This book should be common ground, should be showing that both sides are as good and as bad as each other, and therefore that neither side is good or bad.

If it was the other way round and loyalists were the ones causing the trouble, the ones sparking it all off, I would be just as rubbed up. Or maybe it's lazy writing.Īnd don't get me wrong, it's not the fact that it's painting nationalists in a bad light and therefore giving good little Protestant girl Sadie an excuse for revenge. Maybe this is me being butt hurt and missing the point.

And maybe this is me looking too deeply into it. It's always the Nationalists starting it. It's always the CATHOLICS making trouble. There are a couple of other examples, like comments Kevin made, and the fact that Mr and Mrs McCoy left Brede in charge in charge when they were away despite the fact that Kevin was at least two years older than her. I could rant about how ridiculous this idea is, but I'll save you that. And honestly, I don't mind it that much, but a couple of things just got on my nerves, such as Mrs Jackson making the comment 'a woman is nothing without her kitchen'. Of course, I take into consideration that it was written in the 70s. Cutting to the chase, I didn't like the low-key sexism. While this book was good in several respects (it was short, was factual, etc.) it also had downfalls which for me, unfortunately, were a bit more prominent than it's good aspects.ġ. I'd been looking forward to reading this book for a while and the negative rating reflects my disappointment. Lingard was awarded an MBE in 1998 for services to children's literature. Her most recent novel, What to Do About Holly was released in August 2009. In 1998, her book Tom and the Tree House won the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award. Tug of War has also received great success: shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1989, The Federation of Children's Book Group Award 1989, runner up in the Lancashire Children's Book Club of the year 1990 and shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award. Lingard received the prestigious West German award the 'Buxtehuder Bulle' in 1986 for Across the Barricades. Her first children's novel was The Twelfth Day of July (the first of the five Kevin and Sadie books) in 1970. Her first novel Liam's Daughter was an adult-orientated novel published in 1963. She is probably most famous for the teenage-aimed Kevin and Sadie series, which have sold over one million copies and have been reprinted many times since. Lingard has written novels for both adults and children.

She has three daughters and five grandchildren, and now lives in Edinburgh with her Canadian husband. She attended Strandtown Primary and then got a scholarship into Bloomfied Collegiate. Joan Lingard was born in Edinburgh, in the Old Town, but grew up in Belfast where she lived until she was 18.

The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard