There is a tiny meadow flower called Bird's Eye that is an intense, passionate blue, a flower so much part of the meadow, it is woven into the earth itself, and it is this kind of bird's eye view that Tabitha Suzuma allows us when we step into the compelling story of three children, Max 14, Louis 12 and Millie, 9, coping with their parents' marriage break-up.
Abduction is a word that promises a high degree of misery and, in some measure, this is what it delivers when the children's English father abducts them from their French mother, taking them from Paris to England. The children, who believe they are on an extended holiday, are devastated when Louis sees a picture of himself, his brother and sister, on a 'Missing Persons' poster in a Lake District railway station, for that is where they have washed up with new histories, names and haircuts.
When Louis later confronts his father, demanding to know why he has 'kidnapped' them, the answer of, 'Because I love you. Because I can't live without my children,' is met with Louis's hurt and furious, 'You had no right to take us without telling us, as if we were nothing but objects…pieces of furniture.' Many young people will recognise that hurt and hear their own voice in Louis's words.
The children do settle into this new life and Louis is able to take up dancing again but disaster strikes when he confides in the girl with whom he is falling in love. Tess writes it all down, her Mum reads it, then calls the police. However, Tess warns the family before the police arrive and they are able to get away.
Tabitha Suzuma has drawn a realistic picture of adversarial parents who forget that children have lives of their own. This book also shows how legal and social decisions that profoundly affect a child's life can still be made, as Louis resentfully discovers, without the child's involvement, even when they are old enough to be consulted. She highlights the children's courage as they try to make the best of things and shows their generosity in forgiving the people they love for the hurt they cause.
Young readers will strongly identify with Max, Louis and Millie, and cheer as the children slowly come to an understanding of who they are and what they want from life, a hard won understanding that forms the choices they eventually get to make about their own futures.
As a bonus, this beautifully written book sweeps you forward on plain and lovely prose until, far too soon, you have somehow reached the end.