As a parent I’ve wondered about it myself, but it's not the only question I've asked myself. It’s a good question and worth a lot of discussion and listening. There’s been a lot of talk lately about how a parent can engender empathy in their children. I got the message -enjoy your your childhood because as an adult you will be doing work you will hate just to survive. Perhaps it's because it's February but I didn't find this book as uplifting as I did in my original review. The author's note at the end was an interesting end point. I suspect a small house was not such an indication of poverty in those times as it is now but the illustration of the kitchen is so spacious, the size of most people's entire downstairs, only part of the kitchen window is visible but I counted 21 large panes of glass, which is confusing given this is meant to be a poor family. Perhaps this was because this was a poor family, no 50's design had crept in but to us they looked contemporary. This is meant to be set in the 50's but we found no clues in the clothes or the home to show us that so we were confused at first as it looks as if it is modern day. The illustrations are wonderful, we loved the fluid drawing of a dog running, we enjoyed the Lowry inspired scenes of the mines and the colours and effects of the light on the sea are very good. It's a positive book though, beautiful and poetic.
Whilst he enjoys the freedom of childhood and beautiful surroundings he is aware one day his time will come to follow his father to work in the mines. He describes his day by the glittering sea and sunny park whilst being aware that his father is below in the coal mines. The story follows a young boy who lives by the sea.
This is a beautiful book and would make a perfect book for boys to read with their fathers and especially meaningful to anyone who has relatives who have worked in the mines.
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