Joanne Owen's Pick of the Year 2015 Ideal for young teenagers who’ve grown up with Jacqueline Wilson, the cutting poignancy of this tenderly told tale will make readers’ hearts flutter and their souls soar. Marie is a sensitive, book-loving girl who longs to be a published writer. Her transition to secondary school gets off to an excruciating start when she’s mocked for her babyish pencil case and finds herself relegated to being known as the ‘Other Marie’ when a new Marie arrives in her class. But unbeknownst to her bullying classmates, the ‘Super Six’ gang, she's already the Other Marie; the first was the sister she never met, who died as a baby. As the harassment escalates, Marie starts cutting herself to numb her emotional pain. Increasingly insolated, she also starts hearing the haunting cries of a baby, whom she believes is her deceased sister. While Marie keeps all this to herself, strange Stella, who talks to herself and collects shells, seems to know her secrets and a friendship develops between them. After being cruelly set-up by the Super Six, Maria is involved in a serious accident, but when a shell in the shape of a butterfly is found in an unexpected place, she finds new strength and hope for the future. Following Maria’s life through one momentous year, and told in her inimitable voice, this is a powerfully haunting novel about grief, bullying and, ultimately, hope. A remarkable debut from an author YA readers are sure to want more from.~ Joanne Owen
A message from the author, Maureen White "I think the stories we hear when we are children stay with us. Especially stories about families.
When I was quite young my Mother told me a family story- how her younger brother died one day when he was a baby. Just went to sleep and never woke up. Died in his mother’s arms. I could hardly believe that something like that could happen- and to a baby. It was my first encounter with a cot death and when I started writing The Butterfly Shell, even though I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going , that image came into my mind and into the story.
Here’s another family story- a happier one: A few years ago my sister gave me a present for no reason at all - a small butterfly on a chain and the butterfly was made of abalone- a beautiful bluey green shell . I started writing The Butterfly Shell knowing that somehow , some version of this present would work itself into the story.
I’m not sure where stories come from but I do know they lead us somewhere- Somewhere we can experience the unusual and question the everyday. I hope The Butterfly Shell does just that. In the book the girls and their behaviour at school are I think recognizable, but the ghost crying in the night? Well I’m guessing most people don’t experience that. Once I started writing it wasn’t long before Marie and Stella and Rachel seemed very real to me. I hope they are for the reader as well and I hope The Butterfly Shell takes the reader somewhere , somewhere that is both familiar and strange at the same time."
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