Lightning Strike

by Tanya Landman

When every day is a struggle to survive…
When the rich and powerful hold all the cards…
Do you accept the way things are?
Would you fight to change them?

Eliza is angry. Angry that her family work all the hours yet never have enough to live on. Angry that conditions at the factory where she and her sister work are so harsh. Angry that no one seems to care.

When Eliza speaks out, her words spark fury among the rest of the workers and the flame of rebellion is lit.

But can one girl really inspire an uprising that will change the world?

Genres: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction, Historical

122 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2021

About the author

Carnegie Medal winning Tanya Landman is the author of more than thirty books for children and young adults.

Born and brought up in Kent, Tanya had no intention of becoming a writer until the idea for Waking Merlin popped into her head. "It came from nowhere. It was completely out of the blue."

Tanya now lives and works in Bideford and the nearby coastline was the inspiration for her Flotsam & Jetsam series.

Tanya's first books were "adventure stories with a sprinkling of magic and spoonful of humour." But then Tanya turned to crime, writing Mondays are Murder (winner of a Red House Book Award) - the first in a series of ten "Agatha-Christie-for-kids" featuring child sleuth Poppy Fields and her friend Graham. Her new highly illustrated books for younger children feature Sam Swann, an accident-prone boy sleuth and his faithful canine sidekick Watson.

Although she writes across a broad age range, Tanya is probably best known for her historical novels for young adults. 
Apache - set in 19th century America - was shortlisted for several UK awards including the Teenage Book Trust and the Carnegie Medal (where it was voted the Shadowing Groups favourite). The US edition won a Borders Original Voices prize and a Spur award from the Western Writers of America. 
The Goldsmith's Daughter - set in the Aztec empire during the Spanish invasion - was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. Buffalo Soldier
 won the 2015 Carnegie Medal. Hell and High Water - a swashbuckling thriller set in 18th century Devon - was shortlisted for the 2016 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her latest book Beyond the Wall is set in Roman Britain. Passing for White comes out later this year.

Reviews

[Helen]

Really powerful book.

[Mathew]

I genuinely believe that Landman is one of our finest writers for children these days and deserves much more recognition. As part of OUP's new 'Super-Readable Rollercoasters' in collaboration with the wonderful Barrington Stoke, the series aims to bring rich reading experiences with a language that is a little easier to access.

Lightning Strike is written from a first-person perspective following the story of teenager Eliza, her younger sister and her family. All of them live in real poverty in later 19th century London and are bound and controlled by the work that they do in the match-making factory. Ill-health, a sheer lack of support and a heartless, manipulative foreman sees Eliza's spirit and love for her family tested. When she finally sees a female campaigner in the park (a Toff) asking for women to come forward to share their injustice, Eliza finds herself compelled to speak out and fight for the injustice against her and all the women that work in the factory.

We're behind Eliza and her fellow workers as they combat the terrible treatment that they have undergone. A rallying, believable conclusion closes the short story which is then accompanied by accessible and engaging facts from the author. An excellent story for 10+

[Vonprice]

Definitely a book I’d recommend to tweens who might have lost their reading mojo. You can read my full review here: https://vsviewfromthebookshelves.home...

[BookBairn]

This is brilliant and I've now looked up more from the author as it was so well-written. I thought the plot, action and characters were so well-executed in such a short book, this is really a masterclass in story writing. It was engaging, the characters were 'real' and had depth, and the events whizzed through at pace but without glossing over any details. Really superb!

[Kath]

This was brilliant. Landman has packaged a powerful and engaging story with fully developed characters and high stakes into a little book perfect for interesting reluctant readers in historical fiction. Highly recommend, and I will be reading more of Landman's books in future. I'm looking to pick up the award winning Buffalo Soldier.

[Simon Lawrence]

A quick read from Barrington Stokes that gives a younger reader the chance to learn about important social and political issues. I’ll be hoping to use this with my students in the future and I’ve bought another book by the author - one of her longer novels - as a result of enjoying this one.

[Between The Pages (Gemma M)]

Will review soon

[Sophie]

Great read, a very powerful book with some very important messages and subjects included.

[Ann]

3.75

[Aidi Alcaide]

Personally I didnt like the end, its really interesting until the end

[Joy]

when the book i have to read to year 7s for my job is kinda fire

[Stephanie Dodman]

Fantastic book. Really makes you think about the history of strikes especially at a time like this with a teacher strike and a possible nurses strike.

[Kayla Graham-DeAngelo]

I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would! The characters are compelling and I could easily picture everything in my mind’s eye. There were plenty of times that my blood got boiling too.

[Sophie]

content warnings: poverty, child labour, child endangerment, disease, child abuse, misogyny, classism

Instructive, Hopeful, and Passionate.

[Lily-Beau]

I loved reading about womens rights as it just makes me aware of what happend in the past.I CANT BELIEVE THAT THEIR BOSS MADE HER LITTLE SISTER PULL OUT HER TEETHE LIKE UMM not them then coming back land then making him end up not have his job 🤭

[Michala Sullivan]

Great little book to share with students about the power of protest.

[Isma]

I absolutely loved how this book covered some real life events that would happen for women and shows that you can do anything if you put your mind to it!