Min and Bea are sisters who share a bedroom but are very different. On Min’s side of the room, it is chaos but on Bea’s, everything is always neat and orderly.
Min likes to chat, and chat, and chat, until one day, she starts a sentence and stumbles on a word. No matter what she does, the word will not come out.
As Min worries more and more, she realises there is a spirit at her shoulder who is eating her words. Once outgoing, she becomes quiet and withdrawn.
Eventually, exhausted, she confides in her sister, Bea. Is it her imagination, or does Bea also have a spirit at her shoulder?
Bea’s answer is to take Min to her favourite place, the library. They discover books which suggest the spirit is a ‘dibbuk’, an undesirable spirit.
With the advice of one of the lodgers who live in the girls’ home, they begin to understand that life can carry on with a dibbuk in a symbiotic relationship, much like a mushroom which grows beside a fern in a pot. One helps the other. On his advice, Min learns to look people in the eye and say she has a stammer. After all, perhaps it has made her a better observer and listener.
To Min’s surprise, Bea confesses to having a ‘dibbuk’ too, she worries too much and to keep control, tries to create too much order in her life.
As the sisters help one another, they grow into adulthood, but with more acceptance of themselves.
Drawing on her own experiences of having a stammer, Maggie O’Farrell gifts us an insight into the thoughts and feelings of those who live with one.
Min and Bea are characters you instantly want to root for. How common it is for siblings to share a room but have such different personalities. And yet, when one is in need of help, the other is instantly there for her, as symbiotic as the fern and the mushroom in the story.
Strategies to deal with those who feel it is their right to judge, help Min move forward and, gratifyingly, we see her growing into a happy and confident adult.
To read this is to feel as if you are stepping back in time to a gentler age, yet this is very much a story for now. This is a sit down, cuddle up and prepare to listen to the work of a gifted storyteller.
What a message to share: we all have our own challenges to face.
The illustrations are rich and gorgeous. Each page is like a warm invitation to step in and join Min in her world.
To my eye, there is something of the wonderful Shirley Hughes in the style, so warm and engaging.
@maggieofarrellofficial
@danielajterrazzini
@walkersbookuk
