The Boy at the Window

13 Feb

Set in an eerie, fog-drenched house in England, Lucy Strange’s newest novella, ‘The Boy at the Window’, explores wartime grief and loneliness in a Victorian historical setting. Published by Barrington Stoke for ages 9+ (with a reading age of 8+), this dyslexia-friendly book delivers a supernatural tale with an unexpected twist.

The novella appears to be set in England during the late 19th or early 20th century, perhaps around the time of the Boer War. This is a period of history when women were so much more isolated, hopeless, and powerless in times of trouble. The family home often had paid help, and children were expected to be ‘seen and not heard’ and to keep a stiff upper lip.

I’ve been a fan of Kent-based Children’s author, Lucy Strange, ever since reading ‘Sisters of the Lost Marsh’ (Chicken House Books, 2021), which has now been translated into multiple languages including recently, Japanese. Lucy has a gift as a writer, like Emma Carroll or Catherine Johnson, of being able to retell important true stories from the past whether it conveys the lives women and young girls in rural landscapes, or the lives of children who are mining/in factories and workhouses/chimney sweeps during the Industrial Revolution. If you’ve recently enjoyed the first in Lucy and illustrator, Pam Smy’s newest middle grade series collaboration ‘Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries’ (Walker Books, 2024), you’ll already be familiar with Lucy’s love of the paranormal. Lucy is a household name when it comes to ghost writing (not ‘ghostwriting’, although you never know!) for children.

A young boy, Hugo, is home from boarding school seemingly indefinitely. His mother is in deep despair, withdrawn as a mother from her only child, placing the stern looking photograph of her husband at the head of the table forever as a reminder of his war M.I.A. status and his abandoning his family to who knows what end.

Between housekeeper, Mrs Stubbs’s home cooked meals and the weekly dreaded piano lesson, Hugo is a sad and lonely boy, his connection to his mother fading away, his isolation in this gloomy, still home. As the book intimates through the narrative and the black and white illustrations, Hugo’s life has become much like the dying embers of the fire. That is until he befriends a spirit boy, someone who appears at the window to the garden, who asks to come in.

What an upgrade, Hugo now has a secret friend, someone to read books with, to keep him company, finish his food for him - for sadness and grief has affected Hugo’s appetite; this new ghostly new best friend or sibling can even impersonate Hugo and do his piano lessons for him! Readers start to see some red flags at this point. Unbeknownst to Hugo, the impersonations are go too far, too quickly… The entity calls itself ‘Nemo’ (translation ‘nobody’) from Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ - a name used as a strategy of deception devised by Odessyus in order for him and his men to escape the Cyclops.

‘The Boy at the Window’ isn’t Hugo, or is it? When we let grief in, and let it take over our lives, we risk losing our joy and true selves forever.

This is a desperate story of how grief affects both adults and children. Life around 150 years ago in England is hard without connections, support, distraction. Hushed up news keeps Hugo in the dark, as a child he is muffled - his emotions entangled in a web of now old-fashioned family societal norms. He is almost metaphorically snuffed out much like the very candle his mother burns for her husband, hopelessly so. ‘The Boy at the Window’ is a punchy historical supernatural page-turner which will give you all the chills, and give readers insight into what it was like to live in our not so distant past when a family experiences the death of a parent during wartime.

As always with Barrington Stoke published books, the reader is treated to dyslexia and learning difficulty-friendly fonts, paper and illustrations. Their books are slimmer and provide readers with that altogether essential sense of accomplishment of finishing a book and pride in their reading journey, whether they're more reluctant readers or not. I always feel excited about their books - they choose to work with only the best authors and illustrators so that readers feel on parr with their peers reading more lengthy and challenging books, as the maturity-level in these slimmer tomes is pitched perfectly each time.

While I was surprised by the absence of a teaching note, which might have added context about the historical period, this omission doesn’t detract from the story’s brilliance. Lucy Strange’s books remain an excellent resource for classrooms.

Very much looking forward to welcoming Lucy Strange to Happy Reading Children’s Bookshop during the February 2025 half term for an event with our local young book worms.