SPOILERS!!!
This is a very emotional book. Rosie feels disappointed when the social worker tells her and Sam that Lucy, the girl she wanted, is not a match to their characteristics, and Rosie knows that Lucy has gone to the other woman. When Cathy tells them that there is a child that might be interested, Rosie is filled with hope. The child is Johan, and they start the proceedings to adopt him.
Jonah is not an easy child to live with, especially for Rosie. The boy is more attached to Sam, and he seems to avoid her at all costs. We know that the reason why Jonah prefers Sam to Rosie is because of his mother. The reason why he went along her idea to come to England was because the purpose was to become an English gentleman like Mr Sir. Sam is similar to Mr Sir, and Jonah can’t see why he needs Rosie as he already has a mum. Rosie feels hurt and starts thinking that she is totally unsuitable to be a mother. Jonah finds the situation difficult too and he doesn’t sleep or eat well. And when he goes to school for the first time, the other children laugh at him and see him as a alien creature as he is one of the very few black pupils in the school. There is a girl, Alice, who lives near Sam and Rosie that has taken a shine to him, and they already met when Alice helped him come out of a swimming pool when Jonah had difficulties swimming. I hope that Alice helps Jonah not only to settle down in school but to accept Rosie and Sam as his new family.
In the flashbacks in the past we learn that the police finds out the man who brought Jonah to England. His name is Robin Morse and he is a businessman who has hotels in several African countries, and in the last few months he visited Kenya more than any other country. Robin Morse is arrested, but he won’t tell anything. Trudi, the social worker, wants him to be punished for the way he treated Jonah. The police officer, DI Peter Taylor, thinks it is a good idea for Jonah to testify, so he interviews him and records the conversation with a camera and later that will be used at the trial. Jonah still thinks highly of Mr Sir, and all he says is positive. Trudi gets really angry when the day of the trial she learns that the man pleaded guilty of child cruelty, and got away with a very light sentence. Later Peter Taylor tells Trudi that Robin claimed that he was doing Jonah’s mother a favour, and the child’s aunt was supposed to pick him up at the airport. Yet, when he realises that there was no aunt, he panicked and just ran away. Taylor understands the man, but Trudi is very angry and thinks that nobody has considered Jonah and what the man did to him by leaving him all alone.
I love the book!!! It is touching and explores the reality of adoption, parenthood and feelings. I wonder what will happen to Jonah and the Keeps in the end.
Advertisements Share this:
