Sticklebacks and Snow Globes
B.A. Goodjohn
American Booksellers Association's Book Sense Notable Book
'In this magical debut, working-class British council-estate life becomes a sort of quotidian wonderland starring children clever and strange and very real. ... A cozy, richly written delight.'
(starred Kirkus Review)'Goodjohn's tale has a warmth at its heart, an affection for its rough, battered yet still spirited characters and the vanished world in which they live.'
Ronni Phillips (Canberra Times)'There's been a lot of talk about tweens lately. Goodjohn presents their fragile world, before it is punctuated by the stark realities of growing up poor, with poignancy and humour.'
Cameron Woodhead (The Age)My sister says snow globes are just things in glass balls, but she’s wrong. It’s like the whole world’s inside, ready to shake.
Sticklebacks and Snow Globes depicts life on a housing estate just outside London as seen through the eyes of a group of neighbourhood kids. There’s Tot, who is good at watching, waiting and working things out. And there’s a lot that demands close attention including her own epilepsy, the bullied Indian boy, Keesal, and a father who dreams of making it as a jazz trumpeter in New Orleans. Accompanying Tot are her sister, Dorothy, who is increasingly preoccupied with her own grown-up problems; Stacey, who longs to be a boy; and Lilly, who is getting herself a bit of a reputation. And ruling the roost are the hard-working, put-upon mothers with all their scary tales of womanhood to absorb.
In her beguiling debut, B.A. Goodjohn follows these endearing characters over the course of one year, reminding us all of the pleasure and pain of childhood.
'Enchanting debut novel ... its greatest achievement is capturing the reality of childhood with seamless language that unobtrusively conjures an almost tangible world ... gorgeous characters among the children and adults make for an enormously appealing read.'
Susannah Goddard (Herald Sun)B.A. Goodjohn
B.A. Goodjohn emigrated to the USA from the UK in 1999. Her fiction and poetry has appeared in various literary magazines, including The Texas Review, The Cortland Review and Wind Magazine, and in a number of anthologies. She now lives and writes within sight of Virginia’s Blue Ridge and shares her space with a rabble of tomcats and a small flock of rescue hens.
Website: http://www.bagoodjohn.blogspot.com
Buy from Readings
Extent: 208pp
Size: 198mm x 128mm
ISBN (13): 9781921215650
RRP: $24.95
Pub date: April 2008
World English excl. USA
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