Synopsis
Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back.
Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street.
Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes.
Together, Millie, Agatha and Karl set out to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, they will discover that the young can be wise, that old age is not the same as death, and that breaking the rules once in a while might just be the key to a happy life.
Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street.
Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes.
Together, Millie, Agatha and Karl set out to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, they will discover that the young can be wise, that old age is not the same as death, and that breaking the rules once in a while might just be the key to a happy life.
I didn’t know
exactly what to expect from this book, but the little things I did presume,
this was not it. Whilst unexpected, this is not a bad thing at all. This book
is the great kind of quirky book that comes up every so often. It has
characters that just surprise you with every turn of the page.
Told from 3 different character’s viewpoints. Each of them
has such an individual narrative, you can instantly tell whose it is, even
without the headings, which is really unique. You could tell Millie was a young
child, unsure of the world. You could feel Agatha’s grouchy exterior and I
liked Karl with the romantic way he talked about his wife.
The start of the book is fairly straight-forward but drew me
in instantly. However almost immediately when Agatha decides to help Millie
find her mother, their antics descend into a great kind of chaotic silliness
that is both funny and imaginative.
Millie is an absolute delight to read about, slightly
macabre with an obsession with death, but such a charming character to read. My
favourite part of the book is without doubt when she met ‘Captain Justice’ and
became ‘Captain Funeral. Together they were just the cutest.
Published by: Hutchinson / Cornerstone
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.
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