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My Name is Leon

Kit de Waal (Goodreads Author)

4.02 · Rating details · 7,494 ratings · 965 reviews

It's 1981, a year of riots and royal weddings. The Dukes of Hazzard is on TV and Curly Wurlys are in the shops. And trying to find a place in it all is young Leon.

Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, a belly like Father Christmas, and mutters swearwords under her breath when she t ...more

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Hardcover, 272 pages

Published June 6th 2016 by Viking (first published June 2nd 2016)

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· 7,494 ratings · 965 reviews

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Jun 22, 2016 Paromjit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, contemporary-fiction

This is a heartbreaking story told from the perspective of a young child, Leon, and his experience of his family falling apart, social services and foster care in London. It begins with Carol, Leon's mother, giving birth to baby Jake. Leon is captivated and enthralled by Jake.

Leon is a bright, intelligent and mature child who finds himself taking care of Carol and Jake by himself. Carol is unwell and experiencing mental health issues. Leon's bond with Jake is incredibly strong, he is acutely obs This is a heartbreaking story told from the perspective of a young child, Leon, and his experience of his family falling apart, social services and foster care in London. It begins with Carol, Leon's mother, giving birth to baby Jake. Leon is captivated and enthralled by Jake.

Leon is a bright, intelligent and mature child who finds himself taking care of Carol and Jake by himself. Carol is unwell and experiencing mental health issues. Leon's bond with Jake is incredibly strong, he is acutely observant of the baby's features, mannerisms and behaviour. However, Carol is hospitalised and the boys are placed in foster care. Baby Jake is adopted and Leon is left with Maureen, his foster mum. Despite Maureen understanding his grief, Leon's world fractures, leaving deep gaping emotional wounds that he is unable to articulate. Events take a turn for the worse as Maureen falls sick and Leon finds himself residing with her sister, Sylvia.

Leon finds himself cracking under the stress as he is still understandably inconsolable about his mum and Jake. He is determined to bring his family back together, whatever it takes. In the meantime, he is gifted a bike which begins to open up the world for him. He finds himself befriended by Tufty and Mr Devlin, who work on allotments. They encourage his interest in gardening and growing vegetables which bring Leon some level of solace. Upon running away to find his family, Leon finds himself caught up in the London riots. Finding himself in danger, Tufty and Mr Devlin help him at great cost to themselves. With Maureen's help, Leon comes to understand his mother is beyond his help and that there is no way she could care for him and Jake.

What Leon finds instead is an alternate family and friends who love and care for him. Maureen is rock solid in her love and support of Leon. In spite of his sorrows and heartbreak, Leon is prevented from a worse fate by the fact that the world has within it people who are prepared to love, help and support him. Writing this novel from a child's point of view could not have been easy yet the author gives us an authentic voice in Leon. There is a social and political commentary that takes in the issues of race of the time in the book. This is a brilliant read even though the issues made me angry and broke my heart. Highly recommended read. Thanks to Penguin Viking for an ARC. ...more

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Apr 04, 2016 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

This book could not have landed in my hands at a better time. I have a young friend who is 13 years old. She lives on the other side of the world from me. For privacy purposes...I'm not going to mention her name....( but she will know)....
I dedicate this review to her! My young friend has had a challenging life but is soooo
inspiring of a young girl...no words are the right words to express how exceptional she is.

I read "My Name is Leon", on the edge of tears much of the time.
I must find a way ...more

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Dec 10, 2016 F rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016, uk

Was a sad read.
Thought more was going to come of the end.
Loved the characters.
Heartbreaking at times.

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Mar 12, 2018 Dem rated it liked it

3.5 Stars

An uplifting and poignant read. My name is Leon is a story told by a nine year old boy called Leon and while I am not a fan of child narrators the book was engaging and a worthwhile read.

A short debut novel that I felt had a YA feel to it but I think it is a novel that will resonate with all age levels and readers.
Set in Britain in the early 1980s, Leon is nine years old and brother to Jake who is 9 months old They have gone to live with Maureen after their mother Carol's breakdown, M ...more

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Apr 01, 2016 Angela M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: edelweiss-reviews

I was hooked again ! Another book where the narrative is from a child's perspective and I couldn't resist the opportunity to get an advance copy. Leon, though is a little different from the precocious narrators I've fallen in love with who are sometimes wiser than the adults . This one is about a kid who really isn't quite sure what's happening around him and it's just so sad watching him try to make sense of it all. He may not understand but Leon is smart enough to try and take care of his baby
I was hooked again ! Another book where the narrative is from a child's perspective and I couldn't resist the opportunity to get an advance copy. Leon, though is a little different from the precocious narrators I've fallen in love with who are sometimes wiser than the adults . This one is about a kid who really isn't quite sure what's happening around him and it's just so sad watching him try to make sense of it all. He may not understand but Leon is smart enough to try and take care of his baby brother Jake when his mother is unable to do so .

It starts out happily enough with the birth of Jake, but it doesn't take long for things to go terribly wrong. It wasn't long before I had that same pain in my gut as I did for Easter and Ruby in This Dark Road to Mercy. These are different stories and Ruby and Easter are kept together and not separated as Leon and Jake are . Separated because it's easier to place a white baby than it is to place an eight year old biracial - half white, half black boy . As adults we know that life isn't fair, but how do you explain to an eight year old boy, who has been abandoned by his father, endured what no child should endure with his mother's mental illness and drug addiction why he can't go with his baby brother to be adopted ?

Maureen, a foster care giver , who takes Leon in, is a favorite character who genuinely cares about what happens to him and the impact of his separation from his mother and brother have on him . When she becomes ill , her sister Sylvia cares for Leon. Time passes and Leon turns ten with no clear plans for his future on the part of Social Services. Leon , on the other hand is very clear about what he wants to do . He will find his brother and his mother and take care of them both. He finds his way to the "allotments", learns to plant a garden and makes friends with Devlin , a former IRA member and Tufty, a West Indian man and activist and things go terribly wrong again as Leon finds himself in the middle of race riots.

This is a commentary on a number of issues : the racism and the riots in Britain in the 1980's , the short comings of the child welfare system, but at its heart it is the sad story of a boy who will steal your heart . The reader shouldn't let the simple language and style and the fact that it reads quickly fool them into thinking that this is not a story of substance . Kit de Waal , describes in an interview which appears at the end of the book "The most challenging aspect was thinking all the time about what is important to a child versus what we as adults notice. .....I tried to simplify the language of the book as much as possible."

The author has intimate knowledge of the story she tells. She's mixed race herself, has two adopted children of mixed race , and has worked in the foster care system for a number of years . I highly recommend this book which most of the time time is heartbreaking, but yet offers us some hope for a little boy named Leon. I can't imagine anyone reading this book and not falling in love with him.

Thanks to Viking/Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss. ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 Cheri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016, family-relationships, 70s-80s-era, childhood, foster-system

It’s the 1980’s as this debut novel begins; Leon is 8 years old, nearly nine, a mixed-race child whose mother has just given birth to his brother, Jake. Leon’s father is Jamaican, and Jake’s father is white, so Jake has pale skin and pale hair, like his mother. Leon adores his new baby brother from the start, from his tiny perfect toes to his soft, perfect hair, perfect tiny fingers. After Leon, his mother, and Jake go home, Leon helps his mother with Jake, trying to prove how responsible a big
It’s the 1980’s as this debut novel begins; Leon is 8 years old, nearly nine, a mixed-race child whose mother has just given birth to his brother, Jake. Leon’s father is Jamaican, and Jake’s father is white, so Jake has pale skin and pale hair, like his mother. Leon adores his new baby brother from the start, from his tiny perfect toes to his soft, perfect hair, perfect tiny fingers. After Leon, his mother, and Jake go home, Leon helps his mother with Jake, trying to prove how responsible a big brother he is, how he can change his diapers, even remembering the cream to prevent diaper rash. He takes great pride in the bond he has with Jake, as it grows and as Jake grows the way Jake calls out to him.

He’s so good at this, that eventually his mother gives him more and more responsibility. Eventually, days go by, and they’re out of food, and he has to ask a neighbor for help. Leon is still a child, but he isn’t forthcoming with the truth of the situation, trying to get by with asking for money. Once he has money, he can take better care of Jake. Clearly, no one else can do the job as well as he does.

Social workers get involved, placements are made. For a time Leon begins to feel safe in the home of Maureen, a caregiver, a “temporary” home, at least for Jake. Jake’s got the white skin and the blonde hair that makes him a premium candidate for adoption, while Leon, with his light chocolate skin and hair like his father’s at the “too-old” age of almost nine is considered “unadoptable.”

When the reality of this situation hits him, Leon rails against the unfairness of it all. They are BROTHERS. You just don’t do that; you don’t separate brothers, siblings. There’s never going to be a time in their life when their hearts cry at the unfairness of it all. Leon longs for Jake, but more often he’s worried about Jake. Who, after all is going to take care of him when Leon isn’t there? He knows in the deepest part of his heart that Jake’s heart is breaking, searching for Leon. Leon was his world; Jake knows this because Jake is Leon's world.

Poignant, thought-provoking, heart-breaking story about brothers, the importance of family, friendship, and how families are made from more than just blood, sometimes they are entirely made out of love.

Pub Date: 6 June 2016

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster, NetGalley and to author Kit de Waal for providing me with an advanced copy for reading and review.
...more

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Jul 11, 2016 Esil rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

An enthusiastic 4+ stars! My Name Is Leon hit just the right emotional punch. Set in the late 1970s in England, this book is told from 9 year old Leon's perspective. He is half black, living with his single mum and 1 year old brother. His mum is not up to the task of looking after her kids, so Leon looks after his brother and eventually they move into foster care with Maureen. And the rest of the book focuses on Leon's longing for his imperfect lost family and his actual life in foster care. I l ...more

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Jul 25, 2016 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-books

A moving, insightful book about two brothers -- one with black skin, one with white skin -- and their movement through the foster care system in England during the 1980s.

Leon, the title character in Kit de Waal's latest book, has shouldered more responsibility than any 10 year old should. Try as he might to be the best caretaker for his infant brother, and his mentally unstable mother, social services soon splits up the family. Leon learns the hard truth that while there are families willing to ...more

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Nov 08, 2016 Julie Christine rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, read-2016

A tender, beautifully rendered narrative that captures the voice and perspective of a vulnerable child with intelligence and clarity. Leon is nine, the son of Carol, a broken young white woman, and a disappeared West Indies man. He is also a doting and careful big brother to baby Jake, stepping into the role of caregiver as his mother slides into catatonia.

After Carol has a mental breakdown, brought on by drugs, prostitution, and the massive weight of poverty, Leon and Jake are placed in foster ...more

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Nov 06, 2016 Hilary rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Readers interested in orphan stories and social history

Recommended to Hilary by: Linden

Shelves: orphan-stories

Leon has a baby brother, a mum who can't cope and a dad who has walked out. The story is set in the 1980's and gives you a taste of social history of the time, poverty, racism, police brutality and social services just not getting it right. Leon is a lovely kind boy and during the story you really want things to work out for him, he is wonderful to his baby brother, despite the awful circumstances there are some wonderful people who help him. Leon has some perceptive observations of peoples faci ...more

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Apr 11, 2016 Aditi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: friends, children, my-reviews, family, penguin-books, london-england, historical-fiction

“Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.”

----Melodie Ramone

Kit de Waal, an English author, pens her debut poignant, deeply touching story in her new book, My Name is Leon that unfolds the story of a young boy who after his mother's unfit condition to take care him goes into foster care along with his newly born brother, only to be separated from his brother because of adoption. But he needs ...more

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May 22, 2020 Sue rated it it was amazing

Shelves: general-fiction, busting-my-backlist, contemporary, family-saga, net-galley, weepies

This book should go to every single Social worker and all those in the welfare of children out for fostering or adoption.

Do not break up siblings, just don’t do it.

This story is told through the eyes of a young boy who is broken, and can’t explain his feelings, wants, needs and desires. He just doesn’t own the vocal words yet.

This broke my heart into zillions of pieces until the author could lighten it again with hope and experiences, expectations and reality through the eyes of a child then thr ...more

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Jan 10, 2016 PattyMacDotComma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-netgalley-done, ya-new-adult, fiction-adult, kindle

4★

Talk about having the deck stacked against you. England, 1980. Leon’s mum, Carol, has had two boys to different fathers. His walked out when she was pregnant with his baby brother, Jake, whom he adores.

Jake’s father is married, and Leon overhears him refuse to have anything to do with Carol or the baby. Carol loses the plot and accuses Leon of being the reason Jake’s father shot through.

“Carol used to say sorry when she shouted at him but she forgets all the time these days so tomorrow he wil ...more

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Jun 14, 2017 Barbara rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: readers who are interested in the lives of children.

Recommended to Barbara by: Savidge Reads

Shelves: england, 2017-reads, young-adult

Leon is a 9-year-old boy in 1980's London. His mother, who is on her own, has a new baby. Leon is biracial. His mother and brother are white. Leon is a loving, gentle boy who does his all for his mother as she slips into post-natal depression. As things deteriorate, social services come in and Leon and his brother are put in foster care.

Maureen, the foster mother, is a working class woman, middle-aged, and not in great health. She is affectionate and cares deeply for the boys. Rather that get i ...more

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Dec 29, 2015 ☼♄Jülie  rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Any

Shelves: own-kindle-book, contemporary-fiction, netgalley-early-reads, netgalley-for-review

Kit De Waal has really got a good perspective on the kind of thoughts that go through the mind of a child and their particular reactions to things that upset them...

Leon was a good boy, he did what he was told and what he thought was expected of him. So when grown ups did things that he perceived as wrong or unjust, he punished them by taking something from them or by not doing something the way he knew was right...this gave him a sense that some small measure of fair justice had been served and ...more

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Mar 16, 2016 Noeleen rated it liked it

Set in the 1980’s in England, My Name is Leon tells the heartbreaking story of two young brothers, one black, one white. When Carol, Leon and Jake’s mother can no longer care for them, Jake is adopted, Leon is not. We travel through this story, which centers on adoption and fostering with Leon and experience the journey from his perspective. We can feel his helplessness, his vulnerability and his utter sadness. We pine for baby brother Jake with Leon and we experience Leon's struggle for accepta ...more

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Mar 01, 2020 Hugh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2020, modern-lit

I read this for a discussion in the 21st Century Literature group.

Compared with most of my recent reading it felt a little lightweight, but it is an enjoyable read, and quite moving in places. The book is set in 1980 and 1981, against the backdrop of the royal wedding and the Brixton riots, and it clearly owes much to de Waal's own experiences working in social services.

At the heart of the book is Leon, a young mixed race boy. Leon lives with his white single mother, who has recently had anoth ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Guy Austin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-on-shelf-read, favorites, fiction

Having read a pre-release review of this book I knew it would be one I would enjoy. I have a soft spot for books about children in the position Leon finds himself in. I am not sure why. The last book that I read like this was not fiction, but a memoir by Steve Pemberton, The Book was - A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home.

Leon is a 9 year old boy with a baby brother and a mother who cannot find the strength to raise herself up to focus on ...more

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Apr 20, 2016 Sheena rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

I received a free proof copy.The story of Leon and his situation felt all too real. This was quite an emotional read with well drawn characters all trying to do their best and deal with the cards life had given them. None of them were without flaws the main one seemed to be not realising how children have a real talent for making themselves invisible and listening in to adult conversations which can and does in this case lead to all sorts of trouble.Right from the beginning Leon tugged at the he ...more

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Apr 15, 2018 H.A. Leuschel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Beautifully tender, heart-breaking a times and so sensitive in its descriptions of the inner workings of a young child's mind. I found myself having to stop and rest a few times before I could resume reading because I felt so sad about Leon's anguish and desperate need to be loved. Highly recommended! ...more

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Aug 13, 2017 Puck rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, diverse-reads

Hmm, tricky. I did enjoy My Name is Leon, but sadly this book suffers from a misleading synopsis.
While it’s true that the first part of the story is about the family problems of Leon, in the second part a greater variety of topics come knocking at the foster-home door. This makes us lose sight of Leon, which is a pity because this kid is a wonderful main character to follow.

Leon is nine years old. He likes Curly Wurlys, the Dukes of Hazzard, but above all his baby-brother Jake. It doesn’t matt Hmm, tricky. I did enjoy My Name is Leon, but sadly this book suffers from a misleading synopsis.
While it’s true that the first part of the story is about the family problems of Leon, in the second part a greater variety of topics come knocking at the foster-home door. This makes us lose sight of Leon, which is a pity because this kid is a wonderful main character to follow.

Leon is nine years old. He likes Curly Wurlys, the Dukes of Hazzard, but above all his baby-brother Jake. It doesn’t matter that Jake is white and he is black: they are brothers and Leon takes great care of him and their mother Carol, who’s getting more ill every day.
Until the situation gets so dire that Social Services come to take the brothers away and have them stay with Maureen, a foster-mom with a heart of gold. However, when a white couple only adopts Jake, Leon is left on his own to figure out his place in the world.

As I said, Leon is a great main character because he feels so real. The author, Kit de Waal, worked for many years in foster care and it shows because she got so many emotions and personality-traits of Leon exactly right.
Although the third person-narrative does keep us a bit at distance, you completely understand Leon’s growing frustration and distrust of the adults around him. He is a real nine-year-old at heart, but Leon often has to deal with so many problems too big for a child, that the story really becomes heartbreaking to read.

“Leon can go to bed whenever he wants and sometimes he can even go to sleep on the sofa because his mom won’t notice. He can eat whatever he wants but if there’s nothing in the cupboard and nothing in the fridge it doesn’t really count. He has to look after Jake every day and Carol keeps crying and it makes Leon angry with her, but there aren’t even coins to steal out of her purse anymore.”

Yet after the halfway-point of this book, the focus of the story shifts from Leon’s family situation to a lot of different subjects. Apart from showing us the flaws of the foster care system, we get to read about Margaret Thatcher’s policy, the brutal IRA protests during Britain’s early eighties, and the Royal Wedding.
Amidst all that we also see Leon trying to deal with his personal trauma, his problems with his mother, and with what Jake’s adoption says about him and society’s attitude towards people of color (with Leon being biracial and Jake being white). For a book that’s only 262 pages, this all is way too much.

So although I loved Leon and the author’s knowledge of Social Services and foster care really shines through, the plot became too crowded with subjects in the second half of the book.
I wish I’d have given my 250th book a higher rating, but “My Name is Leon” in the end told me too much, and made me feel too little. ...more

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Jan 17, 2017 Suzy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age, child-or-teenage-narrator, re-reads, london, found-family, family-dynamics, found-community, secrets

I liked this book just as much as the first time I read it, if not more. I felt so tender towards 9-year old Leon who just wants to keep his broken family together and through the skewed logic of a 9-year old, thinks he can make that happen. He can't. Along the way in his journey with foster care, he finds people to relate to and who can help, although at first he doesn't believe it.

Why I'm rereading this: I nominated this for the March group read for the 21st Century Literature group and it wa I liked this book just as much as the first time I read it, if not more. I felt so tender towards 9-year old Leon who just wants to keep his broken family together and through the skewed logic of a 9-year old, thinks he can make that happen. He can't. Along the way in his journey with foster care, he finds people to relate to and who can help, although at first he doesn't believe it.

Why I'm rereading this: I nominated this for the March group read for the 21st Century Literature group and it was chosen. I'm looking forward to experiencing this again and discuss with others.

Why I'm rereading this: I nominated this for the March group read for the 21st Century Literature group and it was chosen. I'm looking forward to experiencing this again and discuss with others.

This book touched me to my core, tugging at my heart, bringing up feelings of both despair and optimism. I fell in love with Leon, a sensitive nine-year old, son of Carol and doting brother to baby Jake. Sounds like a happy situation, but it's not. Carol is a broken woman, at the mercy of addiction and mental health problems. She cannot care for Leon or Jake. Leon becomes a caregiver to both Jake and his Mom, but he can't overcome her neglect and they are separated. Jake and Leon go into foster care, but Leon operates under the belief that it's his responsibility to get the family back together again where everything will be put right.

This is a story about a young boy who just wants to be loved and cared for. de Waal writes about what she knows (she grew up in a home that fostered children) with compassion and tenderness and is spot on in her rendering of the skewed logic of a child in an untenable situation. I've just embarked on Great Expectations and Pip, the child narrator in that book, says early on ". . . I have often thought that few people know what secrecy there is in the young, under terror." We see this play out over and over with Leon as he misinterprets what he sees, feels at risk, puts himself at risk and spends much of his time hiding his thinking, his plans and what's going on from the people who can help him most.

The chaos that Leon experiences and his misunderstandings are mirrored in the backdrop of the chaos of early 1980's Great Britain of hunger strikes in Ireland and street riots in London. We root for Leon to find his footing and the love and care he greatly deserves. Highly recommended! ...more

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Dec 11, 2017 Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

enjoyed this book based in early 1980's with the backdrop of social unrest and a royal wedding where 9 year old Leon gets separated from his mother Carol and younger baby sibling Jake into foster care and his struggles as he wants his family together again. ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 13, 2018 Paul rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-vipers-monthly-read, books-read-2018

It is 1981 and Leon has just acquired a baby brother, Jake. They are living with their mother, Carol, who is struggling as the father of Jake has shown no interest at all in his son. Just how much she is struggling is made very apparent when Leon turns up at a friend of hers asking for money for sweets. Tina goes back home with him to find Carol a nervous wreck and in need of help. As she gets the medical attention that she desperately needs Leon and Jake are placed into care.

Their new 'mum' is It is 1981 and Leon has just acquired a baby brother, Jake. They are living with their mother, Carol, who is struggling as the father of Jake has shown no interest at all in his son. Just how much she is struggling is made very apparent when Leon turns up at a friend of hers asking for money for sweets. Tina goes back home with him to find Carol a nervous wreck and in need of help. As she gets the medical attention that she desperately needs Leon and Jake are placed into care.

Their new 'mum' is Maureen, a red-haired older woman with a heart of gold, but as good as a job as she does with them both, Leon knows that it is not the same as having your mum there. Life is about to change again; Leon is half-cast and Jake is white so social services decide that Jake will be suitable for adoption. Jake is adopted fairly quickly and Leon loses his final family member and feels very alone.

Just when he is at his lowest ebb and doesn't think it can get any worse, Maureen is taken seriously ill and admitted to hospital. Leon moves to her sister Sylvia's house and has another bedroom and routine to get used to. He is now a little older and gets given a bike that means that he can travel and explore the local area. It is on these jaunts out that he discovers the local allotments and the men that frequent this place, Me Devlin and Tufty and the wonders that exist in their sheds. As exciting as these places are, what he really wants is to find Jake and bring them both back to his mum so they can be a family once again.

This heartwarming story deals in a beautiful way with a whole raft of issues from race to identity, belonging and the care systems in the 1980's. It is full of happy and sad moments, as Leon comes up against a care system that didn't want to keep families together at that time. Whilst de Waal has written this story of Leon with passion and care, it is not a sugar-coated tale either. The 1980's references of events and objects are tempered by the visible racial tension in the prose between the police and the local residents. Would highly recommend this to anyone wanting a story from the perspective of most people's lives back in those days. ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, nature-v-nurture, favourite-books-ever

This is about a nine year old boy called Leon living in poverty in England in the eighties. His Mum has psychological issues and his Dad is in prison. He has a baby brother called Jake. Leon and Jake have different Dads so Leon is black and Jake is white.
His Mum gets severely depressed which leads to the brothers being taken into care.
I don't want to give away the whole story but it is written from Leon's point of view and it's an extremely moving and honest story.
This book isn't perfect but I ...more

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Dec 10, 2016 Kaitlin rated it liked it

I was gifted this book by the lovely Mercedes for my birthday back in September and I finally found some time (during my ill days off) to read it. I actually read this whole thing in a day as it's a fairly short book and it's a story that I couldn't help but want to keep turning the pages for.

We follow a young boy called Leon and his baby brother Jake. Leon comes from a poor family with a single mother and he's always looked after her but when his new baby brother turns up his mother falls deep I was gifted this book by the lovely Mercedes for my birthday back in September and I finally found some time (during my ill days off) to read it. I actually read this whole thing in a day as it's a fairly short book and it's a story that I couldn't help but want to keep turning the pages for.

We follow a young boy called Leon and his baby brother Jake. Leon comes from a poor family with a single mother and he's always looked after her but when his new baby brother turns up his mother falls deeper and deeper into depression and it's all Leon can do to look after her, himself and baby Jake. Leon's life is turned upside down when social services get involved and his baby brother is taken away leaving him living alone, without his brother or mother, in foster care.

The thing I most liked about this is the references to prejudice and racial discrimination through Leon's eyes. Leon is only 8 when we first meet him, but we see the work from his POV and therefore he notices that things are different for him than they are for Jake. This is largely due to Leon being mixed-race, and Jake being white and although age is also a factor Jake ends up in a new family whilst Leon is left to deal with his own feelings and problems in care.

The time of this story is the time when rioting in America was beginning and various groups of people were looked down upon for being different (e.g queer, different race/religion etc.) Leon's adventures lead him to encounter nice and nasty people from all walks of life, and being a fairly isolated young boy with problems of his own he connects with and fears many of these people.

I think in the end I felt like this was a really true and accurate portrayal of what a real situation like Leon's may easily become. It was a heart-warming and rage-inducing story at various points and all the more so becuase of how true it could be for so many children both in the past and still today. Leon's story is sad and raw and also happy becuase not everyone is mean and not everyone wants to change him.

Overall a fascinating and wonderful look at what Leon's life might be, and a story I am very glad to have read. I ended up giving this a 3.5*s but I was very, very close to a 4* rating. It's a great little book and a story I think many people can emotionally invest in or relate to somehow. ...more

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Apr 08, 2017 Elaine Mullane || At Home in Books rated it really liked it

Shelves: readwomen, 2017, recommended

A quick but powerful read.

My Name Is Leon follows the story of an eight-year-old biracial boy who is separated from his mother and placed in the foster care system because she can no longer look after him. His little brother, Jake, is adopted quickly because there is more of a demand for a white, small baby (the boys have different fathers).

Leon stays with Maureen, a kind and loving foster parent but misses his mother and little brother terribly. Because this book is narrated by him, we see the ...more

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Feb 21, 2016 Sara rated it it was amazing

I don't really know what to say about this book - just amazing! Its a fantastically poignant & touching read.

Set in the 80's. This is the heartbreaking story of a little boy called Leon. Loved the characters of Maureen & Sylvia. The story is told with warmth & compassion but none-the-less is absolutely heart-wrenching.

This is one that I will be recommending to family & friends to read.

Many thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion. ...more

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Mar 11, 2016 YupIReadIt rated it it was amazing

Now THAT's how you debut a novel! Check out my video review here. I sure wish people would stop cutting onions while I'm trying to read! ...more

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21st Century Lite...: Group discussion My Name is Leon SPOILERS OK	8	32	Mar 26, 2020 04:10PM
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Goodreads Librari...: Please can you add an Audible Edition	3	106	Aug 30, 2016 07:05AM

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“When people fuck with you, you gotta choice. You can fuck back or swallow down. Swallow down enough times and you start to choke. Or you can learn to accept. Let go. Breathe easy.” — 5 likes

“He feels a dark star of pain in his throat and the last warmth of her touch on his fingers. When” — 1 likes

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