A Review By Frances

 I spent several years from the age of five learning to read and by the time I was eight or nine I was a fluent reader.  The skill has been honed over the years so that now, like the majority of our customers, I read at a much faster pace than reading out loud would be.  This can cause problems when, for example, reading some of the conversation in Dickens, where he tries to transcribe accents, the only way to understand is to read the words almost out loud.  David Almond’s new book is written entirely as a non-reader might write and I am afraid I found it impossible to read.  The pleasure for me in reading is following a tense or interesting story line, building up pictures in my imagination of people and places and all of this is normally done without conscious effort.  A book starting, “this tail is told by i that died at birth by i that came into the world…” is hard work.  I hoped that I would soon get used to the style.  In fact I just found it frustrating and annoying and gave up after struggling to read the first few pages.