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Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
A description of how drugs can affect those who come into contact with them. It is also a portrayal of relationships and love and of ordinary people battling against the odds. The author won the 1989 Australian Human Rights Award for Literature and the 1990 Australian Children's Book of the Year.
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First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Robin Klein
85 books76 followersWinner of the Dromkeen Medal (1991).
Robin Klein was born 28 February 1936 in Kempsey, New South Wales into a family of nine children. Leaving school at age 15, Klein worked several jobs before becoming established as a writer, having her first story published at age 16. She would go on to write more than 40 books, including Hating Alison Ashley (adapted into a feature film starring Delta Goodrem in 2005), Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left (adapted into a television series for the Seven Network in 1992), and Came Back to Show You I Could Fly (adapted into a film directed by Richard Lowenstein in 1993).
Klein’s books are hugely celebrated, having won the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award in both the Younger Readers and the Older Readers categories, as well as a Human Rights Award for Literature in 1989 for Came Back to Show You I Could Fly. Klein is widely considered one of Australia’s most prolific and beloved YA authors.
Robin Klein was born 28 February 1936 in Kempsey, New South Wales into a family of nine children. Leaving school at age 15, Klein worked several jobs before becoming established as a writer, having her first story published at age 16. She would go on to write more than 40 books, including Hating Alison Ashley (adapted into a feature film starring Delta Goodrem in 2005), Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left (adapted into a television series for the Seven Network in 1992), and Came Back to Show You I Could Fly (adapted into a film directed by Richard Lowenstein in 1993).
Klein’s books are hugely celebrated, having won the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award in both the Younger Readers and the Older Readers categories, as well as a Human Rights Award for Literature in 1989 for Came Back to Show You I Could Fly. Klein is widely considered one of Australia’s most prolific and beloved YA authors.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
February 11, 2018
I’m not sure how you’re supposed to review a book you’ve loved since your early teens, especially when you haven’t read it for about 20 years. With such high expectations and nostalgia taking hold I was worried that Came Back To Show You I Could Fly wouldn’t stand the test of time. How happily wrong I was!
It was everything I remembered and more. Angie and Seymour, both lonely outcasts, took up residence in my heart way back in the early 1990’s when it was assigned reading for my English class. I can’t begin to imagine how many times I reread this book as a teenager, taking hope from what is quite a sad book on the surface.
Seymour is staying for several weeks over the school holidays with Thelma, a lady who clearly has no experience caring for children, but has been basically conned into protecting Seymour from his father by his drama queen mother. Seymour is a lonely, neglected, bullied 11 year old who is so well mannered and adorable that I just want to hug and then adopt him. I was only a year or two older than Seymour at the time I first experienced this book and while I saw him as a peer at the time, I now look on him as someone I desperately want to mother.
By chance Seymour winds up at Angie’s home and over the course of the novel they form a sibling/friend bond and go on adventures all over the city. Angie brings colour and excitement to Seymour’s stone grey life. Seriously, Seymour’s Mum, a stone grey pencil case is not a cool birthday present!
Angie is effervescent and possibly stole someone else’s personality because she seems to have more than one person’s quota. With the ability to talk under water and regale Seymour with humourous anecdotes from her childhood, complete with impersonations, she’s a live wire. As a young teen fresh from a several year The Baby-sitters Club obsession, Angie’s dress sense reminded me of what I loved about Claudia Kishi, in particular the quirky earrings.
Beneath Angie’s bravado she’s hiding a secret from Seymour. Angie is addicted to drugs. I was really naïve in this area as a kid, coming from a family where no one even drinks alcohol, so this book was my introduction into this previously unknown world. It really opened my eyes at the time and in retrospect I can trace my love of social issues YA books to this one. I can also see the signs through the book of what’s really happening in Angie’s world that I missed as a kid.
What I really appreciated in my reread as an adult is how honestly Angie’s addiction is portrayed, vomit and all. Besides the suspicions Seymour has that Angie’s flu isn’t actually the flu, there is a sensitive yet heartbreaking insight into how drug addiction also affects parents, siblings and friends. While this is clearly shown with Angie’s Mum and sister, I am surprised that I never noticed before that Angie’s Dad and brother are barely even mentioned.
One of the things I love about books is how they influence who you become when you let them into your soul. The awe I felt as a kid at Angie’s clothes and earrings had a huge impact on me and I have an array of weird and wonderful earrings in my collection now. Angie’s lifelong habit of naming her outfits turned into me naming my cars. My first car I actually named Angie after this character. My car, like Angie, was initially rough around the edges but with some love and time I knew it would be loyal and good because beneath the exterior it was a fighter. That car served me well for a number of years.
Nostalgia aside, Robin Klein’s book definitely stands the test of time. Her characters are damaged but loveable, and even when they’re making truly dodgy decisions you want them to prevail in life. Once again I was emotionally invested in the story and no, they’re not tears. I’ve just got something in my eyes. 😭 This remains one of my all time favourites and I could happily go straight back to page 1 and read it all over again right now.
What I Hated: I almost feel like apologising to you about the cover image of this edition. While there’s nothing wrong with this image itself (although not my taste) and it would work well for another book, it does not belong on the cover of this one. Please, in this instance do not judge a book by its cover. The Angie on this cover is bland, boring, forgettable; an imposter. Angie is anything but.
The cover of my copy (the same one our English class at school read from) is the 1991 Puffin Books edition, and this features the real Angie and the real Seymour. The cover illustration is by Vivienne Goodman and you can tell she understood these characters.
Angie is up front, with her dyed hair tousled, shoulder tattoo, painted black fingernails, a jumble of bangles and the earrings I think she purchased with Seymour in her ears along with the first few of an array of earrings working their way up underneath her hair. She’s got this look on her face that’s one part “don’t mess with me”, one part sad, and with a hint of the potential of something sarcastic and inappropriate for the situation about to make its way out of her mouth. She looks like a troubled Meg Ryan, circa When Harry Met Sally….
In the background, there’s Seymour in his jeans, grandpa shirt and daggy sandals, with this smile on his face like he can’t believe he’s in the presence of this angelic being. Right behind Seymour is an old, worn fence, obviously from the non-posh side of the alley. These are the people you’ll be meeting in this book. I hope you’ll love them like I do.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the opportunity to renew my love for this classic Australian novel.
It was everything I remembered and more. Angie and Seymour, both lonely outcasts, took up residence in my heart way back in the early 1990’s when it was assigned reading for my English class. I can’t begin to imagine how many times I reread this book as a teenager, taking hope from what is quite a sad book on the surface.
Seymour is staying for several weeks over the school holidays with Thelma, a lady who clearly has no experience caring for children, but has been basically conned into protecting Seymour from his father by his drama queen mother. Seymour is a lonely, neglected, bullied 11 year old who is so well mannered and adorable that I just want to hug and then adopt him. I was only a year or two older than Seymour at the time I first experienced this book and while I saw him as a peer at the time, I now look on him as someone I desperately want to mother.
By chance Seymour winds up at Angie’s home and over the course of the novel they form a sibling/friend bond and go on adventures all over the city. Angie brings colour and excitement to Seymour’s stone grey life. Seriously, Seymour’s Mum, a stone grey pencil case is not a cool birthday present!
Angie is effervescent and possibly stole someone else’s personality because she seems to have more than one person’s quota. With the ability to talk under water and regale Seymour with humourous anecdotes from her childhood, complete with impersonations, she’s a live wire. As a young teen fresh from a several year The Baby-sitters Club obsession, Angie’s dress sense reminded me of what I loved about Claudia Kishi, in particular the quirky earrings.
Beneath Angie’s bravado she’s hiding a secret from Seymour. Angie is addicted to drugs. I was really naïve in this area as a kid, coming from a family where no one even drinks alcohol, so this book was my introduction into this previously unknown world. It really opened my eyes at the time and in retrospect I can trace my love of social issues YA books to this one. I can also see the signs through the book of what’s really happening in Angie’s world that I missed as a kid.
What I really appreciated in my reread as an adult is how honestly Angie’s addiction is portrayed, vomit and all. Besides the suspicions Seymour has that Angie’s flu isn’t actually the flu, there is a sensitive yet heartbreaking insight into how drug addiction also affects parents, siblings and friends. While this is clearly shown with Angie’s Mum and sister, I am surprised that I never noticed before that Angie’s Dad and brother are barely even mentioned.
One of the things I love about books is how they influence who you become when you let them into your soul. The awe I felt as a kid at Angie’s clothes and earrings had a huge impact on me and I have an array of weird and wonderful earrings in my collection now. Angie’s lifelong habit of naming her outfits turned into me naming my cars. My first car I actually named Angie after this character. My car, like Angie, was initially rough around the edges but with some love and time I knew it would be loyal and good because beneath the exterior it was a fighter. That car served me well for a number of years.
Nostalgia aside, Robin Klein’s book definitely stands the test of time. Her characters are damaged but loveable, and even when they’re making truly dodgy decisions you want them to prevail in life. Once again I was emotionally invested in the story and no, they’re not tears. I’ve just got something in my eyes. 😭 This remains one of my all time favourites and I could happily go straight back to page 1 and read it all over again right now.
What I Hated: I almost feel like apologising to you about the cover image of this edition. While there’s nothing wrong with this image itself (although not my taste) and it would work well for another book, it does not belong on the cover of this one. Please, in this instance do not judge a book by its cover. The Angie on this cover is bland, boring, forgettable; an imposter. Angie is anything but.
The cover of my copy (the same one our English class at school read from) is the 1991 Puffin Books edition, and this features the real Angie and the real Seymour. The cover illustration is by Vivienne Goodman and you can tell she understood these characters.
Angie is up front, with her dyed hair tousled, shoulder tattoo, painted black fingernails, a jumble of bangles and the earrings I think she purchased with Seymour in her ears along with the first few of an array of earrings working their way up underneath her hair. She’s got this look on her face that’s one part “don’t mess with me”, one part sad, and with a hint of the potential of something sarcastic and inappropriate for the situation about to make its way out of her mouth. She looks like a troubled Meg Ryan, circa When Harry Met Sally….
In the background, there’s Seymour in his jeans, grandpa shirt and daggy sandals, with this smile on his face like he can’t believe he’s in the presence of this angelic being. Right behind Seymour is an old, worn fence, obviously from the non-posh side of the alley. These are the people you’ll be meeting in this book. I hope you’ll love them like I do.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the opportunity to renew my love for this classic Australian novel.
September 7, 2019
Rating: 3.5
“It was as though he’d been marooned on a desert island, and someone had come along and rescued him in a little boat. Promised to take him to safety. Only that person proved to know nothing about navigation, had taken him instead into rough wild seas . . . ”
This is a well-written, sensitive, and affecting Australian novel about an unlikely friendship between a timid eleven-year-old boy and a troubled twenty-year-old girl. It’s the summer holidays, and Seymour has been sent to the tiny home of the aging Thelma, a woman his mother knows from church. According to Seymour, his mum delights in self-generated drama and her victim status. Currently she’s concocted a story that Seymour’s drinking, gambling ne’er-do-well father, from whom she’s estranged, wants to abduct her son. Engaged in packing up her flat in preparation for a move and a new job situation, she places Seymour with Thelma for a few weeks. He has been ordered to stay indoors all day in the sizzling heat and upgrade his schoolwork while Thelma is at work. Although he’s a compliant, obedient sort, Seymour is so bored he climbs the back gate and goes out into Victoria Road, a bustling street with many shops. To escape some boys who inevitably harass him, he rushes through an open gate into another backyard along the same alleyway that Thelma’s property backs onto. There, the lively—and to Seymour—gorgeous Angie Easterbrook is sunbathing. At the girl’s bidding, Seymour quickly makes himself useful in her filthy little flat: preparing coffee and selecting earrings for her while she showers. And so their friendship begins.
Over the next several days, Seymour is Angie’s constant companion, and the two go on outings: to see the mansion-lined street where Angie plans to one day live with her boyfriend Jas, to the park, the racetrack, and to a strained lunch meeting with Angie’s mother at the Easterbrook home in the suburbs. Angie talks non-stop to Seymour. She has big plans for a flower shop or perhaps a business that sells handicrafts and gifts. She goes about dressed in gaudy, outlandish outfits, each of which she has a name for—“Susan-Jane” for a pink, girly number and “Neptunia” for a dress that shimmers with the colours of the sea. Several times Seymour accompanies Angie to a “hospital” where the girl is in a program to receive special medication. It’s for “gastro” issues, she tells him, and the naïve boy, bedazzled by her and thrilled at having any friend at all, takes her at her word. But Angie’s periodic “flu” episodes, her dead-to-the-world sleeps, the disorder and squalor she lives in, her shiftiness, and her obvious estrangement from her parents, younger siblings, and best friend all point the reader to the fact that Angie is a junkie. It seems likely that what she is receiving in her “program” is methadone. (Author Robin Klein provides this character’s backstory by sprinkling the narrative with letters from Angie’s family and friends, extracts about plans and debts from Angie’s diary, one of the girl’s pitiful job applications—which testifies only to her unreliability as an employee, and other documentary “evidence” of the chaos of the young woman’s life.)
In the end, Seymour’s friendship with Angie spurs his coming of age. The bats are “released from the compartments of his mind” assailing “his whole being with their black fluttering” and “all the elaborate pretences he’d so carefully built” are no longer useful. The person Seymour has placed his trust in is not trustworthy and cannot navigate her own life, never mind help him with his. The boy makes a decision to act to help his friend, and the reader follows along with interest to see how it goes.
In spite of the serious subject matter, Klein’s book has many light touches. The characterization is strong, and the author’s depiction of Angie’s family’s difficulties in coping with the girl are realistically portrayed. While Klein doesn’t provide a “happy” ending exactly, she does end on a note of some hopefulness.
Recommended for readers 12 and up, who like character-driven novels.
“It was as though he’d been marooned on a desert island, and someone had come along and rescued him in a little boat. Promised to take him to safety. Only that person proved to know nothing about navigation, had taken him instead into rough wild seas . . . ”
This is a well-written, sensitive, and affecting Australian novel about an unlikely friendship between a timid eleven-year-old boy and a troubled twenty-year-old girl. It’s the summer holidays, and Seymour has been sent to the tiny home of the aging Thelma, a woman his mother knows from church. According to Seymour, his mum delights in self-generated drama and her victim status. Currently she’s concocted a story that Seymour’s drinking, gambling ne’er-do-well father, from whom she’s estranged, wants to abduct her son. Engaged in packing up her flat in preparation for a move and a new job situation, she places Seymour with Thelma for a few weeks. He has been ordered to stay indoors all day in the sizzling heat and upgrade his schoolwork while Thelma is at work. Although he’s a compliant, obedient sort, Seymour is so bored he climbs the back gate and goes out into Victoria Road, a bustling street with many shops. To escape some boys who inevitably harass him, he rushes through an open gate into another backyard along the same alleyway that Thelma’s property backs onto. There, the lively—and to Seymour—gorgeous Angie Easterbrook is sunbathing. At the girl’s bidding, Seymour quickly makes himself useful in her filthy little flat: preparing coffee and selecting earrings for her while she showers. And so their friendship begins.
Over the next several days, Seymour is Angie’s constant companion, and the two go on outings: to see the mansion-lined street where Angie plans to one day live with her boyfriend Jas, to the park, the racetrack, and to a strained lunch meeting with Angie’s mother at the Easterbrook home in the suburbs. Angie talks non-stop to Seymour. She has big plans for a flower shop or perhaps a business that sells handicrafts and gifts. She goes about dressed in gaudy, outlandish outfits, each of which she has a name for—“Susan-Jane” for a pink, girly number and “Neptunia” for a dress that shimmers with the colours of the sea. Several times Seymour accompanies Angie to a “hospital” where the girl is in a program to receive special medication. It’s for “gastro” issues, she tells him, and the naïve boy, bedazzled by her and thrilled at having any friend at all, takes her at her word. But Angie’s periodic “flu” episodes, her dead-to-the-world sleeps, the disorder and squalor she lives in, her shiftiness, and her obvious estrangement from her parents, younger siblings, and best friend all point the reader to the fact that Angie is a junkie. It seems likely that what she is receiving in her “program” is methadone. (Author Robin Klein provides this character’s backstory by sprinkling the narrative with letters from Angie’s family and friends, extracts about plans and debts from Angie’s diary, one of the girl’s pitiful job applications—which testifies only to her unreliability as an employee, and other documentary “evidence” of the chaos of the young woman’s life.)
In the end, Seymour’s friendship with Angie spurs his coming of age. The bats are “released from the compartments of his mind” assailing “his whole being with their black fluttering” and “all the elaborate pretences he’d so carefully built” are no longer useful. The person Seymour has placed his trust in is not trustworthy and cannot navigate her own life, never mind help him with his. The boy makes a decision to act to help his friend, and the reader follows along with interest to see how it goes.
In spite of the serious subject matter, Klein’s book has many light touches. The characterization is strong, and the author’s depiction of Angie’s family’s difficulties in coping with the girl are realistically portrayed. While Klein doesn’t provide a “happy” ending exactly, she does end on a note of some hopefulness.
Recommended for readers 12 and up, who like character-driven novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 2, 2017
‘It’s been more than 25 years since Robin Klein’s poignant story of the friendship between lonely, timid 13-year-old Seymour and affectionate, effervescent, but seriously troubled 20-year-old Angie won the CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers), a Human Rights Award and a White Raven commendation at the Bologna book fair but the novel has, remarkably, retained all its freshness and is surely no less relevant in this era of ice addiction than it was in 1989.’
Adelaide Advertiser
‘This coming-of-age story of finding yourself, helping others and the power of friendship is timeless.’
ReadPlus
‘Angie remains one of the best female characters I’ve ever encountered in YA, because Klein wrote her with so many cracks and complexities. She’s imperfect, but the compassion you feel for her is the most invaluable take-away from the book.’
Danielle Binks
‘The novel was groundbreaking when it was first published in 1989, and it remains fresh and urgent…Perhaps Klein’s greatest achievement is showing Angie through different characters’ eyes and perspectives. With her flamboyant dresses and tattoo of a flying horse on her shoulder, she is a beautiful goddess to Seymour, but her family disproves of her revealing clothes and tawdry earrings. Even though we perceive her flightiness and the recklessness of her choices, we align ourselves with Seymour’s optimistic, but unrealistic, view.’
Australian
‘It is more than 25 years since Robin Klein’s poignant story of the friendship between lonely, timid 13-year-old Seymour and affectionate, effervescent, but seriously troubled Angie, 20, won awards but the novel has, remarkably, retained all its freshness and it no less relevant in this era of ice addiction the it was in 1989.’
Daily Telegraph
Adelaide Advertiser
‘This coming-of-age story of finding yourself, helping others and the power of friendship is timeless.’
ReadPlus
‘Angie remains one of the best female characters I’ve ever encountered in YA, because Klein wrote her with so many cracks and complexities. She’s imperfect, but the compassion you feel for her is the most invaluable take-away from the book.’
Danielle Binks
‘The novel was groundbreaking when it was first published in 1989, and it remains fresh and urgent…Perhaps Klein’s greatest achievement is showing Angie through different characters’ eyes and perspectives. With her flamboyant dresses and tattoo of a flying horse on her shoulder, she is a beautiful goddess to Seymour, but her family disproves of her revealing clothes and tawdry earrings. Even though we perceive her flightiness and the recklessness of her choices, we align ourselves with Seymour’s optimistic, but unrealistic, view.’
Australian
‘It is more than 25 years since Robin Klein’s poignant story of the friendship between lonely, timid 13-year-old Seymour and affectionate, effervescent, but seriously troubled Angie, 20, won awards but the novel has, remarkably, retained all its freshness and it no less relevant in this era of ice addiction the it was in 1989.’
Daily Telegraph
March 24, 2013
Read this in high school, saw it in my library (with MEG RYAN on the cover, lol!) and decided to have a trip down memory lane. Slightly awkward YA by todays standards - as the genre didn't exist in the day, it's a strange combo of adult voice, MG protagonist, YA secondary character and preachy message trying not to come across as a preachy message. But at it's heart, it's a very sweet story about an odd pair with nothing in common, connecting with each other over a shared loneliness. Lovingly drawn characters (Angie is an absolutely stunning) and a lot of heart. I cant help but be touched.
October 22, 2013
Robin Klein is an author I remember from my younger years, spending hours between my school's library and the local one. I remember that I read a few of her books, the only problem being that aside from Hating Alison Ashley, I couldn't remember any of the titles of the ones I read and when I look at Klein's list of MG/YA works I'm not sure if the titles seem familiar because I read them or just because I saw them on the shelves a lot. So when I came across (as I do!) Came Back To Show You I Could Fly in one of my secondhand store haunts for a dollar, I thought why not?
Seymour is eleven years old and stuck with a friend of his mother's for the summer holidays. While escaping some unfriendly kids in the neighbourhood, Seymour finds himself in the yard of 20-year-old Angela, by whom he is immediately captivated. She brings colour into his dull, boring world just by her presence. But there's a lot more going on in Angie's world than Seymour realises.
This novel shows a different view of drug addiction from the eyes of a naive young boy. Seymour is smitten by Angie but he also notices her mood swings, her strange sleeping habits where she seems 'sick', her tense relationship with her family and her erratic personality. It takes Seymour a little while to realise what's really going on in Angie's world and when he does, his personal development is outstanding. He shows the courage needed to confront someone who uses drugs as Angie does, and then the progress made in his own life, read in Postscript, is heart warming. Its as if his friendship with Angie, even as unstable as she was, gave him the courage to be a more active participant in his own life. Remarkable.
3.5 stars
Seymour is eleven years old and stuck with a friend of his mother's for the summer holidays. While escaping some unfriendly kids in the neighbourhood, Seymour finds himself in the yard of 20-year-old Angela, by whom he is immediately captivated. She brings colour into his dull, boring world just by her presence. But there's a lot more going on in Angie's world than Seymour realises.
This novel shows a different view of drug addiction from the eyes of a naive young boy. Seymour is smitten by Angie but he also notices her mood swings, her strange sleeping habits where she seems 'sick', her tense relationship with her family and her erratic personality. It takes Seymour a little while to realise what's really going on in Angie's world and when he does, his personal development is outstanding. He shows the courage needed to confront someone who uses drugs as Angie does, and then the progress made in his own life, read in Postscript, is heart warming. Its as if his friendship with Angie, even as unstable as she was, gave him the courage to be a more active participant in his own life. Remarkable.
3.5 stars
May 14, 2018
I read this when I was in my early teens but don't think I totally understood what it was about. Just read it again 20 years later and absolutely loved it. Thanks to Text publishing for my copy.
November 2, 2019
I remember reading this in high school and thinking Angie was glamorous and misunderstood. Suddenly i'm 31 and siding with her parents.
I just love Australian fiction and teen fiction from the 80s and 90s, so this was everything i hoped it would be.
I just love Australian fiction and teen fiction from the 80s and 90s, so this was everything i hoped it would be.
December 4, 2018
I loved this as a teenager and have just re-read to see if it really was as amazing as I remembered or if it was just my nostalgia. It is a beautiful little book (less than 200 pages), the people are so real and the themes were certainly dealt with well. I really enjoyed he writing, particularly the dialogue and “notes”. I can see why this floored me as a young adult
July 4, 2018
Wonderful book. A beautifully written and compelling coming of age novel about a young boy, Seymour, farmed out for the summer holidays while his mother tries to sort out issues with her ex-husband. Bored and lonely, one day Seymour meets the, to him, glamorous and lively Angie, a young woman who takes Seymour under her wing. But Angie is a very troubled soul indeed and Seymour’s innocence is no match for her. Only gradually do we, the readers, start to see what is actually going on, and it takes Seymour a lot longer. The characterisation and dialogue are truly excellent, descriptions vivid and atmospheric, and heart-breaking though the story is, it never descends into sentimentalism. First published in 1989, it’s as fresh and relevant as ever, and although intended for the Young Adult reader, there won’t be many adults who won’t wipe away a tear or two.
August 13, 2020
I read this book for school. I enjoyed it but felt as if the characters and story was a bit under developed
December 30, 2021
20 anos depois ainda tenho este livro e não me canso dele
January 10, 2023
Literally one of the best books I have ever read. It's followed me from my childhood and I always return to it - Klein's writing is beautiful and slips you right into the world of the characters in 80s Australia. A reminder of unlikely friendships and nostalgia of being young and powerless.
June 19, 2022
Pretty sure that’s Meg Ryan on the cover.
June 28, 2023
Classic Robin Klein YA - deserving of a new Text edition with an introduction by Simmone Howell of her life and work.
February 23, 2018
A touching tale of an unlikely friendship between an eleven year old boy, Seymour, and Angie- the charismatic, fun and always energetic neighbor who in time turns out to be an addict.
This realization and the fear of losing a close friend shatters Seymour's world and forces him to confront it.
I loved the narration and viewing the world through Seymour's eyes was a real treat because it unraveled the struggles of addiction, not on the addict but the close friends and family and how easy it is to see their actions, judge them harshly for it and forget the human in them.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.
This realization and the fear of losing a close friend shatters Seymour's world and forces him to confront it.
I loved the narration and viewing the world through Seymour's eyes was a real treat because it unraveled the struggles of addiction, not on the addict but the close friends and family and how easy it is to see their actions, judge them harshly for it and forget the human in them.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.
May 21, 2020
For a profound and searing book on the topic of drug addiction and dysfunctional relationships, I would give this 5 stars, but as a book just to read, I really did not enjoy this one when I read it in high school. The age difference and relationship between Seymour and Angie just felt wrong on so many levels. I found it sad and disturbing, but the fact that I remember it says something about the power of the story. Seymour's character development at the end in confronting his friend is particularly powerful for the YA audience. I would recommend this book, but I would need to know the potential reader first.
April 27, 2023
Fantastic children's book - didn't realise it was award winning till afterward, but I can see why.
12yo kid in a new area, from a broken family, lumped with a older woman he doesn't know, ends up meeting a 20yo girl with problems both financial and health-related. Their relationship and those around them was very well done.
The blurb, which I actually skipped, gives away core plotlines which you can kinda deduce but which aren't revealed until fairly late in the book.
12yo kid in a new area, from a broken family, lumped with a older woman he doesn't know, ends up meeting a 20yo girl with problems both financial and health-related. Their relationship and those around them was very well done.
The blurb, which I actually skipped, gives away core plotlines which you can kinda deduce but which aren't revealed until fairly late in the book.
March 28, 2015
I read this book at school and feel in love with the characters.
The relationship between Angie and Seymour is so bitter sweet and he is completely devoted to her. When I realised that Angie is on a downward spiral and Seymour can't quite understand what is going on my heart broke for Seymour.
The relationship between Angie and Seymour is so bitter sweet and he is completely devoted to her. When I realised that Angie is on a downward spiral and Seymour can't quite understand what is going on my heart broke for Seymour.
September 18, 2017
I remember reading this book while at primary school and really enjoyed it. So I was pleased when I read it as an adult that I still got something out of it. Its a great little YA novel bringing together two very unlikely characters while confronting some very adult issues.
August 24, 2024
My year 6 teacher, Mr McGrath, read Came Back to Show You I Could Fly to our class when we were the main character's age (around 11) and I've recently returned to it out of nostalgia, not just for the book, but for school years fondly remembered - especially hot afternoons with heads on desks listening to this and other stories like Shatterbelt, The Hobbit and Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
I remember at the time it being controversial that that we were reading fiction in primary school dealing with drug addiction. Now 30+ years later and having a little second-hand knowledge of the publishing industry, it strikes me as pretty visionary on the part of both author/publisher to put out a YA book dealing with such an 'adult' topic into what I guess was the same market as Goosebumps and Point Fiction at the time.
I remember as an 11ish year old how the major themes all hit home - addiction and its cycles of rehab and relapse, the strange and often broken world of adult relationships, and Angie - a kind of free spirit de-winged by a life that has almost consumed her. I still remember 11-year-old me listening to Seymore's painful awakening to what Angie's 'illness' actually was and coming to sympathise with her family who at first seemed to have cruelly shut her out. (It turns out they are probably the biggest victims of her addiction).
For all this, I feel Came Back to Show You I Could Fly is a hopeful and enjoyable read. Protagonists and unlikely friends Seymore and Angie, make real differences to each other's lives through mutual care - each providing for the other in ways they can't themselves. There's also plenty of fun banter and adventure along the way and wholesome growing-up on both parts.
Thanks Robin Klein and Viking Publishers for turning what must have seemed like a hard sell at the time into what is now a classic piece of Aussie YA fiction. And thanks Mr McGrath and all the other teachers who recognised it as such.
I remember at the time it being controversial that that we were reading fiction in primary school dealing with drug addiction. Now 30+ years later and having a little second-hand knowledge of the publishing industry, it strikes me as pretty visionary on the part of both author/publisher to put out a YA book dealing with such an 'adult' topic into what I guess was the same market as Goosebumps and Point Fiction at the time.
I remember as an 11ish year old how the major themes all hit home - addiction and its cycles of rehab and relapse, the strange and often broken world of adult relationships, and Angie - a kind of free spirit de-winged by a life that has almost consumed her. I still remember 11-year-old me listening to Seymore's painful awakening to what Angie's 'illness' actually was and coming to sympathise with her family who at first seemed to have cruelly shut her out. (It turns out they are probably the biggest victims of her addiction).
For all this, I feel Came Back to Show You I Could Fly is a hopeful and enjoyable read. Protagonists and unlikely friends Seymore and Angie, make real differences to each other's lives through mutual care - each providing for the other in ways they can't themselves. There's also plenty of fun banter and adventure along the way and wholesome growing-up on both parts.
Thanks Robin Klein and Viking Publishers for turning what must have seemed like a hard sell at the time into what is now a classic piece of Aussie YA fiction. And thanks Mr McGrath and all the other teachers who recognised it as such.
January 18, 2018
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" for the Younger Set
This is a lovely book. Heartbreaking, cautiously optimistic, and ultimately affirmative. Like Holly Golightly and maybe even Sally Bowles our heroine Angie is gay, sad, independent, and damaged. She's burdened by her past and uncertain about her future, and the story told here is both her story and the story of observant, timid and perceptive thirteen year old hero Seymour.
"Breakfast...", to me, is almost unendurably sad, cast as it is in shades of black and grey, and leaving its main characters rather lost and hopeless. That's why I say that this book is aimed at a younger readership. Both Angie and Seymour end up the better for their adventures, with both being at least offered paths up and out of their personal dilemmas.
The book opens slowly, but elegantly. Seymour undertakes to explore his new neighborhood, (that's how he ends up first meeting Angie), and this section of the book reads like one long, beautifully crafted, deeply atmospheric tracking shot. By the time Seymour meets Angie we know pretty much everything we need to know about the setting and about Seymour. Angie's appearance is like a lightning strike; well, she is so languid and mellow it's more like shimmery heat lightning. From that point on the reader is transfixed.
There's a reason why this book was celebrated and awarded when it came out over twentyfive years ago, and why it is still vibrant and pertinent and rewarding today. It is beautifully conceived, framed, crafted, and written, and lays out a clear and compelling standard for quality YA literary fiction. A great discovery.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
This is a lovely book. Heartbreaking, cautiously optimistic, and ultimately affirmative. Like Holly Golightly and maybe even Sally Bowles our heroine Angie is gay, sad, independent, and damaged. She's burdened by her past and uncertain about her future, and the story told here is both her story and the story of observant, timid and perceptive thirteen year old hero Seymour.
"Breakfast...", to me, is almost unendurably sad, cast as it is in shades of black and grey, and leaving its main characters rather lost and hopeless. That's why I say that this book is aimed at a younger readership. Both Angie and Seymour end up the better for their adventures, with both being at least offered paths up and out of their personal dilemmas.
The book opens slowly, but elegantly. Seymour undertakes to explore his new neighborhood, (that's how he ends up first meeting Angie), and this section of the book reads like one long, beautifully crafted, deeply atmospheric tracking shot. By the time Seymour meets Angie we know pretty much everything we need to know about the setting and about Seymour. Angie's appearance is like a lightning strike; well, she is so languid and mellow it's more like shimmery heat lightning. From that point on the reader is transfixed.
There's a reason why this book was celebrated and awarded when it came out over twentyfive years ago, and why it is still vibrant and pertinent and rewarding today. It is beautifully conceived, framed, crafted, and written, and lays out a clear and compelling standard for quality YA literary fiction. A great discovery.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
December 8, 2025
Antes de comenzar con esta relectura, me pasé por la sección de comentarios de Goodreads por miedo: las expectativas difuminadas por la nostalgia rara vez son las adecuadas. Y oh mi sorpresa cuando vi que no era el primero que se había leído esta novela hacía años y había vuelto a ella.
En mi caso, el temor no solo venía porque la leí con unos 15 o 16 años y me gustó mucho, sino porque fue motivo de acercamiento a una amiga del instituto con la que me llevé muy bien. Y la relectura no ha decepcionado.
Es increíble lo bien que representa la escritora la visión de un niño, cómo complica unos pensamientos y banaliza otros, cómo deja cosas implícitas en las que te tienes que fijar y deja caer otras más obvias. Y, lo que más me ha gustado (aparte del final, vaya cosa bonita): la subjetividad de ciertas palabras de Seymour, cómo él tiene su propia visión de la situación que a veces choca con la de su madre.
En definitiva, una lectura ligera, corta y agradable en la que no pasa gran cosa y, al mismo tiempo, no paran de sucederse acontecimientos.
En mi caso, el temor no solo venía porque la leí con unos 15 o 16 años y me gustó mucho, sino porque fue motivo de acercamiento a una amiga del instituto con la que me llevé muy bien. Y la relectura no ha decepcionado.
Es increíble lo bien que representa la escritora la visión de un niño, cómo complica unos pensamientos y banaliza otros, cómo deja cosas implícitas en las que te tienes que fijar y deja caer otras más obvias. Y, lo que más me ha gustado (aparte del final, vaya cosa bonita): la subjetividad de ciertas palabras de Seymour, cómo él tiene su propia visión de la situación que a veces choca con la de su madre.
En definitiva, una lectura ligera, corta y agradable en la que no pasa gran cosa y, al mismo tiempo, no paran de sucederse acontecimientos.
June 27, 2020
I would have been a young teenager when I first read this book... I doubt that I would have been able to understand it nearly as deeply as I do now.
Told through the innocent eyes of Seymour, who is enamoured by Angie, the older, carefree girl living across the alleyway, I wouldn’t have recognised the nuanced behavioural signs as a young reader. Life experience has provided me with the insight to really appreciate what Klein has been able to convey - watching Angie’s downward spiral through Seymour’s innocent rose-tinged perspective, which makes his moment of clarity that much more heartbreaking at the book’s climax.
So much more than the MPDG trope, this explores the human side of drug addiction, as Angie clings to her need for human connection whilst hanging on the brink. Never overly didactic, this is a gentle yet powerful novel that stands the test of time, thirty years after its publication.
Told through the innocent eyes of Seymour, who is enamoured by Angie, the older, carefree girl living across the alleyway, I wouldn’t have recognised the nuanced behavioural signs as a young reader. Life experience has provided me with the insight to really appreciate what Klein has been able to convey - watching Angie’s downward spiral through Seymour’s innocent rose-tinged perspective, which makes his moment of clarity that much more heartbreaking at the book’s climax.
So much more than the MPDG trope, this explores the human side of drug addiction, as Angie clings to her need for human connection whilst hanging on the brink. Never overly didactic, this is a gentle yet powerful novel that stands the test of time, thirty years after its publication.
August 23, 2021
Don't be put off by the cover. I am not sure what crossed the publishers' minds when they commissioned a picture of young Meg Ryan! The main character in the book- Angie- is much more of a mid-80s Madonna! This is a brilliant book, full of humour, pathos and fantastic suburban adventure. Seymour, a sad and lonely lost boy, is wonderfully befriended by a glamorous and vivacious girl (Angie) who seems to have an endless supply of charm, personality and drive. She takes him out of his grey world and into a sea of technicolor. And when he can't follow she paints him vivid dreams to remember. That is one side of the story, but the other side is much darker and sadder. Angie is a drug addict and her descent into this element of her persona threatens to engulf them both. A warm and wise book, which will live in your heart for years afterward.
February 13, 2018
Very touching story on friendship, addiction and charecters so well developed they will stick with you once you are done with this book. Seymour and Anige are the main characters and it is a very good portrayal of the effects of drug use on the user as well as the people around them. You will find yourself lost in Seymour and Angie's world and this to me is the sign of a well-written story. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.
November 16, 2025
I LOVEEEEEEE this book! Sooo descriptive and immersive to the human experience (especially that of a drug use victim). I felt so connected to the characters throughout the whole novel in which I have learnt to empathise with all individuals associated with drug abuse. I couldn’t stop reading this and even after finishing the text, I continue to ponder about the lives and futures of these characters.
May 13, 2018
I picked this up because of the cover when i was around 13, I've read it many times since and each time i see a different level to it. In base form its about a lonely young boy and lost young lady Angie who find in each and realise that each of them has something the other wants and needs. Angie is drug addict although this is dealt with very subtly and you could think the moral of the story is mental health.
It is worth a read
It is worth a read
July 30, 2019
I really wanted to like this book, but after getting through the first 130 pages I struggled to read the remainder.
I felt with the sensitive issues surrounding this I believe it could have been executed a little better. I felt like we were going through the same thing over and over again.
I finished it, but I wasn’t a lover.
I felt with the sensitive issues surrounding this I believe it could have been executed a little better. I felt like we were going through the same thing over and over again.
I finished it, but I wasn’t a lover.
June 22, 2022
I read this book as a child and wanted to find it again as an adult. It took me a while to track down! When I was a kid I could never understand how Angie was on drugs. I was like poor young Seymour, very naive. In this read as an adult I could more than see the signs. Well written book and a nice trip down memory lane.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2020
I really adored the friendship between the lonely Seymour and the beautiful, charismatic yet troubled Angie. What should be a terribly sad book, turns into a story of hope. So simple, yet captivating. I enjoyed this one very much!
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