SuitabookThe year of the rat
Clare Furniss
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside your teenager, or checking in afterwards. Let them choose whether to discuss the bereavement, and offer space to pause if the subject feels close to home.
- Themes
- Grief and bereavement: Pearl tries to come to terms with her mother’s death during the year that follows. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Family relationships after loss: Pearl faces a new relationship with her baby sister and a changed relationship with her stepfather after her mother dies. These relationships form part of the situation Pearl must navigate; their development or the story’s judgement of them is not established.
- Worth knowing
- A parent may wish to note the central bereavement: Pearl’s mother dies after giving birth. The story also involves a baby who reminds Pearl of her mother’s death.