Secret Heart

Rating:
Summary: Tiger tiger, burning bright....
Review: David Almond's fifth book is a haunting look at an unusual young boy, written beautifully and with fantastic, memorable characters. It occasionally becomes a little confusing and repetitive, but the characterizations are stunning, and overall it's a great read.

Joe Maloney is a dreamer, a shy stutterer whose mother works shifts at a bar and whose father "spun the waltzer at a fair." His teachers want him to study, but he can't. His former friend, Stanny Mole, has fallen in with a ruthless creep called Joff, and wants to show Joe how to kill -- but Joe doesn't want to. And he sees visions of a tiger prowling around, but there are no tigers where he lives.

He makes his way to the circus, which is due to shut down in a few days. There he meets an enormous wrestler, an old woman who sees into people's souls -- and Corinna, an acrobat with whom he shares a mysterious bond. These strange people will help him learn how to find his way around the people who taunt and try to mold him, and about the tiger inside him.

This may be Almond's most confusing book. It starts off in a rather colorless way, except for the interludes where Joe sees the tiger. Almond's stark prose becomes much more flowery halfway through, when Joe meets up with the circus people; it lends itself to a few genuinely nauseating interludes where we see the sort of killing that Joff urges boys to do, claiming that it will make men out of them. But there's no hamhanded moralizing in this book, thankfully. The last third is very surreal, very strange and otherworldly, but those who don't demand a concrete answer for everything in a book will be fine with that. The biggest problem is that at times it gets a little repetitive, with people shouting the same insults after Joe and Corinna, and Joe wondering for the umpteenth time whether Joff is his father.

Joe is likeable from the start, a kid who doesn't really fit anywhere and who feels pressure from all sides to be something he isn't. His patient mother is an almost saintly figure; the circus performers range from the surreal to the everyday, but all are friendly and kind, especially the blind old lady Nanty. Corinna is somewhat like Joe, except more outgoing and less sensitive to the taunts of others. And if there's a villain, it's Joff, a murdering tough who tries to mold boys to be like him, including Joe's friend Stanny (who pretty clearly doesn't believe a word coming out of his own mouth).

This is not a book for everyone -- the boundaries are very hazy and the storyline stretches into fantasy. But it's beautifully written and strangely plotted, and definitely worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Dreams and ancient tales..
Review: I love books that can be read on several different levels. I imagine a middle school reader could enjoy this book as a coming-of-age story. But it is also a book of great depth and beauty, as represented in one of my favorite quotes: Joe closed his eyes. He felt Nanty's hands cradling his head, and he felt how tender they were. "How can a thing like a head be held within a lady's fingers?" she whispered. "Here's dreams and memories and ancient tales that's being told and told. Here's stars that shine a billion miles away and deep dark caves and forests and Helmouth and teachers and mothers and horns of unicorns and the stripes of tigers. Here's a thing that's bigger than the world and all the worlds there ever was. And look. All held within a tent of tender bone and skin and cradled in a lady's fingers. How can this be so?"

Rating:
Summary: Dreams and ancient tales..
Review: I love books that can be read on several different levels. I imagine a middle school reader could enjoy this book as a coming-of-age story. But it is also a book of great depth and beauty, as represented in one of my favorite quotes: Joe closed his eyes. He felt Nanty's hands cradling his head, and he felt how tender they were. "How can a thing like a head be held within a lady's fingers?" she whispered. "Here's dreams and memories and ancient tales that's being told and told. Here's stars that shine a billion miles away and deep dark caves and forests and Helmouth and teachers and mothers and horns of unicorns and the stripes of tigers. Here's a thing that's bigger than the world and all the worlds there ever was. And look. All held within a tent of tender bone and skin and cradled in a lady's fingers. How can this be so?"

Rating:
Summary: Secret Heart
Review: I read Secret heart. I thought it was a good book. It was a good book because it was an interesting book. This book was not my favorite book. I read other books that were more detailed. I would think that 4th though 5th graders should read this because it would be a little too hard for 3rd and under. I recommend this book to other people. It would be a good books for people that like tigers.

Rating:
Summary: Not your average middle grade read
Review: Misfit Joe Maloney is taunted and teased by his peers. Even his mother comments on his oddness. Destined to remain apart by strange visions no one else can see, Joe is drawn to a ragged circus that suddenly appears at the edge of town. The circus folk are as much at odds with the town folk as Joe is. Intrigued by their strangeness and mystery, Joe sinks into a world where fantasy and illusion meld with and replace reality. Joe is faced with confronting and accepting his differences, and the torture that goes with it, or joining forces with those bent on making a man of him. The juxtaposition of cruelty and compassion in this tale speak to that very nature in each of us.

It would be difficult not to recommend a book by David Almond. His lyrical writing creates fresh perspectives, thought-provoking storylines, and intriguing characterizations. While Secret Heart doesn't capture the heart of the reader with the same intensity of Skellig or Kit's Wilderness, the imagery and beauty of the language is compelling enough to recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Secret Heart
Review: Review

This book was about a boy named Joe Maloney and how he was not made for this world and how he was so much different than everybody else. One day a circus comes to town and Joe goes over to see what its like. As doing so Joe sees a beautiful girl named and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. When Joe goes to sleep that night as done he is watched by a lion in his dream. Joe realizes that he is more at home more than he has every been before. I thought that this was a very well done book that i would recommend to children of all ages. This book was definitely a book that you could read over and over again to anybody.

Rating:
Summary: Secret Heart
Review: Review

This book was about a boy named Joe Maloney and how he was not made for this world and how he was so much different than everybody else. One day a circus comes to town and Joe goes over to see what its like. As doing so Joe sees a beautiful girl named and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. When Joe goes to sleep that night as done he is watched by a lion in his dream. Joe realizes that he is more at home more than he has every been before. I thought that this was a very well done book that i would recommend to children of all ages. This book was definitely a book that you could read over and over again to anybody.

Rating:
Summary: Secret Heart
Review: Review

This book was about a boy named Joe Maloney and how he was not made for this world and how he was so much different than everybody else. One day a circus comes to town and Joe goes over to see what its like. As doing so Joe sees a beautiful girl named and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. When Joe goes to sleep that night as done he is watched by a lion in his dream. Joe realizes that he is more at home more than he has every been before. I thought that this was a very well done book that i would recommend to children of all ages. This book was definitely a book that you could read over and over again to anybody.