The book review discussion began with particularly scathing comments: ‘Where’s the bonfire?’ and ‘Burn the book!’


We wondered whether it was now fashionable to write in a child’s voice because it is becoming a regular feature in our group's reading list.


Only one of our members actually finished reading to the last page. She declared that no conclusions were ever reached in the book and as far as halfway through it she accepted this fact and this enabled her to finish it. She felt that midway through the story the reader ceased to wait for the discovery of the missing child.


The group agreed that the story would have been based on some factual evidence. Briefly we discussed survivor guilt and mentioned the tragedy at Aberfan. (On the 21 October 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales, United Kingdom.)


An average mark of 3 out of 10 was given.