Seize Your Copy A Small Free Kiss In The Dark Imagined By Glenda Millard Accessible As Ebook

hardly know how to find the right words to review A Small Free Kiss in the Dark by Glenda Millard, It's a really sweet book and the main character's voice is one that pulled me into the story from the very beginning, Once I started the story, I couldn't put it down and I found myself feeling all sorts of different emotions that I didn't know how to deal with.
It's that sort of book, But in a good way of course,

Skip is homeless, He had a home but it wasn't very good, so he left it, Despite the rough life that it's hinted at that he has led so far and despite the hardships Skip has had as a homeless boy, he still maintains this wonderful and innocent view of life.
His passion is drawing with chalk on the pavements around him he sees the world around with such exquisite detail,

Skip seems drawn to another homeless person, Billy, And when disaster strikes and the city is falling apart under air strikes, the Skip and Billy band together, Joining them is a little boy, Max who has lost his mother, They think it best to leave the city and they end up in an abandoned fairground, Joining their little group are a beautiful teenage dancer, Tia and her baby, As a group, they search for food and supplies for the baby and find the best ways to make it through the war.


It should be quite a grim story so far, A homeless man and two young boys struggling to survive while the world falls apart around them but it isn't, There's passion in the characters, Billy's music, Skip's artwork, Tia's dancing, The strong bonds and relationships between each of the characters especially Skip and Billy, and Skip and Max, Though all are strangers at first, there is such generosity and kindness between them all, What is most surprising, is how Skip seems to be almost overjoyed at this new situation he is in, as it's everything he's always wanted a place to belong with his strange, new ragtag family.
I also really loved the juxtaposition of a world torn apart, and our characters living in a theme park,

I think what A Small Free Kiss in the Dark does really well is show how even in times of crisis and despair, there is still hope and friendship and kindness and family.
Beautiful little book, one well worth reading!

Visit my blog to read an interview with the author, Glenda Millard: sitelinkwww, flutteringbutterflies. com Absolute top notch writing, I fell in love with every character, And all the while I felt as if I were surviving alongside them salvaging beauty in a world of destruction, Youg adult end of the world main character has a pretty dismal life, homeless very young and struggling to survive on the streets before the city in which he lives is attacked.
Convincing, real, captures bleakness and danger at the same time it develops relationships between the young main character and those he comes into contact with.
The ending is convincing can't say much because it will give things away, suffice to say there is no cop out, and no ending.
The book was so melancholy, The young narrator, Skip, had a certain aura of innocence that made the story so much more heartwrenching, He went through a tough childhood and learnt to love Max, a sixyearold boy found in the library and the Tia, Red coated young ballerina.
The frequent allusions and mentions of the artworks, artists, artmaking practice and elements in art gave the book so much more character, His story, however sad, was absolutely beautiful,

I loved the third party in the war, the people who didn't believe in war or fighting, This novel sent an incredibly powerful message about how war impacts lives of people, not just adults but seniors, minors and mere children.
Each chapter was just so saddening to read, yet I needed to know whether this sorrowful tale had a more fortunate ending and despite the fact that Tia died and the war was still going on, I have no doubt Skipper, Billy and Max got their happily ever after.
Millard, Glenda A Small Free Kiss in the Dark, New York: Holiday House.pp. ISBNHard Cover

War is hard, For Skip, living on the streets, war should be death, However, an older man, Billy, moves Skip and a very young boy, Max, to an abandoned amusement park to outlast the war,

The dichotomy between an amusement park and bombs serves as a rich foundation for reading a story about war and family.
Skips dumpster explodes one day and he is thrust into the path of Billy, a wily and homeless man, Billy helps Skip avoid the bombs and then takes in a very young orphan, Max, Once they reach the amusement park, they adopt Mia, a teen mother who has a different definition of

survival, I love that this war is not named, which allows readers to envision details of wars they know about, study in school, or see in the media.
While Mia engages in behavior that is, perhaps, not suitable for younger students, the descriptions are in the background, which makes this book perfectly suitable for middle school students who may see military recruiters in their community.
Mia forces Skip to think about our actions and what they say about our humanity in the face of a conflict so unamusing that we sometimes need to force ourselves to find the humor and beauty in life despite our circumstances.
The description of Billy from Skips perspective is nicely balanced by the readers more complete understanding that Billy is terrified and far from perfect.
Another notable element to this book is its understanding of the power of art, both visual art and performance art, The outsider art element to this book is especially unique and important and interesting, Another plus for this book is its FABULOUS cover,
This book was okay but I mostly just read it because I wanted to read all the books I owned, It is the story of a young homeless boy who lives in a war zone, The story is about friendship, however, I felt as though the writing style did not give a deep feeling of love, Although this was writing in the perspective of the young boy, I feel as though there could have been more depth and character building.
How come this is isn't on my list I read it in Feb this year, A strong, emotional intense piece of writing, Big contender. The best books take readers into the ordinary places and routines in the lives of ostensibly unexceptional characters, and transform their interactions into things of beauty and rarity.
In many such novels, as this one, the writing style is unostentatious, not particularly descriptive or beautiful, even sometimes seemingly a little naiive and simplistic.


Books such as these have an artistry, for me, that is magical they are so well put together that I cant really deconstruct how they manage to lift their characters up, but I know from experience that they take their readers with them and it is a wonderful, transformative journey which leaves us the wiser, the world around us imbued with the aura of specialness which has rubbed off from the world of the novel.
Louise Erdrich does this with the best of her novels, like The Master Butchers Singing Club, and Glenda Millard, whom Im proud to note is an Australian, achieves it for a Young Adult audience with A Small Free Kiss in the Dark.


But on to the story, It follows Skip, a damaged twelve or thirteen year old who expresses his love via the safe method of chalk drawing, Hes used to feeling disappointed in people, and each positive relationship he forms, even if a fleeting one, is one that he treasures in a furtive, desperate way which he tries, often unsuccessfully, to dissemble from.
Skip has been disappointed in his parents and has been living on the streets for some time when he finds, to his surprise, that he is tolerated when he hangs around him by Billy, an old homeless man with a limp.
Billy turns out to be goodhearted, and they form a partnership which brings out a protectiveness and selfishness in Skip which shames him when war breaks out and they meet up with little Max who needs their help desperately.
Butyear old Max turns out, like so many things which take us beyond our comfort zone, to be a joy to Skip and a way back to the childhood which has been taken from him so prematurely.
Thus, a pathway to healing and purpose,

The three make their way to an abandoned amusement park, which makes a marvelous setting for the final events of the book in which they meet Mia and her baby another challenging inclusion to the little group.
Here we have some action which distinguishes this novel from those suitable for a primary school audience, as Mia engages in sex, and is possibly raped, by the soldiers who sustain her with their gifts.
Mias attitude towards her baby is also inconsistent and challenging at times, but they, too eventually are included in the small circle of those whom Skip loves for he is so desperately keen to love and be loved, and we love him for it and it is Mia who gives Skip a chaste, kind, kiss one night, before her fate overtakes her to our intense sadness, both for her beautiful qualites, and for Skip, that he may never again experience a transient, fluttering innocent love.
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