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I mainly enjoyed the delightful insight into the mind of a four-year-old child. Amanda Berriman shows such depth of understanding, such tenderness and patience with her character, that I have no doubt she’s captured how pre-schoolers really think. In a world where grown-ups frame ‘not making things harder’ as being ‘helpful,’ Jesika feels deep pride and validation in what a helpful girl she is, despite being too little to actually help at all. A powerful and moving story of poverty and also abuse but also a story of a mother’s love for Jessica and Toby that shines through despite the desperate heartache.
I don’t necessarily even mean bad things - although let’s face it, much of Jesika’s reality is a grim one. I especially remembered checking the emotional weather forecast in adult faces and acting accordingly as Jesika does, how people shouting could seem to make the world shake. I think we forget these things as we grow up and they become trivial or inconsequential but from a four year old’s POV they are incredibly important. Berriman’s ability to put herself in Jesika’s shoes to tell us this story is breath taking. In ‘Home’ Amanda Berriman manages to combine several things I have only the most tenuous tolerance for in literature and do it in such a way as to make me absolutely love the result.
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Amanda Berriman has successfully taken strong themes that would typically prompt thought and in using the perspective of a four year old, has provoked further difficulty in reading. Little things would set me off crying , and it’s because of the tone of voice and how pure everything was. It’s written in first person from Jesika’s point of view, so there’s lots of rush talking without punctuation and spelling mistakes – I think this is what made the book really, really get to me.
Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Home by Amanda Berriman. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. She does not know that their landlord is threatening to evict them, and that Toby’s cough is going to get much worse.
Published by Sarah Hardy
I loved how Jesika and her mother began to settle into the community and find friends among other residents. This subject matter might put some readers off, but actually, it doesn't become graphic, only very uncomfortable and emotionally difficult to think about as a detached observer. And seeing a horrific situation unfold through Jesika's unknowing eyes is so, so difficult, but so wonderfully well wrought. As you, the reader find it dawning on you what it going on, the horror of it may bring tears to your eyes as it does to mine. I have now got to 31% in the book and I'm sorry to say that I'm going to stop reading. I was really struggling with reading a book that is from the point of view of a 4 and a half year old.
The stairs to their ‘home’ are smelly as Jessica knows only too well. This is the story of their lives through little Jessica’s eyes. And I will warn you now Jessica will steal your heart. She knows the ‘Money man’ comes to call and he is not at all nice. Jessica’s world is ever changing and she is growing up fast. As I've just said, 'Home' is told by four-year old girl, Jesika.
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Home will make you open your eyes to a child’s perspective of life and your actions towards them which I am sure we can all learn and relate to especially us parents. I fell in love with little Jesika from the beginning. I found Ryan’s character very shifty from the start and then I started to really dislike him. We all have constant money worries but for Jesika's mum she really is on the bread line not knowing how she is going to pay the rent. Another strong point for me was how the story unfolded.
It certainly made me think twice about the child in my life. How it is so easy for an adult to get lost in everything that needs to be done and forget that the child has needs too. Or make the mistake of sweeping something under the rug as so small and unimportant, when to the child it is quite huge and means the world.
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Wherever the blame lies for this family’s desperate situation, it is decidedly not at Tina’s door. The story of this family almost certainly can be any story involving a single mum living in shocking housing conditions and trying to cope with everyday life and bring up her family. Jessica’s father left the family home to move to Poland.
And she knows she loves her mummy and baby brother Toby. Home by Amanda Berriman a four-star read that won’t let you go. What a debut novel, it will break you and leave you in pieces, but it’s worth it as you be left thinking about this book for a long time after, you’ve read it.
Home the debut novel by Amanda Berriman is nothing short of extraordinary. This is an extremely moving story of a single mother coping with life and also trying to bring up Jessica and her baby brother Toby. This is not really the story of a broken child, but the story of a curious and caring four year old trying to make sense of what can be a broken world. It has been a long time since I have felt so immersed in a character's world, which is a testament to Amanda Berriman's brilliant portrayal of a naive young child facing some adult situations. The quirky logic of four year olds suddenly makes perfect sense in the context of her thoughts, and as adult readers it is almost painful to be able to make connections and predictions that no child could, or should, make. Jesika tells the story in beautiful innocence, the smelly stairs to the street, the woman next door with the bad teeth, the women who run her nursery.
Or that Paige, her new best friend, has a secret that will explode their world. Home is a book that offers a much-needed insight into the realities of growing up poor. It was interesting to see things from a child’s perspective, from over-hearing conversations or just a train of thought. Home will make you think and will make you appreciate what you have.
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