I love Gill Lewis’s books, and when I saw Song of the River at Kahaani Box, I picked it up without a second thought. And even though I haven’t read any of Lewis’s books in a while, I wasn’t disappointed.
When Cari’s father dies, her mother wants to start over. She wants to move out of the city and to a village where she can run a picture perfect café, complete with chequered tablecloths. For Cari, though, it feels like they’re deliberately leaving every memory of her father behind. They’re a half family now, and it seems as if her mother wants to forget. A river of rage surges within Cari, one that is echoed by the river outside their new cottage.
When the river breaks its banks, Cari’s mother is heartbroken. Everything is destroyed, and she realises what a foolish ideal she was chasing. But perhaps it’s time to change the song of the river—both within Cari and in the physical world outside.
It’s fascinating how things we read are linked and how themes overlap. As I read Song of the River, I thought of Willodeen, who, like Cari, had to convince the town to act. While Willodeen is set in a fantastical world with screechers and hummingbears, Cari’s world is very much the real one. In fact, I read a report very recently about how the reintroduction of beavers prevented flooding—and that’s what Cari and her new community attempt to do. As one of the characters in the story says, we might be angry about orangutans in Borneo, but perhaps, especially as children, there isn’t much we can do about them. Instead, perhaps the question we must ask is, what can we do closer home? How can we help make decisions that might be temporarily inconvenient but crucial in the long run?
Books about the environment, when well written, always strike a chord with me, and Song of the River, with its beautiful metaphor and powerful message, is the perfect conversation starter for early middle grade readers.
| Title | Song of the River |
| Author | Gill Lewis |
| Tags | Early Middle Grade, Climate Fiction |
| Ages | 9+ |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
Other books by Gill Lewis I’ve read and loved:
- Sky Hawk
- Gorilla Dawn (one of my top ten middle grade reads in 2019)
- White Dolphin
Leave a Reply