A review by debz57a52
Click: One Novel, Ten Authors by David Almond

4.0

While I was reading through this book, I kept thinking about Paul Fleischman's Whirlgig, since it includes short stories that are both independent of themselves and part of a wider story.  Of course, in Whirligig, Fleischman wrote all the stories, whereas Click includes stories from different writers, with different styles, word choice preferences, imaginations, and understandings of the final purpose of the story.  That's not a bad thing; it added a layer of complexity to this book as a whole.  Sometimes, there were stories written for the characters who were related to the photographer Gee Keane, but they were separated in this volume by stories about people who may Gee out in the world or were affected by his life's work of observing the world as it is.  There are a few big things going in this book

including a look at the victims of Hiroshima, prisoners of war, a man with multiple families who don't know each other, an emotional struggle with adoption by the adopted, not to mention the grief that comes with Gee's passing

and the author's of each story deal with these big issues and concepts in gentle ways.  A youth reading the chapters may need to have a chat with an adult after a few of the more distressing topics, if they truly grasp what is going on.  Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, and I just find it disappointing that it's so hard to find out in the world.