," said Victor's mother, closing the door.
And finally, one from Victor himself:
That's no good, you know," he said. "That's no good you trying to teach me anything. I'll never be any use. I don't think I want to be. If you start being good at something, people expect you to be even better and then they get annoyed when you aren't. That's safer to seem a bit dafter than you are."
..."But don't you care if people think you're stupid?"
"No, I don't," said Victor. "Why be miserable just to make other people happy?"
There's a lovely gentle humour and rhythm to the story though that makes everything very un-lecture-y and lends it a lovely flow - that endless-time-to-be-in-the-world feeling that stretches everything out when you're a kid, and is full of new discoveries and wonderments, and that I want back!