Review: Nobody Heard Me - Susan Carey

 

Review: Nobody Heard Me by Susan Carey

One of the many book review sites that I belong to includes Review-Worm, where we are sent many unpublished or self-published books to read and review and give feedback on. One of the one's I was sent recently was called Nobody Heard Me by Susan Carey. 

Nobody Heard Me is a small story at only 33 pages long and is written for I would say 10-13years old and is a quick read. It is a family orientated novel and is centered around a family which includes Mum - Josephine aka Jo , Hels , Dan and Birdie. The novel also focuses on alot of the edgy and real issues that many families face nowadays from schools and peer pressure , from disabilities like Autism which is now one in five people suffer somewhere on the spectrum and death. In the first chapter , we get to know the family and we feel for the main character as they are told they are dumb and they don't like to talk as they dribble and are made fun of for it. Later on we read a chapter on where Mum is asked to come to the college and they discuss about whether or not Mainstream education is the best outcome - I was able to relate to this as we went through a similar situation with two of my siblings where in the end mainstream wasn't cut out for them so one went to a special school in Nelson and the other ended up doing schoolwork through Correspondence school. Near the end of the book what I gathered was that Jo's mum Birdie dies so the family set out on a journey to discover her upbringing which I loved as the whole family got behind it and we as the readers were able to view the family dynamics during this tragic time.

Nobody Heard Me by Susan Carey, is a tough read which is why I put it at the older age of Children's Fiction and Early Teens, but if you have a great reader in your children then they will enjoy this novel.