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Rowan the Strange
 
 
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Rowan the Strange [Kindle Edition]

Julie Hearn (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews) |
Digital List Price: £6.00 What's this?
Print List Price: £6.99
Kindle Price: £3.98 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Review

Hearn is skilled at conveying the place and the time, but it is in the detail of human interactions that her novel is particularly remarkable (Sunday Times )

an original story with an unusual and many-layered background (Guardian )

I couldn't put this book down . . . This is quite possibly the most amazing work of children's fiction I've read in the last two years . . . The characters are absolutely fantastic, stunningly realised and brought to the page with such gusto that I didn't want it to end (BookBag )

Book Description

A truly powerful story, publishing for the first time in paperback
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 599 KB
  • Print Length: 364 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0192792156
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press (18 Aug 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B005HWLPJQ
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #71,203 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Author

Julie Hearn
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› Visit Amazon's Julie Hearn Page

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By kehs TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Julie Hearn has written a powerfully compelling story with her latest offering of Rowan the Strange. She has given the reader an insight into mental illness with her compassionate, intelligent tale of a young schizophrenic boy and the experimental treatment he receives at a psychiatric hospital for the insane. Her writing is so eloquent that when she describes Rowan's first treatment I found myself gasping in horror and had to pause to recollect my thoughts. She skilfully draws parallels between the outside world and the war with the chaos that is occurring in the minds of the patients in hospital. Her characters come to life on the pages and I came to care about every one of them. It was pure genius on her part to have cast the main doctor as a German - Doctor von Metzer - and to use him to express the shock and outrage that Germans felt over the euthanasia of the mentally ill that occurred in their country. The book is deep, dark and at times harrowing, but always told in a compassionate and perceptive style.

This is the third in a series and is a sequel to Hazel and Ivy but works very well as a stand alone novel. Indeed, I haven't read the first two books and didn't feel this detracted in my enjoyment of it at all. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in mental health, WW11 and historical fiction.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've been a huge fan of Julie Hearn ever since picking up Ivy quite by chance (I liked the cover) in my local Waterstones. She has a magical way with words and can weave pictures in your mind like nobody else. I'd been waiting for this book for aaaaages, and was so glad when it was finally published. I read it in two days- nearly missing my stop on a train thanks to its engrossing powers- and loved it. The psychiatric hospital setting is described wonderfully, right down to the last detail, and I found myself gasping out loud when Rowan's first treatment was described. Rowan himself is not too strange to be alientating, and I simply adored all the supporting characters- the German doctor (a clever idea, since it is set during WW2), the quiet and earnest John Wallace and above all the eccentric Dorothea. I also love the generation jump- Rowan is the son of Hazel, star of Julie's previous novel, and Hazel in turn is the daughter of Ivy, the protagonist of the novel that originally entranced me. I love following her extended family, and will continue to read as long as Ms Hearn is continuing to write!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By ELH Browning TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
This powerful story of a teenager with schizophrenia at the outset of the Second First War and "Rowan The Strange" is a rich yet raw tale, shocking yet gripping that'll fill you with both sadness and hope, and encourage an understanding of mental illness.
Rowan has uncontrollable and unexplainable rages that exhaust and frighten his caring family and they don't know how to cope or what to do for the best. While his sister is evacuated in the normal way, Rowan is sent to a lunatic asylum and is accepted as a test-case for a new type of treatment - electroconvulsive therapy.
The path he charts, from his arrival at the hospital through to the end of the book contrasts considerably with the experience of his friend on the ward, a feisty girl Dorothea who sees saints on people's shoulders. Her own "daemon" is aptly Joan of Arc, and although curing her of these apparitions would be a medical success, what would be left of Dorothea without them?
Throughout, this heartfelt story is sensitively handled with a great eye for detail. Hearn also cleverly interweaves additional themes into this riveting read: the exclusion felt by the patients from mainstream society, the undercurrent of racism for the doctor who is German, and the doctor's own feelings about what is going on in the hospital and in his own country.
Despite the sad subject matter, and this book would be a great Xmas present, especially for teenage boys - a pantomime is a fairly key part of the plot and from his admittance to hospital Rowan's family wonder whether he might be home for Christmas, some moths later. It certainly makes the "normal" reader appreciate their sanity and their acceptance in a family and community.
Thank you, Julie Hearn. I'm very glad I've read this compelling and thought-provoking book and Rowan will stay with me for a considerable time to come.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Drawn in...
I started reading Rowan the Strange because I wanted to check it out before my kids read it. At first I thought - I hope they don't want to read this it's so bleak and miserable! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Winston Churchillock
In good condition for used book
Arrived early and in good condition. Was happy with my purchase. It is a pity the postage is so high as it was very expensive.
Published 8 months ago by Happy
it's ok, haunting, but in the end forgettable, sadly enough...
The cat doesn't really get all the gushing about Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn. Not that she found it a struggle to get through this book, she just didn't know what all the fuss... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Els De Clercq
Compelling and memorable
An emotional read. Rowan is 13 and it's 1939. The Second World War has just started. The country is gripped by paranoia and fear. Fears of German spies are running wild. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Michael Finn
creepy
This book wasn't at all what I was expecting.

The book follows the story of Rowan a young boy who is sent away by his family to a mental hospital because he is strange. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Kirsty at the Overflowing Library
Unexpectedly enjoyable
This is one of the best books I have read for a very long time. Even though aimed at older children, I (in my 40s) thoroughly enjoyed it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mrs. Alison R. Tanner
One of this years best novels!
This compelling tale is the story of a young teenager, Rowan, diagnosed with schizophrenia on the eve of the Second World War. Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2009 by www.kidscompass.co.uk
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G
I LOVED THIS BOOK JULIE IS AMAZING,
I LOVED THE WAY THE CLIMAX WAS BLENDING IN
WITH THE REST OF THE STORY I RECCOMEND THIS
TO EVERYONE, ROWAN IS #1
Published on 23 May 2009
War story with a difference
It's 1939, and Rowan is about to be evacuated from London. But Rowan's not like other boys. He's subject to odd compulsions and terrors, and after he injures his sister in one... Read more
Published on 20 May 2009 by Troll woman
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