Julia and the Shark

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Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

I appreciate the multicultural representation and I love the young characters so much. They seem so real! Their voices represent their actual ages quite accurately and I applaud the author for developing these characters so convincingly. How Julia tries to keep hold of her mother is an emotional rollercoaster. Kiran Millwood Hargrave explores the confusing effect of a parent’s deteriorating mental health in a story that is lyrical and empowering as well as profound. Although my expectations where high, I'm happy to say that this story met them head on! It's one of those stories that transcends its age-demographic and moves straight into instant-classic territory. It's emotional journey for all ages, and honestly the kind of book I hope to see parents read, by themselves, or preferable together with their child. The story is a wonderful starting-point for meaningful conversations, yet stands powerful enough on its own not to require explanation for its emotional resonance. Snel was voor mij wel duidelijk dat psychische problematiek een rol speelt in dit boek. Julia denkt na over de buien van haar moeder, haar zorgen en schuldgevoel groeien. Uiteindelijk krijgen de afwisselende vrolijke en verdrietige buien een verklaring: een bipolaire stoornis.What starts out as an adventure and a few quirky weeks of living in a lighthouse soon turns dark. Why? Well, I don't want to spoil too much but her mother's obsession with the shark and mental health issues take center stage here. Though science and the importance of nature for us humans are also explored in a very nice (non-preachy) way. Julia and her parents take off from their home in Cornwall to live in a lighthouse on Shetland. Her father is working on fixing the lighthouse light while her mother is determined to explore the wide and very cold seas to find an elusive Greenland shark. While Julia’s father is practical, methodical and minds about numbers, Julia’s mother minds about words and about the scientific research she is so passionate about. While Julia begins to make friends with the few other children around, her mother becomes more and more absorbed in the search for the shark. Nothing will stop her - not the danger and not the cost. Julia wants to help her mother to fulfil her dream but she also knows that there is something irrational, uncontrolled and deadly dangerous about what she is planning to do.

This is the story of a little girl whose parents are the most adventurous ones, who are living their dreams at their best. Until the little girl tries to grow up and tries her best to live her mother’s unfinished search for a creature that’s rarer and older than the oldest trees! What a gorgeous book - calm, funny, heartfelt, wise, full of the quiet and force of the sea - Ross Montgomery, author of The Midnight Guardians Tekst en illustraties zijn één verhaal en ondersteunen elkaar precies goed. De illustraties zijn soms heel duidelijk, soms lijkt het een vlek maar is er meer te zien als je beter kijkt.Julia and the Shark is a stunning middle-grade novel about family, friendship, compassion, and coming of age, and the ripples of a chronic mental health condition throughout all of it. Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. I could see this becoming a modern children’s classic. Julia and her parents (and not forgetting the cat, Noodle) are off on an island adventure to Unst, in the north of Shetland, where her father will keep the lighthouse for a summer and her mother, a marine biologist, will search for the Greenland shark, a notably long-lived species she’s researching in hopes of discovering clues to human longevity – a cause close to her heart after her own mother’s death with dementia. Julia makes friends with Kin, a South Asian boy whose family run the island laundromat-cum-library. They watch stars and try to evade local bullies together. But one thing Julia can’t escape is her mother’s mental health struggle (late on named as bipolar: “Mum sometimes bounced around like Tigger, and other times she was mopey like Eeyore”). Julia thinks that if she can find the shark, it might fix her mother. Julia and the Shark is deep, beautiful and true. The art shines and the writing soars. A classic from cover to cover. - Eoin Colfer