Henry's Leg

This sensitive novel, only her second, from Ann Pilling, was rightly awarded the 1986 Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction. Henry Hooper collects junk. Any kind of junk will do. Wire coathangers gratefully accepted, bits of tubing, even the odd dead hedgehog can be accommodated. Does he collect the bits that other people don't want because he feels rejected too since his father left home? This provides the strong central theme of the book round which is wrapped an exciting and frequently funny thriller with Henry and his fashion dummy's leg outwittingly involved in a robbery. Henry's desperate need is for his family to be reunited again. The compulsive collecting of junk hides his deep sense of loss, his insecurity. When his fathered reappears, the junk rapidly becomes an irrelevancy in his life. How can a youngster comprehend the situation that father has gone away 'to have a good think'? Truly a novel for today and, sadly, of today. 'His dad was hugging him hard. He didn't want to think about Afterwards. It was Now that concerned him.'