Artichoke Hearts

Product Information

I was thinking before I got to the sad part (don't want to spoilt it for anyone) that I give this book 2. Artichoke Hearts is a funny, tender and realistic book for readers 9-14 who enjoy real stories about real kids. Whoever you are and wherever you live, I think that a lot of people will be able to connect with her. The characters are so well developed that with little actual description, Sita Brahmachari really makes you feel as if you know them and can relate them to people in your own life.

Told from 12 year old Mira's point of view, Artichoke Hearts is a coming of age story focusing on a young girl's thoughts and feelings as she waits for her grandmother to die. well, let me put it this way: I received it in December, read halfway through, got bored, put it down and have only just finished it.I can't wait to read the next book about Meera - and any other books that Sita Brahmachari has written. Mira is described with having dark skin like her mother and the girl's skin on the cover is not even close).

This book is about two wonderful love stories, that of Mira Levenson and her grandmother Josie (very much the heart and strength of this book), and a boy-girl romance. He has experienced loss too as he was orphaned in the Rwandan Civil War and eventually opens up to Mira about his feelings about the past, his identity and anxieties about the future. First of all, the grandmother (whose death of cancer is one of the major plot-points) is one of most endearing, most colourful characters in contemporary children's fiction.I do not know whether or not it was intended or whether it would strike other people in the same way, but as I read this book I found myself reading into some of the characters, a sort of other-worldliness which at times Mira herself does wonder about. She's also finally finding her voice in public after too many years of trying to be invisible for her own protection. You could say I am biased as I am lucky enough to have knows "Nana Josie" and her family, but leaving that aside, this is such a beautifully written book that it stands alone. I read it in a day, it is a very sweet and gentle book, giving an insight and helping hand to those going through the same things Mira is. Also the growing relationship between Jide and Mira is presented beautifully – you can almost hear Mira’s shrieks of delight when Jide sends her a text ending with an “x”.

It is simply proof of how much you can get out of reading it and I think probably of the way it can affect people differently. Her interactions with family and friends was entertaining but also gives a look into different family dynamics and how people cope with an ill relative. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started Artichoke Hearts because I didn't know if it could quite sum up anything like what it feels like to lose someone in that way.

But I think even though I think it’s important to not scare the living crap out of kids about things like this, it is of equal importance to not wrap them in cotton wool and dumb things down so they are condescending.

However, I still feel that 3 stars is enough because although the book is great and the characters are well thought out, it doesn't stand out to me as one of the best books I've read, and it was only really moving in a few parts. It is full of stories and meaning and problems but the plot does not seem over-crowded or chaotic because everything seems to connect in a way I really appreciated when reading it.British children’s fiction, particularly contemporary realistic fiction, is full of amazing slang that I wish I could adopt in my life without my roommates looking at me funny. It seemed so different in the beginning too, there was so much focus on art and all that good stuff and then things suddenly took a depressing turn. There's also boys in her class who become friends - Ben who is Nigerian/Irish and then Jide who was adopted from Rwanda after the genocide.