My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Annabel Pitcher

Five years ago, Jamie's sister Rose was killed. Now aged ten and barely able to remember her, his family has been torn apart because of the tragedy. His mother has left, whilst his father is an alcoholic and hates all Muslims. His other sister Jasmine (Rose's twin) who is 15 is the only one who can understand him. But when Jamie makes friends with Sunya, a muslim girl at school, his life is turned upside down.

I thought this book was absolutely brilliant! I was drawn in from the very first page, and to use the cliché 'I couldn't put it down' is the most accurate way of describing how I read it, despite the fact I should have been doing homework for the next day. I loved all the twists and turns in the plot - everything was very unpredictable and I never knew where the story was going to go next.

The characters are all very well written, and each of them seemed very real to me. The development of Jas in particular was excellent, and I loved the little twist at the end involving her. The relationship between Jamie and Sunya was also very strong and worked well with the storyline - it was absolutely perfect for two 10 year olds and wasn't ridiculously fast paced or inappropriate. The characterisation of Roger is something to look out for too - it is very rarely that an animal sparks so many emotions that are so genuine and not silly.

The narrative voice of Jamie is well suited to that of a ten year old - I felt it really captured his innocence of that age. Many writers do not quite truly capture the age of their characters, most often making them sound too old for their age. However, Pitcher has developed Jamie's voice into something very believable and also includes the silly humour of that age, along with the honesty - something which is unusual when dealing with the subject of grief.

I particularly liked how so many relevant issues were explored too - there is something that many children and teenagers can connect to in the story. Each issue was given an appropriate amount of depth and time - nothing felt like it was rushed or lagging. The fact that Jamie cannot really comprehend what happened to his sister or have many memories of her definitely made the narrative much more compelling and put a different spin on this kind of story. As part of the generation who were alive when 9/11 took place but did not really understand it until many years later, I found this easy to connect, and I'm sure this is similar with many other readers having the same experience of knowing about an event but not really understanding it, such as the 2005 London bombings.

This book is excellent and definitely deserves to be on the shortlist

Rachel, Yr 12