My Name Is Leon

When the book opens, Leon is an eight-year-old mixed race child with a newborn white half-brother, Jake. Leon and Jake’s mother, Carol, suffers from post-partum depression, and she perhaps has other mental health problems as well. Inevitably, Leon and Jake end up in foster care, with Jake on the path to adoption while the best Leon can hope for is a permanent foster placement. Leon finds a home with Maureen, and then with Maureen’s sister, Sylvia, and he finds a community at the local allotment. Unbeknownst to the adults in his life, Leon cannot forget the bond he shares with Jake, and his sole goal in life is to find the brother that he has lost.

The third-person narrator writes from Leon’s perspective. Leon understands more than show more the adults in his life give him credit for, but he also misunderstands things that he observes and overhears. Leon is dimly aware of national events, including the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and the race riots that took place in the spring and summer of 1981. Leon somehow becomes a catalyst for bridging social and cultural divisions between the lonely and grieving adults who have all come to care for him. Audio narrator Lenny Henry hits just the right tone for this story. Warmly recommended. show less

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

What a great way to start 2017! My Name is Leon was everything a book could be: emotional, funny, well written and delicately touching upon terribly difficult topics. Go read it now!

No, seriously... What are you still doing here? Go!

Oh well, since you're still here, let me tell you why you should bother with this little gem of a book. Firstly, this book was highly original. I loved the fact that our protagonist is a biracial young boy whose family is so messed up he and his brother end up in foster care. This is a very sensitive topic, and one I actually rarely see represented in show more books. Yet somehow, the author managed to touch upon the issues faced by fostered children ever so lightly, truly helping the reader see the world from Leon's point of view. I was touched by this little boy's deep, deep love towards his mother and brother, I was amazed by his sense of responsibility and suffered his same frustration when his whole world collapsed.

Also, I loved the characters. Leon himself was incredibly well developed, growing and changing throughout the book. He is a real kid, with his problems, and his dreams. It was very interesting to get inside his little boy's mind to witness first hand exactly how he lived through all the things that happened to him. Themes of discrimination, equality, children's rights are delicately built in the story, so that it never feels like a lecture but still manages to get you thinking. The secondary characters were also very well developed, despite being seen only through Leon's eyes.

Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, My Name is Leon is one book that, even in its simplicity, will capture you entirely. Perfect to cozy up with in the cold winter, preferably with a good cup of English tea to get you in the right mood. show less

Leon is eight years old when his brother Jake is born. It is 1979 and Leon loves The Dukes of Hazard, Action Man and his brother. His Mum, Carol, is unstable so Leon and Jake are taken into care and placed with a foster mother, Maureen. Jake is blonde, blue-eyed baby and Social Services put him up for adoption, Leon is a mixed-race, troubled boy on the brink of adolescence and he is to stay with Maureen. Maureen becomes ill and Jake is moved to stay with her sister. Here he makes friends with the old men on the local allotments but Leon has a plan to reunite his family. Meanwhile racial tension is building in the area...
From the very first page this book had me hooked. Leon is such a sympathetic character, coping with his mother's show more mental illness and lifestyle, then being separated from his baby brother, a brother he had been the chief carer for. Against the backdrop of the social services system in the early 80s, separating the brothers was seen as logical. The fact that Leon is mixed race is not a tool for the plot to involve racial tension, it just seems completely natural. The secondary characters are also complex, Mr Devlin falsely thought to be a pervert, Tufty and Castro and the casual racism they encounter, Maureen a complete hero. The writing is clever, told from the point of view of an eight-year old but with enough insight to bring the larger political events to bear. this is a wonderful read. show less

this is a wonderful book, and leon totally took root in my heart. (unless your heart is dead-dead-dead, you will want to take leon into your own home.) holy smokes! i feel de waal did a fantastic job bringing the voice, actions, and feelings of 9-10yo leon to life. de waal cleverly handles a lot of big issues here with so much sensitivity, integrity and authenticity. (post-partum depression, mental health, foster care, multiracial people and sentiments, the UK race riots of 1981, the brouhaha leading up to the marriage of charles & diana, the meaning of family, the importance of sibling relationships, the importance of hearing children...) while a terrific portrayal of a very specific time in london, england (and not to sound totally show more hokey here), this novel transcends its time and place and is incredibly relevant and necessary today.

there is a great section included by the publisher at the end of the edition i read - it offers book club questions and an author interview. i loved the interview with de waal. and loved learning that leon will be back for readers!! can't. wait. show less

This book should come with a packet of tissues; I felt so emotionally invested in this book and completely engrossed in Leon's story that I kept thinking about it long after I had turned the final page.

Leon is almost 9 years old and already he is acting as a carer for his baby brother, Jake, and his mother, Carol. As it becomes clear that his mother cannot look after Leon and Jake, or even herself, Leon and Jake are taken into care. So they pack their meagre belongings and go to live with Maureen, their foster carer. Maureen has fostered lots of children and she welcomes each and every one of them into her home and loves them as if they were her own children. With Maureen opening her heart to Leon and Jake so unconditionally, I show more immediately knew that they were in good and safe hands.

I thought my heart would break when Leon kept wondering when his mother would come back for them but as Carol shows no signs of getting back on her feet, it is not long before Jake is adopted and Leon is left feeling understandably bereft. When Maureen is suddenly taken ill it is her sister, Sylvia, who steps in to look after Leon. As Leon struggles to fit in to his ever-changing environment he rides his bike to the local allotments and makes some unlikely friends - a strange bunch of people who are all struggling to fit in and find that, in the end, they just might all fit together perfectly like the missing pieces of a jigsaw.

My Name is Leon is a wonderful advert for foster caring; it's a beautiful story that reminds us that 'family' can come in all guises, not just those we are related to by blood. We hear so many horror stories on the news that it is so refreshing to read a heartwarming, lovely story like this. I cried at the beginning, middle and end as Leon's plight is an all too common occurrence. Kit de Waal, in her astonishing debut, has done an amazing job of giving each of her characters a strong and completely unique voice; from Leon's hilarious innocence to Maureen's inexhaustible love. Such varied and unique characters who inevitably managed to set up house and make a little home in my heart.

Written with such breathtaking tenderness, My Name is Leon is an emotional, poignant, heartwarming story filled with innocent humour and, above all, hope.

I received this book from the publisher, Penguin, in exchange for an honest review. show less

3.5 Stars

An uplifting and poignant read. My name is Leon is a story told by a nine year old boy called Leon and while I am not a fan of child narrators the book was engaging and a worthwhile read.

A short debut novel that I felt had a YA feel to it but I think it is a novel that will resonate with all age levels and readers.
Set in Britain in the early 1980s, Leon is nine years old and brother to Jake who is 9 months old They have gone to live with Maureen after their mother Carol's breakdown, Maureen has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. Jake is quickly adopted and Leon is left in the foster care of Maureen and we start to see the and understand the world through Leon eyes and what life has in store for him show more and Maureen.
This book had so many emotions for me. It is sad, uplifting, painful, funny and sensitive. I preferred the first half really well written and fast paced and the author really knows how to tug the readers heartstrings. The main characters are interesting well drawn and believable. The author really conveys working class Britain of the time very accurately and I really enjoyed some of the throwbacks and all things 80s throughout the story.

A well written thought provoking novel that I think many will enjoy. show less

My name is Leon was an absolutely fantastic book, I'm so sad that I have finished it because I truly fell in love with little Leon.

Leon is a 9 year old boy mixed race boy with an estranged black Caribbean father and a mentally unstable white British mother called Carol.  The book is set in the early 1980's.

"I look like my dad.  Mum says he's coloured but Dad says he's black but they're both wrong because he's dark brown and I'm light brown".

He also has a brand new baby brother called Jake, who is white and for the most part Leon is his full time carer.  Leon loves his little brother and throughly enjoys taking care of him, he really tries his best and creates a heartwarming bond with his baby brother.  Sadly, Leon's mother show more eventually has a full breakdown and is no longer able to function (not that she was functioning well beforehand, she was seemingly more interested in her uninterested boyfriend than her 2 lovely sons), the 2 boys are then taken in to care, going to live with a lovely foster mother called Maureen

"Maureen's house smell of sweets and toast and when she stands near the kitchen window with the sun behind her, her fuzzy red hairstyle looks like a flaming halo.  She's got arms like a boxer and a massive belly like Father Christmas".

Maureen is an experienced foster mother and offers the 2 brothers a warm and loving home where the boys continue to grow their bond.

"Leon likes to watch Jake breathing.  Jake breathes through his tiny perfect nostrils and let's the air out either side of his dummy.  Then just as the dummy is about to drop out, Jake, in his sleep, draws it back in, sucks on it three times and starts all over again".

The story really starts to take shape when it transpires that baby Jake will be adopted permanently by a white family who don't want mixed race, 9 year old Leon.  Jake is brutally taken away from his loving brother and Leon is of course completely devastated and heartbroken and will do absolutely anything in his power to see Jake again.

Maureen is Leon's stabilising force through all this trauma, first losing his mother who is now totally incapable of caring for him and then his brother who is the light of his life.  To make matters worse, Maureen becomes Ill and is hospitalised, so again Leon finds himself alone in the world and things start to slowly spiral out of control as he tries to get his young life back together.

The story is told through Leon's eyes and there are so many endearing observations that only a 9 year would make which makes this book all the more heartwarming at times.

"Right below the ball of his skull, right where his knuckly backbone pokes up towards his brain, Leon has a little dent.  It's a groove that dips in between two hard bits and Maureen made it.  It's where she pushes Leon with her thick fingers whenever he has to do something.  She never pushes him hard but it's always, always the same place, same spot, right on his neck.  Leon's dad used to use funny words and he would have called that place his 'neck-back' and then it would have been clear where it was".

I was literally finding myself holding back tears or smiling to myself throughout the entire book.  It's set in the very early 80's so there is also a lot of social commentary relating to the period which provided lots of food for thought such as the Brixton Riots, IRA bombings and the marriage of Charles & Diana.  Leon also makes some interesting yet unlikely friends during this traumatic time.
Overall this book is a must read for everyone, but I felt I could especially relate to many of Leon's struggles.

I think this will easily be one of the best books I will read this year. show less