Great messages throughout about friends, family and illness. Very well discussed topics of Alzheimers and gender neutral characters.

A great book to introduce young people to big concepts.

I will forgive Auton for not writing the sequel to The Secret Of Haven Point yet because this book was unusual, moving and just as entertaining! The characters have various additional needs that are never spelt out, dwelt on in isolation from the plot nor part of the story in a way that isn't natural which was very positive. The setting was authentic and the magic realistic elements were unsettling but in a good way. Strong, unique middle grade fantasy realism adventure.

The Stickleback Catchers is about a girl named Mimi who lives with her gran & grandad. One day Mimi found out that her gran has dementia and Mimi’s trying to save her gran. I love this book because of the family relationships. My heart’s torn when i read that gran suddenly forgetting Mimi. I love the family found trope between Mimi, Titch and Nus. Though i think it’d be good to have a bit more of Mimi’s history of her parents and her crutch. Also for Nus! Oh, and iove that this book has some illutrations inside!!
I guess moral of the story is we have to be grateful for all that we have now, don’t dwell too much on the past. Fill our life with lots of love!

Intriguing, spiritual and magical three words I can use to describe this book. Lovely read covering lots of topics which might be of benefit to a child struggling. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

The Stickleback Catchers is a heart-breaking, yet hopeful, story of family and friendship which completely captured me.

Eleven-year-old Mimi lives with her Grandparents in a flat above their Bowling Club. It is clear that she adores them, and they her but, when she arrives home to a stranger in a suit visiting, she senses that they are hiding something from her. Gran is wonderfully eccentric, a former opera singer who wears camouflage and waders to take Mimi shopping, so it breaks Mimi’s heart when she sees how forgetful Gran is becoming. Coinciding with Gran’s deteriorating memory, Mimi sees cracks appearing around her home and meets a mysterious crow who is able to communicate with her.

Mimi finds two new friends in Titch who has replied to her Gran’s advert for a Stickleback Catcher and Nusrat who runs her own podcast solving puzzles. These new friends become The Stickleback Catchers, determined to solve mysteries and seek adventure.

When Mimi and Titch visit the river where they find sticklebacks, they also find an unusual stone speckled with stars which leads to the opening of a doorway to another world: a world of talking crows, of stored memories and of those charged with protecting these memories. Can Mimi find the key to unlocking her Gran’s lost memories in this world?

This is the most heartachingly beautiful story of family, of friendship and of finding the courage to accept change, to treasure memories and to support those we love through loss.

Mimi is the most incredible young girl who is fighting through her fear, hurt and anger as the Gran who she clearly adores becomes lost to her through her memory loss. Her fallability makes her such a sympathetic character.

I loved both the fantastical elements in this story and the contemporary ones and thought they blended beautifully to show the confusion, fear, pain and desperation inherent in losing a loved one to dementia, but also the hope and joy in memories of past times, in learning to accept change and in being there to offer love and support and a sense of belonging.

This Book is Fantastic, My Mum & I Enjoyed the Spiritual & Mythical Elements in this Tale.
(Thanks to Net Galley for the Book).

This book has EVERYTHING . It seems to cross genres. Is it a thrilling ,coming of age time travelling science fiction adventure. It's all of this all woven together into a magically written story that will tug at your heartstrings. It deals with aging so beautifully. We feel so much for the characters and can empathise how they react they way they do. The disability representation is superb and actually enhances the exciting plot.

We had not come across this author before but she made us feel as if we were living in the story with these people. It covers many issues and I was proud that my grandchildren understood and empathise with all of the characters no matter what they were challenged by. It had us laugh and cry but generally just made us feel thankful.

A totally heart warming and heart breaking story of Mimi and how she has to cope when her Gran is diagnosed with dementia. Interwoven with this story are the situations of two friends that Mimi has, both of whom have their own issues to deal with. Above all this is a story of hope and love, which will tug at the heart strings and hopefully give a greater understanding of the difficulties many people have to face.

An intriguing, although slightly confusing, story. I thoroughly enjoyed the way it approached aging and memory loss/confusion/Alzheimers but it fair as though there were too many disabilities/ needs thrown in. Each was approached in a positive light and empathetically but I felt the storyline became somewhat difficult to follow in the depth I wanted to.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it covers a range of topics that may be very important for a child to read about, especially if they are experiencing anything that's covered in the book. On the other, there are SO many things covered, that it can feel a tad overwhelming.
A bit of me appreciates this for the fact that, people, in general, are not just experiencing one major/significant thing at a time. So it shows that many things can happen at once, to different people. But also, it makes the story come across a tad jumbled, like too much is being forced into the story.

To let me explain a bit, basically the main character, Mimi, lives with her grandparents. She herself has some kind of disability that means she requires crutches to get around and sometimes has difficulty manoevering. Her grandmother seems to be in the early to mid stages of dementia, regularly forgetting who others are, where she is, how old she is etc. Mimi makes a new friend, Titch, near the start of the book. Titch identifies as they/them (which i'm pleased to see is just taken in every characters stride and isn't made a huge deal of, everyone just seems to accept it!). Titch is having some trouble at home, because their dad is always working. Mimi is obssessed with a podcast called The Puzzler (Even though she seems to be dreadful at solving puzzles). A little way into the book, she and Titch end up befriending the girl, Nus, who makes the podcast (With the help of her older brother). Nus is bedbound (Again, it's not specified, but the reason for these conditions not being specified is explained by the author at the end of the book), and unable to move around on her own. She sort of lives vicariously through Titch, Mimi & sometimes her brother.
So to all of these problems that each character is already going through, there is some depression thrown in, some friendship/social problems, and then some magic, which is central to the story as well.

So although I generally enjoyed the story, I found it was a bit of a jumble of concepts all thrown together, and it felt a bit overwhelming and made it a bit hard to get through at times. It is all written at a level that is very comprehensive to children, and frankly, if some kids are struggling with any of the issues brought up in the book, it could do them a great service reading about them, and knowing that others, even just book characters, are coping with something similar.

This book made me laugh. It made me cry great dirty tears. It transported me back to my childhood in Hartlepool, playing on the Headland and eating lemon tops in Seton Carew.

The setting is rich, especially for those of us born and bred in the North East.

I fell in love with the characters - all lovingly created and tough as old boots as they navigate through the mystery and the challenges normal life is throwing at them.

The cracks are described in a way that makes them even more scary (especially in the mid part of the book, once their cause is revealed) and the resolution make me sob.

This is a truly excellent book.

The representation of all members of our society in children’s books has been a very long time coming and 2022 has not only seen an increase of inclusive titles but the birth of a brand new prize for such writing – the Adrien Prize, founded by the brilliant Elle McNicoll. While, sadly, Lisette Auton’s first title, The Secret of Haven Point, did not make it to the shortlist, the fact that it was longlisted must bear testament to the love that many readers have for what is not only an inclusive story but a wonderful one too.

It is because of that love that when this new title appeared on Net Galley, a friend on Twitter alerted several of us to its presence to make sure we did not miss out and having already requested it, I was thrilled when we received approval shortly afterwards. Bumping it to the top of my pile, ahead of the Christmassy reads I had promised myself I would read in the last few days before the main event, I really hoped this would prove as beautiful as Haven Point. Again highly inclusive and beautifully written, this is a very different story telling as it does a girl’s efforts to protect her grandmother’s failing memory and one which will tug on readers’ heartstrings as they get to know heroine Mimi and those around her.

Bursting through the front door of the bowls club that her grandparents run, Mimi is surprised not to be greeted by either her grandfather or grandmother in their customary ways. Almost knocking over the coat stand in the hallway, Mimi notices an unfamiliar black suit jacket which she suspects heralds bad news. Expecting its owner to be a social worker, she creeps towards the Room for Best, where her grandparents entertain their visitors and is introduced to a man who her grandfather tells her is an accountant. As he leaves, Mimi spots a series of cracks forming along the wall – cracks it seems only she can see – that vanish as quickly as they appeared.

Still wondering about the cracks, the following morning Mimi listens to one of her favourite episodes of podcast The Puzzler, where the titular Puzzler solves all sorts of random mysteries and talks about ancient puzzles, while she reflects on how much she dislikes the weekend since the transition to secondary school. Looking out onto the bowling green, Mimi spots a large, scruffy crow there but is distracted by her grandmother suddenly bursting into her bedroom to tell her that someone unknown to her has returned and she has found another feather – information that makes no sense to Mimi. Over breakfast, Mimi tells her grandfather about his wife’s odd behaviour and that she is flickering but thinks no more about it when her grandmother seems back to her usual self and takes her shopping.

As her grandmother becomes more confused, Mimi continues to spot the crow close by and is irritated that nobody else can see it but is soon distracted when she has a visitor in the form of Titch, who has responded to a newspaper advert looking for friends for Mimi. After an awkward start, Mimi and Titch start to spend time in one another’s company and after it transpires that Titch is also a fan of the Puzzler, the pair of them try to track them down to ask for their help in working out what is going on around the bowls club. When Mimi and Titch find a mysterious message hidden within a rock, things become even more curious. Together with new friend Nusrat, the three children form the Stickleback Catchers and vow to get to the bottom of what is going on. What does the hidden message mean? How is it connected to the cracks and the crow? And will solving the mystery restore Mimi’s grandmother’s failing memory?

Readers will love Mimi. She is such a strong character but not only that, importantly she is a flawed character. Long gone – hopefully – are the days of children with differences being portrayed with heavy brushstrokes as characters who are impossibly virtuous or as individuals to be pitied; here Mimi is so very human and all the more believable as a result of this. In her efforts to restore her grandmother to what she considers she should be, Mimi’s thoughts are focussed primarily on what is best for herself – how many of us can hand on heart say we would not be the same?

At the end of the book is a note from the author, discussing the use of language when referring to those with what society deems to be differences. Here, all three of the Stickleback Catchers are different but while those differences are clear they are never labelled within the story, nor do they need to be. It seems to me that if we are to bring up our children to be more accepting of not only others, but also – crucially – themselves, then they need to see that we are defined by who we are and not what and that is abundantly clear here.

This read will surely secure Lisette Auton’s reputation as a writer of the very finest middle grade fiction. Perfect for mature Year 4 readers upwards, The Stickleback Catchers publishes February 9th. As always, my enormous thanks go to publisher Penguin Random House Children’s UK and Net Galley for my virtual advance read.