SuitabookTwo Weeks with the Queen
Morris Gleitzman
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the child, pausing after major discoveries about illness, prejudice or loss. Invite questions without promising easy answers, and distinguish Colin’s understandable feelings from the safety or fairness of his actions.
- Themes
- Trying to control an uncontrollable illness: Colin tries to obtain better medical help for Luke and pursues increasingly ambitious plans when he cannot accept the situation. His determination is treated compassionately, but his anger, damage to property and risky actions have consequences. The book appears interested in both the love behind his behaviour and its limits.
- Compassion across different experiences: Colin meets Ted, whose partner Griff has AIDS-related cancer, and helps reconnect them while dealing with his own family crisis. Ted is described as warm and open, and Colin’s practical care for Ted and Griff is presented as meaningful.
- Prejudice and dignity: Ted is attacked because he is gay, while his relationship with Griff is presented as part of the illness and hospital storyline. The attack is presented as harm, while Ted is characterised warmly and openly. This supports a critical treatment of prejudice, though the full narrative framing is not available.
- Worth knowing
- Be ready for cancer, terminal illness, AIDS-related cancer, bereavement, injury following an attack motivated by homophobia, risky escape plans, property damage and conflict with adults. The treatment combines painful events with warmth and humour.