I’m super happy to be on The Write Reads Book Tour for Norah’s Ark by Victoria Williamson. Thanks to The Write Reads for my copy of the book and my invite to tag along.
Two very different lives. One shared hope for a brighter future. No time to waste. The flood is coming…
Eleven-year-old Norah Day lives in temporary accommodation, relies on foodbanks for dinner, and doesn’t have a mum. But she’s happy enough, as she has a dad, a pet mouse, a pet spider, and a whole zoo of rescued local wildlife to care for.
Eleven-year-old Adam Sinclair lives with his parents in a nice house with a big garden, a private tutor, and everything he could ever want. But his life isn’t perfect – far from it. He’s recovering from leukaemia and is questioning his dream of becoming a champion swimmer.
When a nest of baby birds brings them together, Norah and Adam discover they’re not so different after all. Can Norah help Adam find his confidence again? Can Adam help Norah solve the mystery of her missing mother? And can their teamwork save their zoo of rescued animals from the rising flood?
Offering powerful lessons in empathy, Norah’s Ark is a hopeful and uplifting middle-grade tale for our times about friendship and finding a sense of home in the face of adversity.
Norahs Ark is a middle grade novel that is as emotional as it could be. I spent a lot of time either trying to blink my tears away or smiling with the two main characters. The cover of this novel and the blurb just captured my heart before I even started reading.
The issues highlighted are important ones for our younger children. Poverty, friendship, and childhood illnesses are just a few. Victoria Williamson even tackles the environment problems, but she does all of this in such a great way that it’s a great starting point for children to get an idea of the different issues in the world around them.
Norah and Adam live close to each other but couldn’t be more different in their circumstances. Norah lives in poverty and doesn’t have a home, never mind a stable one. Parenting is an issue, or rather, the lack of it. Adam is getting over a really bad health issue and has never been without as he comes from a wealthy background. These two children find the one thing they both lack in each other, a friend.
As I said, it is a really emotional read, but it’s also so uplifting. I loved these two and revelled in the way they connect more and more as they discover they both love animals and the environment around them, too. Victoria Williamson made me feel like I knew these two children, and it tugged on my heartstrings as I became more involved with them both.
This is such an important book and powerful for children to read for various reasons, and I am going to make sure I save my copy for when my granddaughter is older. I know it left me thinking long after I turned the last page. I highly recommend Norah’s Ark!
Author Bio
Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.
Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.
Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: http://www.strangelymagical.com
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 