The author has researched her backdrop very well, and the atmospheric sights and sounds of the time are both vivid and captivating. Readers will smell the dirty streets and close-living of urban London, revel in the summer splendour of the finest country houses and then flinch when the harshness of life for the poorest souls is revealed in uncomfortable detail.
For in the late s your circumstance of birth meant everything. Toby and Aaron may both find themselves living at Captain Thomas Coram's Hospital for parentless children, but their histories are as far apart as they could possibly be. Toby has been rescued from a life of slave labour in a faraway country; Aaron is the illegitimate son of the heir to a large country estate.
They are watched over by Mish--a simple soul who has been with them since their arrival. His devotion to them is absolute, but his motives are not altogether straightforward.
Could this curious man really be Meshak, the son of a wicked child-killer who was hanged at the gallows for his crimes? Coram Boy is a glorious web of changing fortunes and subtle intrigues. There is tragedy and corruption, hope and evil. Sometimes brutal and sometimes unceasingly bleak, the genre of historical fiction has rarely been this good.
It's undoubtedly the kind of book that wins awards. Age 12 and over -- John McLay. Whitbread Award , Children's Book of the Year Jump to ratings and reviews. Want to Read. Buy on Amazon. Rate this book. Coram Boy Jamila Gavin. Eighteenth-century England is the setting for Jamila Gavin's sweeping saga of growing-up, struggle, tradition and corruption. From an acorn of an idea about a real-life good Samaritan of yesteryear, the author has crafted a satisfying, if occasionally painful, novel that spans the lives of several fortunate and unfortunate young people of the day.
More Details. Jamila Gavin 63 books 48 followers. Jamila Gavin was born in Mussoorie, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to an Indian father and an English mother. Jamila has written many books with multicultural themes for children and young adults.
Her work has been adapted for stage and television. Jamila Gavin lives in England. Search review text. This story is a set book that I read in advance for my planned children's literature course with the Open University EA I was amazed to realise how dark this genre could be. Coram Boy is a powerful, thrilling story that will leave the reader wanting to know more about Captain Thomas Coram and his hospital. However, this story blew me away in its own right! Beccy Swanson.
I barely remembered reading this book as a child but, revisiting it, I recognised the creepy fascination it held over me. Covering child abuse, infanticide, sex, and insanity, this is not a book to be recommended lightly. It requires great emotional maturity to understand how the characters can do the things they do, and although it points towards a happy ending the overall tone of the novel is bleak.
That said, its characters are vivid and the rich historical setting is an education in itself. A child reading this might have to be helped to enjoy its lighter moments and learn about Georgian England and its music, as well as being given space and resources to understand the shocking and upsetting events of the plot. Jesus Flores. Of course, as Alexander performs the piece his voice breaks, causing his father to banish musical instruments from the house and send Thomas back to school in an attempt to make Alexander bow to his will.
But this is not a simple story of teenage angst. There is a much darker side to Coram Boy , where the children face difficult and upsetting events. While Alexander decides to run away from his father, he also leaves his cousin, Melissa, pregnant with his illegitimate child. He tells the Hospital that he will give the children a better life, but instead sends them straight onto slave ships. In the midst of all this misery, it is hard to see how this play could end cheerily — but it does have a happy ish ending.
Particularly memorable performances include community players Karr Kennedy and Harry Pavlou who shared the leading role of Alexander Ashbrook to represent his younger and older self; Kevin Brown as a commanding Sir William Ashbrook; and Amanda Pearce as Mrs Lynch, the treacherous, but ultimately heroic, housekeeper of the Ashbrook family. Professional actor Tim Samuels played the sinister Coram Man, Otis Gardiner, with a sense of menace which culminated in the shocking denouement of the second act.
He gets his just desserts in the end though and Meshak breaks free of his cruelty to become the hero of this story. The story has got some gruesome and upsetting situations in it but these are balanced by inspirational characters like Meshak and the two Coram Hospital boys Aaron and Toby who, despite their difficult starts, still manage to make a life for themselves.
By the end of the book, you really do care for them all and you understand the world they are struggling in so much better. This is a really original and thought provoking book and I loved it. Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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