Came Back To Show You I Could Fly - Robin Klein

Came Back To Show You I Could Fly
Robin Klein
Puffin

I first read this book as a teenager. It was the summer holidays and feeling bored and hot I picked this book up for lack of something better to do. Fifteen years later when it was chosen for our bookclub, I had only a vague memory of the plot. It has become a habit with our little group to choose youth fiction. Maybe its the ability of YA to probe into dark and serious topics with eloquent subtlety that often make them a favourite with our small group.

Shy, reserved 11-year-old Seymour is dumped by his over controlling mother to spend his summer holidays with a fussy guardian. Seymour finds himself bored, frustrated and confined to his guardian’s house. By chance he meets Angela whom he finds glamorous, beautiful and bubbly. He is flattered by her attentions and her willingness to take him with herself on outings. What Seymour does not realize however, under her happy exterior, Angela is hiding a dark secret. Klein shows great mastery in slowly unfolding Angela’s secret through her interactions with Seymour and with letters placed at the end of chapters like small clues for the reader to decipher.

Came Back to Show You I Could Fly delves into the destructive nature of drugs and how it crushes not only the lives of its users but also their families. Trust breaks down, relationships are destroyed and lives are ruined as the addiction takes hold over its victims’ lives.