Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I had been struggling with a pile of books that were not holding my attention and needed something I could get lost in enough to stay away from wasting time surfing the web. I spotted this book at the supermarket and brought it home with my shopping.

Where the Crawdads Sing is the story of Kya, a six-year-old abandoned by her family to the mercy of her alcoholic father out in the swamp land of Northern Carolina. The story moves back and forth in time between following Kya as she grows up and finds ways to survive and the books present day (in the late 1960’s).

The book is partly a celebration of nature, partly the story of a young women and partly a mystery. The body of Chase Andrews, one of two Kya’s suitors, is found in the swamp and police must find out how it ended up there. We follow Kya as she sees each family member leave, try to find ways to survive and forge tentative friendships, finding both love and facing intense rejection and loneliness.

You can tell this book is written by a naturalist. The descriptions of the swamp, its ecology and flora and fauna are just beautiful and woven through every page of the book. The book touches on themes of prejudice, racism and sexism.  Kya is named “Marsh Girl” and treated as an outcast as she is different – but her difference come about because of her vulnerability – her poverty, being abandoned, her shyness.

This is the author’s first novel, but she effectively brings to life small town America in the 1950’s with its cast of vaguely familiar characters: the handsome, arrogant jock, his snobbish mother, the kind black couple who help Kya.  In parts the book was a little predictable or unrealistic: we knew that Kya’s relationship with Chase wasn’t going to end well and I thought the benevolent black couple were a little conveniently placed to help Kya face her milestones (like puberty).

Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  As much as the story, what stayed with me was the deep meditation on Kya’s loneliness. Not the kind of loneliness we experience now and again in a room of strangers, or the type we feel when we lose someone. But a devastating, enduring, pervasive loneliness that comes with abandonment, physical isolation and being left without a single family member or friend.

A sweet, haunting and captivating story that carried me along and finished too soon, leaving me in tears.

The Prophets of Islam Series for Children

I was sent some books to review from a new a series created for children by The Islamic Foundation UK. There are seven in the series and I was sent four about the Prophets Sulaiman, Nuh, Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them all).

The books are glossy, full colour soft cover and from the content aimed at children anywhere from babies that can be read to, up until eight or nine. The content is simple and easy to understand and focuses on important situations in the Prophet’s lives alongside lessons that could be learned rather than chronological or details biographies.

There are simple games like dot-to-dot, mazes, colouring and counting which are suitable for smaller children.  

The last page of each book has a verse from the Quran that includes a mention of the Prophet (peace be upon him) or the situation described in the book.  I was a little wary of having these in books, especially one in which children could write or colour. This being the case, I did two things: firstly, I asked my girls to treat the books with respect and care (e.g. not placing them on the ground). Secondly, I asked them to write in pencil so that lines could be rubbed out and games reused, or rubbed out and passed to another child when they were older as these are not the type of books you would dispose of.

Saying that, it is nice for the story to be followed with the ayah, helping children to understand the link between the stories and what they are learning in the Quran.

My girls enjoyed reading them and trying the games. It was nice to see them enjoy something positive that also teaches them about Islam.