Solomon decides to work on his dyslexia. Wow, big surprise. His dad might start going to alcoholics meetings. The wondrous teacher leaves because she is so good (after a week or two), that she gets a promotion.
It starts as a realistic novel, describing the desolate situation of a boy trying to cope with severe dyslexia. But the author adds too many problems. His mom has left, his dad is an unreliable alcoholic, his teacher an unbelievably one-dimensional bully.
Solomon’s mum walked out a while ago and his Dad is often out of work and tends to go on benders. Solomon has one refuge - the local graveyard. But then workmen come to remove an old rowan tree.
It is a real, graveyard-situated ghost story with ancient treasures, curses, illnesses and sudden deaths, it is something that all characters experience together, grown-ups and children alike.
Solomon is full of anger: with his teachers, with his parents, with himself. He cannot bear to be at school or at home, so he hides in a corner of the kirkyard.
It is about a boy with dyslexia. His teacher bully’s him and he often skives off school and hides in a graveyard. He sits under a rowan tree. But he didn’t know that rowan trees were planted to ward off evil.