October, October

Author	Katya Balen
Illustrator	Angela Harding
Language	English
Genre	Children's fiction
Publisher	Bloomsbury Children's Books
Publication date	17 September 2020
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print, ebook and audiobook
Pages	304
ISBN	978-1-5266-0190-2

October, October is a 2020 children's novel by British author Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding and published by Bloomsbury Children's Books. It was Balen's second novel, following The Space We're In (2019).^[1][2] The novel follows 'October', an eleven year old girl who has been raised by her father in an isolated rural woodland home. After her father is seriously injured, she is forced to leave the woods and live in London with her estranged mother.^[3] The story examines family estrangement, friendship, storthe relationship between people and the natural world and the difficulty of adapting to an unfamiliar way of life.^[4]

In 2022, October, October won the Yoto Carnegie Medal.^[2][5] It also won the associated Shadowers' Choice Award, which was decided by children and young people participating in reading groups in the United Kingdom and overseas.^[6] It was highly commended in the children's writing on nature and conservation category of the Wainwright Prize.^[7]

October lives with her father in a house in the woods, where the pair lead a largely self sufficient and Off-the-grid existence.^[8] October is educated at home using their collection of books and has acquired a detailed knowledge of the surrounding woodland. Her mother left the family when October was four and now lives in London. October resents her departure, refuses to visit her and refers to her only as "the woman who is my mother".^[4] After a storm, October discovers an abandoned baby owl. Although her father initially tells her not to interfere with it, October brings the owl home when its parent does not return. She names it Stig and begins raising it. The owl's separation from its mother reflects October's own feelings of abandonment and her belief that she and her father require nobody outside their woodland home.^[4] On October's eleventh birthday, her mother arrives at the house. During the resulting confrontation, October climbs a tree and refuses to come down. Her father attempts to reach her but falls from the tree and seriously injures his back. While he undergoes treatment in hospital, October has no alternative but to move to London with her mother.^[2][4]

In London, October struggles with the noise, traffic and London underground.^[8] She resents attending school, rejects her mother's attempts to care for her and believes that she is responsible for her father's accident. She gradually becomes friends with a boy named Yusuf and joins him in mudlarking on the banks of the River Thames. Finding and imagining the histories of discarded objects gives October a connection to the stories she created from objects found in the woods.^[3] October discovers that her mother makes jewellery from objects she has found and begins to recognise similarities between them. Her relationship with her mother slowly improves, while her father continues his recovery. October also accepts that Stig must be taken to a wildlife sanctuary so that the owl can eventually be released. Through her experiences in London, she begins to understand that accepting friendship and family relationships does not require her to abandon her attachment to the wild.^[4]

Balen partly based the woodland setting on the experiences of her father in law, who lives off grid. The London portions of the novel were influenced by Balen's own interest in mudlarking and spending time outdoors.^[6][2] Storytelling is used throughout the novel as a way for October to interpret objects and experiences. Balen later explained that stories allow the character to connect with other people after having been isolated and displaced from the life she understood.^[9] Angela Harding provided black and white illustrations depicting the development of Stig and scenes from October's woodland and urban lives. Jane Churchill of Books for Keeps particularly praised Harding's sequence showing the owl's development and the book's illustrated jacket.^[4]

Bloomsbury Children's Books published the 304 page British hardback edition on 17 September 2020.^[1][10] A paperback edition was published on 30 September 2021 with ISBN 978-1-5266-0193-3.^[11] An audiobook narrated by Aysha Kala was released by Bloomsbury and has a running time of four hours and 27 minutes.^[12]

Alex O'Connell selected October, October as the children's book of the week in The Times and described it in the review's title as "a future wild classic", saying it was a poetic account of the changes experienced by a father and daughter living in the woods.^[13] The Irish Independent subsequently included the novel among its 50 best children's books of 2021 and described it as a prospective modern classic.^[14]

BookTrust praised Balen's treatment off both the attractions and potential disadvantages of a life separated from conventional society. Its review highlighted the novel's depiction of an estranged family, friendship and the structures that school and shared activities can provide for children.^[3] Churchill described the novel in Books for Keeps as a sensitive and beautiful examination of storytelling, family relationships and nature. She praised Balen's lyrical writing and the gradual development of October's relationship with her mother, although she questioned whether parts of the narrative reflected an adult perspective more strongly than that of a child.^[4] Writing in The School Librarian, Clare Morpurgo described the book as "a rich gift" which should be read slowly and appreciated.^[15] The book was also included in The Times selection of the best children's books of 2020.^[13]