As ever, I adore David Almond's magical writing style and characters full of curiosity and adventure. I loved the blurred lines between magic and realism

Good title for boys. Lovely format. Potentially a bit nostalgic and old fashioned for some readers.
Thank you for sharing this copy with me.

Beautifully captures the everyday, extraordinary wonders of the world and the human imagination. The Colour of the Sun is a magical read, full of poetry and music, lightness and darkness, and simple, deeply philosophical thoughts. It's a book to comfort and savour and re-read; a real treasure.

This was disappointing from one of my favourite authors. I typically expect weird and otherworldly from Almond but this was very much rooted in the real world - and a very dated real world for younger readers. Davey was unintentionally irritating in his mooniness. I wanted to shake him. I don't mind irritating characters if that is the author's intention but the semi-autobiographical nature of this book suggests otherwise here. The book was very slow. Perhaps this would have bothered me less had I been reading a physical copy and the distinctions between the chapters been clearer. I didn't find myself lost in this world. The Tightrope Walkers proves that Almond can write compelling real world stories, but he couldn't pull it off here.

#colourofthesun by David Almond is absolutely wonderful storytelling. Unique, evocative, & beautiful.

A beautifully descriptive story of a young boy whose father has recently died. At a loss of what to do with his time he goes for an aimless wander beyond his north east home. He comes across an upsetting scene, where a boy from one of two rival families has been killed, and wanders further not really knowing what to do. During his wanderings he meets various characters including the one legged Wilf Pew, who shares his fruit gums with him. As he walks and talks he contemplates his life. This book is essentially about Davie trying to make sense of the world he is growing up in. A thoroughly enjoyable, and at times, moving read.

David Almond is brilliant at making local dialect fit his beautiful stories. Colour of the Sun is a fantastic YA crime/thriller that really brings the youthful element of mystery to the forefront.

How can I do justice to this superb novel? It's the best thing I've read in many months... One hot summer day in an insignificant Tyneside town... Davie is sent out by his mother with bara brith and a slab of cheshire cheese in his haversack, to get himself out into the lovely world outside the door. . So Davie sets out into a perfectly ordinary summer day. He sets out to wander - up the hill at the back of the town. By the time he gets home, he's encountered death and resurrection, love, friendship, the past and his possible future. Nothing much happens, and yet Davie's journey is huge.
Within a fairly short novel, there is so much to think about - about place, about leaving childhood behind, understanding loss, and love, a sense of nostalgia, local folk tales, myth, legend, history... all told in language that sings of the page, I don't often finish a book and want to immediately re-read it, or to underline the bits that particularly resonate with me, but The Colour of the Sun made me feel this way. Readers of all ages will each take something different from it.
It may be a book that children need to be encouraged to chose, but I'm confident that it will stay with them long after they've turned the last page.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.

The Colour of the Sun follows Davie on one sunny summer day as he goes wandering, nothing in his rucksack but some bara brith, sketchbook and pencils, a fox mask and some antlers. It begins with two deaths - Davie's father, a few weeks earlier, and the body of a dead boy.

The whole book is like a love song to a summer's day. It's drenched in colour, scents and sounds, from the translucent brightness of the fruit gums given to Davie by the mysterious Wilf to the yellow of the gorse and the blue of the sky. There are some slightly fantastical elements to the story but they are interwoven so neatly that you have to go with it and accept that life - or at least this day in Davie's life - is slightly fantastical - and why not?

As well as the sensory immersion in the landscape, David Almond clearly has a huge affection for the particular language of the Tyneside area; Davie and other characters pause to point out and savour favourite words. Language almost becomes another sense - something that you can look at and feel and respond to in the same way that you can the colour of the sun.

It's nostalgic, beautifully written and filled with a yearning for youth and love of life in the face of death.

I was lucky enough to hear David Almond speak at a conference a couple of years ago - during his talk, he showed the audience his sketchbook, and the contents of his pencil case. He's given Davie that love of sketching ideas with pencils - an echo of himself - and it was lovely reading that connection.

A rich treat of a book that I'm sure will be on many award lists.

I LOVED this book
This was the best book I’ve read this month. Wow