Written in collaboration with a primary school as an Arts Council funded project, the remit in creating this novel was to provide stories that children would want to read. Told from the individual points of view of six children, all of different ages, as well as third-person sections called 'Everyone's Story', it can be read either straight through or by choosing one or more characters to follow. Presumably this structure is designed to make the book accessible to different levels of reader, but it could potentially become confusing.
The story itself has a distinctly environmental, somewhat preachy message, as each of the children has to complete a task - invariably a test on their personal weaknesses - in order to save humanity. This all takes place in what was their school, but is fast disappearing, as 'nature' rises up to reclaim the world in protest at man's mistreatment of it. Very much reminiscent of the meandering stories that filled endless exercise books in my own childhood, I can see how children might well identify on some level with the naïvely constructed characters and far-flung adventures, although more advanced readers may find it all rather patronising.
The story itself has a distinctly environmental, somewhat preachy message, as each of the children has to complete a task - invariably a test on their personal weaknesses - in order to save humanity. This all takes place in what was their school, but is fast disappearing, as 'nature' rises up to reclaim the world in protest at man's mistreatment of it. Very much reminiscent of the meandering stories that filled endless exercise books in my own childhood, I can see how children might well identify on some level with the naïvely constructed characters and far-flung adventures, although more advanced readers may find it all rather patronising.
Buy The Day That Everything Changed
