The Outside Child

by Nina Bawden

Jane has always been happy living with her two eccentric aunts and seeing her sailor father when his ship is in. But one day she notices a new picture in her father's cabin--a photograph of a small boy and girl. That is when she finds out for the first time that she has a half-brother and sister. Jane is determined to find out more about them, so she and her best friend Plato Jones set out on a mission to track them down. But there are some things that may be better left alone...

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Nina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.

When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.

A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.

Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.

Reviews

[Petra wants the cats to leave dead rats outside]

Interesting idea, that a man's first child who lives with her aunts, discovers that she has a younger brother and sister and how she goes about finding them and what, traumatically and with lots of red herrings, happens. The ending is just plain stupid. Would anyone having found their family and getting on well with their half-siblings just say oh well, nice to have known them, back to life-as-it-was-before more or less? Nah...

[Andrew]

Nina Bawden was one of the finest childrens' writers Britain has ever produced. Her beautifully-crafted stories both intrigued & entertained with their refusal to infantilise her young readers; the proof of that notion is in the fact that I read this tale of a motherless young girl's quest for her sea-faring father's new family with pleasure & relish.
I met Nina Bawden very briefly at her Islington home in the early 1990s when visiting her husband, Austen Kark (a big cheese at the BBC World Service & chairman of the small publishing company where I was working at the time)& Nina was charming & welcoming, as she opened her first-floor window above the front-door of the Georgian town-house to lean-out to ask me.."Are you here to see Austen?...I'll be right down!". She showed me in, the narrow corridors & stairways a celebration of art-work, & she spoke of her holiday-home in Greece & the wonderful views from the house over the City Road Basin & its wildlife! Her warmth was genuine & spontaneous,& I was made to feel at home at once. This humanity is clearly reflected in her children's stories which seem to flow as naturally as tea from a pot, colourful & aromatic.
This story, from 1989, of Jane Tucker, her friend & ally Plato Jones & their quest to meet Teddy Tuckers's new family, moves along at a pace & rhythm that had me engrossed - even though I'm not an easy reader of contemporary childrens' fiction - & was full of well-sketched-out characters & enough plot-twists & turns to satisfy any discriminating reader...even those of my vintage! The heroine is an admirable role-model, showing both determination & sensitivity as she negotiates the difficulties caused by selfish & idiosyncratic adult behaviour; she moves from a tentative child to a knowing & wiser young adult in the course of the novel.
I would recommend this example of Nina Bawden's work to any child; & to any adult wishing to recapture the first wonders of the fictional world, when simple, well-told stories with heart & soul, free of vampires,wizards & shape-shifting avatars, & before the era of mobile phones & I-pads, were enough to retain a child's imagination. A nostalgic trip for me then, but well-worth the detour from adult horrors & blood-soaked crime novels, not to mention literary fiction which so often fails to deliver half the enjoyment of a classic childrens' novel.

[Sylvia]

I agree with the 3 and a half stars rating but I don';t know how to add half a star. For young people between the ages of 11 AND 14 this book is a gripping read about a British girl who suddenly discovers she has half siblings. The weakest part is the ending because there was a lot of tension in the story until then, when the resolution is way too pat for the foregoing drama.Recommended however for the addicted reader in this age group. Just learned that Nina Bawden died last August - sad to lose an excellent writer, but she was in her eighties.

[Ybirch]

Yazmiene Birch
October 17,2012
1-2 Sliver

The book,THE OUSIDE CHLID,by Nina Bawden,Jane is very different from other kids.She's out side of her from her family. At thirteen Jane has discovered that she has a little named Annabel and a little brother named George.So Jane is determind to find out who they are ,what they look like and get to know them.So she acts like a different girl.Even if that means destroying her own family.


In my opinion,I think that Jane should of never went to her dads while he was at work.I think that because she was acting as another girl:and when she was holding the new born ,the mom screamed at her and told her to get away from her baby.In the end, I think she should have wait to meet her little brother and sister.

I would recommend this book a to 5th-6th graders because it's about girl named Jane and she thinks she does the right thing but does the wrong thing.

[James Crawford]

The main characters of the story are 13-year-old Jane and her male, 12-year-old friend, Plato. Jane's mother is dead and her father is away more of the time in his job as a marine-engineer.

Jane has been adopted by her two aunts who live together. While there, she discovers that she has a brother and a sister she had never been told about. Their mother apparently does not want Jane to ever see them or have anything to do with them.

Naturally, she begins to track down her siblings with Plato's help. She even finds out she has a grandmother she did not know about in the process. Through a series of events she finally gets to meet Anabelle and George, her younger sister and brother.

Their mother, Amy, is more than a few bricks shy of a full load. Not all thrusters firing.

Anabelle has a deformity and Jane thinks she is the one who caused it. The rest of the story deals with how she confronts that, tries to spend more time with her siblings, and deals with opposition the loony-toons mother and her own father.

Not a bad story, but not a great one, either.

[Catherine Mustread]

Grades 4+. At age 13 Jane learns that her seafaring father remarried ten years previously and that she has a brother and a sister.

[dara]

just like it, read many times. Reread again after 6 year(2010)

[Bettie]

Read by Zelah Clarke.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 5:45am Monday 26th April 2010

Categories:
Children's,
Drama,
Drama,
Classic & Period,
Relationships & Romance

[Magda]

I'm pretty sure I've read this British book before...

[Sasa]

i love thatt libro

[Cheyenne]

I read this book at the age of 12, and I thought it was brilliant. I wonder what I will think about it now, though...

[Kathleen]

TPL

[Cece Vee]

great book

[Dr Y]

I heard two episodes of this on iplayer BBC sounds and was gripped. I bought the book very cheaply on Faber Finds (restores lost classics and authors of distinction). It is about growing up through the eyes of a child and her best friend - both who dont fit in and see themselves as outside children. Jane, the protagonist lives with her two aunts as her mother died when she was very young and her father lives somewhere else. Plato, her friend, calls them the 'Bisto kids - raggedly kids in an old ad, standing out in the cold and peering in through a window at a warm kitchen where someone's mother is cooking.' Captures who they are to a tee. Everything is fine until she discovers her dad is remarried with other children - she cant fathom out why she cannot see them or why her aunts have never told her about her half siblings. She and Plato go across London to find them and discover not quite what they expected. They are somewhat shocked. Their adventure makes Jane confront a much more messy version of her family than the one she had imagined but which ultimately leads to her having a better understanding of herself and how she fits in.

The writing is funny, raw and immediate. You root for Jane all along even when she does stupid things and gets angry. She lets the reader in to her world, exploring how she deals with secrecy, jealousy, love, guilt, betrayal and divided loyalties. A real gem.

[Terese]

3.5 stars. A poignant story of a young girl’s discovery of the reasons for her adoption. Two loving aunts, a weak father and possessive stepmother. Mature themes explored with empathy. Apparently NB had a similar experience.

[Ayesha]

3.5 stars*

[Sula]

3.5 stars.

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14584479