My Name is Leon by Kit De Waal

So my first review on my blog will be for a lovely book called My Name is Leon. I think what I’ll try and do is post a copy of the book review that I’ve written for goodreads and amazon and then expand on it.

“My name is Leon is the heartbreaking tale of a little boy who doesn’t understand the world around him. Set in the 80s this book bought back memories for me of growing up in the time, of riots and royal weddings and the freedom to play outside.

Little Leon has a tough life, he’s been forced to grow up way too fast and to take on too much responsibility. He loves his baby brother Jake more than anything, but when their mum is unable to care for them social services make the decision to separate the brothers, ensuring that baby Jake is adopted but leaving the older, mixed race Leon to live a life in care.

There are some wonderful characters in My Name is Leon, Maureen I think is the stand out for me, a wonderful woman that every child would love to be their mum/grandmother. This book shows a diverse range of characters that build the story and bring it to life. I’d really recommend My Name is Leon, but you might need some tissues!

I was given an ARC of My Name is Leon by the publishers via Netgalley in return for an honest review.”

At first I found this book quite hard to read, it was heartbreaking to read about Leon and the difficulties that life was throwing at him. Thankfully it does get easier to read but it certainly isn’t a happy, light read. It was structured really well and as I said in the review there were many wonderful characters in the book that really brought it to life.

My Name is Leon isn’t published until June 2nd 2016 so if you’re reading this as I post you’ve got a while to wait, but it’s certainly worth remembering!