Both think the mess can be solved by sending their hopes and wishes into the deep and unpredictable sea. Katya Balens new novel not only lived up to October, October but it has exceeded all my expectations! 😍 One of the challenges in children’s fiction is making difficult subjects palatable, without rendering them bland. Balen triumphs: what unfolds here is a deceptively complex story, in which she explores themes of grief and abandonment through the unfiltered voices of two children on the cusp of adolescence. So I swallow down the words before they bubble up and I nod and I say OK. And I fold up that bit of paper that wants me to be happy and I let it crumble to ash.”

This is a simple wonderful read aimed at children from the ages 9+ but can still be read and enjoyed by older kids. It's genres are definitely friendship and family.... Read Full Review Using the voices of two children to explore themes of abandonment and grief, the book is a story of learning to trust, trying to let go and diving into the unknown with hope in your heart I love Katya Balen's clear-eyed, poetic writing style, first encountered in The Space We're In and October, October. She has a special ability to dig deep into the emotional lives of the children she writes about; she is always privy to their darkest thoughts, always on their side. Original, compulsive, uplifting: this is another triumph for Balen. And what she wants is for scaredy-cat Tom to get out of her life. Tom hates loud, unpredictable Zofia just as much, but he's moving into Zofia's house. Because his mum and Zofia's dad are in love... and they're having a baby.Bearn, Emily (26 January 2023). "The Light in Everything, review: Katya Balen skilfully handles hard-hitting issues for young readers". The Telegraph . Retrieved 15 June 2023. The Light in Everything is a gorgeously crafted and beautifully redemptive novel for children which can also be read and enjoyed by adults old and young. Katya Balen writes from the alternating perspectives of Zofia and Tom, two children whose lives have both been marked by pain and loss, but in very different ways: Zofia is loud and rough and determined, while Tom is quiet and timid and fragile. Their lives will be brought together against their will when Tom and his mum move in with Zofia and her father - and then their parents announce that they hare having a baby.

This article needs a plot summary. Please add one in your own words. ( September 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) I may not have appreciated Zofia's unwelcoming behavior, but the writing excelled in showing how a child who does not want to lose the chance of being the apple to her father's eye would hurt her. Her struggles for acceptance felt valid, so how could I fault her for it, even if it agonized me so? All her suppressed thoughts of anger and rage that she unleashed into the comforts of the sea were brutally honest - her struggle in accepting the ways she had to adapt to the changes in her once-stable life were portrayed well, even if at times, I was upset with her behavior. Tom lives with his mum and hates the dark. He is quiet and shy and creates origami to help to keep himself calm.

The story is told from the perspectives of Tom and Zofia. Both have experienced pain and loss but deal with it in very different ways. Tom is quiet and withdrawn. He is polite but he is too scared to express himself in case he is rejected or, worse, physically punished. Zofia is full of anger she can't control or understand, and raging with jealousy. We see their journeys towards acceptance and happiness and their passage through a period of change in their lives that all children undergo at some point, albeit mostly in a less extreme way. Their relationships with their respective parents are believable and well drawn. The seaside community around them is cosy and sweet in a way that I would sometimes find too saccharine but, here, feels just right. The children in Class Ceto are kids at their best. Accepting and complex. Katya Balen writes characters and their various personalities so utterly convincingly that you know them. She just knows how children think and behave and feel. She can switch between them so well that you could almost believe they're written by different people. Tom and Zofia both wish the stupid baby had never happened. But then Tom's mum gets ill, and it begins to look horribly like their wish might come true... A tear-jerker about family that shows us things that are important and true, and promotes compassion -- Nicolette Jones - The Sunday Times, Children's Book of the Week

Then there is Tom, who lives with his mother Fiona, a hospital doctor, and is traumatised by an abusive and now absent father. Quiet and timid, Tom consoles himself by making paper birds. “Once Dad ripped up my paper birds… They were messy. They were for girls. They were pathetic.” Tom is still quiet and timid, even though his dad has been gone for nearly two years now. Zofia has a raging storm that makes her want to fight the whole world until she gets what she wants. That new strange feeling is growing shoots and leaves and I try to scream it away. I shout at the clouds and the noise bounces off the cliff and is whisked away by the wind and it’s like I never made a single sound. If you haven’t heard of the 34-year-old charity worker Katya Balen, you have some catching-up to do. Her first novel, The Space We’re In, was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award; her second novel, October, October, which told the story of a country child forced to adapt to city life, won last year’s Carnegie Medal.

This story is told from a dual-perspective, with Zofia and Tom alternating chapters. This gives the reader an insight into both characters and their histories which have shaped their lives now. Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the Transylvanian Express - and it's up to you to solve the case! Part of the Solve Your Own Mystery seri... Author Guy Bass introduces SCRAP, about one robot who tried to protect the humans on his planet against an army of robots. Now the humans need his...

The Light in Everything is a deeply moving and absorbing story which skilfully moves from the viewpoint of one child to the other, allowing the reader to explore their complex emotions, actions and reactions. Each has a coping mechanism - Tom folds paper cranes to control his shaking hands and Zofia heads for the sea to find peace. Each is terrified of the change they are facing, although for very different reasons, and as the story progresses, they each learn to face their fears and find hope in the future. The Light in Everything centres on the intertwined narratives of Zofia and Tom, two very different children with very different voices. Both children share strong bonds with their parents. Tom lives with his mum and is timid, introspective, thoughtful, and, with good reason, scared of the dark. Zofia was born in a storm and lives with her dad in a cottage on the coast: like the wild winds and seas, she is tempestuous, unpredictable, and loud. When their parents fall in love, Tom and Zofia’s lives collide, with Tom and his mum moving into Zofia’s home. She is brilliant at capturing the cadences of their language, toying with the reader’s sympathies by pitting Tom’s reticence against Zofia’s Jacobean appetite for drama: “He’s ruined my life and I was here first. These are my friends and this is my school and it’s my house and my dad and my dog and my life.” When complications arise in Fiona’s pregnancy, the children’s characters finally unravel – and this provoking, simply-told story reaches its uplifting close. We’re very excited to be publishing book 1 in your first middle-grade series for younger readers, The Thames and Tide Club: The Secret City in May. Please can you let our readers know what to expect from the series? KATYA: Before I started writing! My editor suggested it, and she was absolutely right to do so –seeing different sides of the same situation was so brilliant in terms of that understanding and empathy.Zofia swims against the current, literally and metaphorically, spiralling deeper into herself and alienating others who are reaching out to her. Though I enjoyed the metaphor of her 'stormy' personality and the sea, I felt that overall her character arc was less dynamic than Tom's. I became impatient for her to change and there was scope for a deeper interiority (with regard to her mum), which was perhaps not fully exploited. Katya Balen is an award-winning author of books for children. Katya's debut novel, The Space We’re In, was published in 2019 and was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award. Her second, October, October, won the Yoto Carnegie Medal. Her third novel, The Light in Everything, was published in 2022. They are about to start living together and also to become half siblings to a new baby in a blended family that neither of them wants to be part of. Each tells their story in a series of contrasting short episodes that brilliantly capture their contrasting characters and their journey towards this enormous change in their lives. Fiona and Marek duly fall in love, but their children don’t hit it off. As Zofia recalls of their first meeting: “Tom sits in this terrified little meek silence and for every second he stays quiet I get louder and louder.” Yet Fiona becomes pregnant, and the families move in together – and Tom and Zofia must learn to overcome their seemingly insurmountable differences. A bold, bright story of blended families, and how two remarkable children cope when their lives change dramatically. Katya Balen’s writing fizzes with her trademark originality and voice. This is another stunningly good read from one of my favourite authors.’ Emma Carroll