The Children of Swallow Fell

I loved this story. It folds around you until you can feel the wind against your cheeks and you become part of the children's lives as they survive in the wild. Julia Green is a fantastic writer who paints pictures with her words.

This dystopian coming of age story is set in the near future when Britain has left the European Union but widespread war is raging and England is a relatively safe place after some type of pandemic has decimated populations. These issues are not fully explained but they are the background to the story of ‘The Children of Swallow Fell’ with main protagonist teenager Isabella living in Italy with her Italian mother and English father who had grown up in England’s northern fell country. Father takes daughter across Europe to be safe in his deceased parent’s farmhouse, but on arrival he immediately leaves Isabella as he goes off searching for food and attempting to make contact with Isabella’s mother and sister.Isabella is alone with no shops, no neighbours, no contact with her school friends, no electricity and no phone, and she must fend for herself. She discovers there are two other children living in a nearby barn and together they join forces to survive. ‘The Children of Swallow Fell’ is an uplifting account of how they help one another and together they start life anew. Author Julia Green skilfully develops her characters and she plots a plausible scenario full of fears, yet with hopes for building a new future without war and exploitation as they lead a simple existence caring for each other and sharing between one another. Narrative presents insights to desires for peace, to hopefulness and to realisation they must only use what they need. This children’s book will make readers think.

I wasn’t sure when I started reading this to the 10 year old if it was going to work for either of us but by the end we were both in tears and in awe of this beautifully descriptive story. It’s set in the near future where an unnamed war plus a “sickness” has meant the displacement of families as they try to flee the war zones. Isabella and her father leave their flat in an Italian city and flee to England where her father was born and the farmhouse where he was raised by her long deceased parents. They leave behind mum and big sister but hope to be reunited soon. The house is isolated with no runny water or electricity and when, one day, her father goes shopping to the nearest town, he doesn’t return. This is when Isabella meets 2 young orphans and her life changes...The author paints such a vivid picture of the surroundings that Isabella finds herself in and manages to get the reader emotionally involved with all of the characters who appear here. It’s just so perfectly plotted with a simple yet intriguing storyline that slowly takes over your feelings and thoughts. We both wanted to continue reading this long after the bedtime story time had passed and wanted to finish it quickly to find out what was going to happen to Isabella, her family and friends and the animals she comes into contact with too. A delightful modern classic and one I can highly recommend and will be reading to my year 6 class.

Though I had got this for my 12-year-old daughter to read, I thought I would have a quick flick through myself. However, I did in fact end up reading it all. And I’m so glad I did for The Children of Swallow Fell is a delicious read.Julia Green is an immensely talented writer and I fell in love with her stunning and most lyrical prose. What was perhaps more impressive though was the premise of taking a 13-year-old girl, Isabella, and removing her from the world most of us inhabit now (phones, internet, social media, etc) and dropping her into a remote British village that had absolutely nothing of the kind, including electricity!Though the very beginning of the book is a little frightening, as Isabella and her father flee their home, there are so many messages about life both here and of course throughout the story that are, unfortunately, playing out all around us. Therefore, I think most children, alongside adults, will be able to take much away from reading this book.For myself, the beauty of the countryside, the stillness, the back-to-basics aspect, and the sheer appreciation of working with what you have/creating your own entertainment was just so mesmerising.I started this book not expecting that much from it but ended it feeling so buoyed by the entire story.This is certainly up there with one of my best reads of the year and one that my daughter is now devouring after hearing Mum heaping so much praise on it!(I could see this doing so well on the screen, also!)Whether you're a young or older reader, The Children of Swallow Fell is a keeper for the bookshelves and hugely recommended.

Julia Green is one of my 12-year-old son's favourite authors, so he jumped at the chance to read The Children of Swallow Fell, though I'm not sure that it has quite captured his imagination as much as The Wilderness War did, his favourite of Julia Green's novels.The plot follows a girl and her father who flee from Italy when war breaks out, escaping to northern England into a world without so many of modern conveniences that both of my children take for granted. I'm not sure how closely my son engaged with the plot, because he was surprised when I mentioned that it was set in the near future - he'd read the story as if it were set against the backdrop of World War 2. It might be that the allegory of the setting was lost on him, but if so, the plot and the emotional development of the characters was not, nor was the tension of the situation that Isabella and her father find themselves in. Overall, despite some confusion about the specifics, my son loved it and said he'd recommend Julia Green to his friends, so I think it was a winner.