Bessemer

This beautiful picture book tells the very romantic tale of Billy Williams, a steel worker made redundant when the factory closes down. The narrator of the story, a young next door neighbour, watches as Billy becomes depressed and lethargic. Then he is suddenly inspired by a secret project which involves his borrowing a sewing machine from the narrator's mum and begging scraps of red silk from the beautiful Ms Leila who works in the sari factory. But as the project nears completion, Ms Leila comes to tell Billy that her help may have cost her her own job. It would spoil your enjoyment of the book to disclose the nature of the project, but it creates a strikingly vivid symbol of renewal and escape in the final pages of the book. Bainton's rich, realistic pictures mirror the mood shifts in this brief but moving story: when the steelworks closes, the fiery reds of the opening pages drab down into the blues and greys of Billy's depression, before seeping back into the pages as the project progresses. This is a lovely book to share aloud with younger readers, but it was also found enjoyable by teenagers who empathised with the troubles of the protagonists.