Sue's Book Reviews: Forever Rose (by Hilary McKay)

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I have so enjoyed re-reading the ‘Casson family’ series of books by Hilary McKay over the past few months. They’re intended for older children, but are the kind of books that can be of interest to people of all ages, and I feel quite sad that I have just finished the final book in the series.

I last read ‘Forever Rose’ in 2012, so had almost entirely forgotten the storyline. The family feel quite familiar to me, however, and particularly the youngest, Rose. She is eleven in this book, and narrates it all from her perspective. The author gets her voice wonderfully well. Rose is artistically gifted, but struggles with academics. She doesn’t like reading at all, and doesn’t understand maths. Her best friend Kiran usually helps her - sometimes letting her copy everything - as she doesn’t want to be in the lowest ability group in Class 6 (Year 6 as it’s known now).

Rose would benefit hugely from home education, although she doesn’t seem to be aware that it’s legal. However, her family is so bizarre that they might find it difficult to come up with an educational philosophy, and almost certainly wouldn’t follow through or convince anybody of their suitability for educating her. So perhaps it’s as well that she goes to school. Unfortunately Class 6 has a very strict and somewhat unfair teacher whom none of them much like. He wants them to work hard to do well in their SATS tests, and won’t even let them take a break to do Christmas-related things at the end of term.

But school isn’t Rose’s only worry. She’s got used to her father living in London, although she misses him desperately. When he is at home, he imposes some order on the chaos, and ensures their fridge is well stocked. Rose’s mother Eve is very bohemian - close to neglectful - and spends most of her time in her shed at the end of the garden, where she paints. She has to paint to earn money, and knows it’s not real art, and she does love her family very much. But she tends to forget about them. And in this book, she becomes ill, first with a cold and eventually bronchitis, so she keeps to her shed rather than spreading germs.

Rose hasn’t seen her oldest sister Caddy for over a year, and misses her too. She had gone travelling, and sent a few postcards, but nobody knows where she is. The next family member, Saffy, is very keen on school, and make-up, and is often out. Indigo, who must be about thirteen or fourteen, is conscious of responsibilities but he’s quite busy too. And it looks as though Indigo’s friend David might be moving in, along with his drum kit…

There’s a lot in this book, which I could hardly put down once I had started. I loved the way that Saffy and her friend Sarah try to help Rose to read books - something she resists strongly - and how, eventually, she discovers the joy of reading. I liked Rose’s friends Kiran and Molly, too. Molly is convinced she is boring, but she takes part in lots of after-school activities, and has started coming up with some unusual ideas…

Yes, there are caricatures, perhaps all the more so because the book is all written from Rose’s (inevitably biassed) perspective. And yet, I could believe in them all as I was reading. I could almost feel the affection that the Cassons have for each other, despite their differences, and I could sympathise with Rose feeling lonely when nobody else was at home, even though she finds it frustrating when there are too many people about.

There’s some humour in the book, as with the earlier ones in the series. I smiled several times, and even chuckled once or twice. I was quite moved, in places, too; particularly as the attitude’s of David’s family became more and more evident.

The ending is beautifully done, tying up a lot of threads and seeing Rose extremely thankful for all she has. It’s perhaps a tad overdone, but I didn’t mind that. It does have a clear and satisfying finish, with a sense that this really is the end of the series, and that things are looking up for the Cassons in the future.

I would recommend 'Forever Rose' very highly if you have read others in this series. It’s not necessary to have read them, but it gives much more of a sense of continuity, and, at the end, of closure. Intended for children of around nine to twelve, but I think it has a much wider appeal than that.

The other books in the series, from a chronological rather than publication point of view are: