Letters from the Upside is everything that is wonderful about Katya Balen’s writing. Honest and heartfelt while revealing the healing power of nature, it takes readers on a journey of self-reflection and empathy building. This is an author who truly understands children, their struggles, their fears, their hopes and their dreams. She gets right to the heart of emotion and experience to uncover how adults can help children to understand themselves and grow.
Con is angry. His struggle to control the fire that rises up inside him results in negative behaviour, terrible choices and the loss of friends. It always boils down to one question – “Why did your dad leave?” Con can’t give an exact answer but he knows it has something to do with him. The guilt of believing he drove his dad away eats away at Con and his inability to manage the resulting emotions causes trouble for everyone. When Con goes a step too far and punches a boy at school, he gets suspended and has to spend the next week and a half at home in their flat.
Con doesn’t know what to do with himself until Mr Williams, a kind neighbour, takes him under his wing and introduces him to the Upside. This rooftop garden is wonderful. Overflowing with nature, there are greenhouses, all sorts of plants, rabbits and pigeons. Mr Williams shows Con how he cares for these amazing birds, sends them out on adventures, and how they always come home again. Home. A place of safety and love. A place to be yourself. Con longs to feel at home. As Con learns to “look up” and see the world in a new way, he realises he doesn’t want to live a life of destruction and makes the decision to change.
Through an inner monologue and Con’s very real thoughts, readers learn what’s truly on his heart. They see that he’s not a “naughty kid” but a child who’s suffering. Incredibly likeable and genuinely kind, we long to get alongside Con and help, just as his neighbours do. Letters from the Upside is a beautiful story of hope and kindness – one that will stay with readers and whisper words of advice in difficult moments.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for this lovely book!
For more stories about the power of pigeons, try Twitch by MG Leonard.
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