The Secret of Haven Point by Lisettte Auton

 

2022

Alpha Lux is disabled and is the first foundling to live at Haven Point.  She was found in a crate that had “Lux Flakes” printed on the side.  She lives with the Captain, other foundlings with disabilities and lots of cats in Old Ben the Lighthouse.  Also near to Haven Point is a colony of mermaids. Mermaid Ephyra helps to raise Alpha. This community supports itself by wrecking.  They capture boats that sail nearby, take the goods they need, but then send the sailors unharmed, on their way. The mermaids are very helpful in this.   

Life is fine and Alpha is relatively happy; she has friends, she is fed and sheltered and she feels s loved. Until one day she sees a glint coming from the old pill box on the coast.  Could this be her real mother looking for her?  No, it is a spy who is trying to find evidence of mermaids. Life becomes complicated when this spy, Bobby, is captured and he falls in love with Ephyra.

Alpha begins to feel excluded, falls out with her friends, and gradually realises that she has been extremely self-centred.

Those who had sent Booby arrive and capture one of the mermaids as evidence of the existence of mermaids. In the ensuing struggle Ephyra is wounded as she protects Alpha. The wound is fatal.

Life has to change at Haven Point. The mermaids leave and go out further to sea. The light house becomes a café and tourist attraction. Alpha has to find her own way in the world.  This borders on being a bildungsroman      

The book is 379 pages long –though the text is double spaced.  It uses a young reader friendly font: 12.25 Bembo though it is serifed and has difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s.  There are line drawings at the beginning of each chapter and full page illustrations at intervals throughout the book. Three artists have been involved here: Gillian Gamble has created the cover, Valentina Toro the drawings at the beginning of each chapter and the full page drawings, and Luke Ashforth has provided the map and the concept of the lighthouse. There is information about the author and the artists at the end of the book. At the beginning Auton discusses disability.  She labels herself as a disabled person rather than a person with a disability.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

2002, first published 2001  

The traveling pants of the title are a pair of jeans bought from a charity. The four friends, Bridget Carmen, Lena and Tibby pass them on to each other during a long summer in which each of the girls grows up a little.  So, we approach the bildungsroman of the young adult.

Bridget embarks on a forbidden relationship with an older boy a coach at her summer camp. Carmen behaves badly when she is confronted with her father’s new family. The beautiful but rather shy Lena causes a misunderstanding between her and Kostos, the grandson of friends of her grandparents.  Tibby works at Wallman’s and befriends Bailey, a younger girl who is dying of leukaemia.

The pants develop a spiritual quality and bring luck and meaningfulness to each girl as she wears them        

Each chapter contains glimpse of each of the girls and is headed by a quote usually from literature though there is also a quote from a bumper sticker.

The book is 304 pages long.  The chapters are quite short. The text is blocked and in an adult serif font. Other fonts are used for had-written notes, giving each girl a different sort of handwriting. 

Find your copy here 

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

2016, first published 1968 

YA, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, ages 14-17, lower secondary, upper secondary, Bildungsroman, fantasy, classic, Le Guin Ursula,  

This is certainly a Bildungsroman, packed with symbolism.  

Duny aka Sparrowhawk aka Ged has to find himself. He has to come to terms with his magical powers and how best to hone and use them, he has to learn his true name (Ged) and he has to confront the shadow that pursues him and find out that this is his alter ego.  He has to do this without his mentor, Oigon and without his familiar, the little otak.  His friend Vetch accompanies him on the final mission in the book but Vetch is powerless to help him at the crucial moment.  He can only be a moral support.

We can recognise many of the tropes also employed by later writers; like Harry Potter he goes to a school for wizards and he has an animal that stays with him rather like the daemons in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy. And as in many stories he finds that the hardest lesson is the one he learns at home.  Yes, he travels far and wide in pursuit of the shadow but the finds that the shadow is himself. 

Unlike 21^st century novels for the young adult this does not include a love interest.   However there is the hint of a seductive goddess figure in Serren.  Vetch’s younger sister Yarrow shows him much affection and we are left wondering whether a close relationship may follow. 

It is a slightly short text for this age group – just 200 pages long. Since the turn of the century texts for young adults and teens, and even fluent readers have become longer.  Each chapter  is headed with a decorative icon. Ursula Le Guin uses a sophisticated Tolkiensque language.