posted on 02 Feb 2019

Lightening Chase Me Home by Amber Lee Dodd

Home-schooled Amelia has a rather lonely life with her Da and Granpa on stormy Dark Muir Island, far north of the Shetland Islands. Her mum, who was not an Islander and so had always felt something of an outsider in the close knit community, had left the three of them over a year before to pursue new adventures. The loss and sadness was still overwhelming for all of them, especially Amelia.  Everything changes again on Amelia’s eleventh birthday when she takes part in the traditional island ritual of touching the Serpent’s Tooth rock just outside the harbour, to make a special wish. Apparently all eleven year olds are expected to do this as a rite of passage and are usually expected to swim there – not an easy feat. She decides on the safer option and so goes out there with her Da in his boat. Nevertheless it is a momentous occasion and as she dangles over the wild sea held firmly by Da, she experiences a strong sensation as she wishes to be with her mum again.

More difficult changes are on the horizon because Da and Granpa are not successful at home-schooling Amelia - that was something that her mum had done very well since she was seven. She had tried to go to school before that but had trouble with learning to read and write so was labelled by the teacher as  ‘unteachable’. Now it seemed to be time for her to try again as a pupil at Bridlebaine Academy on the neighbouring island – a daunting prospect. 

The author manages to communicate Amelia’s overall discomfort very effectively, from the first day when she is laughed at by the other pupils for choosing to wear yellow wellingtons, through her confusion once she arrives at school and her subsequent experience of bullying. She does find a friend in Tom who is another new pupil and is also socially awkward; together they find ways to make school more bearable. But this isn’t really a school story because it is her gradual realisation that she has the magical power to literally disappear from difficult situations that dominates her new life. The problem is that she doesn’t seem to be able to control this terribly well, so that it seems more of a curse than advantage.  

There is a cast of interesting characters with plenty of flaws. Tom proves to be something of a fair weather friend who is unwilling to take risks when confronted with the very unpleasant Blair Watson, a super popular girl who seems determined to make Amelia’s life at school as miserable as possible. To be fair, he does prove to be more dependable towards the end of the story when the going gets really tough. Hettie and Penny are the two rather spooky elderly neighbours who turn out to be rather nicer than Amelia gives them credit for at the beginning of the story. I warmed to her ever patient, practical but exasperated Da, a man who is rooted to the island and determined to make a good life for his daughter, despite her unhappiness. She has a very close relationship to Granpa who is beginning to show serious signs of forgetfulness which becomes increasingly trying for everyone. But it is the absent mum who fascinated me, perhaps because she has become so important to Amelia who tends to romanticise the past and imagine that she is having intrepid and exotic experiences across the other side of the world. We never meet her face to face in this story but instead get to know her through the well- thumbed Little Book of Lady Adventurers, a precious memento from mum that Amelia treasures.  These true tales of impressive, brave women (full biographical notes at the back of the book) who travelled over the harshest terrains overcoming the perils of snakes, bears, icy climates and more have framed her view of what Mum is probably doing. When she eventually receives a letter, it seems that this isn’t the case at all, and it is quite a relief to find that she too is fallible.

The other memorable character is the sea which is ever present, always brooding and often menacingly dangerous.

 I strongly recommend this exciting, well written story about a likeable young heroine that is packed with action and magic but firmly set against a backcloth of home and a loving, if somewhat unconventional family.  

Karen Argent

January 2019