Pigeon English

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In May, there is a carnival in Harri’s neighborhood. On Sunday, church is cancelled because someone smashed the windows and wrote DFC all over the wall. Harri argues with Lydia about the clothes she bleached. Harri insists he saw blood on them, but Lydia tells him that it was Miquita’s blood—“girl’s blood.” As well as describing the estate's own "pidgin", "Pigeon English" refers to a feral pigeon Harri comes to believe is watching over him. In the novel's weakest passages, Harri's street-smart observations give way to portentous prose in which this pigeon-protector reflects on magpies, poisoned grain and the fleeting nature of human existence: "I owe it to all of you, a cheap act of confederacy against the drip-dripping of ill-captured sand." The attempt to shoehorn yet more significance into a narrative already heavy with "relevance" falls flat. In this quotation, Harri tries to justify his desire to join the Dell Farm Crew by speculating that he could serve as a missionary for them. Though Harri doesn't want to commit crimes, his stated reason for wanting to join the gang is insincere. Throughout the text, Harri states that if he joins the Dell Farm crew, he will be "the big fish" and "all the little fish would be scared," protecting him from abuse. Thus, Harri convinces himself that if he teaches the Dell Farm Crew about God, he can benefit from their protection while maintaining his morals. Sharks never sleep. They have to keep swimming or they’ll die so they’re not allowed to sleep at all, not even for one second. Harri, June

I like Man Booker books. I like reading them. But every once in a while, I can't help but think some of them are just overrated. I was still very scared. Anybody can die, even a baby. They die every day. The dead boy never hurt anybody and he got chooked to death. I saw the blood. His blood. If it can happen to him it can happen to anybody. Harri, June Harri begins investigating the dead boy's murder because he feels an inexplicable connection with the murdered teen. Though they never spoke, Harri knew the dead boy by sight and observed his talents, like playing basketball and riding "his bike with no hands." Harri defines his relationship with the dead boy by calling him a friend, "even if he didn't know about it." By calling the dead boy a "friend," Harri indicates that he identifies with the boy; he hoped to be like the dead boy, and the latter's death leads him to understand that anyone can suffer senseless violence. Harri struggles to understand why he feels loss and trauma over the boy's murder even though they were not close.

Lydia is Harri's older sister in Year 9. A member of Dance Club, Lydia befriends Miquita and Chanelle and enjoys normal adolescent behaviors, like gossiping and watching television dramas. After the murder, Lydia is conscripted to destroy evidence and is threatened by Miquita. Despite her fear of the Dell Farm Crew's retribution, Lydia protects Harri as best she can, despite being a child herself. Mamma Harri loves science, birds, and running in the rain. He has many friends, a "special pigeon" who watches over him, and a girlfriend, Poppy Morgan. Harri lives surrounded by violence and discrimination, but he often overlooks danger. He and his friend Dean investigate the murder of a Year 11 boy and have several run-ins with the Dell Farm Crew. At the end of the text, Harri's former friend, Jordan, stabs and kills Harri. The Dead Boy Auntie Sonia is Mamma's sister who resides as an undocumented citizen in London. Auntie Sonia works a series of odd jobs, such as housekeeping, and burns off her fingerprints to avoid deportation. Auntie Sonia suffers domestic abuse from her partner, Julius, a gangster who sells fake visas and collects debts. After Julius breaks Auntie Sonia's nose and foot, she escapes London. Terry Takeaway

One day, while Miquita is straightening Lydia’s hair, she burns Lydia’s cheek on purpose, asking, “Are you with us or against us?” Lydia assures her she is with them. After school, X-Fire and Dizzy chase Harri and threaten to kill him, but they eventually walk away. The book is filled with energy-explosively light and dark by turns as Harrison struggles his way through the school year mixing childhood play with adult struggles that he cannot begin to really understand. Eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku, the second best runner in Year 7, races through his new life in England with his personalised trainers - the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen - blissfully unaware of the very real threat around him. Newly-arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister Lydia, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of city life, from the bewildering array of Haribo sweets, to the frightening, fascinating gang of older boys from his school. But his life is changed forever when one of his friends is murdered. As the victim's nearly new football boots hang in tribute on railings behind fluorescent tape and a police appeal draws only silence, Harri decides to act, unwittingly endangering the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to keep them safe.Elsewhere, Kelman blends Ghanaian slang such as "Asweh" ("I swear") and "hutious" ("frightening") with familiar London-ese to fresher and funnier effect. When the boys watch a local dog choke on some lager offered by its alcoholic owner: "Every sneeze made a new sneeze. Even Asbo was surprised. He couldn't stop for donkey hours." Chanelle and Miquita get into a fight at school one day. Right as Miquita is about to push Chanelle through the window, teachers come over and break up the fight. Harri notices that Killa displays several “signs of guilt,” and Harri begins to believe that Killa murdered the dead boy with Miquita. Harri and Dean grab Killa’s hands and take his fingerprints with sellotape. In this quotation, Harri misunderstands why his mother fixates on news stories about child death. Since Mamma enjoys church and advises her children to pray, Harri assumes that any time his mother prays, it is a positive experience. In reality, Harri's mother prays fervently because she knows her children will always be in danger, though she does her best to protect them. This quotation exemplifies Harri's innocence: he is frequently unable to recognize when he is in danger and thus misses chances to ask his family for help. Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister Lydia, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of city life, from the bewildering array of Haribo sweets, to the frightening, fascinating gang of older boys from his school. But his life is changed forever when one of his friends is murdered. My mood usually affects my overall liking of the book I'm currently reading and I was in a pretty down mood when I was reading Pigeon English. But to be honest, I don't think my thoughts would differ even if I was in my most cheery self.

Jordan is Harri's best friend outside of school. After he is expelled from school, Jordan steals for the Dell Farm Crew in exchange for cigarettes and protection, starting the young boy down a path of juvenile delinquency. Jordan frequently brags about his criminal behavior and pushes Harri to join him in breaking bottles and throwing stones at buses. Eventually, Jordan stabs Harri, killing him. Lydia It's neither possible nor desirable to write lightly – or light-heartedly – about knife crime, and Pigeon English, for all its humorous touches, doesn't. What it does do is to rid the subject of its portentousness, to root it firmly in a milieu where kindness and catastrophe, laughter and viciousness coexist. It is under no illusions about the effects of external violence on Harri's life; in his school breaktime, he merrily plays a game called suicide bomber, in which "you run at the other person and crash them as hard as you can. If the other person falls over you get a hundred points. If they just move but don't fall over it's ten points. One person is always the lookout because suicide bomber is banned." I have to say that I have never been a fan of a child narrator. I think it takes an especially gifted author to speak authentically as a child unless that author is a child himself. Personally, while I tend to prefer plot-driven fiction, I can live with minimal or no plot if there is something to connect with. And in this book, 11-year-old Harrison (aka "Harri") Opoku is such a lovable, naive, child that I couldn't help but connect with his irrepressible spirit. Like Harri, moved from Africa to an alien first-world country at around age 10-11, and found it to be a similarly bewildering and hostile place. Others may find Harri to be too precious or unbelievably innocent, but I fell for him hook, line, and sinker. And to be fair, the book is not entirely plotless, there is a murder mystery to propel things, along with a minor romantic subplot. That is the situation of Harrison “Harri” Opoku, the 11-y/o Ghanaian boy who goes to live in a housing settlement in London together with his mother and elder sister, Lydia. Due to poverty, they have to leave Ghana where his father, grandmother and a newborn baby, Agnes remain. One day, Harri sees a dead body of a classmate who has been murdered. He and his friend, Dean, decide to find out who the killer is because of the gift prizes that will be given to anybody who can provide clue to the killing.The rest of the book is Harri talking. Except the name on the cover is Stephen Kelman, not Harrison Opuku. So I think it might be fake. Or maybe he's using a different name to hide from the killers. They do that on detective shows. Sometimes, it doesn't work. The killers find them anyway, and kill them. There's a dead boy in this story. Harri and his friend Dean are trying to find out who killed him. They do proper detective work and everything. The only friends a man needs, his bat and a drink. One to get you what you want, the other to forget how you got it. You’ll see what I mean one day. Just stay good for as long as you can, eh? Just stay the way you are." Julius, April