The third book in the series of ‘Big Read’ is Kit de Waal’s My Name is Leon. I read this book a couple of months ago and it’s still pulling at my heartstrings.
The whole story has the narrative by an eight-year-old boy named Leon, which was captivating to say the least. I was absolutely hooked; the story has a real emotional punch in it that made you instantly empathise with the characters.
Leon is a black child growing up in the 1970s in England with a white baby brother and a mum who is post-natal depression. Throughout the book Leon depicts his brother Jake as the annoying baby who made his dad leave and his mum get upset. This however doesn’t stop the unbreakable bond of brotherhood and unconditional love for the little blighter.
The brothers get taken away from their mother because she can no longer care for them and they get taken in by Maureen a wonderful woman who looks a bit like Santa and just wants to help the two children. Part way through the book the inevitable happens, Jake gets adopted because he is the baby of the family and Leon gets left behind with Maureen, it’s a hard hitting, heart breaking moment for Leon and the reader a like, as you now have to hope that Leon wont really know what’s going on so he wont be upset anymore.
The novel is one of the best ones I have read in 2017, don’t miss out on this heart wrenching story go and read it to see what comes of Leon and his little mischievous ways.
You can grab a copy here, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below,
Lucy xox
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Elle Hache 
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