#BookRecommendation- ‘Tender’ by Eve Ainsworth

Lovereading4kids kindly sent me this copy of ‘Tender’ by Eve Ainsworth, courtesy of Scholastic UK

However, between me requesting this and it arriving, my daughter who was a voracious reader, suddenly downed tools and stopped reading.

Being a lover of YA fiction, I took up the slack whilst haranguing her daily to stop focussing on a YouTube star’s puppy’s birthday and read.

But I digress. ‘Tender’ is a beautiful book that will leave you feeling exactly that. Tender and a bit fragile. The focus is on 2 teenagers who are both struggling in their own way with challenging personal lives.

Marty has lost his father and is slowly losing his mother to what adults might realise is increasingly fragile mental health. It is not clearly addressed, but is implied that she may have paranoid delusions. Her new boyfriend, J, doesn’t understand Marty, is worried that social services will look too closely at their home if Marty plays up at school, leaving him little option but to mitch whenever possible.

‘I’m fine,’I said.’We both are,seriously.’

But as I left the room,there was a little voice in my head: tell them the truth.

Mum isn’t sleeping.

Mum isn’t eating.

Mum’s cracking up.

I think I might be too.

Instead, he helps his aunt Jackie, his dad’s sister, who runs a antique stall at the local market , having taken it over after his father’s death.It is here that he meets Daisy.

Daisy is the alternate narrator of ‘Tender’, she is fighting her own battle at home. Her younger brother was born with Muscular Dystrophy and is now the focus of their parent’s attention. Dad is working overtime, Mum has given her job up to be a full time carer. Overwhelmed and burdened with being the perfect daughter, Daisy is finding it hard. She makes no demands, and lies awake hearing her parents argue about things she cannot understand.

You don’t want to know how confused I feel, because you haven’t got time to listen to my pathetic worries.

And you don’t want to know that as of this moment I never want to be a mum, because I can’t end up like you.

Marty and Daisy find each other the release that they cannot find in their parents, they can talk to each other, hesitantly at first at a Young Carers group which Marty attends to avoid the ever circling social workers.

Events for both teens as Daisy’s brother becomes hospitalised and Marty’s mother becomes unrestrained and escalates into violence.

Marty and Daisy feel the weight of their individual and shared burdens so keenly and feel the threat of the encircling teachers, social workers, and germs which could tear their fragile families asunder.

Marty is named for the lead character in his mother’s favourite film ‘Back to the Future’ when she is sadly living in a reality that no one can recognise. His fear of being found out is suffocating, and the steps he takes to try and care for his mother are heart breaking.

In Daisy’s case, she is the sunshine girl, the one that her parents ‘got right’. Undemanding, uncomplaining but ‘too heavy’ for her friends who are only concerned about which boy they want to go out with.

Judged from within and without, they only have each other to lean on and as they do so, their friendship develops into a mutual affection and support.

‘Tender’ describes how Daisy and Marty feel, like the crack on the cover covered with Sellotape, the scar tissue is developing and visible but it doesn’t mean weakness. The tenderness with which Daisy cares for her brother and Marty for his mother is described so beautifully. I loved this book and when my daughter decides she would like to read more than YouTube, then this will be waiting for her(I am hoping this will be sooner rather than later!)