October, October

It is a delicate but powerful novel that was a finalist for the 2024 Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi, having already won the 2022 Yoto Carnegie Medal. The story follows October, an eleven-year-old girl who lives alone with her dad in a house in the woods, in perfect harmony with nature. Her days are filled with the sounds of the wind, the rustling of trees, and the company of birds, rocks, and the elements of the earth. Hers is a life of freedom, where imagination is free to run wild. As October proudly states at the beginning of the novel, “we live in the forest and we are wild”, and she revels in a world filled only with the sounds and smells of nature. But one day, on her eleventh birthday, her life suddenly changes: her dad falls from a tree and ends up in hospital, fighting between life and death. October is then forced to go and live with her mother, a woman she hasn’t seen since she was four and has never forgiven for abandoning the forest to return to city life. London, with its jam-packed housing, endless grey skies, the jarring sounds of the Underground, and the school with its rigid desks and being obliged to sit, is a stark contrast to October’s former life. For the first time, she has to measure up to and interact with other children. London also brings a complex mix of emotions—anger towards her mother and a sense of guilt over her dad’s condition. These feelings gradually fade as October begins to open up to her new experiences, like her friendship with Yusuf and her discovery of the River Thames and the mudlarking club. It is here that she learns that happiness can be found anywhere, even in a city. "October, October" thus unfolds as a coming-of-age story, where childhood transitions into the realm of adulthood, allowing space for new emotions and ideas, made possible by the use of new expressions and words. The “woman who is my mother” eventually becomes “Mum,” symbolising a shift towards a deeper understanding of life, where “all the world is wild, and waiting for me”. This remarkable book by the English author Katya Balen is written in a refined and often poetic style, rich in sensory details that allow readers to smell the wood, the smoke, and the rain, and vividly feel the surge of emotions. It is a must-read for Balen’s extraordinary ability to capture the mindset of a young girl and convey her thoughts and feelings with an authentic, age-appropriate voice. The story is beautifully accompanied by Angela Harding’s illustrations, which bring to life characters like Stig, the little barn owl that October discovers when he is at death’s door in the woods and that she lovingly raises with her father’s help. Later entrusted to a wildlife centre in London, Stig is eventually returned to the wild in a breath-taking scene in which he takes flight, leaving October as he soars up into the sky. This dazzling moment, filled with light and sound, serves as a metaphor for chasing one’s dreams.

  Ottobre, Ottobre
Katya Balen, Angela Harding (illustrator)
Einaudi Ragazzi, 2023