It's taken me a bit longer to get around to writing this post, not because I didn't enjoy the book, but because it's a tricky one to write about. It's hard to put my finger on what made this book special, I just know that it was a brilliant read and took me to places I didn't expect. This week's book is Flour Babies by Anne Fine.
I was pretty sure I'd read a few of Anne Fine's book, I mean she's Anne Fine isn't she! She spawned Mrs Doubtfire! Anyone who grew up in the 90's had to have read her books right? Wrong! It would seem that I had somehow missed out! Having had a little Google of her books I could see some titles that I recognised, but nothing that seemed familiar. I think maybe we had read some of her books at school, but they're often the books that you blank out of your 'read that!' memory, aren't they. So, with this in mind I approached Flour Babies with some caution, interested to see what would have put me off Fine's books when I was young. I can safely say I have no idea! Flour Babies was brilliant!
Flour Babies is an upper middle grade, lower YA novel, about a group of underachieving boys who are given the task of looking after 'flour babies' as a school science experiment. As a plot this intrigued me, and I was keen to find out how these boys looked after their little sacks of flour! Would they treat them as exactly what they were, just bags of flour, or would they find some kind and caring side to them that wanted to nurture these little 'babies'?
Most of the action takes place in the school, and in particular the boy's classroom. Let me tell you a bit about class 4C. The boy's in 4C are the bottom of the bottom, they are grouped together because they are expected to achieve nothing. Half of them don't even bother to come to school everyday! They pick and choose when they turn up, and what lesson's they do! We all remember boy's like that from our own secondary education don't we! I know I do! And we can all recognise our teachers in the long-suffering Mr Cartwright, always picked to take care of that year's 4C. He's the kind of teacher that has been doing it a long time, seen it all before, and knows exactly how to handle these boys. The descriptions and dialogue are perfect! The book opens with a fantastic example of this that took me straight back to school!
"Mr Cartwright swung his legs to and fro under the desk, and raised his voice over the waves of bad-tempered muttering.
'Don't worry if you feel you can't give this your full attention now, 4C,' he said to his new class. 'I'll be delighted to go over it again in your break time.'
Some of them visibly made a bit of an effort. A few pens were pulled out of a few mouths. One or two of the boys swivelled their heads back from the riveting sight of the janitor painting large white numbers on the dustbins. But, on the whole, the improvement was pitiful. Half of them looked as if they'd left their brains at home. The other half looked as if they didn't have any."
It paints a brilliant picture of the kind of characters we are dealing with, and then of course it makes you consider how these boys are ever going to get their heads around caring for 'flour babies'?
I expected this book to focus on all the boy's experiences of 'flour baby' parenthood, but in fact it focuses on one boy in particular, Simon Martin. Simon appears to be quite high up in the hierarchy of 4C, and is an ungainly, huge, loping teenage boy. His size makes him quite formidable, and it for this reason that he becomes the unlikely hero of this book! Simon takes on the 'flour baby' project with some enthusiasm because he can't wait to burst the sack of flour all over the classroom when the 3 weeks is up! This excitement for the big flour explosion means that he tries really hard to keep his 'flour baby' intact, unlike his mates (one of them even kicks his into the canal!). Unwittingly, big tough Simon falls in love with his little baby shaped bundle, and he struggles to come to terms with the paternal feelings he is experiencing. When teachers start noticing his broodiness they begin to get concerned! And when he starts behaving they fear there must be something really wrong! The education system had lost all faith in the boy's from 4C, and it comes as a shock when one of them begins to reform!
The problem with Simon is that the 'flour baby' has stirred up all the thoughts and feelings he has about his absent father. With the little 'flour baby' in his care, he can't imagine how someone could abandon their own child at only 6 weeks old! Along with Simon, we learn all about the day his father left, how he just walked out and never came back. There were no warning signs, he just had to leave. To begin with Simon can't understand why his Dad left, especially as he is getting an idea of what parental love and responsibility feels like. As the book progresses we go through all the emotions Simon is feeling, first sadness, then anger, and then understanding and acceptance. It is tender portrayal of teenage a boy making sense of his life, understanding his past and growing up. It is no wonder that this book won the Carnegie Medal in 1992, and the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1993. The emotion creeps up on you, and all of a sudden you are being hit with the full wave of how Simon is feeling. Simon learns so much about his background, but also grows more in confidence in the person he is. He knows he will never be an 'ear'ol' (a swot), and by the end of the book he's causing glorious mayhem once again, feeling relief at no longer having the responsibility of the 'flour baby'! He suddenly understands the responsibilities of parenthood, and how his father was far too young to take this on. Simon no longer feels bitter about this, and instead realises that he can learn from his father's mistakes, that his fate was in his hands. There is a lovely poignant moment during this epiphany that I'd like to share with you.
"There would be time enough to be responsible when he was older. When the right moment came, there would be all the time in the world to be a good father.
But not now. Not while he was so young. Not while he had the strength and power and energy to do anything, and all his horizons were giddy and bright, and wider than he could imagine... He wouldn't make the same mistakes as his father. Oh, no. He wasn't going to pin himself down years too soon, and have to make the bitter choice between snatching back his own life, and leaving some child... talking inside his head to some crinkly blue-eyed father he'd had to make up all by himself, because the real one hadn't stayed around."
So this story wasn't really about a science experiment at all! In fact, it was actually a poignant coming of age novel, about the responsibilities of growing up, of how we can shape our own future, and how you can overcome your past to become more than you, or anyone else, ever believed you could be. Through the 'flour babies' experiment Simon is finally able to let go of this idealised, and sometimes hated, father figure he'd been carrying around his entire life. He, and his teachers are able to see that he has a bright future ahead of him, and he has a better understanding of how this is going to pan out.
Thanks for reading, L x
Next up, it's The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
