Ready to discover another great book for this 2020? Take a look…
When Life Gives You Mangos by Kereen Getten
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books
Rating: 5/5
Amazon, Hive
About The Book
A summer she can’t remember
A friendship she won’t forget
Nothing much happens in Sycamore, the small village where Clara lives – at least, that’s how it seems. She loves eating ripe mangoes fallen from trees, running outside in the rainy season and escaping to her secret hideout with her best friend Gaynah. There’s only one problem: she can’t remember anything about the previous summer.
When a quirky girl called Rudy arrives from England, everything starts to change. Gaynah stops acting like a best friend, while Rudy and Clara roam across the island and uncover an old family secret. As the summer reaches its peak and the island storms begin, Clara’s memory starts to return and she must finally face the truth of what happened last year.
My Thoughts
This is a beautiful and poignant story about friendship and grief; told in the perspective of a 12 year old girl who doesn’t want to remember but she has to if she wants to heal her wounds.
This is not a simple book, it’s so full of layers and important facts that you’ll be thinking about it for a long time, I’ll only say that I read it in one sit, I couldn’t stop reading!
I’ve always been a voracious reader, but I’ll admit that the books that I read when I was young were more superficial and not so powerful and deep. Because even if this is a fiction story, the core is real and it makes the reader compare the situation in their life with the ones in the book, putting some fresh perspective on the problems we have. This is a children’s book, but I don’t think it has to be read only by them, adults can learn a lot of interesting things in this book and realize that the children’s perspective is always valid and we should respect their way to act, not rushing things.
I really don’t want to make any spoilers of the story, only that this is a beautiful book that I’ll be recommending to any reader, believe me, is a must read!
About The Author
Kereen Getten grew up in Jamaica but now lives in Birmingham with her family. She has previously written short stories for multiple publications including Notts Review and Adhoc Fiction. She was nominated for Best Short Fiction 2018 and highly commended for the FAB prize. When not writing you can find her out in nature, planning her next travel adventure, or watching Netflix.
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