Fanny and Victorian Jack by Lynne D.M. Noble

Description

Fanny and Victorian Jack is the first of a series of books written especially for children. Fanny has Asperger’s syndrome and is passionate about nature. Jack appears from Victorian London and shows Fanny a world of poverty and hardship that she could never have envisaged.

Fanny desperately wants to help Jack and his family find a way out of the poverty they are in.   Hesitatingly, she begins to explore what she can do to help but not before tragedy strikes Jack’s family.  Fanny found that it is the things that we often throw away that became the most useful in helping Jack and his family.    Along the way, Fanny finds herself transported into the slums of London and she learns first-hand about the reality of life for the Victorian Poor.

This book can be read alone by confident readers and provides insight into an age which is very different from ours.  It is useful for aiding understanding in school projects on this era.  Younger readers may like to read this with an adult as it is written to aid discussion and increase a child’s understanding of how the past has affected the age we are living in now. The story is intended to extend and develop a child’s vocabulary.

Finally, the story is designed to raise awareness of some of the challenges of living with Asperger’s Syndrome.