November’s Title Pick for Children: Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald

Glasgow Boys is not just a story you can read once. The plot centres on Finlay and Banjo, two care-experienced teens - characters so well created by author Margaret McDonald they are Kodachrome. At times I genuinely had to remind myself they weren't real people, I felt I knew them that well.

With a dual-narrative structure, we skip between past and present as the harsh realities of living in care, and the unsupported and harsh realities of aging out of the care system hit home for each of them. Grief, Love, Loss - woven deeply into the pages.

It is rare you can call a novel 'perfect' - but this one definitely is. I still think about Finlay and Banjo pretty much daily in the work I do with Reading Heroes, our project supporting care-experienced young people with one-to-one Shared Reading sessions. This story shines a light on their struggles that are often forgotten about.

Give it a read - every chapter is a novel in itself.

Rachel Bourke, Reading Heroes Coordinator