- Red Sky in the Morning
"Red Sky in the Morning" is a young adult novel by
Elizabeth Laird , first published in 1988.Plot introduction
The story is narrated by the fictional Anna Peacock, aged 12, who starts the narration with her brother's birth. He is born in Anna's house and named Benedict. The doctor finds that Ben is handicapped and has
hydrocephalus . Anna's life becomes much more difficult with a handicapped brother, as she finds it rather difficult to explain to people about it, because she knows they would not understand. Nonetheless she loves him dearly and helps to look after him.Soon, after Miranda 'meets' Benedict for her first time, the word of him being disabled quickly spreads to the rest of Anna's classmates. When Anna finds out that her classmates were talking badly about Benedict behind her back, she got very angry and nearly started a fight with them. However instead of doing so, she broke down in front of all of them. After seeing her cry, they pitied her and they would visit her and her brother. After going to her house for several times, they found out that Benedict wasn't that bad after all despite his outward appearance.
The Inspiration
Elizabeth Laird wrote "Red Sky in the Morning" because of her little brother Alastair and as Laird says on her website "Everything that happened to Ben in the story happened to Alastair."
Awards & nominations
• Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal• Shortlisted for the Children's Book Award
References
* http://www.elizabethlaird.co.uk/B01_RedSky.html
* http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/authors/liz_laird/liz_laird_interview.asp
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