Theresa Breslin Quotes

The different stories just happen. There is a curse, children are threatened, but they survive.

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.

Solomon doesn’t have it easy. He’s dyslexic, and his struggles at school are made worse by a bully of a teacher. Life at home isn’t easy either.

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.

When the spirit of a witch is released, Solomon is the only person who can fight it.

Out of the blue a new young teacher appears, sees the problem and sets out to set it straight.

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.