PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Allan Ahlberg, a former teacher, postman, plumber's mate and grave digger, is a fulltime writer. He has published over 100 children's books and, with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning picture books as EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM and THE JOLLYCHRISTMAS POSTMAN - both winners of the Greenaway Medal. He has also written prize-winning poetry and fiction for older readers. Allan now lives in London.
Even after his death, Tom is there for his little sister and brother in this poignant ghost story. Recalling events that began four decades earlier, Frances describes how Tom, then ten, lost his life running into the street, but reappeared - to her and little Harry alone - at his funeral, and at odd intervals thereafter for the next several years. What drew him back? Perhaps his sense of duty as big brother, for he is there to help Harry get over his bedwetting, to keep Frances company as her polio makes her an outsider at school, and once even to save her life when she falls into a canal. Or perhaps it was loneliness, because after burying the body of their old mongrel Rufus, Frances sees Tom for the last time taking the dog for a ghostly walk. A tiny format marks this as a special book, not one to be zipped through, but tucked in a pocket and savored. Frances's matter of fact, plainspoken tale will leave smart readers thinking about ghosts and memories, brothers and sisters, and the timelessness of love. (Fiction. 10-12) . (Kirkus Reviews)
