Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

first came across Katya when I read and reviewed her debut The Space We're in which destroyed me and when I saw he had published October October I knew I had to read it.

Unfortunately life got in the way but for some reason this past week I had been drawn to the book so I picked it up and I was not disappointed instead I was captivated.

October as a character was so strong and so eloquent and I felt everything she felt from leaving her home and going to a strange place. I will admit that I did cry while reading some parts in the book.

I am not going into anymore detail as I believe this kind of book has to read at it's face value as other readers may have a different perspective and this is the main reason that Katya will be an Auto Buy for me. For all the above reasons I am giving October October 4 stars

October, October has fast become one of my favourite books of all time. It’s so raw and powerful and incredibly moving. It deals with grief and guilt, friendship, love and family. It’s also one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read! Katya Balen’s descriptions of the natural world are wonderfully lyrical.

October, October is the story of a father and his 11-year-old daughter, October. They live wild lives alone in a wood, cut off from the modern world and connected instead to nature. They share a closely knit and precious bond. However, tragedy strikes when October’s dad falls out of the biggest tree in their wood. He is rushed to hospital and father and daughter are separated. October is uprooted from their home and moved to grey and noisy London to live with the woman who is her mother. October has not seen her mom since she left seven years ago. Her mother has visited and written letters but October has refused contact.

For me, this relationship between October and the woman she can’t bring herself to call mom is the most powerful one in the book. The raw hatred and pure rage that October directs towards her mother is brutal in its honesty. Yet her mother endures these angry outbursts with incredible patience and understanding. Her pain at being so disconnected from her only child is tangible and heartbreaking. As their story progresses, we witness the slow thawing of October’s heart and a wonderful reconciliation.

Another key relationship in the book is the one between October and the orphaned baby owl which she hand rears and names Stig. When October moves to London, Stig is taken from her and placed in an owl sanctuary. There’s a moving exploration of the pull of the wild versus the bond that’s formed between girl and animal.

I also enjoyed the scenes between October and Yusuf, a boy in her class. Their developing friendship is life-affirming and the descriptions of the two of them mudlarking on the shores of the Thames were a joy.

October herself is a wonderful character, quite unlike anyone I’ve met in a book before. Her narrative voice is fresh and honest and her words and thoughts tumble out onto the page. She has her own distinct and very endearing way of looking at the world. The world she understands and thrives in is the bubble that she lives in with her dad: the woods with its flora and fauna. The noises, smells and bright lights of the wider world are strange and unfamiliar to her. She is out of place in a town or city and out of step with her peers when she starts school.

Books and stories are important to October. In their home in the woods October and her dad have so many books that October’s dad builds new bookshelves every year from the trees around them. In one of my favourite descriptions, we are told how these bookshelves run across all the walls and stretch from the ceiling to the floor. October also creates her own stories. The vividly imagined stories which she invents are integral to her character. Her stories are inspired by the objects and treasures that she finds or the clouds she sees in the sky. Bones become those of a dragon, smooth blue-green pieces of glass turn into magic stones and I love how each special object she finds “rattle[s] with stories”.

Last but not least, I absolutely love the wraparound cover art; I don’t think there’s a more perfect book cover. It’s a lino print by Angela Harding in rich autumnal colours that depicts October in her woods with a distant London skyline. It’s framed by the outstretched wingspan of Stig. Interspersed throughout the book there are also more lovely black and white lino print illustrations of Stig. Just beautiful.

October, October is wonderfully fresh and original. The scenes in the wild had a calming, centring affect on me as I read, and made me more aware and in awe of my own natural surroundings. It’s a book which encourages you to stop, breathe and take note and also one which reminds us of the importance of connection, both to people and our world.

This books transported me to a wild world and moved me.
The writing drew me in and I felt an urgency to the pace.

I've been sitting on writing this review for a while, struggling to put into words how I feel about a book that I wish, with all my heart, had existed when I was a child. Really, this is six out of five stars - it's been a while since a book hit me like this.

'October, October' is the story of a year in the life of 11-year-old October, who lives a wild and peaceful life in the woods with her father, keeping the woodland flourishing, working hard every day, growing vegetables, making do and mending, planting a tree for every birthday, climbing trees, tending the fire, and rescuing injured birds (a baby owl), October relishes every minute of her wild life - it is the life many of us in the rat race dream of - until it is interrupted by the return of 'the woman who is [her] mother'. When October is forced to move from her beloved woods to London, she struggles to navigate a noisy world full of rules and too many people, her much-changed father, and a relationship with the woman who she feels acutely abandoned by - a woman who rejected that 'dream' life in the woods and, with it, October.

I hesitate to tell much more of the plot - that's the bare bones, and those bones are woven over and around with golden threads of friendship, the nature of wildness, stories, treasures, misunderstandings and reconciliations. But what I loved about this book - what made me cry, often and drippily, as I was too engrossed to do much more than smear tears with an already soaked tissue - was the perfect depiction and understanding of childhood anger: that frustrating rage of being completely unable to control what is happening to and around, of not understanding why some rules and rules and no one explaining them, of not being listened too or understood, of when the world is so overwhelming but you can't turn it off and so you howl, or cry, or smash things, or climb a tree, or run to the farthest field.

As an adult, I think we can all remember those feelings, perhaps some of us more acutely than others. As a child - I can't imagine the relief of seeing yourself in these pages, and understood. It was a balm, to recognise my young self.

The story is told entirely from October's point of view, beautifully observed (which is something so often said about books, but how do you describe that child's voice that conjures things up so perfectly without ever being overwritten?) and Balen does an incredible job of balancing the information and understanding of what is going on. It's possible, as the reader, to understand and feel for her parents even through October's rage and hurt, and when October describes her woods, her shoreline, the library and classroom, and relays the interactions between her classmates as she struggles to understand how friendship grows and spreads, you are right there. *Right* there.

It's a beautiful book not just in words, but also in images. I can't review it without mentioning the beautiful cover by Angela Harding - and her owl pictures, which appear throughout the chapters: October's owl, who is wild, but needs saving, somehow. It is too little to be wild alone.

I know 'October October' has already won a prize for being a classic in children's literature - and rightly so. It *is* a classic. It should be not *required* reading - I rather hope it never gets picked to drab scraps in a classroom - but the book that is slipped to every struggling and lost and angry child to help them find their way a little, and feel less alone.

The prose in this book was beautiful and the wild life that the main character lives at the beginning was so well written. I was actually really sad at the end when she had to go to school and things had changed for her. A subtle book.

This book is as beautiful as the eye catching illustration on the front cover.

October, October is a truly powerful story of love, challenges, loss, and the ability of reimagining.

October lives in the forest with her daddy in a completely off the grid existence. They rely on themselves and the forest....which living in the New Forest I must admit I secretly loved.

Especially is todays tech driven life, I absolutely adore October’s relationship with both her daddy and the nature that surrounds her. Her most precious treasures in life are not her iPods/iPads/iPhones or consoles but the her collection of found items and the wonderful stories that she imagines for them.

Without giving too much away because spoilers are just not ok when it comes to this story. After a storm October will find her most special treasure that will in turn change October’s future.

This story is cleverly told in a first person inner monologue. I felt a mixture of powerful emotions while reading this and tears were most certainly shed.

Thank you to the publishers for the proof, however I must admit I had to buy the hardback for my bookshelf.

This wonderful, aching, sweet, heart-breaking book absolutely tore me apart and is up there with some of the best books that I've read this year. Without a doubt.

October lives in the woods with her Dad. They coppice the trees, take care of the environment around them and grow their own food. They don't go into the nearest village much more than once a year and October always keeps her eyes squeezed tight shut whilst she's there - it's too big, too bright, too loud and she longs to be back in the safety and wilderness of her woods.

Just before her eleventh birthday, October rescues a baby barn owl and, on her birthday itself, the woman who is her mother returns, after October has been steadfastly ignoring her ever since she left them and the woods behind. But it's also the day when October's entire way of life changes.

Where do I even begin? First off, the writing was stunning. Balen has gone hard on the Thomas Hardy-style compound adjectives and they work brilliantly. October is a young voice, but she reads a lot and is used to her own company. The way she narrates her own story is the kind that absolutely breaks you as you read it because it's so raw and unfiltered. She knows one particular way of life that is perfect for her - it is wild and free and she doesn't want it any other way - until she is dragged kicking and screaming from it. The way that October's world is written is absolutely beautiful.

Now let's take the setting - a world of woods that feels so real that you can touch it. I grew up on my own on an isolated farm in the countryside and I feel some of the yearning that October does. Particularly when she's presented with the absolute antithesis of everything that she's known for her whole life: London.

Then October herself. She is hard and soft and lost and wild and free. She wants her life - her old life - back more than anything but slowly begins to realise that there are lots of ways of living a life, and that she can choose the right one for her; that there are many different ways of being wild and that it doesn't involve shutting yourself off from one world just so you can be wholly in another.

She throws tantrums; she shouts and screams. She hates her mother. In some ways all of this should make her unlikeable. But October has never had to communicate like this before. She is hurting and guilty and feels betrayed and she has always just been able to fit in and be understood, as she's only ever had to talk with herself and her Dad before.

This is a book that is proof of adaptability, of resilience and to be with people and to be free. I loved this and would read it again, and buy it for my own hypothetical children.

I bought a physical copy of this book after reading the first few pages on my Kindle and falling in love with the main character of October, also the cover is amazing so who wouldn't want to have that on their shelf?
October, October tells the tale of a young girl who lives in the woods with her Father. They are pretty self contained and she loves everything about being wild and at one with the nature that surrounds her. One day she discovers an abandoned baby owl and brings it home with her, Stig, quickly becomes a very important thing in October's life. Following a visit from her estranged Mother on her birthday a terrible accident leaves her Father hospitalised and October is forced to live a 'normal' life in London.
I absolutely loved the writing in this book, Katya Balen took all the things I love about Autumn and wrapped them all up in less than 300 pages. The descriptions of the woods and the changing seasons made me ooh and ahh with every page. I also loved October, she is a sassy, strong willed girl. And even when she is feeling at her lowest she still does not get forced into doing anything she doesn't want to do for herself. She has a troubled relationship with her Mother which was interesting to read. This is a story about change, good or bad, and whether we're ready for it or not it will inevitably come and it's how we deal with that change that matters most, October learns that not all things are perfect but that doesn't make them any less worthy.

This is a lovely, heartwarming story! I loved the vivid descriptions of nature and the surroundings in the woods. This story twists and turns and threw me for a loop, and I loved it. I would definitely recommend this to young readers, and it might even encourage them to appreciate nature more too!
It’s also a story of family, complicated relationships, and learning to find common ground. These themes were introduced with sensitivity and were explored wonderfully.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Bloomsbury in return for an honest review.

This is possibly the most beautiful story I have ever read! Each sentence is pure poetry and I found myself highlighting line after line so I could come back later and reread them, to savour the way they sound and the images they evoke. It is a quiet, lyrical book full of wonderful and heart-warming secrets – I would encourage everyone to read it!

The book begins just before October's 11th birthday. She and her father live peacefully in their house in the woods. Their days are spent caring for the trees, growing vegetables, delighting in the nature around them and at night, they sit by the fire and share stories. This is the only way of life that October knows and it is one that she loves. However, everything changes when October’s mother comes back. October has to experience what life is like outside the woods and brave many new situations.

In addition to the wonderful prose, the story and the messages in this book are also beautiful. It takes you on a journey through the woods to the shore of the river Thames and reminds you that change isn’t always bad; just because something is different that doesn’t mean it’s wrong; what matters is that everyone is allowed to live in the way that is best for them and this will vary from person to person.

October is a vibrant and delightful main character. I felt so much empathy for her as we lived the world through her eyes. I loved the vivid way in which she thought about what she was feeling. It was great to have a window into her mind and understand what she was going through, whilst also seeing the way she acted and others reacted to her. The supporting cast of characters were also brilliant: brave and kind but also flawed in their own way. I really appreciated the way that the book showed such a range of personalities and all of them in a positive light.

I would recommend this book to readers aged 9+ who are looking for a story that will probably make you cry, but also fill you with hope and wonder.

Content: There are many references in this book to parental separation and feelings of anger towards the mother. The book handles this very sensitively.

October, October was an absolutely beautiful book - heartfelt and raw. So full of love that it caused tears to escape down my cheeks on more than one occasion. A story about nature, friendship, family, bravery, survival, understanding the world and being wild in all it's forms. Sensitive, inspiring and incredibly sensory and poetic. Woven into October's journey are some powerful messages written with such simple beauty I don't have the words to do them justice.

A truly gorgeous autumnal read, complimented beautifully by Angela's stunning illustrations. One of those books that cements my love of children's fiction and belief in the power of stories. Will be recommending to everyone.

What an incredible book for kids and adults. Absolutely beautiful, thought-provoking, moving, enjoyable, and uplifting. The writing was really good as well as the characters.
I'd read from these authors again.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

This is beautifully written. The characters' love of wilderness and nature shines through and the juxtaposition of city life/wild life is done so well. I liked the lack of judgement in the book; I didn't feel like the author set out to make a statement about how one world is better than another., or one person's choice is the only right way. Nuanced and clever.

October lives a wild life in the woods with her father, climbing trees, reading books bought on their infrequent trips for supplies to the nearest village, swimming in freezing autumnal pools, and caring for the forest they call home – even adopting an orphaned barn owl chick. We are transported into this alternative lifestyle, safe in the company of October and her gentle giant of a father – that is, until he suffers a life-changing accident and October’s haven in the woods comes crashing down around her shoulders.

Balen’s power to evoke the smell of wood smoke, rustling leaves, and the sense of deep tranquility offered by the woods make this a stunningly beautiful escape of a book. It is a story of seasonal change – both physically, and metaphorically, as October struggles to transition from one phase of life into another, at a brutally shocking pace. Balen explores the intensity and rawness of emotion experienced by October through a first person narrative devoid of commas and running away with itself, mirroring the loss of control she experiences as the story unfolds and she has to move to the city, live with a mother she has never wanted to know, and cope with the very different nature of life in school.

Ultimately, this is a story of the beauty and colour that community can bring to life – an overwhelmingly positive story of reconciliation and life springing from dark times; an emotive journey through loss, grief, otherness, and the power of acceptance.

Raw and beautiful with lyrical language that takes hold of your heart. A moving and hopeful celebration of nature and wildness. Perfect for fans of Skellig and The Wild Way Home. We loved it.

This book is absolutely beautiful. October is wild, she lives in the woods with her Dad, and together they grow their food, chop the wood and venture into the village once a year for supplies.
On her 11th birthday October's mother comes to see her, causing a chain reaction of events culminating in her father falling out of a tree and breaking his back- meaning October has to live with her mother. In London.
The story shows October trying to fit in at school, discovering wild spots in the city and developing a relationship with "the woman who calls herself my mother".
This is a gorgeous novel and I'm definitely going to look out for other works by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

October, October by Katya Balen Illustrated by Angela Harding

October lives in the woods with her father, a simple but wild existence. They are so connected to nature and the wild life around them. October finds a baby owl in the woods and her father agrees to help her look after it. They’re happy there in a way that October’s mother never was.

But on October’s eleventh birthday her world turns upside down and she is forced to swap her idyllic woodland life for the city of London. The woman who calls herself October’s mother returns and she and October must find their common ground; rewriting their story to heal and live with wild in their hearts.

It’s a beautiful book full of woodsmoke, appreciation of the natural world, storytelling and mudlarks! It was magical and powerful. It made me cry!

The illustrations by Angela Harding are absolutely stunning! The cover is gorgeous!

I highly recommend this perfect autumn read for both adults and children.

Thanks to netgalley and Bloomsbury childrens for my eARC.

I cried a lot. Be warned, if you are the type who cries at books.

This is an amazing book. The tone is a little like Room, although October turns eleven early in this book and Jack was five. But there's the same precocious child leaving a small world for a bigger one idea (and like Jack, October throws a couple of tantrums.) I cried during Room, I should have known I'd cry at this one.

I loved this. I loved discovering the world alongside October, watching as she slowly allows herself to trust people. My heart broke with hers during the bit that you know if you've read it and I won't spoil if you haven't, and I rejoiced with her during her triumphs. It's an absolutely fabulous book, and I think it would work really well as a class novel; there are a LOT of avenues that could be explored after reading.

The illustrations are gorgeous, too. Stig is beautiful in these pictures. And that cover!

I loved this. I can't say anything else, but I'll keep saying that.

What a charming little book! The story is about a young girl who lives in the woods with her dad but who has her world changed. She finds and cares for a baby owl and learns how to make friends through mud larking on the Thames and finding treasures. I loved the book.