The Bombs That Brought Us Together

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WINNER OF THE COSTA CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD 2016

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes for ever.

Sometimes, to keep the people you love safe, you have to do bad things. As Little Town's rules crumble, Charlie is sucked into a dangerous game. There's a gun, and a bad man, and his closest friend, and his dearest enemy.

Charlie Law wants to keep everyone happy, even if it kills him. And maybe it will ...

Perfect for readers of Patrick Ness, John Boyne and Malorie Blackman.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Horn Book Review

Charlie Law has very strict rules for living. You have to when you live in Little Town, a place with a strict Regime and an antagonistic relationship with bordering Old Country. Nobody leaves Little Town, and nobody leaves Old Country -- until one day the Duda family arrives as refugees. Charlie befriends the teenage son, Pavel, and tries to teach him how to keep his head down and remain unnoticed. But just as the Dudas come, Little Town begins to crumble -- literally and figuratively -- under Old Countrys encroaching military rule. Bombs begin to hit Little Town, and Charlie can no longer avoid the fray. He gets swept up into a violent plot against Old Countrys militia, led by a shadowy mobster who keeps Charlie working for him with promises of fresh food and inhalers for Charlies sick Mum. This dense, dark novel, lightened up at times with Little Town slang and teen-boy asides about cute girls, takes a while to pick up before the situation becomes desperate enough to keep pages turning. Unlike dystopian fiction set comfortably in the future, Conaghans dystopia, with its parallels to the Cold War and contemporary conflicts of ethnic versus political borders, is all too easy to envision today. sarah hannah gmez(c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.