Cora Ravenwing

by Gina Wilson

Why does no one want to be friends with Cora Ravenwing?

Becky Schofield, as a newcomer to the Buckinghamshire village of Okefield, cannot understand why no one likes Cora Ravenwing. Rumours abound and Becky hears strange tales about the odd, bird-like child from schoolfriends, their parents - and in particular from the spooky, witch-like Mrs Briggs, who calls Cora a Devil-child.

Everyone warns Becky against befriending Cora - but why? Becky feels sorry for Cora at the same time as being fascinated and intrigued by her, and she persists in seeing her friend, albeit in secret, until the time her friendship leads her into real danger!

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Born Gina Jones in Abergele, North Wales, in 1943, Wilson was educated at the Manchester High School for Girls from 1955-1961, before going on to study English at Edinburgh University. She worked as an assistant editor for the Scottish National Dictionary from 1967-1973, and published her first book, Ricky's Birthday, in 1973.

-information from The Wee Web.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting oddity. A children’s book set in the 1950s, published in 1980, featuring dialogue and attitudes that would have seemed to belong in another era even then, but with one of the best portrayals of a socially excluded child in all of children’s literature. Becky Stokes (not Schofield as the rear blurb has it - Puffin, how could you make such a fundamental error as getting the main character’s name wrong on the cover of one of your books?) moves with her parents and younger brothers from Birmingham to a new house in a small Buckinghamshire village. It’s the summer holidays and before she starts school she meets and befriends Cora Ravenwing, a girl obsessed with her dead mother, and for reasons never fully explained, shunned by other children and adults in the village - she’s the sort of child who has no friends at school and spends all her time in her own company. She’s also the sort of girl, as Becky discovers very quickly, that it’s social suicide to be seen with, let alone make friends with. The book follows Becky and Cora for the best part of a year. It’s a sad and all too believable story, and one that should be better known. Fortunately it has recently been reissued in the Faber Finds series.

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be broken down into a few distinct phases: 'awkward', 'uncomfortable', 'seriously unjust', and then, very briefly at the end and all at once, 'murderous', followed swiftly by 'upsetting', then some vague relief before a final twist of the knife into 'somewhat tragic'.

Urgh. It made me paranoid about my presumed daily transgression of unspoken British social etiquette, and then it bored me, and then enraged me, and I was hooked into this story that I thought I wasn't at all enjoying.. and somehow I'm giving it a 4 star now. It's hard to explain. The structure and development are great. The horrors are real. There's a bit of theatrics (or is it just mental illness? Urgh!), but otherwise this hits pretty close to "this could be a true story with names changed" territory, which is upsetting to consider because yes, humans are that evil and selfish and cruel. And savage, mentally ill adults who are given precedence over children as witnesses.

And poor Cora. Misunderstood (hand flapping and jerky movements at times of unease), and really, REALLY mistreated. There's another case of physical abuse in here, too, so trigger warning in re: unpleasant childhoods.

Hard to recommend this - it's a tough read. I'm glad Becky ended up where she did. A rough go for all.

(Man, thinking back to Miss Read's works - they worried me too, but never quite hit these lows!)

[bea☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘…turn the corner, and there she’ll be.’

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queer coded and amazing

[Lynn B · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[S M · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The book made me really sad, i went in knowing nothing about it but it made me really sad, but as much as i felt bad for Cora, I could still understand why the majority of the people didn't like her, it's just sad how it ended...