Noah Barleywater Runs Away

by John Boyne Narrated by Andrew Sachs

Overview

Eight-year-old Noah's problems seem easier to deal with if he doesn't think about them. So he runs away, taking an untrodden path through the forest.

Before long, he comes across a shop. But this is no ordinary shop: it's a toyshop, full of the most amazing toys, and brimming with the most wonderful magic. And here Noah meets a very unusual toymaker. The toymaker has a story to tell, and it's a story of adventure and wonder and broken promises. He takes Noah on a journey. A journey that will change his life.

Editorial Reviews

Lois Lowry

In this charming and cleverly plotted story that tiptoes with humor and compassion, two characters teach each other how to grieve, how to forgive, and how, eventually, to remember what has been lost.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

At age eight, Noah Barleywater runs away from home. He is "the seventh cleverest boy" in his class and has "read 14 books from cover to cover" but does not consider these achievements sufficient, and seeks adventure. On his journey, which has strong shades of Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth, he travels through quirky villages—in one, when he picks apples, it is considered a serious crime, and the tree and apples are rushed to the hospital—before meeting a dachshund and a donkey, who point him to a magical toyshop. There he meets an old man, his friends, and many intricate puppets, which represent figures from the man's past. As the old man shares his stories, which touch on themes of courage, selflessness, and keeping promises, Noah opens up about his own family's struggles. Though the magical elements in this carpe diem tale are loosely bound by a meandering thread, Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) touchingly conveys Noah's emotional development from a boy in denial of painful realities to a young man who accepts that which can't be changed. Ages 8–12. (May)

School Library Journal

Gr 7–10—John Boyne, the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), again explores the theme of personal regrets in this odd but affecting story (2011, both David Fickling Books). Noah, 8, runs away from his home at the edge of a forest. The woods contain magical elements such as a talking dachshund and a hungry donkey near a rather strange tree. He comes upon a wondrous shop full of beautifully crafted wooden toys. Noah enters the shop and notices that the dolls appear to move and speak. He meets the owner, an unnamed old man, and they begin a lengthy conversation involving personal histories and the reason Noah ran away from what seems to be a loving family. Boyne gradually leaves clues about the identity of the old man who wrestles with regret over his treatment of his beloved father and about the reason Noah has run away. Inspired by the old man's regret and shame, Noah eventually decides to return home. Andrew Sachs is a marvelous narrator, perfectly voicing accents and emotions. Although the publisher indicates the book is intended for elementary grade students, young children will not pick up on the clues as to the old man's identity and the tragedy Noah must face is pretty intense. The writing is lovely and the narration superb, but this may require older listeners.—B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, Santa Barbara, CA

AUGUST 2011 - AudioFile

Andrew Sachs sets a proper "once-upon-a-time tone" for this combination of fairy tale and fable. His soft narration has an air of mystery as he tells a story that is both realistic and fantastical. As 8-year-old Noah sets out on an adventure, Sachs portrays him as both curious and preoccupied with worry. A talking donkey and dachshund lead him to a magnificent toy shop. Sachs creates the whistling, hoarse voice of the store’s elderly owner—a wise and enigmatic carver. Gradually, listeners learn that Noah’s mother impending death has propelled his flight. Sachs’s successful emphasis on the magical will help listeners overlook the tale’s didactic tone and references that are less meaningful than the story being told. S.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172104558
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/10/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Noah Barleywater left home in the early morning, before the sun rose, before the dogs woke, before the dew stopped falling on the fields.

He climbed out of bed and shuffled into the clothes he’d laid out the night before, holding his breath as he crept quietly downstairs. Three of the steps had a loud creak in them where the wood didn’t knit together correctly so he walked very softly on each one, desperate to make as little noise as possible.

In the hallway he took his coat off the hook but didn’t put his shoes on until he had already left the house. He walked down the laneway, opened the gate, went through and closed it again, treading as lightly as he could in case his parents heard the sound of the gravel crunching beneath his feet and came downstairs to investigate.

It was still dark at this hour and Noah had to squint to make out the road that twisted and turned up ahead. The growing light would allow him to sense any danger that might be lurking in the shadows. When he got to the end of the first quarter-mile, at just that point where he could turn round one last time and still make out his home in the distance, he stared at the smoke rising from the chimney that stretched upwards from the kitchen fireplace and thought of his family inside, all safely tucked up in their beds, unaware that he was leaving them for ever. And despite himself, he felt a little sad.

Am I doing the right thing? he wondered, a great blanket of happy memories trying to break through and smother the fresher, sadder ones.

But he had no choice. He couldn’t bear to stay any longer. No one could blame him for that, surely. Anyway, it was probably best that he went out to make his own way in the world. After all, he was already eight years old and the truth was, he hadn’t really done anything with his life so far.

A boy in his class, Charlie Charlton, had appeared in the local newspaper when he was only seven, because the Queen had come to open a day centre for all the grannies and granddads in the village, and he had been chosen to hand her a bunch of flowers and say, We’re SO delighted you could make the journey, ma’am. A photograph had been taken where Charlie was grinning like the Cheshire cat as he presented the bouquet, and the Queen wore an expression that suggested she had smelled something funny but was far too well-brought-up to comment on it; he’d seen that expression on the Queen’s face before and it always made him giggle. The photo had been placed on the school notice board the following day and had remained there until someone – not Noah – had drawn a moustache on Her Majesty’s face and written some rude words in a speech bubble coming out of her mouth that nearly gave the headmaster, Mr Tushingham, a stroke.

The whole thing had caused a terrible scandal, but at least Charlie Charlton had got his face in the papers and been the toast of the schoolyard for a few days. What had Noah ever done with his life to compare with that? Nothing. Why, only a few days before he’d tried to make a list of all his achievements, and this is what he’d come up with:
 
1. I have read fourteen books from cover to cover.
2. I won the bronze medal in the 500 metres at Sports Day last year and would have won silver if Breiffni O’Neill hadn’t jumped the gun and got a head start.
3. I know the capital of Portugal. (It’s Lisbon.)
4. I may be small for my age but I’m the seventh cleverest boy in my class.
5. I am an excellent speller.
 
Five achievements at eight years of age, he thought at the time, shaking his head and pressing the tip of his pencil to his tongue even though his teacher, Miss Bright, screamed whenever anyone did that and said they would get lead poisoning. That’s one achievement for every . . . He thought about it and did a series of quick calculations on a bit of scrap paper. One achievement for every one year, seven months and six days. Not very impressive at all.

He tried to tell himself that this was the reason he was leaving home, because it seemed a lot more adventurous than the real reason, which was something he didn’t want to think about. Not this early in the morning, anyway.

And so here he was, out on his own, a young soldier on his way to battle. He turned round, thinking to himself, That’s it! I’ll never see that house again now! and continued on his way, strolling along with the air of a man who knows that, come the next election, there’s every chance he will be elected mayor. It was important to look confident – he realized that very early on. After all, there was a terrible tendency among adults to look at children travelling alone as if they were planning a crime of some sort. None of them ever thought that it might just be a young chap on his way to see the world and have a great adventure. They were so small-minded, grown-ups. That was one of their many problems.

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