In one of the many youth hostels in the lake district, sat on a small rather untidy bookshelf I found this children’s book. It’s only short containing a few gripping stories from David Almond’s book ‘Counting Stars’. I picked it up and couldn’t put it down. It was an education, the subject wasn’t always pleasant. I was quite surprised at some of the references to smoking, crime and sex. Yet these references were so subtle and the text had such a beautiful haunting way of pulling me along.

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