The Scarecrows
Encyclopedia
The Scarecrows is a children's novel by Robert Westall
, published in 1981. The novel was awarded the Carnegie Medal
for 1981, the second Carnegie award for Robert Westall. It is a psychological novel with a supernatural twist, dealing with themes of rage, isolation and fear in a plot concerning a thirteen-year-old boy's reaction to his mother's remarriage.
He is enraged when he overhears a conversation at an art gallery which makes it clear that Joe and his mother are dating, and when his mother tells him she intends to marry Joe he vainly begs her not to, and refuses to attend the wedding. Eventually he has to join his mother, his sister and Joe at their new home in Cheshire. Both his mother's happiness and his sister's adoration of Joe incense him, as he regards them as betraying his father's memory. The nearby unused water mill, separated from the house by a turnip field, provides a refuge, but it harbours a sinister secret. During the war, the miller was murdered by his wife and her lover.
By his own attitude and actions, Simon becomes increasingly isolated. When he is driven to call on his father's spirit for support, it appears that the call is intercepted by the spirits at the mill, which manifest as scarecrows and imperceptibly advance across the turnip field to threaten the family. Simon's friend Tris la Chard comes to stay, and helps Simon to face up to reality and defeat the spirits.
Past
In 2001 The Scarecrows was included in a list of recommended books for teenage boys in The Guardian
newspaper, where it was described as an "intelligent and menacing" novel.
Robert Westall
Robert Atkinson Westall was the author of many books, mostly children's fiction, though also for adults, and non-fiction. Many of his novels, while supposedly aimed at a teenage audience, deal with many complex, dark and in many ways adult themes...
, published in 1981. The novel was awarded the Carnegie Medal
Carnegie Medal
The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
for 1981, the second Carnegie award for Robert Westall. It is a psychological novel with a supernatural twist, dealing with themes of rage, isolation and fear in a plot concerning a thirteen-year-old boy's reaction to his mother's remarriage.
Plot summary
The story is a third-person narrative, but the point of view is entirely that of Simon Wood - his thoughts, feelings and memories, the things he sees and experiences, conversations he has, conversations he overhears. The novel opens at Simon's boarding school, where the poisonous atmosphere of bullying and denigration has nurtured Simon's "devils", as he describes his blind rages. It is there that he first sees Joe Moreton, who has given Simon's widowed mother a lift to an event at the school; Simon loathes him at first sight, regarding him as a "yob", unimpressed by his fame as an artist.He is enraged when he overhears a conversation at an art gallery which makes it clear that Joe and his mother are dating, and when his mother tells him she intends to marry Joe he vainly begs her not to, and refuses to attend the wedding. Eventually he has to join his mother, his sister and Joe at their new home in Cheshire. Both his mother's happiness and his sister's adoration of Joe incense him, as he regards them as betraying his father's memory. The nearby unused water mill, separated from the house by a turnip field, provides a refuge, but it harbours a sinister secret. During the war, the miller was murdered by his wife and her lover.
By his own attitude and actions, Simon becomes increasingly isolated. When he is driven to call on his father's spirit for support, it appears that the call is intercepted by the spirits at the mill, which manifest as scarecrows and imperceptibly advance across the turnip field to threaten the family. Simon's friend Tris la Chard comes to stay, and helps Simon to face up to reality and defeat the spirits.
Characters
Present- Simon Wood, a thirteen-year-old boy
- Bowdon, a foul-minded bully in Simon's dormitory at school
- Tris la Chard, Simon's droll friend
- Deborah Wood, Simon's mother, a brigadier's daughter and major's widow
- Jane Wood, Simon's younger sister
- Joe Moreton, a famous artist with a talent for cruelly-revealing cartoons
- Tom Mercyfull, an ancient garrulous gardener
- Mrs Meegan, an artist's model
Past
- Major Wood, Simon's risk-loving father, who died in AdenAden EmergencyThe Aden Emergency was an insurgency against the British crown forces in the British controlled territories of South Arabia which now form part of the Yemen. Partly inspired by Nasser's pan Arab nationalism, it began on 10 December 1963 with the throwing of a grenade at a gathering of British...
six years earlier - The young miller, who owned the mill during the Second World War
- Josie Cragg, his wife
- Ray Starkey, the mill manager, Josie's lover
Literary significance and reception
The Scarecrows was awarded the Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature. The novel has been described as a book "full of anger. Simon... loathes his stepfather and resents his mother's marital happiness; and it is obviously his own fury and malice that brings to life the Scarecrows, grown from clothes left in the nearby ruined water-mill by the participants in a long-past murderous triangle of passion." The effectiveness of the horror aspect of the story is emphasized in Reading for Enjoyment, in which it is described as a "book to make the hairs rise on the back of your neck".In 2001 The Scarecrows was included in a list of recommended books for teenage boys in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper, where it was described as an "intelligent and menacing" novel.