Bianca
Written on May 6, 2017
When Apple’s mother returns after eleven years of absence, Apple feels whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question – why did you go? And she will have someone who understands what it means to be a teenager – unlike Nana. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother’s homecoming is bitter sweet, and Apple wonders who is really looking after whom. It’s only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.
Like a brilliant hybrid of Cathy Cassidy and Jacqueline Wilson, Sarah Crossan entices you into her world, then tells a moving, perceptive and beautifully crafted, Carnegie Shortlisted story which has the power to make you laugh and cry.
Shortlisted for The CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2015.
- ISBN10 1408827131
- ISBN13 9781408827130
- Publish Date 12 February 2015 (first published 14 August 2014)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Imprint Bloomsbury Childrens Books
- Format Paperback
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
Kelly
Written on Sep 12, 2014
When a review copy arrives with included tissues, you know you're in for an emotional read and Apple and Rain didn't disappoint. Apple is an intelligent young lady, but she's never been able to overcome her mother leaving. Although she loves her grandmother dearly, she so desperately pines for a relationship with the woman who left and never looked back. It was only then did I realise how incredibly young Apple is emotionally, and that is also reflected in new sister Rain as well. Both girls are seemingly well adjusted, but as the storyline progresses, it's apparent that their mother has neglected each girl resulting in Rain's inability to to function without Jenny, and Apple needing to please her mother for her approval. It was incredibly sad to see Apple, who is still a child herself, taking care of her younger sibling both mentally and physically. Apple had no one to turn to, not wanting her grandmother to know that her mother was unfit to care for both girls. She was forced from school, with the only alternative being leaving Rain at home alone and before long, Apple herself became the mothering figure in Rain's life.
The only brightness in Apple's world had become the journal given to her by her English teacher, and encouraged to continue her love of poetry. Apple's life is falling apart, she had lost her best friend to the token malicious popular girl, her first kiss was at the insistence of her mother's drunken idea and now she's left alone to cope with Rain while her mother avoids coming home. It felt as though the words had seeped through the pages and tore through my heart, I was emotionally invested in the lives of these two girls and wanted nothing more than to rescue them from the situation their neglectful and self absorbed mother had inflicted.
Beautifully written. This is my second Sarah Crossan novel, after attempting to read the first installment in her young adult dystopian series, Breathe. But where I couldn't immerse myself in the series, Apple and Rain was phenomenal. So incredibly emotional, where the reader will find themselves invested in Apple and Rain's plight. Tragically beautiful.