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At first I want to tell you a few sentences about Robert Swindells who wrote the book.
Robert Swindells left school at the age of fifteen and joined the Royal Air Force at seventeen and a half. After his discharge, he worked at a variety of jobs, before training and working as a teacher. He is now a full time writer and lives with his wife Brenda on the Yorkshire Moors. Robert Swindells has written many books for young people, and in 1984 was the winner of the Children's Book Award and the Other Award for his novel Brother in the Land. He won the Children's Book Award for a second time in 1990 with Room 13, and in 1994 Stone Cold won the Carnegie Medal and the Sheffield Children's book Award.
Characterisitc
Link (main character)
He is born in March 20th, 1977 in Bradford, Yorkshire and he is 17 years old.
Link isn't his right name but he wants to be called to this name. He lives in a normal family, as happy as most. When he was fourteen his parents got divorced. This mucked up his school work. He has a sister who is called Carole. She is four years older than him.
He doesn't have many friends and he often feels like an invisible person. It's very important for Link to have a person who he can talk with.
Shelter
He is a previous army officer and a serial killer, hanging around on the streets of London on a mission to rid the city of \"dossers (Bettler)\" as he calls them.
Ginger
He is a bit older than Link and he is very experienced in living on London's streets. He is a good help for Link, because he explains Link the rules on London's streets.
Gail
She is also a streetwise like Link. She is an attractive girl and she falls in Love with Link.
Summary
The book is about a young boy who is called Link and Shelter. You read two diaries at the same time what makes the book very thrilling. The two different diaries have a change in print type to help the reader recognise who is talking. Stone Cold starts with Daily Routine Order 1. In the Daily Routine Orders Shelter tells about his attitude to streetwise.
Link has a sister who is called Carole and four years older than him. Link doesn't have many friends. He feels alone, afraid, other people are afraid of him. He really feels like an invisible person. He lived in a happy family. When he was fourteen his parents got divorced. He doesn't like mother's new boyfriend. Link hates him because he has changed his mother. It's his sister who makes life bearable for him. Now they often have quarrels again and again.
Link breaks off school and now he doesn't have any money. So he lives on Mothers and Vincents money. One day Vincent locked Link out of the house. Link's mother is scared of Vincent. Then Link finds a room for 50 dollars a week where he stays for two weeks. Now he has to leave the room because he can't pay the room any longer. So he finds a doorway where he lives. There nobody can't see him and he likes his anonymity. He searches for work but it's very difficult to get a job. On the next day he gets to know Ginger. He is his new friend. He is really happy to know him and he helps him to make life bearable on the streets of London. Ginger tells Link about his experiences as a homeless person. Both Ginger and Link begin to beg to be able to buy something to eat. Living for Link is very hard now because it's very cold and windy and they don't have enough money to buy food. He wishes he could be somewhere in Spain. Link feels really down now. A few days later Ginger vanishes. It's a morning like every other morning.
Then Ginger tells Link that he has a meeting with his mates and he didn't want Link along. It hurts like hell for Link. Since this morning he has never seen him again. He is really sad and he searches after him but he can't find him anywhere. Then he copes with the situation and he tries to live alone his own life.
One day he gets to know Gail in a restaurant. He finds her very attractive. She is also a streetwise. He falls in love with her. It's a fantastic time for him and he forgets the coldness and everything bad in his life. Now they do all together. Suddenly some kids who lives on London's streets are vanishing. Is it Shelter who kidnaps the street wises and will Link be the next victim of him?
At the end it's very thrilling because there are many surprises which you wouldn't have expected.
Language:
Easy to understand, no slang except dossers (Bettler)
Review:
I think that Robert Swindells wanted to criticise the whole society with the novel and he wanted to show how easy you can become a streetwise. He makes it clear that everything isn't OK with the world and we have to wake up because it cannot be that a seventeen year old boy becomes a streetwise.
I liked to book very much because it was very thrilling at every time. Robert Swindells describes Link's life, how he become a streetwise, and his feelings and all the scenes very good and thrilling so that you really think you are there.
It's a short novel with 132 pages which won't make you feel good but it will change you.
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