You Won't Believe This

by Adam Baron

Overview

From the author of bestselling debut Boy Underwater comes another moving, hilarious novel of friendship and family secrets, which shows that people are people, no matter where they’re from.

BOY UNDERWATER WAS SHORTLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE AWARD, AND SELECTED AS WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE MONTH.

Here’s something you won’t believe: someone is doing TERRIBLE things to Mrs Martin, Cymbeline Igloo’s favourite teacher of all time.
 
Cymbeline has to find the culprit (after he’s learned what ‘culprit’ means). He’s also got to help his friend Veronique, whose grandma is dangerously ill. It seems Nanai has a secret, connected to her arrival in the UK as a Boat Person from Vietnam, a traumatic journey in which she lost her twin sister. Can Cymbeline figure out the mystery in time?
 
One thing is for sure: even the most unexpected people can change your life in wonderful ways . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008499631
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	155,816
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Adam Baron is the author of five successful novels and has, in his time, been an actor, comedian, journalist and press officer at Channel 4 television (as well as things he’s too embarrassed to mention). He now runs the widely respected MA in Creative Writing at Kingston University London. Adam lives in Greenwich, South London, with his wife and three young children. He wrote Boy Underwater (his first novel aimed at younger readers) because they told him to. While still in the flush of youth he knows what his final words are going to be: ‘clear the table’.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Boy Underwater:

‘An absolute corker of a tale, whose delicate themes – mental health, missing loved ones – are handled with fluid grace’ Observer

‘This poignant novel is about love and loss, but, told from the viewpoint of a child too young to grasp all that grown-ups do, it is also funny. With evocative monochrome illustrations, it bears you up as soon as you plunge in’ Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week

‘Involving and wryly funny, full of tenderness, eccentricity and intriguing meditations on the function of art, this story of grief, depression and the different facets of identity is well-served by Benji Davies’s thoughtful illustrations’ Guardian

‘The witty humour and dialogue are the perfect foil to the unresolved grief and anxiety that underpin this impressive debut’ Daily Mail

From the Publisher

2022-10-11
In his latest outing, young Cymbeline Igloo helps solve two mysteries involving immigrants in his English community and has a lifelong dream fulfilled.

Firstly, who is playing mean pranks on Mrs. Martin, who has been his favorite teacher since her arrival from Botswana—and why? Secondly, what has made Nanai, a Chinese Vietnamese refugee and the grandma of Cymbeline’s bestie, Veronique Chang, suddenly stop eating? And thirdly, why hasn’t Jacky Chapman, revered star footballer for Charlton, answered Cym’s written request for a ride in his helicopter? In getting to the answers, Baron plunges his curious and emotionally intense narrator, who presents White, into a whirl of daily experiences comical and otherwise—ranging from Cym’s amazing day in class with a pink-haired, tattooed science teacher and his mum’s ill-starred attempt to make a vegetarian dinner for her boyfriend to a tearful funeral (for a pet) and startling revelations at a tender family reunion. By the end, the mysteries are solved and resolved satisfactorily. Meanwhile, Cym gets his helicopter ride, writes a rubbish book report on War and Peace (given in full) but proves a dab hand at Scrabble, and expresses gratitude for living in a culturally diverse country; his warm relations with Veronique’s family include sobering glimpses of Nanai’s tragic and harrowing past. Select dramatic moments are marked typographically and by Davies’ vignettes of significant items.

Further misadventures of an endearing sleuth with his heart on his sleeve. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews