Like most of de Goldi’s characters, 9 year old Perry in The ABC with Honora Lee is a quirky girl with an odd way of looking at the world. She has parents who push her into all sorts of activities but don’t seem to be around a lot, so she starts to spend time with her Grandmother, Honora Lee, who has dementia and lives in a resthome. Perry starts to write an alphabet as a school assignment and includes sayings and people from the resthome.
I’m liking
This book is full of interesting characters. Honora and the other residents from the resthome are hilarious: at times sage and lucid, at other times they live in the past or a completely other world. It’s great to have a story looking at the relationships between children and their grandparents, especially dealing with tough topics like dementia and death in such a gentle eccentric way.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I didn’t quite believe Perry as a character. In some ways she seemed a bit precocious for a 9 year old, in other ways she seemed a bit young – especially not knowing how many letters are in the alphabet. I wasn’t sure whether she was a gifted child, one with learning difficulties or both.
The conclusion
I would recommend this book for parents or teachers wanting a deep read aloud that will give them lots to talk about with their pre-adolescents. It would be great for any kids with grandparents that are developing dementia.
It would be suitable also for pre-adolescents who have a high reading age but aren’t yet ready for some of the content in books aimed at older readers.
