Bitter Fruit
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from a stunning new picture book, Mary’s Secret by David McKee (Andersen Press, 0 86264 909 9, £9.99). An ecological fable about doing without cars, McKee’s story with its bright pictures full of well observed detail is set within Mary’s cheerful family and at her school. His bold, painterly illustrations use the page so confidently and dextrously that their quirky, decorative perspectives seem entirely natural. Thanks to Andersen Press for their help in producing this September cover.
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Bitter Fruit
Having thoroughly enjoyed Family Secrets, I approached Brian Keaney's latest offering with anticipation - and latest offering with anticipation - and it did not disappoint me. Rebecca's relationship with her father is a turbulent one, a prolonged battle over clothes, behaviour, friends and curfews. After arriving home past the deadline yet again, tension is at its height and Rebecca, filled with a mixture of resentment and guilt, tells her father she hates him. These are the last words she ever speaks to him as he is killed the next day in a car crash. As she struggles with her grief and self-loathing she discovers a focus for her negative emotions - her father's mistress. Unable to come to terms with her father's duplicity, she confronts his lover and discovers that she cannot hate her but only pity her loneliness and exclusion from family life. What is remarkable about this book is Keaney's uncanny ability to delve into the heart of a teenage girl's dilemmas and present them authentically and with clarity.
