Paved

My days as a child were very different from today’s.

Growing up in the countryside, like many other children, I walked to school every day, always in the company of other family members. At that time, neither school shoes nor bags were seen as important. In fact, it was a treat to us to be allowed to take our shoes off and walk around barefoot. I didn’t care a bit, whether or not I was dressed in the latest trends.

How different it is nowadays, when wearing shoes is an absolute necessity, firstly, because distances have increased so rapidly, and secondly, because schoolyards are now so much bigger and to a large extent have acres of paved surfaces.

DID THEIR STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE SET LOOSE A DEADLY CURSE?
In Jamaica’s 50th year of Independence, the author wanted to portray something of her roots, through storytelling. As a barefoot child, her mother told her the story of ‘Aunt Jane’ possibly a maroon, who used to come ‘down from the hills’. Her father also used to tell stories of his grandfather, the descendant of Scottish immigrants…

Letty’s Pool (2016) is an attempt to capture a sense of this mixed heritage. The setting as well as the characters draws on legends of Nanny of the Maroons, an exemplary leader with psychic powers. Nanny of the maroons, a historical figure who lived in the eighteenth century, played such an outstanding part as a leader in the Maroon Wars that she has been designated a national heroine of Jamaica.

Letty’s Pool explores what might have happened when supposed enemies found love on the shores of Jamaica. Their star-crossed romance activates a dangerous curse, a curse which has the power to replicate itself almost, as the ‘hidden spring’ of Nanny Town metamorphoses into Hidden Springs Village and Letty’s Pool….

Parental guidance is recommended, especially for children under age 14, due particularly to images of violence and death which occur in the book. On the other hand, it offers a good opportunity to discuss important themes and issues with your child. Some of these are as follows:
1. Historical links between the British and their colonies, especially Jamaica & the rest of the Caribbean

2. The effects of war, crime and violence on the developing psyche

3. Differences between fiction and reality.