Gray boys
This new from Barrington Stoke is definitely one to look out for.
The Climbers, Keith Gray’s previous title from this remarkable publisher, is one of my favourites of their many outstanding accessible books, Aditionally, an earlier full novel of his , Ostrich Boys (Directions, 2008), is one of my all time best YA reads. So I was desperately keen to discover his new Barrington Stoke story.
I was not disappointed.
What boys are
Keith Gray is one of a small number of contemporary writers who understand just perfectly how to represent the behaviour, thinking and speech of young teenage boys. For parents, teachers and others who are trying to tempt reluctant boys into reading this makes these writers enormously important. To lure such young people into fiction often takes more than just stories about sport or superheroes. Far more important is that they can find themselves in books, characters that do the things they do, talk the way they talk, have the real hang ups and frustrations that they and their mates do.
And that is exactly what Keith Gray offers them here. His characters, their issues, their behaviours (right or wrong) and, perhaps most importantly, their dialogue are spot on; full of honest emotion and the naive attitudes of youth. These are youngsters in that awkward time of being neither child nor adult, who feel they know exactly who they are, when, as yet, they can’t and don’t. But that does not mean their integrity is one jot the less. They are boys for whom the society of their ‘mates’ seems all, and the adult world is something alien, almost hostile. Although they actually still need family love and support, they are most reluctant to admit it, even to themselves .
What boys will be
In this new story, young teen Marshall desperately wants to escape his single-parenting father, a disillusioned would-be guitarist, who came close to the life he craved only as a rock band roadie. Marshall’s best mate, Rory, is equally glad of respite from his overbearing mother. The two believe they can find refuge of sorts when they discover a den in the strange underground bunker of a demolished house. However disputes over who owns the den provoke massive ructions, which reveal much about their peer relationships as well as their family ones. A sort of reconciliation comes from a quite unexpected source and, for Marshall at least, proves wider than he might have foreseen.
The dialogue which forms a significant part of the narration is sharp, sometimes funny, and always affectingly truthful to the responses of countless similar kids in similar situations. The writing is of such a standard that even the relatively banal events recounted are deeply involving, and the narrative far more compelling than many a far more fanciful storyline.
This is a prime example of a simple plot, about incidents that are huge, in the moment, to those involved, but essentially unremarkable in the big scheme of things . Yet this very story reaches into the heart of real human issues on an individual, social and global scale. It is about friendship, about family, about loss and anger, about conflict, perhaps even war - and ultimately about a potential for peace and a better life. And if this bigger picture thinking will seem to pass over many young readers, then you never know what is being subliminally internalised. Regardless, what Keith Gray’s new novella provides is a cracking good read.
What boys could be
So much current MG and YA fiction is dominated by feisty girl protagonists. Now, don’t get me wrong. This is a good thing in very many ways. You might well say it is the girls’ turn, their time. And I have maintained on many occasions that stories about girls are not just for girls. However, it is also good to have new, strong books about boys. Especially in view of the desperate need to encourage more boys into reading for pleasure. It is doubly welcome when a book about young teen boys is as good as this one, written with so much understanding, and so much unobtrusive skill.
The cover picture (by an unidentified artist, as far as I can find on the NetGalley proof) is for me as close to an ideal representation of early adolescent male friendship as could be seen. Going around on bikes with a mate is exactly what I remember dominating this period of my own life, so seems to have been a big thing for at least fifty years or so.
*This certainly includes David Almond and Anthony McGowan, amongst a few others.
