I am delighted to be the one to open our festival of children’s literature, since many of you will know by now that I am somewhat obsessed with the world of kids books. And I have chosen a humdinger to start us off.
Ostrich Boys is a new release by Keith Gray. It’s a road trip book full of excitement and thrills and spills and a massive amount of hilarity thrown in for good measure. Blake and Kenny and Sim kidnap their friend Ross in order to fulfil his wish – a trip to the place that bears his name, Ross in Southern Scotland. The reason the boys have to kidnap Ross is because Ross is dead, he’s ash in a jar, run over while travelling on his bike to school. The boys set off from Cleethorpes by train clutching Ross in his urn and begin an action packed 261 mile journey.
Ostrich Boys is an exhilarating book. It’s full of humour and banter and arguments and mishaps. But beneath all of this is a serious subject, one rarely touched on in teen fiction and one that certainly needs more exposure. Ross met his death under the wheels of a car but the suggestion is made that he intentionally rode his bike into the path of the oncoming traffic. His friends refuse to believe that he could even have contemplated killing himself, they were friends, right? They talked about everything, right? Surely if he was depressed, having problems, or thinking of ending his life, they would have been the first to know…right?
Ostrich Boys is not only a physical journey, a disaster strewn expedition reminiscent of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but it is a very poignant emotional journey for all the characters. As they make their way closer to their destination the boys come to realise, despite their bravado about being the best friends in the whole world, how little they actually know about each other.
Sim looked like he was ready for an argument. ‘How come you reckon you know him better than us all of a sudden? You didn’t even meet him until you moved here. Kenny and I knew him in primary.’
‘That’s not what I’m saying.’ I didn’t want to get into an argument about who was our best friend’s best friend.
Kenny obviously did. ‘I knew him the longest. He always told me stuff he never told anybody else.’
‘It’s not a competition Kenny.’
‘I’m just telling you he did. Remember, he told me first about the time when he was trying to run away.’
‘He wasn’t trying to run away,’ I said. ‘He just wanted to get to that place in Scotland.’
‘He told me he was trying to find himself.’
‘Only because he was going to a place that’s actually called Ross. He thought it would be cool to be Ross in Ross. He wasn’t running away.’
Despite its serious underlying subject matter the humour in Ostrich Boys is sharp and clever.
Kenny saw the three girls first. ‘Good-looking birds at three o’clock,’ he said, rolling his eyes, nodding his head, coughing in their direction – all very unsubtle. ‘What do you call a bunch of birds, Sim?’
‘A flock, obviously.’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ Kenny said. ‘I knew that. But what do you call a flock of good-looking birds?’
Sim shrugged. ‘Kenny-dodgers?’
Ostrich Boys is a finely crafted piece of literature, the writing is truly outstanding and the build up of tension as the problems the boys encounter mount up leads to frantic page turning. This really is one of those books you can’t put down.
It seems to be a controversial book too. The Guardian on July 3rd has an article citing that JK Rowling has joined the legion of authors opposed to age banding in children’s books. This article also reports that Ostrich Boys has been given a TEEN sign on the back against Keith Gray’s wishes.
But some lesser known names, such as Keith Gray, whose Ostrich Boys has just been published by Random House, are already seeing the brand introduced on their books against their wishes.
Now I would agree that this probably is a teen book for the majority. But there is no obvious violence, no sex, only a little swearing… really nothing that any eleven year old watching East Enders wouldn’t be exposed to on a daily basis. And I will happily encourage my eleven year old to read this book. But how many parents won’t now because of the TEEN label that’s been stamped on the back. And it’s a shame. Because there are so many pre-teen kids out there that would love to read this book, especially boys. It applies to kids on so many levels – they would think it was written about them. So I would encourage parents/teachers/librarians, ignore the teen sign, read the book yourself and make up your own mind. I guarantee you’ll love it.
I like the sound of the premise – very unusual and quite a grown-up, it sounds. It’s interesting to hear it’s also humorous as I sort of assumed from what i knew of it that it would be quite a serious read. I am curious to know why it is called “Ostrich Boys”though (or does that give too much away?). I have the idea of heads in the sand here but what’s the Ostrich link? Is it a place-name or a group name or something? Really like the cover btw. Quite brave to have a big coffin image there too!
You have it exactly right Rosy… the boys have their heads in the sand, they’ve missed everything that was troubling their friend… and perhaps their part in it… okay I’m going to shut up now before I give any more away
Like Rosy, I wondered about the title, glad it has been explained. This sounds like a good book and I like the way it tackles a serious subject matter with humor and empathy. I really did laugh out loud at the second quote, about the girls. If I had kids, I wouldn’t hesitate to give them this book, it sounds like a winner. Thanks Eve, for telling us about it.
I look forward to reading this – is it me or does the plot sound really like a Graham Swift novel, Last Orders?
This sounds like the sort of book I’d have read as a kid … and from what you say there certainly doesn’t seem to be anything in it I wouldn’t be happy with a pre-teen reading – quite the opposite in fact.
Interesting and thoughtful review. Thank you.
And yes Ariadne … there’s a definite echo of Last Orders in the plot!
I enjoyed this, Eve and this books sounds like one I’d have no problem with my child reading.
Your comments about age-banding disturbed me. Until now I had thought that age-banding had to do with the level of difficulty in the language used and not the actual subject matter of the books. If this is the case then this bothers me a lot. In France, where age-banding exists but not systematically, it certainly has nothing to do with content.
[...] Those very clever clogs on the Vulpes Libris blog are playing host to a children’s books week. (It started on Saturday with a post on Keith Gray’s Ostrich Boys.) [...]
[...] Eve has a wee chat with Keith Gray, author of Ostrich Boys (see the review here). They discuss teen boys; writing for them, their reading habits and why they only want to talk [...]
[...] recently reviewed the fantastic Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray which you can find HERE. Never being one to shirk my responsibility to bring you as much detail as I possibly can about [...]
this book is good he red a bit out 2 us at school 2 day and i liked the sound of it so i want to biy the book and read more
My librarian gave this book to me to read. I have now written a review on the book myself. It is one of the best books I have ever read. It showed me about true friendship and that I shouldn’t keep things away from my friends if they were important. The title is exactly as Eve said, the boys’ heads are in the sand and they cannot see what was troubling Ross. When the answer was revealed I couldn’t help but feel upset for Ross and what he had to suffer.
All in all, fantastic book.