October, October

Author Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding
Narrator Aysha Kala
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 4 hours and 27 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction and true stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Nature and animal stories, Children’s / Teenage general interest: Birds, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Divorce, separation, family break-up, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: First experiences and growing up, Children’s / Teenage: Chapter books (transitional storybooks), Children’s / Teenage: General interest.

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What to expect

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WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022
WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE SHADOWERS’ CHOICE AWARD 2022
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'A very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status' - The Times Children's Book of the Week
'A modern classic ... relevant, comforting and life-affirming' - Scotsman
'The perfect Autumn read' - Primary Teacher Bookshelf
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A classic in the making for anyone who ever longed to be WILD.

October and her dad live in the woods. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They live in the woods and they are wild. And that's the way it is.

Until the year October turns eleven. That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad falls out of the biggest tree in their woods. The year the woman who calls herself October's mother comes back. The year everything changes.

Written in Katya Balen's heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul.

Critics Review

Katya Balen’s October, October is a very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status
Times Children's Book of the Week
Quite simply one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read
Kiran Millwood Hargrave
October, October is fierce with a wild love. It draws you in to its heart, shakes you with a fury, wraps you in a spell of storytelling. In lyrical prose, Katya Balen gives us a modern day heroine filled with courage. I loved every page.
Jackie Morris
In October, October the greenwood meets the city. Wise and bright – I loved it.
Hilary McKay, author of The Skylarks' War
The most wonderful, original treasure of a story
Emma Carroll
It’s EXQUISITE. Read it. Wild yourself. Open your heart to it. Written with the pen of a poet and the soul of Mother Earth. Glorious. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever read.
Liz Hyder, award-winning author of Bearmouth
A modern classic … relevant, comforting and life-affirming
Scotsman
This book feels like a secret treasure found in the woods … earthy and magic and beautiful. I want to buy a copy for everyone I know.
Sophie Kirtley
One of the most beautiful children’s books I’ve ever read
Natasha Farrant
The world is not a simple place, and Balen draws a touching, spikey, sparky, dangerous, heartful portrait of a girl slowly learning that.
A.F. Harrold
This is what language can do – tell a story that burns with intense, furious passion, and yet be so disciplined that one never doubts, not for one moment, the emotional truths driving it. This song of the wild and of our most profound human longings is deeply moving, deeply satisfying, and it’s my children’s book of the year.
Kevin Crossley-Holland
One of my favourite books this year. Beautiful and uplifting, a powerful evocation of nature and wildness that I found both surprising and incredibly moving. Tears were shed!
The Rocketship Bookshop
The perfect Autumn read – you can almost smell the damp leaves, crisp air and smoke from a distant bonfire … It would be an ideal book to read alongside forest school sessions.
Primary Teacher Bookshelf
A timeless, lyrical treasure that sees a girl who’s at one with the wild struggle with the world beyond her woods … An unforgettable story, an unforgettable heroine
LoveReading4Kids
Balen’s immensely touching, well-written story about the pleasures and perils of wildness combines a lush, autumnal sensibility with a perceptive story about a transitional phase in a young girl’s life.
Booktrust
This is a sensitive account of adjusting to change and the grief that comes with it
CBI Mind Yourself 2020 Reading Guide
This is the beautifully told second novel of a remarkable new writer
Best children's books of the year 2020, The Times {Saturday Review}
I’ve also just been introduced to the first two stunning children’s books by Katya Balen, both published by Bloomsbury: The Space We’re In and October, October. If you have a middle-grader, or know one, or are one … treat yourself
Books of the Year, The Spectator
The theme of raising a wild bird is at the heart of Katya Balen’s October, October … Only it’s about more than that: about the gap between life in the wild woods and in London, where October is saved by mudlarking, and friendship with a boy called Yusuf
Animal magic: children's books for Christmas, The Spectator
Written in beautiful prose, it is a heartbreakingly tender story of growing up, childhood, finding your own space, learning to forgive and ultimately celebrating what it is in the human spirit that gives hope to us all
Dandelion
As soon as I had finished it, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and read it all over again
CLPE Staff Picks 2020
October, October is one of those books which, as soon as I had finished it, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and read it all over again
Katie, CLPE Staff Picks 2020
An incredible story about love, loss, hope and overcoming adversity
The Green Parent
Balen’s touching, perceptive story about a transitional phase in a young girl’s life is full of heart, lush description and the love of wild nature’
BookTrust Great Books Guide 2021

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