Reading Challenge Reviews: Young Carers and Feet

Our first book reviews off the ranks for October's theme of "Health and Well-being" in the 2019 Reading Challenge are about as different as you can get. They both have illustrations, and they are both aimed at children and young people, but one is introducing the serious and important matter of children acting as carers for their parents, and the other is about feet.

Mikki Rhoades read Can I Tell You About Being a Young Carer?, by Jo Aldridge.

This book is part of the “Can I Tell You About…” series by Jessica Kingsley publishers.  Providing simple introductions to complex issues that affect young people’s lives, the “Can I Tell You About” series offers a starting point for raising awareness and conversation.  The books target young people, their families, and their professional and community support people.

Readers of “Can I Tell You About Being a Young Carer?” are introduced to Carly, a 12 year old girl who helps to look after her mum.  Within the first four sentences Carly discloses that her mum has multiple sclerosis, “which means the muscles in her arms and legs don’t work properly,” and depression, “which means she gets sad a lot.” 

These simple sentences set the tone nicely for the rest of the book.  Authentic, straightforward language is used to describe some of Carly’s responsibilities at home as she cares for her mum, her little brother, and her dog Scruff.  Told in the first person throughout, Carly talks about the hard things, the worrisome things, the boring things, and the good things about her life as a young carer. 

“Sometimes, when she’s sad and cries a lot, I don’t know how to help her and I feel angry with myself.  Sometimes I feel angry with her too even though I know it’s not her fault, and then I end up feeling guilty.”

Despite it’s realistic honesty, the text remains light, offering young carers hope with suggestions for support and encouragement to plan for the future.

The author, a professor in Loughborough University’s School of Social Sciences and Director of the Young Carer’s Research Group, has based the book on interviews conducted with young carers and their families across Britain.  With simple line illustrations and low level text, the book offers a non-confrontational and accessible format to raise awareness of the issues experienced by, and the supports available to, young carers and their families. 

Non-Fiction, eBook.

Sharon Bryan read The Foot Book, by Doctor Seuss.

I have to be honest here, it kind of felt like Theodor Seuss Geisel was treading water on this one. His illustrations are marvellous, but the text? It's a bit plodding.

Now, the simplicity and repetitiveness of Doctor Seuss's books is quite deliberate. These books were written to help hook kids on reading by providing texts they could actually read that told stories that were appealing to small children (who, let's face it, have the best appreciation of chaos in all of humanity). His books are especially designed to use words that a child could easily recognise and weave them into something magical. A Doctor Seuss book is a stepping-stone that a child can reach with growing feet.

But sometimes...

Sometimes it ends up being a bit pedestrian.

The plot is: there are many different feet in the world. That's it. We're done. Beyond that it's playing with words, but the old Seussian charm isn't at full strength on this outing. It's reaching for the same zing as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, but it's not getting there.

It's probably beloved by many children (and "obsolete children") the world over, and is no doubt given as a gift to every podiatrist on graduation, but it wasn't my favourite Seuss book (that would be The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins).

Fiction, 810 SEU