Noah loves birds, and with his best friend has saved many over the years. He lives with his Mum while his Dad lives in America with his new girlfriend, visiting just once a year but phoning regularly. However, Noah doesn’t feel his Dad knows him at all.
For Noah’s Bar Mitzvah Noah’s Dad is making an effort to come over to support his son. He arrives a week before and wants to take Noah out on a walk in the countryside thinking this will make him happy. But he is oblivious of what is going on around him and Noah very conscious of the great gap between them. Noah then finds an injured young chick – a nightjar close to death. Noah and his Father disagree over what should happen to the bird and the trip is cut short.
It takes a while for both Father and son to appreciate there are two sides to any question and to come to an amicable understanding of one another. All this, in Katya Balen’s lyrical writing interwoven with observations on the natural world.

Nightjar
By Katya Balen
Published by Barrington Stoke Ltd

Another fabulous short story from Carnegie Medal winner Katya Balen.
Here she writes about the struggling bond between a father and son whilst the tale of an injured bird runs parallel.

Who will heal first?

Whilst walking and talking in the countryside, Noah and his dad discover an injured nightjar. But with very different outlooks, Noah and his dad differ on what to do next.
As father and son argue, Noah’s anger unveils itself to be more than just about the bird. Noah feels abandoned and misunderstood by his dad, who lives in New York with his new family.
With the distance and the new family arrangements there feels like there is no room for Noah.

Can they find a way to repair and build their relationship and rediscover the common ground between? Can they give each other a little time and space to adapt? Can their hearts and that of the injured bird heal together?

Such love, tenderness and warmth oozes through Katya’s words, you will devour her every sentiment.

Joanne Bardgett - teacher of littlies, lover of Children’s literature.

#Netgalley
#Barringtonstokes
#KatyaBalen

Katya's writing is so heartfelt and Nightjar is no exception.
A beautiful tale of the importance of connection.
Noah and his Dad have a 'fractured' relationship-Dad lives in America forging his new life with his new love: Noah remains with his Mum, filled with anger at his Dad and the lack of understanding and knowledge that his Dad has of him. His dad appears to not know the essence of Noah gifting him with American merchandise rather than what interests him. Noah is on the brink of his religious adulthood; his Dad returns to be part of the celebrations but it would seem that they are even more separated than just by distance. The discovery of a Nightjar: weak, alone, and scared helps heal the broken bond between them.
Another charming delightful symphony of words that capture the reader's heart.
Huge thank you to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley for the early read.

Nightjar by Katya Balen

Katya Balen has done it again with a beautiful companion novella to Birdsong. This tells the story of almost 13-year old Noah, who is estranged from his father – so when the father comes from New York for Noah’s Bar Mitzvah, the situation is tense, especially after Noah finds an injured Nightjar that he wants to care for until it recovers. Noah’s father doesn’t understand Noah’s connection with birds leading to anger and further emotional distance. Their eventual reconciliation brought a tear to my eye.

This is a Barrington Stoke title meaning that it is accessible for struggling and reluctant readers. It is quite short, so it would be brilliant for a Key Stage 2 class novel or a Key Stage 3 intervention group, especially in conjunction with Birdsong as Noah features as a central character in that book too.

Another beautiful story about the restoring and healing power of nature. Nightjar revisits the story of Noah, from Katya Balen’s Birdsong, and we learn more about him and his family. Noah’s dad lives in New York and they don’t have a close relationship. The story explores this further when Noah’s dad comes to England for his Bar-mitzvah and they get to spend some time together. A walk in the countryside leads to Noah finding a sick Nightjar, which he brigs home to save, but his dad thinks this is the wrong decision and that he should leave it in nature to either live or die. The story very gently explores fractured relationship and how they can, given the right treatment, be repaired. It is Noah’s mum who challenges him to see that things are not always simply black or white; right or wrong. All Katya’s characters are written with such love and care and each word and sentence has been carefully chosen and placed to have the most impact. Such a joy to read.

It is amazing how Katya Balen can create such beautiful writing without using any difficult words. The story is about a boy who loves birds and is estranged from his father since he moved to New York. There is this sadness and loneliness in the boy's life that seem to float in the air just like the lace gowns in his home.

Would recommend it to KS2 students.

Katya Balen writes the most exquisitely moving middle-grade novels. 'Nightjar' is a beautiful short coming-of-age novel in which nature helps to heal the fractured relationship between a boy and his father.

Noah, who lives with his mother, is fascinated by the natural world and particularly by the many different birds he sees around him. As he is preparing for Bar Mitzvah, his father returns home from his luxurious apartment in New York where he now lives with his new girlfriend. Noah's father is unimpressed by Noah's love of birds and wants him to grow out of it. When Noah discovers an injured nightjar, Noah wants to nurse it to recovery but his father thinks it would be better to let nature take its course. Noah is appalled by his father's attitude, but gradually both father and son come to understand each other better.

Katya Balen's writing is, as ever, stunning. She encourages us to share in Noah's wonder at the natural world, such as when he describes how the nightjar's "feathers are swirled with constellations. A map of its world is patterned onto its wings". She also weaves in other beautiful elements, for instance, Noah's family's Judaism, which we see in their sharing of challah and rugelach and in Noah practising his Torah reading (fittingly, the story of Noah sending birds out of the Ark) "like a spell until they take on new life and new meaning and I hear them in new ways". I also loved his mum's work as a dressmaker, making tiny gowns for babies that have tied which "hang like ghosts in our flat", as well Noah's Bar Mitzvah suit, "lined with flashes and scraps of silk so when my jacket flaps open it looks like the wings of a bird". As Noah says, "My mum can stitch together life and death and heartbreak and hope and beauty and the past and the future. She is brilliant." Above all, the novel is concerned with the theme of growing up, as Noah learns about "that funny strange space where people and things and actions can be wrong and right at the very same time".

This book is published by Barrington Stoke who specialise in producing books to engage reluctant and dyslexic readers. The books are designed to be high in interest and low in difficulty; 'Nightjar' definitely fulfils this brief - although the writing is gorgeously poetic, it should also be accessible to all children of older primary and younger secondary age. Additionally, Richard Johnson's expressive illustrations add immeasurably to the book's beauty. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book to review!

Katya Balen's writing never fails to amaze me, and this is no exception. The prose in this is beautiful, especially considering it is such a short story, but it truly matches the tone of the tale itself. The coming together of a father and son alongside this healing bird is a lovely story, and Balen absolutely does it justice here.

Beautiful story about getting to know each other again after a family separation. Would definitely recommend ELSAs to use in schools.

Katya’s writing is always so beautiful - combining descriptive language and different sentence structures so that it is almost musical. Putting that together with a gentle, heart-warming story that links the healing of an injured nightjar and a boy’s broken relationship with his father makes it just perfect. Another Barrington Stoke book that will work so well with reluctant readers too.

If this doesn't tug your heart strings, I don't know what will. Katya Balen delivers yet another tender and lyrically rich narrative that is bound to shine as bright as the nightjar itself.