posted on 06 Apr 2020

A Bad Day For Jayden by Tony Bradman

You’ll probably know the saying ‘It never rains but it pours’ – it’s a way of describing the tendency of ill-luck or bad news to come along in clusters – and young Jayden is having one of those days in Tony Bradman’s new book for publisher, Barrington Stoke.

To be fair, Jayden’s bad day had been coming for a little while – his mom and dad had split up, his mom has lost her job and now she’s taken to her bed and is refusing to face the world. But this particular day is really the moment it all bubbles to the surface because it’s just one thing after another.

The first task on Jayden’s list is finding breakfast for his younger sister and then getting both of them out to school. When he gets there he finds his best friend, Dylan, has deserted him and thrown in his lot with the insensitive and thoughtlessly arrogant, Luca who seems to hate Jayden.

At first Jayden is puzzled and hurt but that’s replaced with anger when Luca starts bullying both him and his younger sister. Jayden is normally a quite, considerate and thoughtful child but an eruption is coming – that’s pretty clear.

But Jayden’s not the only one have a bad day. New supply teacher, Miss Wilson is finding things a bit of a trial. The bus has made her late for her first day and she’s wondering whether teaching like this, moving from school to school, is really for her.

But as fate would have it, Miss Wilson and Jayden come together in the same class and it’s the start of something a bit unexpected for the young boy and for the supply teacher.

Now, of course I’m not going to tell you how the story unfolds because you’re going to want to find this out for yourself. What I can say is that Tony Bradman is a skilful writer for this age group and he understands the issues – like bullying, like children with caring responsibilities, like the need for understanding teachers -  that mean a lot to school children.

As an additional bonus, the book has illustrations throughout which have been contributed by talented Lithuanian-born illustrator, Tania Rex.

 

Terry Potter

April 2020