Healer

by Peter Dickinson

Although grudgingly aware that ten-year-old Pinkie has extraordinary powers to heal, sixteen-year-old Barry becomes increasingly convinced that she is an unwilling participant at the healing sessions run by her enterprising stepfather.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Peter Dickinson was an English author and poet widely respected for his children's fiction, detective novels, and imaginative speculative writing. Raised partly in southern Africa before continuing his education in England, he developed an early fascination with adventure stories and classic literature, influences that later shaped his narrative style. He attended Eton College and later studied at King's College, Cambridge, before beginning a long association with the magazine Punch, where he worked for many years as assistant editor, reviewer, and resident poet. Dickinson eventually left journalism to pursue writing full time, publishing works for both adult and younger audiences. His crime novels featuring detective James Pibble earned critical praise, while his fiction for children established him as one of Britain's most distinguished authors in the field. Over the course of his career he produced nearly fifty books that combined historical imagination, fantasy, and thoughtful reflections on human behavior. He achieved rare distinction by winning the Carnegie Medal twice, for Tulku and City of Gold, recognition that placed him among the most celebrated children's writers in Britain. Dickinson also received numerous other literary honors and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In addition to fiction, he wrote poetry and essays, and his work continued to influence generations of readers and writers in the field of children's literature.

Reviews

[Ericka Clou · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 6th-grade reading journal:

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things I just never did figure out, like giving this girl a weird name and describing her homeliness several times. There's a lot of things to think about here, besides just the occultish, science-fictionish adventure. I really did enjoy it, though it's odd and I'm not sure how wide its appeal is.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up because I love Peter Dickenson, and for beautiful prose this book did not disappoint. I had to rate it low just because the pace was so slow, I wanted to spend more time with the characters but their story was over! Frustrating.

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like “The Gift”, “Healer” is a thriller centering around a child with unusual powers: there’s also a family resemblance to “Annerton Pit”. Unlike those two novels, however, the protagonist of “Healer” is not the child, here 10-year-old Pinkie, the title character: instead, it’s the teenage Barry, who’s been her friend ever since the moment, some years ago, that she first used her ability to heal one of his migraines. But Barry also becomes her friend simply because she needs one: she doesn’t have friends her own age, her emotionally distant mother isn’t interested in her, and her wheelchair-bound grandfather, to whom she is close, lives too far away for them to spend much time together. All this is learned through flashbacks from the present day, in which Pinkie is the centerpiece of an alternative healing center/cult run by her stepfather, who, it is strongly implied, married her mother in order to make it possible for him to exploit Pinkie’s talents. Barry visits her there in order to learn if she’s happy, and if not, to try to get her out. And it mostly works, as anyone who has read enough Dickinson would expect. He does an excellent job with the setup — all the characters feel like real people, even Pinkie’s stepfather, despite his somewhat stereotypical ‘70s cult leader air — and effortlessly maintains suspense throughout Barry’s time at the center and the subsequent tautly plotted escape sequence. The only thing that didn’t quite work is his decision to give Barry Bear, a personification — ursification? — of his rage that mostly sleeps at the bottom of his consciousness but occasionally wakes up and wreaks havoc. Or maybe it’s supposed to be an actual bear spirit? It’s a little hard to tell, which is part of the problem, and anyway it’s hard to say that Bear really adds much to the book, or to the character of Barry. But though this doesn’t quite work, it also doesn’t detract much from your enjoyment of the book, which moves briskly and largely maintains an atmosphere of tension that occasionally rises to outright menace. “Healer” doesn’t quite have the depth of Dickinson’s best children’s books — “Tulku”, say, or “Eva”, or “The Devil’s Children” — but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless.

[Mrs W Woodruff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an OK read. I needed to read a book about a “healer” for a challenge saw this title so decided to read it.

It were areas in the book that left you with questions that never really got answered.

Barry was a teenager who ended up befriending Pinkie who was a little girl with special healing powers. He looked out for her after an incident on the bus to school. Years later ended up looking out for her well being again thinking she could be in danger.