This is a really sweet story that tugs at your heartstrings from the first page. Leon, a normal 9 year old who likes Action Men and bikes has to be a carer to his mum and his baby brother. When he can't cope any longer he is separated from them both and his plans and wishes to find them again are so moving that you are shouting out for a happy ending. Instead, an explosive situation leaves him vulnerable and finally admitting to how he feels. There is a happy ending but not the one I hoped for.

Gripping and a real,page turner. Will definitely look for this author in future.

This book was just breathtakingly amazing. (I devoured most of it within a day)

It is set on the back drop of Riots and a Royal Wedding in the early 1980's in England.It tells the story of Leon who is nine and his journey through the foster care system at this time

From the first page I felt as though I was just on this journey with Leon, I laughed and I cried along with him. I loved that the narrative was only told from Leon's prospective,there is something special about a child protagonist

I wish I could force everyone to read this book just see how wonderful it is.

This book is so sweet and relatable. Your heart aches for Leon - the poor confused misunderstood little boy who perseveres in the face of intolerable sadness., even as you quirk your eyebrows at some of the antics. I liked Maureen the most even though you see her character develop from the eyes of a conflicted 9 year old. I really enjoyed reading the book from Leon's POV. I think the author delved deep to capture his thoughts and feelings accurately. Took me back to some painful aspects of my childhood.

The book is a little slow but it pays off and is worth the time. Highly recommended.

What a great way to start 2017! My Name is Leon was everything a book could be: emotional, funny, well written and delicately touching upon terribly difficult topics. Go read it now!

No, seriously... What are you still doing here? Go!

Oh well, since you're still here, let me tell you why you should bother with this little gem of a book. Firstly, this book was highly original. I loved the fact that our protagonist is a biracial young boy whose family is so messed up he and his brother end up in foster care. This is a very sensitive topic, and one I actually rarely see represented in books. Yet somehow, the author managed to touch upon the issues faced by fostered children ever so lightly, truly helping the reader see the world from Leon's point of view. I was touched by this little boy's deep, deep love towards his mother and brother, I was amazed by his sense of responsibility and suffered his same frustration when his whole world collapsed.

Also, I loved the characters. Leon himself was incredibly well developed, growing and changing throughout the book. He is a real kid, with his problems, and his dreams. It was very interesting to get inside his little boy's mind to witness first hand exactly how he lived through all the things that happened to him. Themes of discrimination, equality, children's rights are delicately built in the story, so that it never feels like a lecture but still manages to get you thinking. The secondary characters were also very well developed, despite being seen only through Leon's eyes.

Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, My Name is Leon is one book that, even in its simplicity, will capture you entirely. Perfect to cozy up with in the cold winter, preferably with a good cup of English tea to get you in the right mood.

"Leon" is a story told from the perspective of a 9 year old boy with a white mother and black father who is trying to come to terms with the aftermath of being fostered out when his mother has a breakdown. It is a beautifully observed study of a child trying to make sense of the baffling adult world. He is devastated when him and his baby brother are put into foster care and subsequently his brother is adopted by a couple with the implication being that he is easier to place because he is white. Leon gradually learns more about what it means to be mixed race when he meets up with some adult gardeners at an allotment in the midst of some race riots around the time of the 1980s royal wedding. Apart from some strong language, it would be a suitable book for older children and teenagers and the pictures at the top of the chapters may indicate that this is the market that the author has selected. The characters were well drawn and although the story was simple and a little predictable in places it had a heartwarming tone to it and i really wanted to root for Leon and hope that he came out all right in the end.

Leon is in the worst of all possible places. A carer at 9 and facing more disaster than he knows. We readers know what he might encounter but he is blissfully unaware of the perils of his position. His stoicism and enterprise are well sculpted and his story is palatable despite its despair. The peripheral characters are well drawn and wholly believable, one can almost smell the cigarette smoke and general stink of the homes in which he survives. Such books make one want a better life for so many of our fellow humans who live and exist in almost inhuman places both physically and emotionally. I loved the book and the character.

I would like to thank Penguin Books (UK) for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

My Name is Leon is a story told by a nine-year-old boy called Leon. I'm normally not a fan of child narrators as I find them to be either unreliable or too mature for their age. This book, however, got the balance perfect and I found his story to be both engaging and heartbreaking.

Leon's story pulls on your heartstrings, but at the same time inspires hope and reminds us that family, love, and understanding, can be found in the most unlikely places. My heart broke for Leon, I could feel his loss, confusion, frustration, and yearning, and I cried a few tears for him while reading. I just wanted to hug him and help him make sense of all that was happening.

In summary, My Name is Leon is an emotional, thought-provoking book which will bring both tears of sadness and of hope, and will have you reaching for your tissues.

It's a short read, but it packs a punch. It touches on many sensitive and important issues such as race and racism, mental illness, and the foster care system.

Definitely one I would recommend.

I've seen so many people praising this book on social media that when it came up on Netgalley as one of the Costa short-list, I thought I'd give it a read. Sadly I didn't take to it as others have.
I liked the way the author captured the voice of a nine year old, and the representation of his limited understanding of both his own and his mum's situation, BUT I never felt affected by his plight or involved in the story. Without that 'tear-jerker' reaction, the story itself is too slight, and somewhat predictable.

Leon is a 9 year old mixed race boy, living with his mother and brand new half-brother Jake. His mum has mental health issues, so Leon looks after both her and Jake as best he can. But it all gets too much for him, and social services take the boys into care. Their new foster-mum Maureen gives the boys some much-needed love and stability in their lives.

Baby Jake is white, and adoptive parents are quickly found for him. But it’s not so easy to find new parents for Leon, so the boys are split up. Leon is left to deal with all the confusing emotions of a 9 year old boy who has lost his family. Life is difficult, but he learns that family doesn’t just mean the people who you are related to.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s written in Leon’s voice, so you really get to experience things from his point of view. You see how the adults have Real faces and Pretend faces, and hear how they talk about him when they think Leon isn’t listening. You feel the intense love he has for his baby brother, and his pain when Jake’s new parents take him away.

My Name is Leon illustrates some of the difficulties of life in care in the early 1980s, especially for a mixed-race child at an awkward age. The plotline is both heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measures. Kit de Waal worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, and has sat on adoption panels, which gives her novel an authentic touch. And I certainly recognised some of the facets of 80’s life that she weaves into the story.

I instantly warmed to Leon, I think you’d have to have a heart of stone not to love this character. My heart ached for him as one family member after another disappeared from his life, I really hoped that he’d get a happy ending. And when I finished the book, I didn’t want to leave Leon, I wanted to find out more about what happened to him. For me, that’s a sign of a great character.

I also loved the other characters that Kit de Waal has created. Leon’s foster mum Maureen is an absolute angel, and also adds a comedic element that lightens the story. And the men at the allotments who befriend Leon are much needed male role models, even if they aren’t always quite what they seem!

My Name is Leon is set against the background of the race riots in the early 80s, which adds an extra layer of tension to the story. Leon has to cope with so many difficulties at his young age. It still shocks me that these kind of attitudes were so prevalent within my own lifetime.

This is Kit de Waal’s debut novel, and made the shortlist of the Costa First Novel Award 2016. I hope that Kit is already working on her second novel, I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my favourite books of 2017. Told from the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, a mixed-race foster child separated from his white baby brother by Social Services, and set during the race riots in Birmingham in the 1980s, this is a compelling narrative about identity, family and race. I couldn't put this book down and would definitely recommend it.

The story of one boy’s search for a family. Set in the early 1980’s, Leon looks after his baby brother, but increasingly has to care for his mother as well; and he’s only nine years old. When social services become involved his whole life changes. His baby brother is white and is adopted, but Leon’s father is black so he is separated from his brother and fostered by kindly, larger than life, red-haired Maureen.
In spite of his mother’s mental health problems and the neglect he suffers, Leon loves his mother and wants to bring his family back together, but everything is against him.
Set against the IRA hunger-strikes and the overt racism of the early 1980’s this is a vivid, well-written story that builds to a nail-biting conclusion. Told entirely from Leon’s point of view, the reader sees how family break-up, especially the separation of siblings, can lead to emotional fall-out, but, ultimately, with the right care can lead to a new kind of stability and happiness.
I found many echoes of Paul McVeigh’s debut novel The Good Son, set in Northern Ireland at a similar period also with an unreliable, working class child narrator. This debut novel from acclaimed and award-winning short story writer, Kit de Waal is warm and funny and is told with an authenticity and unaffectedness that makes it heart-breaking.
Highly recommended.

Kit de Waal's debut novel is a poignant, funny and endearing story about a young boy struggling to establish an identity and a place for himself against a background of neglect, ignorance and racial tension.

Leon's mother Carol is struggling to cope with him, his baby brother Jake and her own mental illness.  When she leaves him to manage on his own one too many times even her sympathetic neighbour Tina realises it's time to call in social services.  Leon and Jake are fostered by caring, maternal Maureen and Leon is finally starting to experience some stability and normality, when baby Jake, whose father is white, is adopted by a family who have made it clear that they don't have room for 9 year old mixed-race Leon in their lives.

Although his story is told in the third person, Leon's 'voice' seems to come through clearly in the tone and style of the book.  He is physically and psychologically mature for his age, probably due to having to grow up so quickly as the carer for both his mother and baby brother, but now and again something will happen which reminds the reader that underneath he's just a vulnerable young boy.   The book is set in 1981, with the Royal Wedding, hunger strikes and inner-city riots all adding background colour and character to the narrative, and the portrayal of Leon's treatment by (albeit well-meaning) social workers also harks back to a less enlightened age.

This is a book that will tug at the heartstrings whilst also bringing a smile to the lips (Maureen and her sister Silvia are great comic creations).  Kit de Waal has worked as an adoption lawyer and has undoubtedly used some of her experiences (both good and bad) to create this heartwarming but unsentimental book.  Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read it in exchange for an impartial review.

By turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, this is the story of Leon and his young brother who are taken into care. This story is narrated by Leon with a deft understanding of how a child in foster care would feel. Full of quirky characters and not afraid to tackle big issues, this book should be required reading for social workers and foster carers. Recommended!!