In class she is put next to mouth-breather Melanie, who suffers from sleep apnoea. Melanie readily gives unconditional friendship and loyalty to the undeserving April-May, who is quick to discard this priceless gift for the superficial company of the dangerous and manipulative Sebastian.
Consciously or not, this is April-May’s way of dealing with personal issues. Her parents have split up and her mother has moved on to someone else. But her father, who has kept the thing he loves most - April-May, is finding it hard to make ends meet. The threat of losing her to her mother hangs over him like the Sword of Damocles.
April-May continually defies Mrs Ho and all authority, sabotaging attempts made to reconcile her to the fact that she’s on the verge of losing her bursary due to her outlandish behaviour.
It’s when Sebastian sets April-May a dare that everything goes wrong. Melanie’s heroism saves lives at great cost, and an unexpected shift in events prove to be April-May’s saving grace
There’ll be no toilet or coffee breaks when reading A Month with April-May. Best selling South African author of six books, Edyth Bulbring, with her unique writing voice, has created this fast paced, extraordinary novel. Her sassy, crazy but lovable main character, April-May, is astonishing. But so is the supporting cast of characters she has assembled to form this work of astonishing quality.
At the end of the story there is a list of Afrikaans words used in the book, and an excerpt from the sequel, 100 Days of April-May, which promises to be a novel of the same fine calibre as this.
Title: A Month with April-May
Author: Edyth Bulbring
Publisher: Five Mile Press, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: 1 Feb, 2013
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781471400292
For ages: 12+
Type: Teenage fiction
Type: Young adult fiction