Catfish Rolling

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Overall, an enjoyable coming of age story that I would recommend to those who like contemplative, character-driven books. It’s not easy to pen a novel swimming in magical realism and dream-logic that is also highly influenced by science and philosophy- but that’s exactly what Clara Kumagai has done.

Catfish Rolling heralds a blistering new talent to the YA scene and I for one at grateful she is here.I was drawn toward Catfish Rolling due to the amazing cover (the UK variant I find slightly better), and took a dive on a story about a young woman dealing with the long term aftermath of an earthquake so enormous that it broke time itself (which happens in the prologue). Sora was a well-presented character; however, some of the other characters in the story didn't feel as well fleshed out. There’s a feeling this story gives you that is impossible to explain, and I can already tell I’m doing this wrong.

Finally, for younger readers aged 11-14, Friendship Never Ends by Alexandra Sheppard (Knights Of, May) follows four girls over one long summer apart: Sunita on holiday with her blended family; Dawn at drama summer school in London; Gifty with her grandparents in an isolated village; and May at home working in her parent’s Chinese takeaway. I found some of the book a little confusing but on the whole it is well written and easy enough to follow. And the mysteries hiding in each journey varied so much that it’s not surprising most people were afraid of the zones. A father and daughter are left puzzled and intrigued by the unusual and mysterious shaking, which causes the mother to disappear. This will be one of those elusive narratives that I won’t be able to review well because words can’t capture the magic of Catfish Rolling.Green’s experience of being banned from visiting a church school in the UK because he is gay and the current debate about sex education in the classroom make this all the more timely and important. There was a lot that she had to deal on her own after she and her father decided to move to Japan from Canada after the tragedy. After Sora's father goes missing, she has no choice but to venture into uncharted spaces within the time zones to find him, her mother and perhaps even the catfish itself. The blurb for the book mentioned that this would be a perfect book for fans of Studio Ghibli and I couldn’t agree more. There are themes of grief (and all its stages), growth (as both a young person experiencing trauma and grief), and living in liminal spaces where time moves faster, slower, or normally.

I know I did a terrible job, but if you like sci-fi or fantasy even a little, I’d recommend you add this book to your TBR. When Luki’s tribe is offered the chance to journey to America for the St Louis World Fair, she eagerly escapes the constraints of rural mountain life.It was believed that there was a giant catfish living underground the islands of Japan, and was restrained by a stone. To stop it moving and causing damage a huge rock is placed on it but every now and again the catfish moves the rock and Japan shakes. Considering this is a fantasy book containing a lot of science, it’s not surprising that Catfish Rolling is more of a feeling than something that can be explained.

You have to be okay with a slower pacing and not expect a flashy, plot heavy sci-fi novel, but if you surrender yourself the currents of this story, you’re in for an absolute treat. Identity, family and loss are key themes running throughout the novel where myth, fantasy and scientific discovery collide. The timeline jumps back and forth through different periods of her life so the reader is putting the pieces together as they do. Sora grew up with the legend of the giant catfish that lives under the islands of Japan; a creature of magic and myth responsible for earthquakes and tsunami’s by flicks of its tail.There are a few examples of how different people experience these emotions and their reactions to them. Kelly's particular interest in language acquisition and vocabulary development has led to the publication of her first book, Word Power: Amplifiying vocabulary instruction (2019) - full of ideas for building a language-rich environment and top tips to Power-Up explicit vocabulary instruction.