Artichoke Hearts

Product Information

The Artichoke Heart charm Mira's grandmother gives her and what she experiences in just one month of her life, teaches Mira about the many layered secrets of the human heart.

But he has a sense of vulnerability about him, especially when you learn more about him and his history. I think it was mainly because I didn't like Mira all that much (at least at first) and I get the feeling that had I read it when I was the same age as Mira it would be one of my favourite, most touching books.This is one of the best 'younger' young adult books that I have read and would certainly recommend it to any teenager. Artichoke Heart tells the story of a time that changes Mira forever as she begins to step out of her childhood shoes and walk other paths.

It's total innocence and they are both SO cute around each other - particularly when they sent all the text kisses to each other. Artichoke Hearts is a funny, tender and realistic book for readers 9-14 who enjoy real stories about real kids. This is a classic "coming of age" book, in which various rites-of-passage are experienced by Mira, the 12 year old protagonist. Mira is described with having dark skin like her mother and the girl's skin on the cover is not even close).

It doesn't make sense to Mira - how someone as outspoken and quirky, as dazzling and as beautiful, as loving and as permanent as Nana Josie can slip away from her. Artichoke Hearts centres around the life of 12-year-old Mira Levenson as she reaches the point in her young adult life where she suddenly has to face up to a lot of changes - from her family, her love life and even her own body. He’s a cheeky scamp who hides his intelligence and goofs around in class because it’s, like, totally lame to be clever in school, right? There we meet a small group of equally diverse characters include Jide, an orphan whose parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide.

I loved that even though Meera's gradual loss of her grandmother is heartbreaking (and spot-on in terms of the emotional journey), this is not a depressing novel. British children’s fiction, particularly contemporary realistic fiction, is full of amazing slang that I wish I could adopt in my life without my roommates looking at me funny. It was also good to be able to see how she acted around other people, especially family members who knew how ill she was.Also the growing relationship between Jide and Mira is presented beautifully – you can almost hear Mira’s shrieks of delight when Jide sends her a text ending with an “x”. But I didn't and it wasn't, although I would strongly recommend it for girls Mira’s age – 10-13 year olds – as they will be going through the same experiences of starting secondary school, having their first period, experiencing their first love (though I really feel she was a bit too young to have a boyfriend and felt uncomfortable reading about snogging between two twelve year olds, even if they acted much older and you often forget that they are only in Year 7). We do go on a 'journey' with Mira as she experiences new feelings and goes through a major life event, losing one of the most important people to her, her Nana Josie.

I did find a couple of things about their friendship strange and maybe you will feel the same if you read this book, until then though, I don’t want to give too much away about why. I do not know whether or not it was intended or whether it would strike other people in the same way, but as I read this book I found myself reading into some of the characters, a sort of other-worldliness which at times Mira herself does wonder about.Anyway, it was a sweet story and the relationship between her and her grandmother was very nice (and I liked seeing a sympathetic representation of a hospice in a kids story). But you see when Jidé and Mira talk and all ITs jUSt CHEESY and BORING its almost like a fake love conversation. Mira lacks confidence and finds it difficult to make herself heard amid the chaos of her family life and the hierarchy imposed by her more extroverted classmates. But I think even though I think it’s important to not scare the living crap out of kids about things like this, it is of equal importance to not wrap them in cotton wool and dumb things down so they are condescending. Her many projects and writing commissions have been produced in theatres, universities, schools and community groups throughout Britain and America.