Bloomsbury ISBN 9781408 884751 £7.99
The excerpt from a Guardian review on the front cover of this book states it is ‘Extraordinary… as moving, strange and profound as Skellig’. And, I couldn’t have put it better myself! This is a truly haunting and original story; it is exquisitely written. Both the dialogue in the text and the narrative remain with the reader long after completion of the book. The Song from Somewhere Else wrestles with the themes of loneliness, bullying, absent parents and new friendships. Protagonists Frank and Nick become initially reluctant playmates in the face of an unpleasant, well-observed gang of bullies. Without wishing to spoil the plot, the phantasmagorical inhabitant of the cellar becomes more than an imaginary ‘friend’ and its wider discovery risks causing a cyber meltdown. While the very premise of the book is the stuff of fantasy, Harrold’s prose and storytelling forces the reader to suspend disbelief in exactly the way that Skellig did years before this. Throughout, the narrative is supported by Pinfold’s compulsive and detailed black and white drawings which seem to travel from page to page like shadows. I absolutely recommend this book for upper KS2 readers hungry for amazing fiction.
Laura Manison Shore, Senior Lecturer in Early Years & Primary Education, UWE, Bristol