Mary, Georgia, 1851 'My Momma always told me that, one day, remarkable things would happen to me.‘No, Mary,’ I hear her say, voice dripping like treacle, ‘not happen to you; you will do remarkable things.’ Not now though, trapped and with no room to properly breathe – nowhere to look even but the sky above and the earth under my feet pressed flat on the ground from working and walking from dawn until the sun sets low in a stretched wide sky of cerise and crimson. For now, my space to breathe is inside. In that little pocket deep within my chest or heart or something – the bit they can’t touch.” Clover has felt so alone since her mother passed away - there was only ever Mum and Clover and they were a team. That is until Clover discovers a box of old letters, dating back to 1851, where the voice of a young woman will tell Clover about her true heritage and the dark secrets that Mum hid from her. A Young Adult fiction novel about the intergenerational legacy of enslavement, by debut author, Natalie Lucy.
This powerful and engaging novel explores slavery from both the nineteenth century African slave trade and modern slavery. But Lucy has focused her modern sections on a family discovering how they have historically benefited from the slave trade: a very current topic in the UK and America. Clover, thirteen, is grieving the death of her mother and struggling to relate to a father she hasn't seen since she was six. Father and daughter end up in Cornwall but as Clover reads letters hidden away in her mother's secret box, the family's connection to the slave trade in the 1850s is revealed. Meanwhile on lonely walks over the cliffs, Clover meets a strange girl. Catarina, older than Clover, who looks neglected and scared. But Clover cannot imagine the secrets that Caterina won't share with her. As the layers of stories unravel through letters and documents, Clover and Catarina share a search for the Remarkable in Things, a way of keeping hope alive in times of despair and hardship. This is a book of great bravery against the odds and how even the most tortured slaves kept their sense of self in remarkable ways. As Clover begins to come to terms with her grief, the stories from the past entwine with Caterina's story, helping Clover to find a way to look forward to the future.
/ Miriam Halahmy - author of YA and Middle Grade books
A remarkable and important story of freedom, enslavement and the unravelling of secrets, featuring a patchwork of characters skilfully stitched together. It speaks of things lost and rediscovered, spanning both continents and centuries - I read it in one sitting.
/ Barbara Henderson award-winning author of Scottish historical and eco-fiction for children, an Young Quills Award winner for historical fiction and and author of the memoir Scottish by Inclination.
I very much enjoyed this novel . I love the cover too - very fitting and beautiful. I liked that it kept throwing something new at me and that the theme of slavery wove through both timelines, alongside that of mothers, grief, family, growing up, and generational links. And keeping people we have lost alive. That really moved me. Oh, and keeping our true selves alive too! So many themes. The characters all linked too, with focus on eyes, smiles, birds and sky gazing and looking at colours in the landscape. I loved that Clover is comparing herself to her mother and then finds herself in her father too, and her grandma says that she sees Clover in her. This all felt real and not glossed over; the anger Clover feels, and how it flashes out and then she silently berates herself but her father remains calm. The fact that her mother was more volatile and that her father is calm gave a kind of balance around Clover and we see sides of them in her. Very well constructed. This would make a great book for discussion in schools and book groups.
/ Ruth Estevez, Author of Jiddy Vardy series.
A powerful tale that reminds us that although injustice repeats through the generations, we always have the power to challenge it - and to heal ourselves in the process.
/ Anna Bowles, Childrens' Book Editor and author of Rapids.
Life Challenges
- Grief
- Learning to belong
- Loss
- Recovering when things goes wrong
- Unsure of identity and who you are
Themes
- Friendship
- Grief
- Identity
- Love and Self Acceptance
- Mental Health
What's Great?
- Beautiful imagery
- Character driven
- Emotional journey
