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Katie & Zillah #1
Zillah & Me
A powerful novel of friendship follows Katie, who is new in town, as she encounters Zillah, a moody and nasty girl who wants nothing to do with Katie, but Katie's curiosity about Zillah gets the better of her and a surprising and unlikely friendship blossoms between them. Original.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Helen Dunmore
116 books972 followersI was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints.
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 13, 2013
Read this book when I was pretty young, can tell it must have made quite the impression on me as I can still recall the book title and small bits of the plot! Might have to pick it up again and re-read just for all times sake :)
December 6, 2019
As an elementary teacher by trade I tend to pick up books my students might read. I found this on the library free shelf and I could see third to fifth graders enjoying this book. It's a classic tale for a family overcoming tragedy and not judging people until we know the whole story. Good clean read.
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May 8, 2014 In the book "Zillah and Me" by Helen Dunmore, Katie is a girl who has moved from London to Cornwall. Her mother and her have moved because her mother needed to get away from London to work on her art career. They also had to move to get away from the place where Katie’s father has died. He died when he was cutting the Lilac tree and fell off of the ladder.
Her mother has a friend who moved to Cornwall as soon as she graduated from school. She is letting Katie and her mother stay in the cottage. The cottage Katie and her mother, Maggie, are staying in belonged to Great-Aunt Zillah. Great-Aunt Zillah has had a stroke and died. In her will though, she left the cottage to Zillah, her great-niece. Zillah is certain that her father has killed her great-aunt, with whom she was very close to. “You think things like that don’t happen in real life. Well, they do. He gave her some tablets mixed up in a drink. All her tablets.” -Zillah Treliske
When Katie and Zillah meet, Janice (Zillah’s mom) makes Zillah show Katie around the country side. Katie is certain that Zillah will leave her when she gets the chance. But she doesn’t. Katie doesn’t know why either. Maybe Zillah wants to be friends with Katie? Or is it because Zillah’s mom will yell at her?
At school during recess, Zillah is always by herself with a book, not bothering to look around her, because she knows no one will mess with her.
When Zillah goes missing one day, and no one even knows where to look for her, will it be up to Katie to find her? Janice and Geoff are desperate to find their little girl. Zillah hates her father. She hates her mother. She has run away. Janice is going crazy trying to find Zillah and Geoff is calling everyone in Cornwall. The police get involved and it is chaos.
Mrs. T, Mr. Trevelyan’s wife, tries to talk to Katie alone, and they go on a walk trying to find Zillah. They end up at Great-Aunt Zillah’s grave. Katie and Mrs. T notice that there is fresh water and new flowers at Zillah’s grave. Mrs. T says that she can tell that Zillah was here earlier. There is a hut that Joe Clodgy keeps his lawn stuff for when he mows the cemetery. Katie runs over to it and finds that the lock is not locked. She pushes it open slightly so it won’t creak, and sees a big pile of what looks like clothes. It turns out to be Zillah. The next day, Zillah talks to the police and they straighten things out in Zillah’s life.
A mystery reader from the grade 5th through 8th would like this book because it has lots of mystery inside of it. I personally really liked this book because it could happen to anyone of us at any time. I think it is one of the best books I have ever read in my whole year of 7th grade.
Her mother has a friend who moved to Cornwall as soon as she graduated from school. She is letting Katie and her mother stay in the cottage. The cottage Katie and her mother, Maggie, are staying in belonged to Great-Aunt Zillah. Great-Aunt Zillah has had a stroke and died. In her will though, she left the cottage to Zillah, her great-niece. Zillah is certain that her father has killed her great-aunt, with whom she was very close to. “You think things like that don’t happen in real life. Well, they do. He gave her some tablets mixed up in a drink. All her tablets.” -Zillah Treliske
When Katie and Zillah meet, Janice (Zillah’s mom) makes Zillah show Katie around the country side. Katie is certain that Zillah will leave her when she gets the chance. But she doesn’t. Katie doesn’t know why either. Maybe Zillah wants to be friends with Katie? Or is it because Zillah’s mom will yell at her?
At school during recess, Zillah is always by herself with a book, not bothering to look around her, because she knows no one will mess with her.
When Zillah goes missing one day, and no one even knows where to look for her, will it be up to Katie to find her? Janice and Geoff are desperate to find their little girl. Zillah hates her father. She hates her mother. She has run away. Janice is going crazy trying to find Zillah and Geoff is calling everyone in Cornwall. The police get involved and it is chaos.
Mrs. T, Mr. Trevelyan’s wife, tries to talk to Katie alone, and they go on a walk trying to find Zillah. They end up at Great-Aunt Zillah’s grave. Katie and Mrs. T notice that there is fresh water and new flowers at Zillah’s grave. Mrs. T says that she can tell that Zillah was here earlier. There is a hut that Joe Clodgy keeps his lawn stuff for when he mows the cemetery. Katie runs over to it and finds that the lock is not locked. She pushes it open slightly so it won’t creak, and sees a big pile of what looks like clothes. It turns out to be Zillah. The next day, Zillah talks to the police and they straighten things out in Zillah’s life.
A mystery reader from the grade 5th through 8th would like this book because it has lots of mystery inside of it. I personally really liked this book because it could happen to anyone of us at any time. I think it is one of the best books I have ever read in my whole year of 7th grade.
January 29, 2017
Somehow this children's book author has managed to create a beautiful described plot and setting while still using 11-year-old comprehensible language.
As someone from Canada, I have always enjoyed reading English authors. They are a mix of unique and foreign-ness from being across the ocean while also being recognizable and lovable due to Canada and England's associations.
Zillah & Me is set in Cornwall. Even if you don't love the storyline, finish the book just to enjoy the vivid imagery. Pretend to be taking a fireside bath, roughing it through a storm on a tiny boat, or mucking across the long driveway to the school bus stop right along with Katie.
Use this book not just to read but to imagine and dream and to transport.
As someone from Canada, I have always enjoyed reading English authors. They are a mix of unique and foreign-ness from being across the ocean while also being recognizable and lovable due to Canada and England's associations.
Zillah & Me is set in Cornwall. Even if you don't love the storyline, finish the book just to enjoy the vivid imagery. Pretend to be taking a fireside bath, roughing it through a storm on a tiny boat, or mucking across the long driveway to the school bus stop right along with Katie.
Use this book not just to read but to imagine and dream and to transport.
July 10, 2011
I also like this book and the 2 others.
The author write good, and the history is good :-)
Well, like almost every other book i've read this is really good :D
Misspellings are free;D
- Miss.Niinja<3
The author write good, and the history is good :-)
Well, like almost every other book i've read this is really good :D
Misspellings are free;D
- Miss.Niinja<3
August 12, 2011
I think that this book Is boiring at First but as soon as you get into it its quite good.I think that people that like to read less would like this book as it has only a few pages with quite big writing!! I think that i finished this book in about 1 day!
January 2, 2015
I am very impressed with this relatively short but powerful book about children dealing with loss and new situations. I cared about the well-rounded characters and found the Cornwall settings evocative and suited to the plot and themes.
January 17, 2009
A pretty good story, I must say. My first Helen Dunmore book, I own it, and I have read it many times over, as the story is still good, again and again.
June 6, 2011
good book.
March 15, 2014
This book is quite good I read it in 2 days so a nice easy read but still very good
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews