Reading bestsellers is good, but discovering hidden gems is even better. The 10PM Question is one of those gems. Like 600 Hours of Edward, I ordered this when it was a 99p Kindle Daily Deal and fell in love with a book I’d never otherwise have found.Frankie Parsons is 12 years old, the youngest in a slightly dysfunctional but entirely endearing family – Frankie had me smiling within a couple of pages when he declares ‘this house doesn’t work!’ and kept me smiling till the end of the book. Kate De Goldi has created a beautiful character in Frankie: he is eternally well-meaning and incredibly anxious. He worries about everything, from whether the smoke alarm needs new batteries to whether the rash on his chest is life-threatening. He shoulders many burdens, knowing that unless he does the grocery shopping it won’t get done. And he is both infuriated by and unerringly loyal to his eccentric family and best friend Gigs.Every night, with the weight of the world stopping him falling asleep, Frankie makes a 10pm visit to his mother’s bedroom. He lets her know what’s troubling him and she has the answer. These mother-and-son moments are heartwarming and lovely. What isn’t said is as poignant as what is. The two questions Frankie really wants to ask are the two he can’t bring himself to ask: why hasn’t Ma left the house in a decade, and is Frankie going to end up like her? But when new-girl Sydney bursts into Frankie’s life, her incessant chatter and uncensored questions force him to start examining his life and his family and himself a little deeper.There are a lot of things I love about this book. Frankie is the first: it’s impossible not to become instantly fond of him, and I felt really protective of him too. Looked at through Frankie’s eyes, the world is a strange and troubling place. Most of us haven’t had to deal with the family situation Frankie deals with, but I think everyone who’s been a teenager can sympathise with many of the things he feels throughout the book. The characterisation generally is wonderful. The Aunties are a genius creation – both the fattest and the most dependable people Frankie knows. Uncle George, Gordana and Louie are embarrassing and irritating but there for little Frankie when he needs them. Gigs is the perfect counterfoil for Frankie, and Sydney is a whirlwind of activity who shoulders her fair share of burdens but deals with life in a very different way. Each of them is inherently believable, strange, flawed and very human.I loved the narrative, too. Kate De Goldi has somehow managed to embody in her writing what it’s like talking to a pre-teenage boy: that absolute simplicity and clarity of thought combined with the frantic and slightly startling changes of direction and wandering focus. It’s both easy to read and hard to follow, in a way that might irritate some people but added to the charm of the novel for me. Similarly, The 10PM Question combines touching, tender moments (Frankie’s conversation with one of the Aunties towards the end of the novel had me in tears) with scenes of great comedy (I laughed out loud when Frankie’s cat, The Fat Controller, presented him with the spoils of a nocturnal hunting trip). In both these ways and more, the novel mirrors the ups and downs and contradictions that characterise pre-teenage life.The 10PM Question touches on several big issues, without ever really naming or defining them. There is no statement of intent or moral message, and there are no real answers to any of Frankie’s questions – and again, this is part of what makes it such a worthwhile book for anyone, not just the young adult audience it’s marketed at. It’s quirky, unique and lovely, and you should read it. I know I should like this book and I tried, I really tried. Just like Frankie's report on his work experience day, other than the imagery around the birds it just seemed like a veneer, was at times way too obvious and some of the characters simply weren't believable. What 12 year old boy talks about how sweets were different when they were younger...what, when he was 10? This sounded like the author's voice (more my age and more how I would speak...and I have been known to lament that they took the glowing red end off Spaceman Cigarettes and called them Candy Sticks). Having just read and enjoyed two other books from the perspective of prepubescent boys, I was very much looking forward to the 10pm Question. It sums it up really when I had to think twice whether I had actually finished it when I was starting the review. Really disappointed.
What do You think about The 10PM Question (2008)?
I seldom read this topic in children's books, it's quite enjoyable and enlightening. Well written.
—HannieFresh
