The Pavee and the Buffer Girl

Jim and his family have halted by Dundray and the education people have been round mouthing the law. In school the Traveller kids suffer at the hands of teachers and other pupils alike, called ‘tinker-stinkers’, ‘dirty gyps’ and worse. Then the punches start. The only friendly face is Kit, a settled girl who takes Jim under her wing and teaches him to read in the great cathedral chamber of the cave below the town. With Kit and the reading, Jim seems to have found a way to exist in Dundray, but everyday prejudice and a shocking act of violence see his life uprooted once again.

Review

“smart, clear-eyed, unsentimental; tough but full of truth” — Patrick Ness

About the Author

Siobhan Dowd was a highly regarded author, winning the Branford Boase Award, the Bisto Award and, posthumously, the Carnegie Medal. She worked in human rights in the UK and America, particularly for writers’ organisation PEN. ‘The Pavee and the BufferGirl’ was her first story, followed by four remarkable novels written before her death at age 47 in 2007. Her legacy includes the Siobhan Dowd Trust, working to bring books to deprived children, and ‘A Monster Calls’, a novel adapted by Patrick Ness from one of her ideas.