Raven Summer

Starred review from November 9, 2009
In a thought-provoking coming-of-age story, British writer Almond (Skellig
; Clay
) delves into the darkest realm of the human psyche as he expresses the conflicting urges of an adolescent. Liam is walking with a friend when a mysterious raven leads them to an abandoned baby. The boys are lauded for bringing the infant safely home, but Liam doesn’t feel heroic. While he has enormous tenderness for the infant (and a pair of foster children he meets), he is deeply affected by acts of violence: sordid videos sent to him by a classmate, visceral accounts of war, and a local art gallery’s display of disturbing images. His mother dismisses the pictures as “voyeuristic trash,” but his father thinks they may have value: “Maybe they’re showing us how horrible the world is.” Liam’s views vacillate and his morals are tested several times, but never as dramatically as during a final reckoning, when violence seems the only way to save a friend’s life. Almond tackles complex questions about humanity from multiple points of view; flashes of wisdom—sometimes painful, sometimes uplifting—arrive at unexpected moments. Ages 12–up.

December 1, 2009
Gr 7-9-Liam lives with his father, a famous writer, and his mother, a photographer, on Britain's Northumbrian coast. One day out wandering with his friend Max, Liam is led by a raven to a baby left with a note and some money. When Liam and his parents visit the infant's foster family, Liam connects immediately with two of the foster children, Crystal, a wild-child girl, and Oliver, a refugee from Liberia. Liam's mother falls in love with the baby, and she comes to live with his family. When Crystal and Oliver run away to Liam's secret hideaway, Oliver reveals his true identity, and Liam is forced to explore the darkest parts of his own soul as he realizes the evil he is capable of doing. "Raven Summer" is set in the recent past against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. It explores how children everywhere are physically and psychologically scarred by violence and brutality that they cannot escape and can be led to do horrible things. Almond's story is a passionate plea for peace, and the putting away of weapons of war. While the question of the book's audience is a valid one, and while there are perhaps a few places where the children seem impossibly wise, and are even perhaps acting as mouthpieces for the author, this book is exquisitely crafted and will make any reader stop and think about the consequences of violence."Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2009
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Big issues are front and center in Almonds gripping new novel, told in the present-tense voice of teenage Liam and set in contemporary northern England. War rages in Iraq and elsewhere, and army jets fly low over where he lives. All of us are beasts at heart. . . . We have to help the angel in us to overcome the beast. Yes, the messages are spelled out, but readers will want to talk and argue about them, sparked by the authentic characters and the searing drama of their lives. In spare, stirring words, Liam tells of his tenderness for a foundling baby that his family takes in; his fear and rage about his bullying classmate, Nattrass; and his friendship with a young Liberian asylum seeker, Oliver, who saw soldiers slaughter his family, soldiers who said that God was on their side. Nattrass calls Oliver a terrorist and thinks he should be sent back, as do the immigration officials. Always there is the pull of violence, felt by both children and adults, including tourists who visit ancient castles and other remnants of past wars. Is God a war criminal? The tension builds to a shocking and totally believable ending. Readers will recognize that the murderer in all of us is just below the skin, but the kindness in every chapter is heartbreaking too. A haunting story, perfect for group discussion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
It's early in the Iraq War and soldiers are training in the Northumberland countryside--where young Liam finds an abandoned baby. Almond creates a complex, inspired swirl of seemingly disparate elements, including in the mix a Liberian refugee. Despite all the violence, the story has a sweetness to it, fostered by the hope that humans can "help the angel in us overcome the beast."

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2009
"The murderer in all of us is just below the skin." Almond's latest entrancingly dark tale explores the tenuous boundary between innocence and evil. Liam and his friend Max are playing outside, digging for treasure in the sun-baked soil of their rural Northumberland home, when they notice a raven that appears to be calling to them. The raven leads them to a ruined farmhouse, where they find an abandoned baby and a note that reads, "Plese look after her rite. This is a childe of God." The mythic nature of these circumstances is tempered by the contemporary time period. It's early in the Iraq War; young British soldiers train for battle in the Northumberland countryside, and a journalist, a native of the region, has recently been taken hostage in Baghdad. Almond creates a complex, inspired swirl of seemingly disparate elements, including in the mix a Liberian foster child who turns out to be "the worst of all victims" -- a boy forced to fight, in his native land, with the rebels who slaughtered his family. In spite of all the violence, implied and also enacted in present-day exchanges between Liam and the neighborhood bully, the story has a sweetness to it, fostered by the hope that human beings can, as Liam's mother phrases it, "help the angel in us overcome the beast."

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)