Summary and Reviews of My Name Is Leon by Kit De Waal

My Name Is Leon by Kit De Waal

My Name Is Leon

by Kit De Waal
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  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 26, 2016, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2017, 304 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

For fans of The Language of Flowers, a sparkling, big-hearted, page-turning debut set in the 1970s about a young black boy's quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care.

Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, "I'm your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy." Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can.

But Leon isn't in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can't protect his little family from everything. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leon's own journey - on his brand-new BMX bike - will carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureen's cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as "The Zebra"; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists.

Told through the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right, he stubbornly, endearingly struggles his way through a system much larger than he can tackle on his own. My Name Is Leon is a vivid, gorgeous, and uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what, in the end, ultimately makes a family.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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So did I identify with Leon, despite being an elderly white American woman? Well, I unconsciously started referring to the book’s title as “I Am Leon.” Thanks to de Waal’s magnificent character development, my name might be Donna but now I am Leon too...continued

Full Review (818 words)

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(Reviewed by Donna Chavez).

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Beyond the Book



The Brixton Riots

Brixton RiotsWith his nappy black hair and dark complexion, the boy at the center of Kit de Waal's debut, My Name is Leon, is caught up in the middle of the racial tensions of 1981 South London. The biracial child has a nine-year-old's agenda, born of anger, and stumbles innocently into a roiling stew of grownup rage and frustration. The bigger snapshot of the day shows a fragile tinderbox of young Afro-Caribbean men who were unemployed, with lots of time on their hands, engaging in marginally legal and illegal activities for pocket change and something to do.

Brixton RiotsThese disenfranchised were the British-born sons and daughters of Caribbean immigrants who had settled in London after World War II. The young men, in particular, were suffering high...

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Read-Alikes

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