SATA

Katya Balen

Katya Balen is an author and the co-director of Mainspring Arts, a charity that provides creative opportunities for neurodivergent people. Her debut novel, The Space We’re In, was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her second book, October, October was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
She lives in South London with her partner, two lazy dogs and an assorted collection of dying house plants.

Genres: Children's Fiction

New Books
May 2023

thumb
The Thames and Tide Club: The Secret City
June 2023

thumb
Nightjar
(Nightjar , book 1)
Series
Nightjar
1. Nightjar (2023)
thumb

Novels
The Space We're In (2019)
October, October (2020)
The Light in Everything (2022)
Birdsong (2022)
The Thames and Tide Club: The Secret City (2023)
Foxlight (2023)

Chapter Books
Maggie and the Moonbird (2021)

Katya Balen studied English at university. She is now a writer and is co-director of Mainspring Arts. Her debut novel, The Space We’re In, was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award 2020. Her second book, October, October, published to critical acclaim in the same year and is the winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2022. Her third book, The Light in Everything, was published in 2022. When she’s not writing books or planning projects, she likes to scroll through dog-rescue websites, bake and attempt to keep all her house plants alive. She lives in London with her partner and their dogs Raffi and Mouse.

Saved by stories: an interview with 2022 Carnegie Medal winner Katya Balen
Author: Joy Court
Katya Balen has just been named winner of the 2022 Yoto Carnegie Medal for her book October, October (Bloomsbury), illustrated by Angela Harding. Balen’s October, October has done the double too and scooped this year’s Shadowers’ Choice Award for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, after tens of thousands of young people across the UK and internationally read and debated the shortlisted books before voting for their favourites.

Joy Court interviewed Katya for Books for Keeps.

A ‘slightly surreal’ experience is how the Yoto Carnegie Medal winner, Katya Balen describes being told she had won both the coveted Medal and the accolade of also being the Shadowers’ Choice winner. She was in rural France with her mother and father when she received the news. It was boiling hot, and the reception was terrible, but as she was receiving the ‘best news of her life’ she had to step over the tiny corpse of a dead baby bird on the patio, which felt like a portent of doom and yet strangely appropriate for her book. Falling from a tree and a bird are indeed both significant features of October, October, which astonishingly is only Katya’s second novel.

Her winning book is the story of October, named for the month of her birth, who lives an almost entirely self-sufficient and perfectly happy life in the woods with her father. A life enhanced by her stubborn rescue and hand rearing of a baby owl, her first friend, whom she has named Stig. But on her eleventh birthday everything changes when her dad falls from the highest tree, breaking his back, and she is forced to accompany ‘the woman who is my mother’ to her home in the city. Stig comes too, but heartbreakingly must be taken to a sanctuary while October has to confront grey urban life, school and other people as well as her relationship with her other parent.

I wondered where the inspiration for this extraordinary story came from and it happens that Katya has direct experience of this wild, off grid way of living. About 10 years ago her father-in-law bought 40 acres of woodland and built his own house there, growing his own food and making his own electricity and she had this ‘classic author moment’ of wondering what it would be like for child to grow up in a place like this and how they would be equipped to meet the world. The family story of how her father-in-law found, and kept, a dead owl is also relevant. She knew that an owl had to be part of her story and that the circle of life and what it means to be wild would be central.

She admitted to feeling sorry for Bloomsbury when she pitched these vague ideas for a book but she is adamant that she is not a planner and that the books reveal themselves as she writes. She describes waking ‘in a cold sweat’ sometimes, wondering what she would write the next day. Writing is a ‘tortuous process’ but she is very disciplined, writing 1000 words a day and by taking time over crafting those words her first drafts are relatively clean by they time they reach her editor.

She had always wanted to be a writer and specifically a writer for children, but she became embarrassed by this ‘self-indulgent’ ambition. She studied English at university, completed an MA researching the impact of stories on autistic children’s behaviour and became interested in Child Psychology. She ‘flitted’ around jobs in special schools, hospices and social care. But finding herself out of work at the same time as relocating with her partner she told herself to be brave because ‘If I don’t sit down and have a go now, when am I ever going to get this block of time to indulge?’ The result was The Space We’re In, her acclaimed debut, longlisted for the Carnegie and Highly Commended for the Branford Boase Award, which tells the story of 10-year-old Frank and how he and his five-year-old autistic brother Max cope with a family tragedy.

There can be no doubt that her master’s research and working experience has had an impact upon the themes she writes about. She is also co-director of Mainspring Arts, a not-for-profit organisation set up to increase the participation in the arts for neurodivergent people. She is frequently asked if October is a character on the spectrum, but she is adamant that she would not feel it appropriate to write first person from a neurodivergent perspective. She acknowledges that there are ‘obvious crossover traits’ in October’s behaviour, but she has been isolated from normal experiences and the sensory overload she experiences, for example on the Tube or in a crowded playground would be simply overwhelming. What is truly extraordinary is the way in which Katya is able to get the reader inside October’s head so that they feel every emotion, concern and anxiety alongside her. As she says ‘Words can do so many different things to different people and create all these really intense emotions’

Shadowers and adult reviewers alike have commented upon her beautiful use of language, with young people most surprised by her lack of the punctuation that they are told is compulsory. But the enthusiasm with which they race through the story and the emotional impact it has upon them is testament to her skill. Having read that she listened to audio stories at bedtime from the age of three I do wonder if that aided the development of a style which captures the rhythms and cadences of normal speech so well. She also confessed to a childhood habit of narrating aloud her own life in the third person. This stream-of-consciousness describing of everything has undoubtedly contributed to her ability to vividly evoke both settings and the internal life of her characters

Her MA also points to another very important theme – the importance of the stories we tell ourselves and each other. ‘Stories give you a greater connection to other people. Either you understand them more or you have all shared the same story and you connect on that level. We are all part of each other’s stories.’ Stories are essential to October and it is often the objects that she finds that inspire the stories in her head. This is based very much upon Katya’s own recollections of childhood collecting. ‘Children are like magpies; they take all this stuff and incorporate it into their games… The excitement of finding a piece of green glass that you can say is The Philosopher’s Stone…’ It is only when her mother introduces her to the possibility of mudlarking, searching for objects on the shore of the Thames, that October is able to reconnect with nature, to find herself and to start to create a more hopeful story for them all.

With her third book The Light in Everything just published to rave reviews and the fourth, so far untitled, with her editor, I am sure I am not the only very happy reader! Every book so far has been very different but they are all beautifully crafted, beautifully published (Bloomsbury is to be applauded for matching all her texts with phenomenal illustrators as with Angela Harding in October, October) and with unmistakeably authentic children’s voices. I strongly suspect that this will not be the only Carnegie medal for the extraordinarily talented Katya Balen.

Joy Court is a trustee of The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA), co-founder of All Around Reading and Conference Manager for CILIP Youth Libraries Group. She is a Past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.

October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding, is published by Bloomsbury, 978-1526601933, £7.99 pbk.

Katya Balen - our Guest Editor of the Month
By LoveReading4Kids | 1st January 2023

We are delighted to welcome Katya Balen as our first Guest Editor of 2023.

Katya is a lyrical storyteller, gifted at reflecting on difficult situations and emotions, and exploring how children can navigate them. She has spent much of her career working with neuro-divergent children, co-founding Mainspring Arts, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making the arts inclusive, diverse, and accessible to all.

Her debut novel, The Space We're In, is a powerful story of love, terrible loss, understanding and recovery. It was widely praised winning a Commendation from the judges of the Branford Boase, an award that recognises outstanding new writing talent, describing it as ‘an important book, beautifully written...the insight into the family relationships is excellent’.

Photo credit Patrick Simpson
Katya's next book scooped the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2022, the most prestigious award in children's literature. The judges hailed October, October as an “evocative exploration of what it means to be truly alive and wholly human” and felt the main character October was “expertly written with an incredibly authentic narrative voice, leaving the reader feeling great empathy towards her”.

Katya's most recent novel is The Light in Everything, a life-affirming story about blended families, learning to trust - and diving into the unknown with hope in your heart. Zofia and Tom couldn't be more different, one buzzing with energy the other quiet and withdrawn. Through the book we follow their stories in a series of contrasting short episodes as the children prepare to live together in a blended family. We asked Katya why she chose a dual-narrative style to tell this story and her motivation for addressing the issues of family dynamics in her beautifully told tales. But first Katya has written a letter to her readers...

Hello! It’s such a joy to be the guest editor for January’s edition of LoveReading4Kids! It’s particularly special to have this role at the very start of the year – when the air is full of fresh possibilities and new starts.

Writing books is always about possibilities – asking yourself what if? In my book October, October, I thought about the wild woods where my father-in-law had moved to, and I thought what if a child grew up here? What if that child had to leave? In my new book, The Light in Everything, I thought, what if two children who were polar opposites were suddenly thrown together? What if they had to unite for a bigger purpose?

Those what ifs are important for all writers. But they’re also an idea I’d love for my readers to take into everyday life. In The Light in Everything, we get two viewpoints: Tom and Zofia. I wanted readers to understand different perspectives, to get to know and appreciate ideas and views that they might not have considered. I think that’s the most important thing in life – to try to see something from someone else’s point of view. To think about what if? What if that quiet child in my class just wants to be asked to join in? What if my friend is being loud because actually she’s scared about something? Asking yourself those questions, and trying to see another perspective, is what makes the world kinder and braver. We don’t always think the same, but we can always try to understand.

Have a fabulous start to this bright and hopeful New Year!

Katya

What was your inspiration for the unusual lifestyle of October and her father?

My father-in-law does actually live off-grid in 40 acres of woodland! It’s an interesting, brutal, unusual and beautiful way of living, and I found myself (like all authors do!) asking the question what if? What if a child lived here? What if they’d never left? What if they then had to?

Many reviewers have commented upon your ability to realistically convey the inner life of children facing very difficult problems or situations. What do you think has helped you to do this?

I have a good memory of my own childhood, and I’m a bit of a sponge when it comes to people. I have always, always loved reading, watching, learning, about other people’s lives. I think that really helped me form realistic responses and thought processes, because I’ve absorbed so many.

Stig the owl is such an important feature of October, October. Are you a keen bird watcher? Is there any reason why you chose an owl?

You know, I wasn’t much of a bird watcher before I started writing October. I could probably identify a pigeon, at a push. But I have become very keen in the last few years, and now I absolutely love it. Watching the birds in my garden is a proper joy.

I chose an owl because for me, they seemed so wild and magical. There’s something special about owls. They don’t seem quite of this earth, and I wanted a bird that reflected a part of October and her journey.

The Light in Everything is such a brilliant exploration of the way in which many children struggle to come to terms with a new blended family. Did you set out with the intention of helping children in that situation?

Yes, I thought it was important because it’s the kind of situation that affects so many children. It’s really normal, and because of that maybe we can forget that it isn’t easy. I think it’s good for children to be able to read their own lives and feel less alone, and for children who aren’t in that situation to grow their empathy and understanding. That’s the best result I can ever hope for when a child reads my books.

This was the first book in which you have employed dual narrators. At what point did you decide this was necessary?

Before I started writing! My editor suggested it, and she was absolutely right to do so – seeing different sides of the same situation was so brilliant in terms of that understanding and empathy.

Did you think it was important to have a girl in one family and a boy in the other? Do you think there is a special dynamic to that sort of sibling relationship? And was it important for these characters to have non gender stereotypical characteristics?

Yes, I definitely wanted to avoid stereotypes, because I cannot stand the pigeon-holing of boys and girls and how they should and shouldn’t behave, and what they should and shouldn’t like. It’s so regressive. Other than that, I didn’t particularly plan to have a boy and a girl – it’s just what I decided as I started writing! I’m not a planner. I’m not sure if there’s a specific boy-girl dynamic – again, I think it depends on personalities more than anything.

What was the first book you fell in love with?

That I read myself - The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, by Jill Murphy. That was read to me – Not Now Bernard! By David McKee.

Who is your favourite fictional hero from children's literature?

Pippi Longstocking!

What are you currently reading - and which books are in your to-read pile?

I’m reading a draft of the magnificent Struan Murray’s next book, and then I’m moving on to a proof of Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen, June 2023). After that, Giving Up The Ghost by the much-missed Hilary Mantel, and another proof – Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagi. I love getting sent advanced copies!

One in three of all books sold is a children's book yet children's books only get less than 5% of review space in the media. Why do you think this is - and what can be done?

Because for some reason, people think children’s literature is lesser, despite the fact that if you ask most adults which book means the most to them, they choose a book from their childhood. The only way to change this is to give children’s books more prominence – more reviews, more publicity, more prizes. And to be frank, for celebrity books to stop taking up so much space. Those books give the public a false impression of what children’s literature is and can be, and they steal space from authors who have made writing for children their life’s work. I find it really depressing how passionate the voices in children’s books are – the librarians and teachers, publishers, writers, readers – and they’re largely ignored by the mainstream press.

What does LoveReading4Kids mean to you?

It’s just a fantastic resource – it’s people who really, truly care about children’s literature. Given everything I’ve just said, it’s so important that we have sites like LoveReading4Kids so people can find out about children’s books and read reviews and find recommendations. As an author, I’m just so grateful it exists!

As our Guest Editor, Katya has given us her top five children's book recommendations and chosen a Book of the Month for January 2023;

Guest Editor Book of the Month; The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die by Peter Lantos. A remarkable, vital, and heartbreaking true story of a young Hungarian Jewish boy's experience during the Holocaust. It's not an easy read, but it is an important one. It is also one that manages to find hope even in the darkest places.

Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Janson

The Moomins are my comfort read. Magical adventures, warm friendships, lots of heart and a little hint of darkness. There’s such a range of characters and opinions – from Moomin who wants to be a friend to all, to quiet and lonesome Snufkin, wild Little My and grumpy Hemulin. But everyone gets on and appreciates each other without trying to change them or argue.

Julia and The Shark – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The writing in this story blew me away. It’s just so beautiful. Julia and her parents move to a remote Scottish island for her mother’s research project on the elusive Greenland Shark. Julia’s mother struggles with her mental health, and this book is such a poignant, gentle, and sensitive exploration of how that feels for her, and for those around her.

Wished – Lissa Evans

A riot of magic and humour, with some real heart. Ed and Roo discover a box of birthday candles in their boring old neighbour’s house – and soon discover each one grants a wish. But magic is a tricksy thing, and their wishes don’t entirely go to plan. This book is full of adventure, fabulous writing, and a cantankerous talking cat.

Jummy at The River School – Sabine Adeyinka

A modern and yet classic-feeling boarding school story set in Nigeria. Jummy gets a place at the prestigious River School, and faces all sorts of trials and triumphs in her first year. This book is so gentle and comforting, and full of wonderful food writing.

The Blue Book of Nebo – Manon Steffan Ros

This is a brutal and beautiful YA novel, translated from the original Welsh by its author. It is such a stark and terrifying story – the world is changed forever by some sort of event, and most people die or disappear. There’s no electricity or connection anywhere, and a boy and his mother have to find a way to survive and to live.

Katya receiving her Carnegie Medal, photo credit Tom Pilston

With huge thanks to Katya Balen. You can find Katya's published novels below, read a review and you can download the first chapter of each.

Katya Balen On Being “Good Enough” To Understand The Light In Everything
"I think that being 'good enough' is perhaps the most important factor in human relationships – everything being perfect doesn't work."
By Tacye Last updated May 1, 2023
0
Share
Since the last time we chatted with Katya Balen, her novel October, October has won the Yoto Carnegie Medal and been recently shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize. We have the honour of inviting her to our platform again, this time discussing The Light in Everything, which is shortlisted in this year’s Yoto Carnegies Medal for Writing.

Tom is still quiet and timid, even though his dad has been gone for nearly two years now. Zofia is the opposite. Inside her there’s a raging storm that makes her want to fight the whole world until she gets what she wants. And what she wants is for scaredy-cat Tom to get out of her life. Tom hates loud, unpredictable Zofia just as much, but he’s moving into Zofia’s house. Because his mum and Zofia’s dad are in love … and they’re having a baby.

——————————————————————————————————————
How do you understand so well how children feel when their parents remarry?
That’s an interesting question. I suppose part of what makes me a writer is being able to imagine the emotions of others quite well, which probably comes from observation. I love hearing people’s stories, I love reading people’s stories, and I think you just start to absorb what makes people tick.

Whenever the parents talk to Zofia and Tom, only snippets of the conversations are featured in The Light in Everything. Why did you choose this?

I think because when adults talk, children only focus on the things that matter deeply to them. Adults talk a lot, and a lot of what they say feels irrelevant or not very important. But certain phrases will catch a child’s ear and can play and replay in their head, and usually the adult has absolutely no idea. I wanted to reflect this.

More importantly, we do not really see Zofia and Tom interact with each other directly. Why is it the case?
I think this is because they just don’t bond. They are so wrapped up in their own issues, their own worlds and wishes, that they just don’t take the time to lay out the interactions they’ve had with each other. They’re not reflecting on each other’s situation or trying to understand. If they took the time to do so, they wouldn’t be at such a distance. But then there also wouldn’t be much of a book!

Do you write Zofia’s and Tom’s perspectives in different setups in order to get into their opposite mindsets better?
Yes, I think it’s important to see how they perceive what’s happening to them as an individual. I also didn’t want to repeat the same scene twice – that would be a bit boring for the reader, even if it is from the other character’s viewpoint!

Zofia and Tom are so different – Zofia loud and fearless; Tom quiet and timid. Why is it that Tom seems to adjust more easily?
I think Tom is more used to change and despite his fear, has a certain resilience. He is also deeply connected to his mum, and she provides this touchstone of security and sameness. Perhaps he is also just generally a little more accepting, not confident enough to kick up a fuss. It’s a combination of factors – some good, some sad.

Children often think adults don’t understand their struggles and concerns. Do you think Zofia and Tom’s parents actually did enough to prepare them for this big change?
Yes and no. No parent is perfect, but equally no parent should live their life shaped entirely around their child, or that child won’t be prepared for the world and how it works. I think they did their best, and it was good enough. I think that being ‘good enough’ is perhaps the most important factor in human relationships – everything being perfect doesn’t work. Being good enough provides enough space for conflicts to arise and be resolved. This is again is important for life, and it also provides enough security to know that people are trying and will always try for you.

I also think that maybe they did a canny thing – letting the children find out who the other one is, without forcing them to understand. You learn a lot more when you find something out for yourself.

You are, of course, standing on the children’s side, supporting and understanding them. Was there, however, any point that you are frustrated by them?
Absolutely. I wanted Tom to shout and I wanted Zofia to reflect. Essentially, I wanted them to take on each other’s characteristics, but I guess that was the whole point of the book – meeting in the middle! Not becoming someone new, but understanding others and learning from the way they cope.

The Light in Everything is perfect for children who are struggling with big changes. What advice/message would you give to them?
Change is scary, but it’s also often important. It might not feel brilliant and it might not be what you would choose. But learning to, and being able to cope with, change is what makes people happy. I truly believe this. We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond.

Get your copy of The Light in Everything here.

BOOK REVIEW

Book Review: Birdsong by Katya Balen & Richard Johnson
Birdsong feature image
©The Strawberry Post

Date: September 7, 2022
Author: (Kitty) Cat Strawberry - Meow!
3 Comments
Title: Birdsong
Author: Katya Balen
Illustrator: Richard Johnson
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Genre: Older children’s/middle grade fiction, Contemporary
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: Sweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet Strawberry

Description: There is music everywhere – if you know how to listen –
After a devastating car crash, Annie is unable to play her flute and retreats from the music she’s always loved.
She exists in a world of angry silence – furious with her mum and furious she can’t seem to play her beloved flute any more.
Then she meets Noah, who shows her the blackbirds’ nest hidden in the scrubland near their flats. As their friendship grows, the blackbirds’ glorious song reignites Annie’s passion for music. But when tragedy strikes again, will her fragile progress be put at risk?

*Free copy provided by publisher for review…

Review: Oh, what a wonderful and emotional story that will make you cry happy tears at the end! Annie used to love playing the flute until one day a car crash changed everything. Now Annie spends her time upset and angry at her mum and the world and unable to enjoy the music around her that she once did. But when she and her mum move to a new home in a block of flats, Annie soon meets a boy called Noah. Noah shows Annie a blackbird nest and together they look after the two blackbirds and listen to their song.

Birdsong book page image one
©The Strawberry Post
This is such a lovely and emotional read which I just couldn’t put down from the very first pages. Annie hears music in everything, but after a terrible car crash she keeps reliving some of the trauma of the accident. The accident has left Annie unable to play her flute, with her hand unable to properly work and press down the keys properly anymore. This leads to Annie to often get angry and keeping her anger and annoyance of everything inside. When Annie meets Noah though the two develop a lovely friendship through caring for and watching over the blackbirds.

Advertisements

REPORT THIS AD

I like what happens in this story. Annie’s life now, moving to a new home, having to adjust to a life without her music is hard for her but it’s a story I’m sure many can relate to. When she meets Noah and begins to watch the blackbirds with him, she ends up listening to the birds music. I love what happens as the two watch the birds and get closer to them day by day. There are some lovely moments in this story and some heart-breaking ones too, especially when something happens later on and makes you feel so sad. However the story is ultimately a very uplifting one, with a lovely and good ending for Annie, the birds and everyone else too. I really love the very ending, how everything comes together and how those last words just make you smile so much and want to cry happy tears!

There are illustrations throughout the book on various pages and these are so lovely that they really capture the magic and mood of the story so well! The illustrations are all in black, white and grey and you can really feel the atmosphere in each picture, with the characters expressions shown well and the general look of the images, almost misted in the way they look, making this feel so magical and emotional. The book is filled with thick pages of yellowed paper and the text is especially dyslexia-friendly with spaced paragraphs, bigger than usual writing and a special font used that makes it easier to read for anyone with dyslexia or general eyesight problems. The book is also just under 100 pages making this a good and easier read for reluctant readers too.

Birdsong book page image two
©The Strawberry Post
I have really enjoyed this story so much and feel so emotional after reading it. There are moments when you feel heart-break but then the story is so lovely and heart-warming too that it’s the perfect ending that will make you smile and get tearful, in a good way, too! I would recommend this to anyone, especially people who love music and animals. The story is one that many can relate to, moving home and feeling like you can’t succeed at something in life, but it’s such a wonderful story of hope and friendship that I’m sure everyone young and old will enjoy reading this!

REVIEW
The Light in Everything, review: Katya Balen skilfully handles hard-hitting issues for young readers

5/5
The Carnegie Medal winner's latest book is a triumph, using the voices of two children to explore themes of abandonment and grief

By
Emily Bearn
26 January 2023 • 6:00am
Carnegie Prize winner Katya Balen has written her third children's book The Light in Everything
Carnegie Prize winner Katya Balen has written her third children's book The Light in Everything CREDIT: Tom Pilston
If you haven’t heard of the 34-year-old charity worker Katya Balen, you have some catching-up to do. Her first novel, The Space We’re In, was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award; her second novel, October, October, which told the story of a country child forced to adapt to city life, won last year’s Carnegie Medal.

Her latest book, The Light in Everything, is in many ways her most ambitious. This time, she tells the story of two 11-year-olds from fractured families, who narrate the novel in alternating chapters. First there is Zofia, who is prone to rages: “I was born in a storm… The weather was furious and so was I. The midwife said she’d never seen such an angry baby.” Following her mother’s death, she and her father Marek live by the sea in “the kind of cottage from that kind of book where you see a mum and a dad and a little girl and maybe a dog that can fetch slippers.”

Then there is Tom, who lives with his mother Fiona, a hospital doctor, and is traumatised by an abusive and now absent father. Quiet and timid, Tom consoles himself by making paper birds. “Once Dad ripped up my paper birds… They were messy. They were for girls. They were pathetic.”

Advertisement

Fiona and Marek duly fall in love, but their children don’t hit it off. As Zofia recalls of their first meeting: “Tom sits in this terrified little meek silence and for every second he stays quiet I get louder and louder.” Yet Fiona becomes pregnant, and the families move in together – and Tom and Zofia must learn to overcome their seemingly insurmountable differences.

One of the challenges in children’s fiction is making difficult subjects palatable, without rendering them bland. Balen triumphs: what unfolds here is a deceptively complex story, in which she explores themes of grief and abandonment through the unfiltered voices of two children on the cusp of adolescence.

She is brilliant at capturing the cadences of their language, toying with the reader’s sympathies by pitting Tom’s reticence against Zofia’s Jacobean appetite for drama: “He’s ruined my life and I was here first. These are my friends and this is my school and it’s my house and my dad and my dog and my life.” When complications arise in Fiona’s pregnancy, the children’s characters finally unravel – and this provoking, simply-told story reaches its uplifting close.

The Light in Everything by Katya Balen is published by Bloomsbury at £7.99. To order your copy, call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books

The Light in Everything by Katya Balen – Book Review
Published by The Literacy Company on 8th May 2023

Katya Balen has become my new favourite author
for older children! Her books are perfect for Y6 or Y7. She writes in a beautiful poetic style that wraps around you like a blanket while you read. Her latest book ‘The Light in Everything’ will hook you in from the first page. It is a story of heartbreak, broken characters, change and hope.

The Light in Everything is a powerful story of two remarkable characters who are dealing with their own insecurities and are then thrown together in a blended family. The two children, Zofia and Tom, tell us their version of the story in turn through a series of short chapters.

Angry Zofia lives with her dad and likes it that way.

‘I was born in a storm. The sky cracked with lightening and thunder shook the sea. The rain lashed the cliffs and it was like the whole world had tipped upside down and the ocean was falling from the sky. The weather was furious and so was I.’

Timid Tom lives with his Mum. It’s two years since his dad left but he is still afraid of the dark.

‘The space around me is stained with soot and ink and shadows. The shadows slink and twist and reach and grasp. They slither and slip into something new and their edges blur and stretch. My fingers twitch. I gulp lungfuls of dirty dark air. Try to slow my breath and push away the black. Be my own light. My heart is clawing at my chest…’

When Tom’s mum becomes pregnant, they all move in together in a small house and await the baby’s arrival. Neither Zofia or Tom are happy with the situation and are not looking forward to the baby being born…until something horrible happens that changes everything.

This story reminds you of how difficult it is to be a human sometimes but also how if you let somebody in, your heart can soar. It’s the kind of story where the characters stay with you long after the last page is turned.

Recommended as a class novel, this book will help you to develop empathy in your class and to understand what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes. It will also bring to the fore, a range of complex emotions allowing you to have honest discussions with your pupils.

Read an extract of The Light in Everything at LoveReading4Kids.

The Light in Everything

ISBN: 978-1526622983

£7.99

Bloomsbury

Available from our partners at Madeleine Lindley here.

Book Review: October, October by Katya Balen
Posted on Apr 16, 2022 by The Book Lover's Sanctuary
The problem with reading any of these prize longlists is that every time I read a book – each and every book – I am convinced that it will and should win!

So, even though this is the first of the Carnegie Medal Shortlist that I have read this year, I loved it and, yes, I believe it should win! Which will make it difficult reading the rest of the shortlist.

It is a quiet book, and deeply British in ways which reminded me of A Monster Calls but without the fantastical elements. We meet our narrator, October, on the cusp of her eleventh birthday, living in the wild in the woods with her father: off-the-grid, technology-free, environmentally aware. She is a delightful narrator! Spinning tales from the fragments she discovers in the woods, scaling trees, jumping into cold water, it is not a million miles away from the lifestyle I offer my daughter and she would love to live in the wild… I’m not entirely sure that she fully understands the limitations that that would impose – a life without internet, wifi or Netflix – and Balen does not romanticise away the privations and hardships of that life style. The opening chapter offers us up a dead owl!

Balen does juxtapose the wildness with urban life here – a familiar juxtaposition and tension throughout literary history back to King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Bacchae – and also October’s relationships with her father (intimate, intense and loving) and her mother (absent and cold). October’s only memory of living with her mother is of her leaving where “there’s crying and I know that I let out a shriek so loud it pierced the sky and the birds scattered”. And from that trauma, October had grown to hate the “woman who was my mother”.

What is remarkable in the novel, for me, is its generosity: whilst October hates her mother for her abandonment, it seems that her father does not blame her for being unable to live in the woods; Balen herself offers up these parents as two very different but equally good and caring characters, and yet we accept how natural October’s antipathy is too. And this somehow emphasises the tragedy of this fractured family more than making any of them unsympathetic.

The novel revolves around a moment on October’s eleventh birthday when her mother comes to visit her and October flees and, as she always does, climbs a tree, higher and further than usual. Her father follows her and falls, catastrophically.

And from this moment, alongside her grief and fear, as well as her guilt, October is forced to face the other world: London, her mother, school and friendship.

Balen’s writing style is lyrical and wonderful throughout – but she is especially good at the many moments when October is overwhelmed by her emotions. She piles experience upon experience, emotion upon emotion, in long run on sentences, almost like an uninterrupted polysyndetic stream-of-consciousness

I burn and scream and stamp and shout and I know why she told me when I was already in the car and I still try to claw the door open until my nails are ragged and raw just like my voice but I can’t unlock the handle and I throw myself at the window and scream and she stares ahead with bright eyes.

There is more than a touch of the neurodivergent about October, although that is a term never used in the novel, which is perhaps unsurprising: Balen completed her MA researching the impact of stories on autistic children’s behaviour, and as a father of a daughter facing her ADOS assessment, I found the characterisation of October to be incredibly authentic and compelling. One thing that can always bring my own daughter around, and break the cycle of her meltdowns is story: to start to read her her book has always calmed her, controlled her breathing, brought her back into be held. And here, October uses story to control her world, to find the perfect story to reconnect with and reconcile with her father. In fact, the word “story” occurs over 100 times in the novel.

The other character to mention is the owl Stig, an obvious parallel to October herself: lost and abandoned on its mother’s death, the baby barn owl is cared for by October and even brought to London on her father’s accident. Its incarceration in a cage in the rescue centre, and its subsequent release into the wild again is an obvious – perhaps slightly too obvious – echo of October’s own journey. And Stig’s progress from chick to fledgling to owl is captured beautifully in the illustrations by Angela Harding.

I loved Yusuf as a character. I loved the mudlarking chapters. I loved the assembly, which was triumphant!

In conclusion, I don’t think Balen made a single misstep with this novel from the characterisation to the structure to the language, every single sentence and moment was superb!

What I Liked
October: a wonderful narrative voice, with neuro-divergent touches, and brave and sensitive and capable of growing.
The language which was lyrical and beautiful and overwhelming.
The discovery that the wild can exist in every one of us, whether we live in London or the woods, whether we grow our own food or mudlark or create jewellery.
The school environment, which was difficult and different but full of wonderful characters like Yusuf and Daisy.
The final scene, which was wonderful.
What Could Have Been Different
I have to be honest, I cannot think of a single thing that could change the novel for the better.