Silence is Goldfish
My name is Tess Turner – at least, that’s what I’ve always been told.
I have a voice but it isn’t mine. It used to say things so I’d fit in, to please my parents, to please my teachers. It used to tell the universe I was something I wasn’t. It lied.
It never occurred to me that everyone else was lying, too…
Fifteen-year-old Tess doesn’t mean to become mute. When she discovers that her dad isn’t her biological father, at first she’s just too shocked to speak. But quickly she begins to see the benefit of silence. She can protect herself from the questions she’s too afraid to ask. It frustrates her so-called ‘parents’. And it gets the attention of her handsome Maths teacher, Mr Richardson…
Tess sets out to discover the identity of her real father. But when trouble strikes and everything spirals out of control, how can she ask for help when she’s forgotten how to use her voice?
Nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016
Pitcher excels at the emotional tangles of adolescence ... Another winner from the author of the bestselling Ketchup Clouds
The Daily Mail
Like a book and a best friend all in one, bound together with wit and emotion and beauty
The Guardian
Strong in substance and originality, Pitcher continues to bring boldness and uniqueness to YA
We Love This Book
Pitcher writes clearly and elegantly and the novel is full of her trademark wit
The Daily Telegraph
Another standout book from an award-winning author
The Sun
Pitcher brilliantly captures the elasticity of the teenage mind, its ability to apprehend reality in a multiplicity of angles, its tendency to see itself alternatively as a speck of dust in the universe or as an all-encompassing being. Pitcher's writing is intriguing, riveting, respectful, true and oh so funny
Inis Reading Guide 2015-2016