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Boy Underwater
- Narrated by: Rafe Spall
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
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Boy Underwater
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Summary
Selected as Waterstones Book of the Month.
Shortlisted for The Carnegie Award.
Boy Underwater is a heartbreaking story about family, friends and secrets. And it’s very, very funny.
Cymbeline (yes, really!) has never been swimming - not ever, not once - so he’s a bit nervous at the prospect of his first school swimming lesson ever. But how hard could it be? He’s Googled front crawl, and he’s found his dad’s old pair of trunks. He’s totally ready for this.
But he’s not ready for an accident at the pool to reveal a family mystery that turns his life completely upside down. Only Cym and his friends can solve it because, as usual, the grown-ups aren’t telling them anything.
For the answers you really need, sometimes you have to go deep....
Critic reviews
"An absolute corker of a tale, whose delicate themes – mental health, missing loved ones – are handled with fluid grace." (Observer)
"This poignant novel is about love and loss, but, told from the viewpoint of a child too young to grasp all that grown-ups do, it is also funny. With evocative monochrome illustrations, it bears you up as soon as you plunge in." (Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week)
"Involving and wryly funny, full of tenderness, eccentricity and intriguing meditations on the function of art, this story of grief, depression and the different facets of identity is well-served by Benji Davies’s thoughtful illustrations." (Guardian)
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What listeners say about Boy Underwater
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-08-20
Read this review!
THAT WAS AMAZING!
The feeling of the author sucking you into this amazing book is soooo cool, I recomend this book to people who love swimming, friends and a pinch of magic! If you are hesitating to read this, go for it and see where it takes you... it made me cry a bit to be honnest, but that doesnt matter because shedding a tear is ok dont be scared about admiting it. This book is about a boy called Symboline who has never (not even once) been swimming and when his mother is taken away and he is sent to live with his aunt things dont get much better, if I had to describe this book in 3 words it would be, funny, emotional and finding out who you are!
Please read this book, thank you!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Tarps
- 21-01-20
AMAZING LOVE 💓 IT SO Much IT WAS GREAT BEST BOOK Ever 🥰😍
You can ad more stuff sim does over all it is AMAZING 😉🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩👍👌✌🏼so so good yay
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- crowlemac
- 20-05-21
Very emotional and some great humour.
I found this book hard going in the middle and wasn’t sure my son would stick with it. There is a lot of loss / events the boy has to work through. But the end really does pull it around to be a powerful piece of writing that is put across so well.
It has some great humour and wonderfully observed relationships.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- FunkyMonkey
- 06-06-19
So modern and emotive
It's nice for kids to listen and appreciate the world at the moment, the story gives an emotive account of a child trying to find out about why things are in his life, with issues regarding mental health in family and also about personal struggle, the twist at the end brings it altogether.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nick
- 10-01-19
Powerful and humorous
I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this book, but I was almost instantly very impressed. There are lots of important issues discussed in a sensitive and interesting way with a fantastic sense of humour running throughout. Rafe Spall was a perfect narrator and really added a lot to the telling of this story.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- christine fyfe
- 06-09-20
good listen
enjoyed book enjoyed humour . touched on some serious issues . but all in all funny
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea Wilson
- 24-07-23
So good
Ok so basically I loved this book so much although I thought it was a bit sad great though
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vicky S
- 06-01-21
Fantastic story
Fantastic story and well read. I really enjoyed it. I hope there's another one.. Cameron age 10
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Siobhan
- 27-12-20
Fabulous read! One of the best children's books!
I was a bit dubious about reading this after some of the reviews, but decided to give it a go after one of my Y4 pupils brought it into school. I have to say this book is one of the best books I have read for Y4 and up. It addressed friendship issues, school embarrassment, feeling excluded and also the importance of good friends. It also includes mystery, mental illness and wraps it up in humour so it never gets too dark. The characters in the book are believable and likeable and probably personalities that most children would be able match to someone in their school. I loved it and can't wait to read the next in the series. A great read for reluctant readers too!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tomoko Yamahara
- 22-01-24
The title has a very deep meaning
I loved the storyline, very deep, the title fits really well, read till the end
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