A Song for Ella Grey
David Almond
Winner of the Guardian children’s book prize 2015
I’m the one who’s left behind. I’m the one to tell the tale. I knew them both… knew how they lived and how they died.
Claire is Ella Grey’s best friend. She’s there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story – as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.
Reviews
David Almonds book is strange, haunting and beautiful. It's rhythm is similar to that of a poem and sings a tale of friendship, death and discovering yourself as a teenager. Claire, the main character, is free and wild but insecure. She is unsure of how to react when her best friend Ella Grey falls in love with a weird, mysterious man she scarcely knows. She first encounters Orpheus, an unusual, wandering singer armed only with his lyre and a magical voice, on a camp on the beach alone with her schoolmates. A Song for Ella Grey drags you through the pages to discover how individuals cope with first love, death and confusion. It leaves you with a lasting feeling of empathy for the characters who have suffered from a tragic accident, or murder... It feels like you've just woken suddenly from a nightmare, a daydream and a fantasy all at once.
Anonymous 29.07.2016
