Medina Hill - Hardcover

Kent, Trilby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0887768881 ISBN 13: 9780887768880

Publisher: Tundra Books, 2009

Synopsis

In the grimy London of 1935, eleven-year-old Dominic Walker has lost his voice. His mother is sick and his father’s unemployed. Rescue comes in the form of his Uncle Roo, who arrives to take him and his young sister, Marlo, to Cornwall. There, in a boarding house populated by eccentric residents, Marlo, who keeps a death grip on her copy of The New Art of Cooking, and Dominic, armed with Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert, find a way of life unlike any they have known. Dominic’s passion for Lawrence of Arabia is tested when he finds himself embroiled in a village uprising against a band of travelers who face expulsion. In defending the vulnerable, Dominic learns what it truly means to have a voice.

Trilby Kent brilliantly handles a far-off time and place to present a story of up-to-the-minute relevance.

About this title

About the Author

Trilby Kent was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. After completing degrees at Oxford University and The London School of Economics, she worked in the rare books department at a prominent auction house before turning to writing feature articles for publication in Europe and North America. She now lives in London, England. Medina Hill is Trilby Kent’s first novel.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In 1935 in London’s East End, 11-year-old Dominic has stopped speaking with anyone except his family. Is it because of his growing unease with his peers? “If I was really unlucky, I’d end up in the center of a circle of kids waiting to see me get beaten up.” Or is it the tough times at home, with his mum’s lungs growing weaker and his dad, a troubled Great War veteran, unable to find a job? Whatever the reason, the disability tortures him—the words are there, but he cannot get them out. When Uncle Roo steps in to take Dominic and his younger sister, Marlo, to his Cornwall village, Medina Hill, for the summer, Dominic is upset and reflects that “grown-up conspiracies are nothing new.” What is new to him, though, are the village’s eccentric characters; the captivating story of T. E. Lawrence that he discovers in a book; and an interesting new friend, Sancha, a fiercely independent Romany girl with a wooden leg who befriends the shy, speechless city boy. What had every promise of being a lazy, bucolic idyll turns into Dominic’s coming-of-age summer. Maybe it’s too much to expect this youngster to help turn the town’s tide against expelling the Gypsy community from its borders, but Dominic does manage to gradually find his voice and his courage in Kent’s highly original debut. Grades 6-9. --Anne O'Malley

About this edition

• Publisher: Tundra Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0887768881
• ISBN 13: 9780887768880
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176