Red Leaves

By Author / Illustrator

Sita Brahmachari

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Pan Macmillan

ISBN

9781447262985

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

25-09-2014

Synopsis

Aisha is a thirteen-year-old refugee living in London. Happy for the first time since leaving her war-torn home, she is devastated when her foster mother announces that a new family has been found for her and she will be moving on. Feeling rejected and abandoned, Aisha packs her bags and runs away, seeking shelter in the nearby woods.

Meanwhile, a few doors down, twelve-year-old Zak is trying to cope with his parents' divorce. Living in a near-building site while the new house is being refurbished, he feels unsettled and alone. Discovering a piece of rubble with the original builder's signature set into it, he starts researching the history behind his home - and in doing so finds a connection with a young soldier from the past, which leads him to an old air-raid shelter in the same woods.

Both children, previously unknown to each other, meet in the heart of the ancient city woodland as they come into the orbit of Elder, a strange homeless woman who lives amongst the trees - and, as helicopters hover overhead and newspapers fill with pictures of the two lost children, unexpected bonds are formed and lives changed forever . . .

Reviews

Aisha's world is blown apart when she discovers she is to leave the happy, comfortable foster home she has been in since her escape from war torn Somalia. Feeling abandoned she decides that running away is her only option to make her foster Mum realize she needs to stay where she is. Meanwhile, Zak is struggling to make sense of his parents divorce. With his father in the USA and his mother working away in her job as a renowned war correspondent he chooses to hide away in the local woods hoping they will search for him and reconnect as a family. This book is a lovely emotional journey for the reader. The characters are well written and you genuinely come to care about the children, their struggles and the journey that leads them to one another. The story deals with issues of homelessness, divorce, war, loss and love in a way which is engaging for both young people and adults and I personally would recommend this to anyone who has ever felt a little lonely or lost themselves. This was a gentle read with some lovely twists and turns throughout and I would read this again in a heartbeat! 384 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Caroline Mitchell, librarian