The story is perhaps best introduced by this widely referenced quote from the book itself:
I am not who I say I am,
and Marla isn't who she thinks she is.
I am a girl trying to forget.
She is a woman trying to remember.
This story is about a teen who feels she has nowhere to go and an elderly woman so used to being unseen that she barely sees herself anymore, and now she's got dementia to deal with.
Sarah Crossan is the Irish Children's Laureate, and she writes young adult verse novels, which is not a description I love for this book. It is written in poem-type-things which use poetic aspects, but mainly serve to provide narrative of the story in vignettes, cutting to the important bits.
The protagonist, Allison, is not ready to talk about the trauma that has brought her together with the elderly and confused Marla, and one particular incident is beautifully explored in micro-poems, mainly empty air, through the book.
It is a story which made me cry repeatedly, especially in the silences, and I could not put it down, which annoyed my cat, Loki, who wanted more attention. Sarah won my love by being social media savvy when I shared a picture of Loki and the book on Instagram and mentioned he didn't think much of it. She replied joking that he should get with the programme. She had a point!
Loki wasn't the only one in my household who wasn't a fan. My son is 13 and an avid reader, so I passed Toffee to him. He was not impressed because for him it broke the rules of how stories should be told. I was also a rule follower as a teen, but if you ask me, learning to break some rules and do things differently can only be a good thing.
I am going to be running a reading group over the summer in my local library, and I'm planning on reading from Toffee as part of a session on telling different kinds of story, although it's worth remembering that verse stories have been around for a very long time, just ask Gawayn or the Grene Knight, or ask The Faerie Queene. If you fancy joining in, it will be at Largs library fortnightly on Monday afternoons, just get in touch with the library to sign up - it's free.
Toffee is by Sarah Crossan and published by Bloomsbury. It came out in May 2019, and you can buy it here, or from pretty much any bookshop, or take it out of your local library. I would highly recommend it, but make sure you've got tissues to hand.
Sarah Crossan is the Irish Children's Laureate, and she writes young adult verse novels, which is not a description I love for this book. It is written in poem-type-things which use poetic aspects, but mainly serve to provide narrative of the story in vignettes, cutting to the important bits.
The protagonist, Allison, is not ready to talk about the trauma that has brought her together with the elderly and confused Marla, and one particular incident is beautifully explored in micro-poems, mainly empty air, through the book.
It is a story which made me cry repeatedly, especially in the silences, and I could not put it down, which annoyed my cat, Loki, who wanted more attention. Sarah won my love by being social media savvy when I shared a picture of Loki and the book on Instagram and mentioned he didn't think much of it. She replied joking that he should get with the programme. She had a point!
Loki wasn't the only one in my household who wasn't a fan. My son is 13 and an avid reader, so I passed Toffee to him. He was not impressed because for him it broke the rules of how stories should be told. I was also a rule follower as a teen, but if you ask me, learning to break some rules and do things differently can only be a good thing.
I am going to be running a reading group over the summer in my local library, and I'm planning on reading from Toffee as part of a session on telling different kinds of story, although it's worth remembering that verse stories have been around for a very long time, just ask Gawayn or the Grene Knight, or ask The Faerie Queene. If you fancy joining in, it will be at Largs library fortnightly on Monday afternoons, just get in touch with the library to sign up - it's free.
Toffee is by Sarah Crossan and published by Bloomsbury. It came out in May 2019, and you can buy it here, or from pretty much any bookshop, or take it out of your local library. I would highly recommend it, but make sure you've got tissues to hand.
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