The Song From Somewhere Else

A. F. Harrold's The Song From Somewhere Else is a strange, gentle and sometimes sad story for 8 year olds about a lonely girl and the boy nobody wants to be seen with.

What happens

Frank (short for Francesca) is spending the summer holidays putting up posters for her missing cat, Quintilius Minimus. What a name! That's when Neil Noble and his two sidekicks find her at the rec.

They've been picking on her for more than a year. They rip up her posters. They copy her stutter in baby talk. Then they throw her bag into the deepest, darkest patch of stinging nettles in the park.

The one who wades in after it is Nick Underbridge. He's huge, he sits on his own at the back of class, and everyone says he smells. Frank has laughed at him herself.

So she's mortified when she ends up running to his house to escape. And while she's there, she hears music. Faint, far away and so lovely that she feels properly happy, which hasn't happened in months.

Where's it coming from? Nick says it's just his dad's music. It isn't.

You spend the whole book inside Frank's head, and it's a very honest place to be. She's embarrassed to be seen with Nick. She knows that's unkind. She starts to like him anyway. Her stomach even talks back to her with sarky little comments, which gives the heavy bits a lot of lightness.

The bullying is the hard part. It's persistent and cruel, and the grown-ups don't notice (which Frank finds maddening, and plenty of children will recognise). If your reader is going through something similar, this could be a real comfort, or it could feel a bit close to home. You'll know best.

The magic creeps in slowly. There's a door in Nick's kitchen that doesn't look like a door, and a cellar where Frank glimpses something she'd call a troll if she believed in that sort of thing.

It's a thoughtful, quiet read for a child who likes feelings as much as adventure.

What to read next

If they're moved by a child who gets stared at and left out, try R. J. Palacio's Wonder. August is about to start school for the very first time, and he knows exactly how people look at his face.