Pigeon English

By Author / Illustrator

Stephen Kelman

Genre

Real life

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

ISBN

9781408828205

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

11-10-2012

Synopsis

Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on a London housing estate. The (second) best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers - the Adidas stripes drawn on in marker pen - unaware of the danger growing around him.But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly breaks the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to keep them safe.Harri will come face to face with the very real dangers surrounding him. A powerful, unforgettable tale, importantly relevant for young adult readers of today. Includes a Q&A with the author, Stephen Kelman, and a piece about what inspired him to write Pigeon English.

Reviews

A bleak and depressing look at life for a young teenager on a hard estate. Saturated with knives, crime, drugs and sexual exploitation it's no wonder that the children of the estate grow up to be violent. 11 year old Harri just about manages to keep his personality and some of his innocence for the 5 months of the book's duration, until his untimely end. I found it a very depressing read as I couldn't believe he would have ultimately been able to resist the undertow of the estate had he lived longer.