We have finally finished the book that we had started to read when we were still in Germany over Christmas. I had just not had much time to read to the kids these last few days.

Boy was this a different book! Main story was about one day in a 14 year old girl’s life, her birthday to be exact. She had been abandoned as a baby and was still ’searching’ for her birth mother. Going through the different stations of her life in her mind and meeting people from these periods along the way, she ultimately realizes that the ‘mother’ she had been searching
for had long been by her side: The retired school teacher who had adopted her five years earlier.

I was amazed to see the kids stay really interested in the story, though there was no action, no ‘heroes’ no fantastic beasts as with most of the other stories I read with the kids. Instead there was fear, isolation, abuse, even crime - but also resilience, strength and love. There was also a lot more to talk about afterwards…

Still the next time we’ll probably choose a lighter topic, just to keep a balance. However this type of thought-provoking youth literature is going to be a frequent visitor of our reading repertory now.