What if you hated Christmas? What if your mother left on Christmas Eve? How would you feel?
Apple knows; she is a 13-year-old girl with shattered dreams. The girl who sits at the back and keeps quiet. The one with only one friend, and who lives with her grandma. Apple has spent her whole life under the watchful eye of her loveable grandma. Her grandma wants nothing more than that small baby who cried when angry shouts were heard to come back to her. When Apple can no longer hide her true feelings, she is overtaken by events and everyone’s true colours are shown.
This book kept me turning the pages. A teen novel with little to no sign of romance is hard to find especially one with such a strong focus on relationships. I grew up loving books like Jacqueline Wilson but I was scared how I was going to move on from such a powerful author. Then I found Apple and Rain. This was the perfect book to bridge the gap between child fiction and teen novels.
I feel that Apple is facing a lot of what I am facing: the fears of not knowing where you are going, and the feeling when a best friend stabs you in the back. Similarly, she keeps it inside herself like most young teens do.
Then we meet Rain, a girl with a young mind which is so fragile in the face of real life. With imaginary friends and an unwillingness to attend school, it is no wonder that we fall in love with her. Looking at her and the way she deals with everything makes you feel like life was so easy when you were five.
Rain’s character can be annoying from time to time, and some of the dilemmas in the plot can seem a bit extreme. But any frustrations pass quickly because the words and the feelings overpower you!
Apple and Rain is perfect for 11+ readers: read this book, you will be hooked!
Sarah Crossan’s Apple and Rain, longlisted for the Guardian children’s fiction prize 2015, is available from the Guardian bookshop.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Knappett, aged 14, for her Young Critics award 2015-winning review.
