SuitabookThe jade boy
Cate Cain
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the child rather than relying on the historical setting to signal a gentle story. Pause after frightening passages, check how the young characters are coping, and talk about whether the resolved ending feels satisfying.
- Themes
- Friendship under pressure: Jem, Ann and another young character help one another through dark circumstances and become friends. The book presents this favourably.
- Power and exploitation: Jem is a servant, another character is a ward of the villain, and another is described as a slave; Cazalon holds power over people in his household. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Historical reality and fantasy: The novel uses early London and the Great Fire as a setting while offering a wildly fantastical theory about how and why the fire happened. The historical setting is used as the foundation for imaginative storytelling, not presented as a straightforward factual account.
- Worth knowing
- Some scenes may merit advance thought: the villain is described as exceptionally frightening, and a disturbing passage involves scars and the use of a girl's blood to communicate with her dead mother. The book is also described as darker than expected.