Multi-award-winning author Brian Conaghan's first book for 10+ readers is a future classic brimming with humour and heartEven though I found him living in a house made of cardboard, Bruce is a massive legend. FACT. So this mine and Bruce’s story. You don’t have to believe it happened, but it did. All of it.Nobody at school can see past Lenny’s size to the person within. So when lessons get too tough, Lenny always goes to his bench to think. At least there no one can see him. Then one day, midway through lobbing his empty can of Irn-Bru into the canal he’s stopped by Bruce. Bruce lives in a cardboard home hidden away by the banks, and he doesn’t approve of kids messing up his front lawn …But a bumpy start soon gives way to an unexpected friendship – and an epic road trip – that will change both of them for life ...
Format: Paperback / softbackCONTRIBUTORS: Brian ConaghanEAN: 9781526628602COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 252 gHEIGHT: 198 cm
Children’s / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories
With the feel of a modern-day classic, this book will make readers cry but is also hysterically funny and life-affirming, Conaghan, a beautiful writer who loves to surprise, takes this unlikely pair of cowboys on a road trip to the north of the country. And so Bruce becomes the father figure Lenny needs, Lenny the responsibility Bruce craves as their back stories get a slow reveal.
·, This is an energetic charmer of a book, Conaghan, a beautiful writer who loves to surprise, takes this unlikely pair of cowboys on a road trip to the north of the country. And so Bruce becomes the father figure Lenny needs, Lenny the responsibility Bruce craves as their back stories get a slow reveal, Multi-award-winning Brian Conaghan specialises in misfits, characters on the edge looking in, and he has a wonderful ear for authentic dialogue and for giving us male protagonists with emotional depth. He creates characters that rapidly find a place in your heart and who will make you laugh out loud and shed a few tears. This is the first time that he has written for a younger audience and does so without losing any of his trademark authenticity or sharp, wisecracking dialogue ... Warm hearted and memorable, this should go to the top of your wishlist for school libraries and every child's bookshelf
Brian Conaghan was born and raised in the Scottish town of Coatbridge but now lives in Dublin. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. For many years Brian worked as a teacher and taught in Scotland, Italy and Ireland. His first YA novel for Bloomsbury, When Mr Dog Bites, was shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Medal, and his second, The Bombs That Brought Us Together, won the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award. We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award, and his fourth novel, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers, won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year.@BrianConaghan
Multi-award-winning author Brian Conaghan's first book for 10+ readers is a future classic brimming with humour and heartEven though I found him living in a house made of cardboard, Bruce is a massive legend. FACT. So this mine and Bruce’s story. You don’t have to believe it happened, but it did. All of it.Nobody at school can see past Lenny’s size to the person within. So when lessons get too tough, Lenny always goes to his bench to think. At least there no one can see him. Then one day, midway through lobbing his empty can of Irn-Bru into the canal he’s stopped by Bruce. Bruce lives in a cardboard home hidden away by the banks, and he doesn’t approve of kids messing up his front lawn …But a bumpy start soon gives way to an unexpected friendship – and an epic road trip – that will change both of them for life ...
Format: Paperback / softbackCONTRIBUTORS: Brian ConaghanEAN: 9781526628602COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 252 gHEIGHT: 198 cm
Children’s / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories
Brian Conaghan was born and raised in the Scottish town of Coatbridge but now lives in Dublin. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. For many years Brian worked as a teacher and taught in Scotland, Italy and Ireland. His first YA novel for Bloomsbury, When Mr Dog Bites, was shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Medal, and his second, The Bombs That Brought Us Together, won the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award. We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award, and his fourth novel, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers, won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year.@BrianConaghan
Dramatiese wisselwerking tussen 'n onderhandelaar en 'n skieter
“Ons het ’n gyselaarsituasie in Stellenbosch.” Blinde kol boei vanaf hierdie openingsin, met ’n spanningslyn wat deurgaans snaarstyf volgehou word. Dit is 2 Oktober 2025 en ’n man het sy pad ingeskiet in ’n dameskoshuis. Hy hou verskeie studente aan en kort-kort klap daar nog skote. Hy vra vir Karla Blanckenberg by die naam, wil spesifiek met háár praat.
Karla onthou dat die skieter, Altus, die seun is wat sy in 2019 oorreed het om nie van ’n dak af spring nie. Die storielyn wissel behendig en ongeforseerd tussen hierdie twee tydgleuwe, ook tussen die voorgeskiedenis van die skieter en dié van Karla.
Benewens die spanningsvolle gebeure, word daar sensitiewe dinge oopgeskryf, soos selfmutilasie. “Ink kan sê hoe sy voel. Maar bloed kan dit ’n ruk lank wegvat.” (p.156) Daar is ook Altus se obsessie met mooi meisies en seks wat hy voel dat hy verdien maar nie kry nie. Daar is baie bloedvergieting, maar Martin Steyn is ’n meester wat dit verteerbaar aanbied, selfs vir ’n redelike sensitiewe leser soos ekself.
Adjudant Karla Blanckenberg en haar spanlid, Adjudant Colin Menck, het verskyn in vroeëre boeke van hierdie skrywer, maar Blinde Kol kan op eie bene staan. Dit is ’n produk van Lapa Uitgewers.
'n Joernalis soek na 'n fonds op 'n roosplaas in Marokko, en ontbloot geheime
Om ’n laaste wens van haar pa te eerbiedig, vertrek Gemma na Marokko, en spesifiek na die roosplaas, Sangrose. Die Marokkaanse landskap daarheen word goed uitgebeeld en verklaar waarom Soet rose, donker geheime, deur Frenette van Wyk uitgegee is as ’n romanse in die Reis sub-genre. Die titel is ook goed gekies, want op die pragtige plaas met duisende roosbome, is daar beslis geheime opgesluit.
Gemma is ’n joernalis met ’n ondersoekende gees. Haar pogings om die geheime te ontbloot, bring haar in uiteindelik in konflik met die eienaar van die plaas, die wewenaar, Julien, terwyl daar vanuit die staanspoor ’n definitiewe aantrekking tussen hulle was.
Die storie herinner my sterk aan Daphne du Maurier se Rebecca, hoewel dit in verskillende tye en plekke afspeel. Dalk is dit die rosetuine, maar veral die antagonis, die hatige Mrs Danvers. In hierdie verhaal is dit Samira wat openlik vyandig is en soos ’n skim verskyn oral waar Gemma beweeg.
Soet rose, donker geheime is ’n publikasie van Lapa Uitgewers onder die Romanza druknaam.
Luke en Lilihanna is lank genoeg in ’n verhouding dat sy al ’n diamantring begin verwag. Drama sommer met die intrapslag: hy verlaat die prentjie op onbedagsame wyse en laat vir Lilihanna verslae agter. Die volgende man wat te voorskyn kom is die skatryk Sebastian. Ek het nie geweet wat om te maak met hierdie karakter nie. Is hy ’n gewillige held of ’n onwaarskynlike held? Of is die held dalk die fotograaf, Leo, met sy lang hare, sy motorfiets en sy byna rebelse aantreklikheid?
Voorkoms staan sentraal in die storielyn. Sebastian, wat ’n reeks haarsalonne en ’n holostiese spa besit waar oormaaksessies aan die orde van die dag is, verras met ’n stelling: “Liefde is die onwerklike opwelling van emosie wanneer jy onverwags daardie één sien, ongeag of hulle nou in aanddrag uitgevat is of in vodde.” (p.31)
Skrywer Beatrix Smith was ook nie haastig om al my vrae te beantwoord nie, en ek gaan dit net so aan lesers oorlaat om te bepaal wié Lilihanna se hart gaan steel. My bestemde beminde is ’n Romanza uit Lapa Uitgewers se stal.
