Seeing yourself in a book’s character, or a version of yourself, or an aspired-to self, is important for children. Until I was a young teenager, I hadn’t experienced that affinity. There were animal tales and boys’ adventure stories I enjoyed – to a degree the protagonist’s identity didn’t matter, as I didn’t feel particularly human or gendered. But teenage years are exposing and full of rifts. It’s a time when differences, and differing experiences – physical, social, locational – can become wider.
Nothing really shook my tree until I read Z for Zachariah. It was a school text; I must have been about 14. It should be noted that while the book landed in our little library in the Lake District, it was banned from some schools in America. Such was its power and provocation.
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