Norah’s Ark

• Written by Victoria Williamson
• Publishes on 29th August 2023 in paperback

I absolutely adore Victoria Williamson, and everything she has written has been truly brilliant. The first book of her’s I read was Hag Storm and very recently I was lucky enough to be on the blog tour of The Pawnshop of Dreams. So when I was given the chance of reading her latest book I jumped at the chance.

The thing about a Victoria Williamson books is that they are all completely different

So when I settled down to read this I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that this was going to be brilliant.

Two very different lives. One shared hope for a brighter future. No time to waste. The flood is coming…

Eleven-year-old Norah Day lives in temporary accommodation, relies on food banks for dinner, and doesn’t have a mum. But she’s happy enough, as she has a dad, a pet mouse, a pet spider, and a whole zoo of rescued local wildlife to care for. Eleven-year-old Adam Sinclair lives with his parents in a nice house with a big garden, a private tutor, and everything he could ever want. But his life isn’t perfect – far from it. He’s recovering from leukaemia and is questioning his dream of becoming a champion swimmer. When a nest of baby birds brings them together, Norah and Adam discover they’re not so different after all. Can Norah help Adam find his confidence again? 

Can Adam help Norah solve the mystery of her missing mother? And can their teamwork save their zoo of rescued animals from the rising flood? 

When I sat down to write this review my main worry was that I didn’t have the words to do this book the justice it deserves. In fact I have re-written this 3 times now.

There were so many things I needed to say and didn’t know where to begin. There were so many different parts to this book.

I really liked how the story was from the point of view of the main characters and we see the chapter through their eyes, we feel their feelings and we get to understand their world.

Norah was a really interesting character moving from one home to another, but not a proper home, a B&B or a hostel. She has learning disabilities that make her struggle at school (as adults we can see this but I’m not sure children will be able to). There are references to Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder but I’m not sure many children will have heard of it.Her dad is in and out of work, struggling to claim the benefits he is entitled to and having to rely on foodbanks. It really shocked me how families living in B&B’s/ hostels are not able to be in there during the day. As I’m sure this is true and knowing that Victoria Williamson is such a brilliant author I know that research will have gone into this. In the background there is the threat of social services. But again I liked how research went into this and how the book showed that social services don’t want to take children away from their parents and part of their role is to help parents and children. They were shown in a good light in this book.

The other main character Adam is completely different, he is recovering from childhood cancer, and  all he wants is for life to get back to normal. Again research has gone into this and  there are mentions after care that I didn’t know happened.

His mum is very overprotective and won’t let him go to school or mix with anyone but his dad can see that he needs to start living life again and this causes arguments  between his parents.

So we have the two main characters that have completely different lives and they bond over a bird’s nest and over the love of nature.

Over time we see the start of a beautiful friendship. We witness the early meetings of this pair and both children wanting to keep their problems a secret, but soon they trust each other to start to open up to each other.

I also liked how the adult characters had such a big role, usually the adults in MG books have small roles to play but the adult roles in this book were needed.

The children in this book are 11 years old so they would be heading to high school.And I couldn’t help but think of the year 6 children in my primary school.

This book deals with so much and I know there are children in my primary school going through the same issues.

I know in my school we have up to 37 food bank referrals a week, and I loved how this issue was highlighted. The shame Norah feels having to buy  her school uniform in a charity shop  is relatable and I’ve had conversations with children about this.

I felt really sad at times as Norah and her dad struggled, this book also highlights the problem with zero hour contracts. I challenge you to read this without evaluating your life, and questioning yourself.

This is a truly thought provoking book that will make you stop and think. Offering powerful lessons in empathy, Norah’s Ark is a hopeful and uplifting middle-grade tale for our times about friendship and finding a sense of home in the face of adversity.

Check out the rest of the Norah’s Ark blog tour, which feature a whole host of fantastic bloggers sharing their reviews, etc. Information can be found on the banner below.