Ethan's Voice

Ethan is a young boy who lives on a canal with his parents and enjoys the nature that he finds surrounding them.  However, this is not the story of an idyllic childhood; Ethan is mute and does not go to school because he fears being bullied.  The muteness is not a physical condition, but rather a reaction to something in the past, but Ethan does not remember when or why he stopped speaking.

Then Polly moves in to another boat, with her mother and they start a friendship through notes and good guesswork.

This is a beautiful first novel about a young boy’s search to literally find his voice. The author gradually uncovers layers from the past, until we come to the core of the matter.  It is very much a story about communication in all its senses.  Ethan is hiding what he thought was his knowledge of a situation, but when it all comes out into the open, we find that his perception was not as accurate as he thought.  It is a salutary lesson for adults as well as children, not to take things at their face value, especially when you only see part of the events.  As adults we try and protect children by getting them to forget events, but this can often be the worst thing to do.  A lovely book and to be recommended for KS2.