Review: Crow

Crow is a darkly humorous, intriguing and empathetic tale, exploring the anxiety that children can feel around moving house, changing schools and forming new friendships.

Hattie has reluctantly moved from Bristol to the village of Little Plug in Somerset with her chef father (who has got a new job), her older brother, Oliver and her pet rat, Sid.  Feeling worried and nervous about starting a new school, Hattie reveals some things that she had not intended to.  After an awkward silence and a difficult lunch in which she finds it hard to make friends as she is expecting to fail, she leaves, feeling sad and lonely. 

But, after finding a den in an oak tree, she feels better, and wants to keep it for herself, so she builds a scarecrow – Crow- to protect her den from the other children.  Imagine her surprise when, following a storm, Crow arrives at her home, ready to protect her, but Hattie insists that he must protect her den by scaring away the other children.  Although Crow has enjoyed dancing and playing with the other children, his loyalty to Hattie proves stronger, so he becomes scarier and scarier … until he even begins to frighten Hattie.  Can Hattie overcome her fears before Crow makes finding new friends impossible?

I found this an absolutely fascinating read and think it opens up lots of opportunity for discussion about children’s anxieties related to change.  Hattie has found the transition to a new home and school difficult and misreads lots of situations with the other children, making it so much more difficult for her to form friendships.  I enjoyed the fantasy element with Crow creating physical barriers and manifesting fear, and feel that this can be used to sensitively explore children’s own fears and the barriers that they may create for themselves when facing change.  Hattie hides how she is feeling and is uncomfortable around new people, misreading the offers of friendship from others as she does not expect to make friends.  On a surface level, she may come across as unlikeable and mean, but I feel this is a coping mechanism to mask her worries and fears, and her inability to read situations.

The full-and-partial page illustrations throughout are gorgeous, expressive and complement the darkly humorous nature of the story perfectly.

This is a heartfelt story of overcoming anxieties and finding friendship, sometimes when it is least expected!

This book is published by the wonderful Barrington Stoke who publish dyslexia-friendly, super-readable and accessible books for children of all ages.  This one is for ages 7+ with a reading age of 7.

Thank you so much to Barrington Stoke for sending me a copy of this wonderful book to read and review in exchange for my honest opinion.