Secret Heart - Hardcover

Almond, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340764821 ISBN 13: 9780340764824

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2001

Synopsis

Joe lives with his mother in Helmouth, a forgotten village crumbling on the edge of the suburbs. His days are spent trying to evade the demands of school and the taunts of the local bullies. Joe's friend, Stanny, insists that Joe must toughen up, become a survivor - and he is adamant that a weekend in the wilderness with Stanny and his Uncle Joff will do the trick.Into Joe's unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt's Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna. She tells Joe, 'In the circus there is a secret heart ' - a place of contained wildness where the barriers between the human and animal world are fluid. And indeed, Joe's dreams are already stalked by a tiger, so real that his skin and its pelt begin to feel as one...A stunning novel from the author of the modern children's classic Skellig - winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.

About this title

About the Author

David Almond is twice winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award. His first novel, SKELLIG, won the Whitbread Children's Award and the Carnegie Medal and was made into a feature-length film on Sky1. His second, KIT'S WILDERNESS, won the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. THE FIRE-EATERS won the Whitbread, the Smarties Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and his most recent novel, CLAY, was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal. David has also won the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award for his lasting contribution to children's literature and is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative children's authors writing today. His books are bestsellers all over the world. He lives with his family in Northumberland.www.davidalmond.com

From the Back Cover

“With echoes of Ray Bradbury and William Blake, the Secret Heart is filled with scenes of breathtaking beauty, wonder, and astonishment. It is an unforgettable achievement.”—Booklist, Starred

From the Inside Flap

Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can?t be that yet. His only friend, Stanny Mole, wants to teach him how to kill, and Joe can?t learn that. Joe?s mind is always somewhere else: on the weird creatures he sees in the distant sky, the songs he hears in the air around him, the vibrations of life he feels everywhere. Everybody laughs at Joe Maloney.

And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for him. It leads him out into the night, and nothing in Joe Maloney?s world is ever the same again.

The transformative power of imagination and beauty flows through this story of a boy who walks where others wouldn?t dare to go, a boy with the heart of a tiger, an unlikely hero who knows that sometimes the most important things are the most mysterious.


From the Hardcover edition.

Reviews

Grade 6-10-Stuttering and often at a loss for words, Joe Maloney was born otherworldly, and his mother is his only advocate in his small English village. Peers pay him little heed other than to castigate him; teachers disparage his very presence. Even his mother says, "You're such a funny'n- Something different in your blood or something." Joe is confronted with myriad problems that include a friendship with Stanny Mole, who admonishes him to become a man, to go out and kill with him and Joff, a snake-tattooed miscreant-of-a-man. Dreaming his youth away, Joe skips school, heading for the forest at the call of a roaming tiger. He is befriended by Corinne, a Gypsy girl and young trapeze artist from a newly arrived, worn-out circus. She introduces him to capricious carnival types who gently encourage him to find his own way, to discover the heart of the tiger that lies dormant within him. The fine line between reality and fantasy is always neatly navigated yet left deliciously ethereal. Readers are forever left to wonder where one leaves off and the other begins. In some ways, the chimerical flavor of Almond's previous books is compromised here by a bit more heavy-handedness. Though not as mysterious as his other titles, this book has thought-provoking allegory that will engage older readers in more and more layers of meaning.
Daniel L. Darigan, West Chester University, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As mysterious and spiritual as Almond's previous novels (Skellig; Kit's Wilderness) this initiation story explores the contrasting worlds of dreams and wakefulness, then forms an artful meshing of the two realms. Around the time a circus comes to town, Joe Maloney, a stuttering boy with poetic vision, dreams of a prowling tiger. He doesn't find the tiger under the well-worn tent of the traveling circus stationed in his "wasteland" of a town, but he does find a group of downtrodden performers, outcasts like himself. Corinna, a young trapeze artist, discovers a kindred spirit in Joe, and together they chart a mystical journey through the wilderness. Believing that Joe possesses the heart of a tiger, Corinna offers encouragement, support and understanding. Through her belief in him, Joe finds the courage to follow his own path even though he is often met with jeers. Almond fans, who relish the author's skill at creating surreal landscapes and otherworldly images, will not be disappointed by this tale, though in many ways this novel's threads are more disparate. Readers must wait it out until the final chapters to see them joined. Although most of the book is characteristically dark and intense, Joe moves steadily towards the light as, escorted by a motley crew of circus people, he travels an evocative road towards self-discovery. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* Gr. 5-up. The tiger that becomes Joe Maloney's alter ego first appears to him in a dream, and when he wakes, he discovers that a circus has come to Helmouth, the dreary village where he lives with his mother. Joe feels inextricably drawn to the great tent, but he cannot explain why. Words are difficult for the stammering boy, who finds it hard to separate what exists in his head from what exists in the world, a blurriness that continues when he meets Corrina at the big top, a girl who seems strangely familiar to him. What special bond draws these two together? What surprising destiny does Joe discover beneath the tent's blue ceiling, with its remnants of an ancient, golden sun; a silver moon; and stars? The answers are an exquisite demonstration that, as Corinna tells Joe, "The most important things are the most mysterious." The border between the numinous and the real is familiar territory for the British author, but this time he limns the landscape as seldom before--with heartbreaking yearning and richly powerful symbols that evoke both heaven and hell. With echoes of Ray Bradbury and William Blake, Secret Heart is filled with scenes of breathtaking beauty, wonder, and astonishment. It is an unforgettable achievement. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

"Only Maloney" is the object of jeers and gobs of spit, ever outside the circle in the sleepy English village of Helmouth. He has only a single friend, Stanny Mole, until the blue circus tent arrives with its largely unwelcome population of wasters, tramps, and thieves, who take him in. Graeme Malcolm's delivery, a perfect match for the demanding text, alternates between simple declarative statements that sink low at the end of every line and Joe's dreamy puzzlement. Malcolm manages Joe's stumbling, stuttering tongue with an agility that causes the listener to squirm while also bringing to life a cast of unique individuals. The fine line between fantasy and reality lends a thrilling air to the reading. T.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One

All that night, Joe Maloney sweated, twisted and turned. He dreamed that engines roared and lights blazed. Men yelled, children screamed, dogs yelped. Metal hammered on metal. He dreamed that the surface of the earth was lifted and hung from great hooks in the sky. Beneath it, shapeless beasts danced in the dark. Then he lay dead still. Easy breath, easy heart. He smelt sawdust, canvas, animal sweat, animal dung. Gentle noises, creakings and flappings. He felt something fingering his skull, felt someone whispering his name. He was about to wake up in some new place.

"Joe!" yelled his mum. "Joseph!"

He opened his eyes: just his bedroom, pale sunlight filtering through thin curtains, childhood drawings taped to the walls, his clothes in a heap on the floor. He sniffed the air, trying to smell the tiger again.

"Joe!" she called. "Come on, son, will you?"

He slithered from the tangled bed, picked up his clothes and dressed himself. He dragged on his heavy boots. He sniffed, listened, narrowed his eyes.

"Joe!"

In the bathroom, he splashed water onto himself, then leaned close to the mirror, inspected his pale face, his tangled hair, his one green eye, his one brown eye. He touched his skin. He hadn't changed. He was still just Joe Maloney.

"Joseph!"

He went down into the kitchen. She was at the table, pouring orange juice. She shook her head and clicked her tongue. She tugged his shirt square on his shoulders. She fastened the laces of his boots. "Joe Maloney. What you like?"

He grinned.

"L-like me," he said.

She cuffed him gently on the shoulder.

"Like you. And you're going to need me to get you up and get you dressed all your life?"

He grinned again.

"Yes."

He buttered some toast and chewed it. She smiled, and smoothed his hair with her fingers and palms.

"I had a d-dream," Joe said.

"Now there's a change."

"There was . . ."

She shook her head, but she leaned toward him, about to listen.

"There was . . . ?" she said.

Joe rubbed his eyes and blinked. He looked out of the window and gasped. The summit of a blue tent stood high over the rooftops at the village's edge.

"What's that?"

"Eh?"

"L-look, Mum."

He jabbed the air. A blue tent, a blue paler than the morning sky. A great blue tent that trembled slightly in the morning breeze.

"What?" she said.

"There, look, Mum."

She narrowed her eyes and peered.

"Tent," he said. "A tent."

"Oh . . . Aye. Now where might that come from?"

They gazed at it together, the slope of blue rising from the dusty red rooftops.

"Fancy that," she said. "A circus or something, eh? Last time a circus came to Helmouth was in . . ." She shrugged. "Before our time, I reckon."

Joe shoved a piece of toast into his mouth. She put her arm around him as he prepared to go out.

"Now, then, Joseph Maloney," she said.

He lowered his eyes, then turned them to her.

"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?"

"Yes, Mum."

"You make sure you get into school today. OK?"

"OK, Mum."

She kissed him.

"Don't want that rotten Wag Man coming round again, do I?"

"No, Mum."

"You. What a lad. Sometimes wonder what I brought into the world. How can a lad be so lovely and so much trouble? Can you answer me that?"

"No, Mum."

"No, Mum. Come on, then, give us a kiss."

She took him to the door, watched him walk through the garden to the front gate. She raised her finger as he turned to wave. "Be sure, now," she said.

"Yes, Mum," he said, then hurried toward the Cut.


From the Hardcover edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340764821
• ISBN 13: 9780340764824
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 202