Cardboard Cowboys by Brian Conaghan

 

Even though I found him living in a house made of cardboard, Bruce is a massive legend. FACT. So this mine and Bruce's story. You don't have to believe it happened, but it did. All of it.

Nobody at school can see past Lenny's size to the person within. So when lessons get too tough, Lenny always goes to his bench to think. At least there no one can see him. Then one day, midway through lobbing his empty can of Irn-Bru into the canal he's stopped by Bruce. Bruce lives in a cardboard home hidden away by the banks, and he doesn't approve of kids messing up his front lawn …

But a bumpy start soon gives way to an unexpected friendship – and an epic road trip – that will change both of them for life ... 

---

Lenny is, in his own words, fat, jelly, blubber. The kids at his school never let him forget it, either, with snide remarks and 'funny' jokes all day. The teachers don't do much to rein it in, so sometimes Lenny cuts out and sits on his favourite bench by the river. That's where he's sitting the day he meets Bruce. And that's the day things start to change.

Brian's books usually smack me in the face, in the best way. This one wasn't as sharp; it was slower, more gradual, a figuring things out rather than having them spelt out to me. That's not a complaint; I like both ways, and it was nice not to go through quite as many tissues crying this time. (Still a few, though.)

Below you'll find my favourite quote from the book. This one really hit me;

"Ever since I caught you littering that day, you have brought nothing but joy to me."

"You mean that, Bruce? You really mean it?"

"Of course I mean it. If only you knew how much."

 This is a wonderful story about a family who mean well but can't communicate it, a boy who's terrified of the one thing he wants most but brave enough to go after it anyway, and a man who, for no reason but kindness, helps him. I loved reading it. I'd love to see it in classrooms; I think it would do really well as a school novel, as well as for pleasure reading. (No reason they can't overlap, of course!)

Fantastic. I'm so glad I got to read it.

 

Cardboard Cowboys publishes on the 15th of April, 2021. I received a free copy and am providing an honest review.