A Corner of White: The Colours of Madeleine Book One (Jaclyn Moriarty, Pan Macmillan)

Madeleine lives in Cambridge, England, The World, where she is homeschooled along with her two friends Belle and Jack. One day Madeleine finds a letter in a parking meter—and for the fun of it, she replies. The recipient of her letter is Elliot—resident of Bonfire, The Farms, The Kingdom of Cello. We learn that there used to be contact between the two worlds until all cracks between them were sealed around the time of Henry VIII. But now a crack has appeared, which allows Elliot and Madeleine to write to each other. Though it takes a while for Madeleine to believe she is talking to someone from another world (she accuses Elliot of ripping off Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights in his description of his town), the two find solace in writing to someone who is so completely removed from their current situation. We see both teenagers struggling to deal with responsibilities that would normally be handled by a parent, and how they are helped by this magical connection. Jaclyn Moriarty’s books are always original and quirky and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. I would recommend it to both adults and teenagers in search of something a little less ordinary.

Amelia Vahtrick is the children’s book buyer at Better Read Than Dead in Newtown

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Category: Reviews