Book 77: Coram Boy, by Jamila Gavin

Read: The first book to be started and finished in St Albans! I began it some time last week and finished the day before yesterday (when I ought to have been asleep for school).

Review: At the beginning, although the story was in some ways interesting, I didn't feel really grabbed by it and would happily have stopped reading had it not been a challenge book. In a way, though, I'm glad it was, because the second half was more engaging. In places very well-written, in other places less so, Coram Boy is kind of like an eighteenth-century August Rush, only more gruesome. The first few chapters deal with Meshak, an introverted lad deemed by those around him to be an "idiot". He tags along after his father, ostensibly a pedlar, but with a hand in a much deeper and darker trade. Suddenly, though, the story switches to tell us about the lives of Thomas and Alexander, two choirboys at Gloucester Cathedral - Thomas from a poor family in the back streets of Gloucester; Alexander from the luxurious country house of Ashbrook. But whilst penniless Thomas is free to follow the life he chooses, Alexander's exacting father demands that his son give up music the very day his voice breaks, in order to return home and learn to run the family estate. The second half of the book draws together all of these threads in the tale of two lads of the next generation, both living at the Coram hospital for the education of orphans, yet also both of very different backgrounds.

Time: Oh, ages. Nearly a week, I reckon. Even though I did read parts of it whilst walking from my house to Noah's! This teaching business is keeping me pretty busy doing other things (not to mention living in the SAME TOWN as my wonderful boyfriend!)