It is twenty-six days before Max starts at his new
school.
Max is five and has autism. He doesn’t speak, just
hums and destroys. Frank, his brother, is ten. He wants to do normal things; be
normal. He can’t because his house is a howling
jungle and Max a hurricane.
Frank has his books on detectives and codes and
space. And a lock on his bedroom door.
Before Max was born, he wanted to be like Tintin who solved puzzles and codes and crimes. He wanted to learn coding
used in computers. But dad never had the time.
Mum was an artist until she gave it up when Max was
born. Now her life is Max’s needs while Frank has become a glass child.
Mum tries to share special time with Frank; to
create memorable activities to make up for the repetition of daily life required
by Max. In particular, Mum’s tapping of Morse code in Frank’s palm is an
invaluable resource to Frank; to his love of numbers and coding. It makes him
forget the bully Noah who constantly makes fun of Max in an attempt to get
Frank fired up. It helps him remember how life was before. Although he loves
his brother deeply, he resents the demands on Mum’s time and his life.
But there is Mark next door and his dog Neil. Both
are a healing balm to both boys.
There is a lightness of tone in the paragraphs
describing the closeness shared by Mum and Frank. This lightness is juxtaposed
with the heaviness contained in the paragraphs about Max and the family’s
struggles, such as when raging hot
screams inside Frank can only be
expressed in words of red ink on as much
wall as he can reach.
The feelings, experiences and emotions are given to
us in chains of descriptive images, so beautifully constructed, that the eyes
refuse to leave the page.
It is one hundred and nineteen days since Life gave
Frank and his family a devastating blow from which they believed they will
never recover, and Frank’s eleventh birthday. Can the family find the courage they
need to survive the greatest tragedy of their life?
Katya Balen in her debut novel, gifts us an
exquisite narrative voice in Frank in a unique style. The reader is drawn into
the emotional turmoil of the family’s life, and shares their experiences and
coping mechanisms. Laura Carlin’s fine lined, black and white child-like images,
accompany the text.
Change occurs; hope is born and more than ever, it
is love for one another that keeps the family from slipping into the chasm that
has opened before them.
Title:
The Space We’re In
Author:
Katya Balen
Illustrator:
Laura Carlin
Publisher:
Bloomsbury, $16.99
Publication
Date: November 2019
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781526610942
For
ages: 9 - 12
Type:
Teenage Fiction
