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inthestacks
Apr 19, 2013inthestacks rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Barnaby is the third child born to Alistair and Eleanor Brocket of Sydney, Australia, who are obsessed with living very normal, inconspicuous lives, to not be noticed in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, Barnaby is not a normal child – he floats, defying gravity the minute he is born by floating up to the ceiling of the delivery room. This does not go over well with his parents and they eventually conspire to let Barnaby, at the age of eight, float out of their lives so that things can be normal again and free themselves of the attention they get for a having a floating child. Barnaby goes on a fantastical voyage that takes him to Brazil, New York, Toronto, Ireland and even outer space --- well, actually middle space. He meets all sorts of people who have not had normal lives and who have all been rejected for one reason or another. Barnaby learns, of course, that not being normal may just be normal after all. All this sounds very high-minded and rich with life-lessons but, unfortunately, the plot devices Boyne uses to get Barnaby from one adventure to another are annoyingly awkward. No, this is not realistic fiction, but even magical fiction such as this has to follow some rules of reality. Boyne tends to bend those rules too far to make this believable even in an imaginary sense. Of course, this is a children’s novel and children may not be bothered by these inconsistencies.