The Glass Collector by Anna Perera

Cairo Treats the Dead Better Than the Living

The Glass Collector by Anna Perera

Puffin Books, February 2011, 304pp

Why should you be interested in the story of a fifteen-year-old glass collector from the slums of Cairo? What even is a glass collector – someone who races around festivals picking up the empties? Oh he wishes.

It turns out that Aaron is a Zabbaleen, the lowest of the low in Cairo, a population that lives on other people's trash, trawling through their rubbish for anything worth recycling, and therefore selling. In his family, Aaron collects the glass.

Every morning at 5:30 Aaron and his bullying stepbrother Lijah ride into the city on a pony and cart to fill enough rubbish bags to make a living. It's filthy, dangerous and back-breaking work.

So far, so depressing, you may be thinking. But no, this is not one of those books. And as you quickly find out, Aaron is not one of those tragic figures.

The Glass Collector is a fabulous book; not unputdownable, but unforgettable. Think Slumdog Millionaire meets City of Joy in Cairo! You can feel the heat, the dust, the pace, the sweat. I loved it.

The star of the show is Mugattem, the waste-lined slum where Aaron and the thousands of his fellow trash-collectors live. Like Aaron, you come to love it; to resent the screeching chaos of the city of Cairo and yearn for its quiet, good-hearted neighbourliness. Its inhabitants are unforgettable: melodramatic husband-hunter Shareen, dreamy pony-carer Rachel, violent stepbrother Lijah and the drug-addicted medical waste collectors.

I spent the first half of the book desperately hoping for a happy ending for Aaron, for someone to come along and pluck him from his miserable life. And so it was quite a surprise when I came to – almost – envy it.

Why should you be interested? Because, apart from being a powerful, well-written story of the triumph of the human spirit in the bleakest of circumstances, it's a damn good read.

If You Like The Glass Collector, You'll Love ...

The Other Countess by Eve Edwards

Enough to Leave you Swooning

The Other Countess by Eve Edwards

Puffin Books, 2010, 352 pp

I'm on holiday in Glasgow, one of the most fascinating cities in the world, so you'd imagine I'm out exploring, breathing it all in. I wish. The only thing I'm breathing is the arabica bean-fuelled air of Starbucks and it's all the fault of one Eve Edwards, author of the genuinely unputdownable teenage bodice-ripper, The Other Countess.

It's Elizabethan England, the age of jousting, Walter Ralegh, having a tumble in the hay on Tuesday, and getting hung, drawn and quartered on Thursday. Ups and downs then. And that's certainly the case for Lady Eleanor Rodriguez of San Jaime, Ellie, feisty countess and daughter of Sir Arthur, whose obsession with trying to recreate gold has led to their ridicule, poverty and near destitution.

When Arthur lands a job at the court of Queen Elizabeth, Ellie thinks their luck might have changed, especially when she catches the eye of Will, the dashing Earl of Dorset. Unfortunately, handsome young noblemen with large estates but depleted funds don't marry poor maidens with lunatics for fathers ... or do they?

Do I have to tell you this is not one for the boys?

The cover claims it will 'leave teenage girls swooning' and I'm honest enough to admit it left me a little light-headed too. There's more than a little debt here to Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice but let's call it homage and move on. I loved it.

Ellie and Will are wonderful characters, with the sticky combination of passion and a sense of duty that makes for a deliciously problematic romance.

The writing is sparkling, vivid, pacey, full of warmth and humour, like the heady first flush of love itself. You know how it's all going to end but you find your stomach knotting with anticipation all the same.

There's also the wonderful prospect of something happening between Will's younger brother James, and Ellie's friend but Will's would-be wife, Jane. Roll on the sequel, The Queen's Lady, in February 2011!

Romance. Deception. Destiny. The Other Countess is all familiar territory but I challenge you not to be enchanted. It certainly turned this maiden's head.

If You Like The Other Countess, You'll Love ...

Grace by Morris Gleitzman

Grace Versus the Lions

Grace by Morris Gleitzman

Puffin Books, February 2011, 176pp

Morris Gleitzman is lucky his name is Morris Gleitzman because you wouldn't pick up his new book, Grace, for the cover. But thankfully his name is Morris Gleitzman – author of the unsurpassable World War 2 trilogy Once, Then and Now – and so I did put aside the cover and delve in, hoping to be enchanted. I wasn't disapppointed.

Grace takes place in one of those sect-like religious communities you find all over the world. The kind governed by self-appointed 'elders', where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and everything from the length of your hair to what you can say is dictated by rule of God – as interpreted by the elders.

Now I know what you're thinking: a religious book? No thanks, I'd rather eat chalk. Oh no you wouldn't.

For lo, it came to pass that the eponymous Grace's family is one that likes to ask questions: like whether God really wants such strict rules, and why can only people in their church go to heaven? Until finally the elders have had a chalice-full and they expel her father from the church. Which is fine, except that in their church, when somebody gets expelled, their family will never see them again. Unless one of the daughters is Grace, a strong, feisty wondergirl who's determined to get her father back.

It's an amazing read. Grace's struggle means breaking every rule of God she has ever known - talking to outsiders, questioning the rules. It reminded me of another stunning book where a young boy has to break through his personal barriers to get to the truth: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.

Here too there is great humour, often unintentionally provided by Grace's God-fearing highschool friends, such as when Delilah tells her off for touching an unbeliever: 'You are so going to be smitten by wrath.' The flipside of this humour is the devastating figure of one of the elders, Grace's grandfather, whose single-minded version of religion leads him to humiliate Grace and try to convince her that her father is an evil influence.

Grace is a witty, lively, honest and absorbing narrator. Through her, Gleitzman casts no judgement on God, simply questioning the right of religion's self-appointed leaders to impose absolute rule.

Rarely have I found a book so simply and so well-told which prods conventional wisdom so gently but so emphatically. Grace is a book to make you unafraid to question. And it leaves you with the best motto of all:

"Be true to yourself."

http://www.morrisgleitzman.com/

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Daring to Be Different

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Orchard Books, 2001, 189 pages

I've been staring at the cover of Stargirl for about two years. I don't know what it is: the lack of a title? The curious promise of the jaunty little stick figure? The magpie silver colour? But it wasn't until two days ago that I finally sat down and turned over the page, past the glowing reviews from trusted sources, and settled in, ready to be amazed. And maybe that's the problem, maybe I'd waited too long.

Life is pretty normal for sixteen year old Leo in Arizona, until the new girl starts school. From the beginning, she is different. She calls herself Stargirl. She carries a pet rat and a ukulele. She knows everyone's birthdays and serenades them in front of the whole school at lunch. She wears unusual clothes. She is that rarest of things: a teenager who doesn't care about fitting in - and her classmates begin to hate her for it. Leo is transfixed but torn between his impulse to be with her and his fear of standing out and being excluded. Stargirl can handle unpopularity, but can Leo?

Nowhere is 'the mob' more obvious than in highschool. Opinions form and turn like the tide; one minute everyone loves you, the next they've turned their backs on you. It's an impossible time to be truly yourself for all but the very strongest. And that's one reason why this is an important book, because the more stories we have telling us it's ok to be different, the better. Not only that, but if you lose friends because of it, you're better off without those people anyway.

There's a lovely sequence in the book where Leo tries to explain to Stargirl that most people know better than to mark themselves out as unique, that being a conforming part of a group is the norm. 'You don't seem to know what everybody thinks.' he says. 'And it matters?' she answers, baffled. Every teenager should absorb a little of Stargirl's magic individuality.

And yet, something stops me from truly embracing this book. Maybe it's all too black and white: perfect, shining, kind, generous Stargirl against the world, with her unlikely ukulele-playing and the sweet, if far-fetched office-managed kindnesses. If I was looking for some more subtlety and depth, I felt unrewarded.

Still, if books can change, and we know they can, I'm hoping a bit of her has rubbed off, and I'll still be giving my niece a copy.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games trilogy comes to an end

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (book 3 in the Hunger Games trilogy)

Scholastic, 2010, 448 pages

Every now and then a character comes along who you'd read about even if they were only selecting furniture at B&Q - our heroine Katniss Everdeen is one. 

Here's the background: Katniss lives in a dystopian version of the States, which is now divided into 12 districts and ruled by the cruel Capitol. Each year two children from each district are "volunteered" to take part in the Hunger Games, a reality TV competition set in a jungle-sized arena, where the children are armed and sent in to kill each other. Last kid standing gets to live. Cheers. Katniss is only sixteen when her baby sister Prim is selected to compete in the Games; Katniss volunteers to take her place. Together with the baker's son, Peeta, she travels to the Capitol, knowing the odds are she will never return. But having been the sole hunter and food provider for her family, Katniss has a few survival skills up her sleeve, and Peeta may turn out to be more than just a sweet-smelling competitor.

Not to give any plot-spoilers away but as there's a trilogy, you'll guess Katniss survives the Games and by book 3 she's involved in a plot to overthrow the Capitol and its menacing, vindictive ruler, President Snow. And so Mockingjay begins...

I was blown away, I just loved it. Katniss is a dream character, brave, self-sufficient, intelligent, honest, honorable, but with all the insecurities, uncertainties and needs of a teenager. On one page she's orchestrating the death of a competitor, on the next she's craving the warmth of a solid pair of arms. She's just wonderful. And her supporting cast are no mean characters either: her fiercely protective hunting companion Gale, bitter alcoholic Haymitch, and slow-burn stand-up Peeta. I could have stayed with them for hours.

It's an idea that's a little close to the bone, and it makes you want to throw the TV set out the window whenever Big Brother comes on, but it makes for superglue reading, a lot of late nights, and some heavy-duty dark circles. READ IT. You won't be disappointed.

http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/