Grade 9 Notes: My Name is Leon

Leon

The boy who looks after everyone, and is the last to be looked after

Leon is nearly nine when the novel opens, a quiet, watchful boy who has already learned to manage the adults around him. His mother, Carol, is white; his father is Black, left after an argument when Carol was expecting another man's baby, and is in prison. When Carol cannot cope after Jake's birth, Leon looks after his brother through the summer, feeding him and changing his nappies, until he goes to the neighbour, Tina, for money and she finds his mother and calls for help. The boys are placed with Maureen, a kind foster carer, but before long Jake, a white baby, is adopted and no family is found for Leon. From then on his life is organised around one aim: to rescue Jake and put his family together again. He steals, hides supplies in an abandoned shed at the allotment, and on his tenth birthday is given a photograph of his brother. At Sylvia's house and on the allotment he finds men who take him seriously, and the night of the riot brings his plan to its crisis. By the end he has heard his mother say that she cannot look after him, and Maureen has told him that they are staying together.

A child who is the carer

At Carol's flat Leon notices everything: his mother's moods, the visitors, the days she cannot get up. He listens at the door when Jake's father comes and is scolded for it. In the summer holidays he becomes Jake's carer, working out feeds and nappies on his own.

Key moment. Leon, alone with the baby through the summer, feeding Jake and changing his nappies while his mother cannot get up (Before care, at Carol's flat). The scene reverses the roles of parent and child. Leon's competence is moving, but the novel makes the reader see it as a failure of the adults around him, not as a skill to admire.

Key moment. Leon going to the neighbour, Tina, to ask for money, which leads her to find Carol and call for help (The day the boys are taken into care). Leon's request for help is the act that breaks the family up. The novel lets the reader feel the cruelty of that: a child doing the sensible thing and losing his home because of it.

Separated from Jake

At Maureen's Leon is fed and warm, and on the first morning he tells her how Jake likes to be looked after. Then a social worker brings news that Jake will be adopted. Jake, a white baby, is placed quickly; no family is found for Leon.

Key moment. Leon, on the day Jake is to leave, finally asking Maureen whether he is going too, and Maureen, in tears, telling him no (Jake's adoption, at Maureen's). The question Leon has been too frightened to ask is answered at the last moment. Delaying it makes the reader share his dread.

Key moment. Leon at school after Jake has gone, with no friends, stealing and angry (At Maureen's). The novel shows grief through behaviour rather than words. The reader is asked to read the stealing and anger as signs of loss, not simple naughtiness.

The plan and the riot

At Sylvia's Leon is given a bike, and with it a world beyond the house: the allotment, Tufty, Mr Devlin, Tufty's friend Castro. He is drawn into a life there, but the plan does not go away. He steals things he thinks he will need and hides them in an abandoned shed, and he takes an old gun from Mr Devlin's shed.

Key moment. Leon gathering stolen supplies and hiding them in an abandoned shed for his mission to rescue Jake and find his mother (At the allotments). The plan is a child's plan, and the reader knows it cannot work. Leon's seriousness about it is both touching and frightening.

Key moment. Leon, cornered by Tufty and Mr Devlin after the carving falls from his bag, telling them he is going to find Jake and running into the night (The night of the riot). The plan is finally spoken aloud to adults, and they cannot stop him. The night that follows tests whether anyone will come after him.

How de Waal builds Leon in language and structure

The narration stays close to Leon in the present tense, so the reader moves through events at his pace and with his limited information.

Simple language keeps the reader near a child's way of seeing; much of what he feels is shown through actions instead: stealing, hiding supplies, damaging a bathroom, growing seeds.

Dramatic irony runs through his story: he overhears conversations, and the reader understands them more fully than he does.

Structurally he moves from carer to cared-for: the novel opens with him looking after a baby and ends with him reassured that he will be looked after.

Leon in context

Leon is mixed race in a care system where a white baby is placed quickly and he is not, and the novel shows the consequence through him.

His time at the allotment puts him beside a Black community living with the policing of 1981.

The novel was published in 2016, and its picture of a child moved between placements invites readers to ask what has changed since.

Relationships

• Jake — The brother he cared for as a parent would, and whose loss drives the whole novel.
• Carol — The mother he looks after and longs for, and finally has to let go.
• Maureen — The foster carer who gives him warmth and, in the end, tells him they are staying together.
• Tufty — A Black man who becomes a father figure and teaches him about plants and about the police.
• Sylvia — Maureen's sister, who takes him in when Maureen is ill.

What Leon stands for

• The hidden supplies: the plan to put the family back together.
• The bike: freedom and a world beyond the house.
• The seeds and beans he grows: growth that takes time and patience, the opposite of his plan.

Why Waal made Leon

• To show what the care system feels like from inside, through a child who is rarely asked what he wants.
• To show a child forced into adult responsibility, and what it costs him.
• To show how race shapes a child's chances before he understands it.

Other readings

• A child robbed of childhood by adults who should have protected him.
• A resilient boy whose loyalty to his brother is the novel's moral centre.
• A child whose plan to rescue his family is really a plea to be looked after himself.

Essay arguments

• De Waal keeps the narration close to Leon so that the reader understands more than he does, and that gap is where the novel's anger lies.
• Leon's plan to rescue Jake is a child's version of parenthood, and the novel ends when someone promises to look after him instead.
• Leon's story shows a system in which a white baby is placed quickly and a mixed-race boy is not, and the novel makes the reader feel that from the child's side.

In theme essays

• Family and belonging: the plan and the hidden supplies.
• The care system: decisions made about him and explained afterwards.
• Childhood and loss: the summer of caring for Jake.

Questions that get asked

• How does de Waal present Leon as a child who has to grow up too quickly?
• How does de Waal use Leon to explore ideas about family?

Think you understand Leon? Teach it, then defend it against Kit de Waal →

Carol

The loving, unreliable mother who cannot hold her family together

Carol is Leon and Jake's mother. When the novel opens she has just given birth to Jake, whose father, Tony, wants nothing to do with her or the baby. She becomes depressed after the birth, is dependent on drugs, and slides into a state in which she cannot look after herself or her children. When the neighbour, Tina, finds her and calls for help, the boys are taken into care. Carol visits Leon at Maureen's with a man Leon does not know; she is unwell, breaks down, and leaves with a photograph of Jake. Leon sees her again at a Family Centre, where they talk about Jake, and in their last meeting, in Bristol where she now lives, she tells him that she cannot look after him, though he can visit her. The novel neither excuses her nor condemns her: it shows an illness and its cost to a child who never stops loving her.

Collapse

In the first part of the novel Carol is loving one moment and absent the next. She hopes that Jake's father will join her; when Tony comes, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her or the baby. She turns on Leon for listening, and afterwards she cannot cope.

Key moment. Tony, Jake's father, making it plain at the flat that he wants nothing to do with Carol or the baby, while Leon listens (Before care, at Carol's flat). The scene is seen through Leon, who understands only part of it. The rejection comes before Carol's collapse and shows the reader a man walking away from responsibility while a child watches.

Key moment. Carol scolding Leon, after Tony has gone, for listening in (Before care, at Carol's flat). Carol turns her hurt on her son. It is the first sign that Leon will be made to carry what the adults cannot.

Key moment. Carol unable to get up through the summer while Leon looks after Jake (Before care, at Carol's flat). Carol's illness is shown through what it does to the household. The reader sees her only as Leon does, through his worry.

The visits

When Carol comes to Maureen's she brings a man Leon does not know. She is unwell and breaks down, Maureen criticises her, and when she leaves she takes a photograph of Jake with her.

Key moment. Carol at Maureen's, unwell and breaking down, then leaving with a photograph of Jake (Carol's visit to Maureen's). The photograph is a picture of the son she has lost to adoption. Leon watches the one image of his brother leave with the parent who could not care for either of them.

Key moment. Carol and Leon at the Family Centre, talking about Jake (The visit at the Family Centre). Mother and son can share Jake only as a memory. The visit is supervised, which makes the reader feel the distance the system has put between them.

The last meeting

Key moment. Carol, in Bristol, telling Leon that she cannot look after him but that he can come and visit her (The visit to Carol in Bristol). The truth Leon has refused is finally spoken by the one person he would believe. The novel gives Carol a moment of honesty at the point of letting go.

How de Waal builds Carol in language and structure

Carol is seen only through Leon, so her moods and her visits are filtered through a son's love.

Her illness is shown through its effects on the household rather than described from inside.

Structurally she appears less and less: present at the start, then seen only on visits, each further away.

Carol in context

Her illness is presented as postnatal depression together with drug dependence, and the novel shows its effects without judging her.

She is left without support by Jake's father, which the novel lets the reader set beside her failures.

Relationships

• Leon — Her elder son, who looks after the baby when she cannot and keeps hoping she will come back.
• Jake — Her baby, adopted after the boys go into care.
• Tony — Jake's father, who wants nothing to do with her or the baby.
• Maureen — The foster carer who looks after her sons and criticises her to her face.

What Carol stands for

• The photograph of Jake: the son she has lost, carried away from Maureen's.
• The Family Centre: love supervised by the system.

Why Waal made Carol

• To show depression and addiction as illnesses with consequences, not as wickedness.
• To show how a child's love survives a parent's failures.

Other readings

• A neglectful parent whose problems cost her children their home.
• An ill woman abandoned by two men and left without support, whose illness is not simply her fault.
• A figure the novel refuses to judge, so that the reader must hold both views at once.

Essay arguments

• De Waal shows Carol through Leon's eyes, so her failings are filtered through his love and the reader sees more than he does.
• Carol's collapse follows Tony's rejection and comes with depression and drug dependence, so the novel spreads responsibility beyond her.
• The final meeting in Bristol gives Carol a painful honesty that lets Leon begin a new life.

In theme essays

• Family and belonging: the mother Leon keeps hoping for.
• The care system: love that must be supervised.

Questions that get asked

• How does de Waal present Carol as a mother?
• How does de Waal use Carol to explore ideas about responsibility?

Think you understand Carol? Teach it, then defend it against Kit de Waal →

Maureen

The foster carer who turns a placement into a home

Maureen is an experienced, kind and motherly foster carer with red hair who takes Leon and Jake in when they leave the flat. Her house is warm and full of food. On the first morning she gives Leon a bacon sandwich and listens as he tells her how Jake likes to be looked after. When Jake is to be adopted, it is Maureen who collects Leon from school on the day and, in tears, answers his question about whether he is going too. She tells the social worker that separating the brothers was a mistake. Her health is failing: she has trouble with her chest, her sister makes her see a doctor, and one night she collapses and Leon calls 999. While she is in hospital after a stroke he lives with her sister Sylvia. When she comes to Sylvia's, Leon hears the sisters talk of moving to the seaside and of getting a dog, and believes they mean to leave him. After the riot she is angry with him and then relieved, and after Bristol she reassures him that they are staying together.

Warmth

Maureen's house is the first place in the novel where Leon is not responsible for anyone. She feeds him and treats his knowledge of Jake as expertise.

Key moment. Maureen, on the first morning, giving Leon a bacon sandwich and listening as he tells her how Jake likes to be looked after (At Maureen's). By listening to Leon's account of Jake's routine, Maureen treats the child as the expert he has had to become. It calms him and begins the trust the rest of the novel depends on.

Key moment. Leon at Christmas at Maureen's, expecting nothing from his absent parents (At Maureen's). Leon's low expectations show what his past has taught him. The warmth of Maureen's house is measured against that.

Honesty and argument

Key moment. Maureen collecting Leon from school on the day Jake is to be adopted and, in tears, telling him that he is not going too (Jake's adoption, at Maureen's). Maureen does not hide the answer. Her tears show that the decision is not hers, and that she grieves it with him.

Key moment. Maureen telling the social worker that separating the brothers was a mistake (At Maureen's). Maureen speaks for Leon inside the system. The novel uses her to show that a carer can be part of the system and still argue with it.

Illness and reassurance

Key moment. Maureen collapsing in the night and Leon calling 999 (The night Maureen is taken ill). The carer becomes the one who needs care, and Leon takes charge as he once did for Jake. The reversal shows how far Maureen has become family to him.

Key moment. Maureen and Sylvia talking about moving to the seaside and getting a dog while Leon listens and believes they mean to leave him (Maureen's homecoming, at Sylvia's). Leon's habit of listening, learned at the flat, betrays him here. He hears part of a conversation and fills the rest with the rejection he has learned to expect.

How de Waal builds Maureen in language and structure

Maureen is characterised through food and care: a bacon sandwich on the first morning, and a listening ear for Jake's routine.

Her tears on the day Jake leaves show that the decision is not hers, which separates the carer from the system.

Structurally her illness removes her from the centre of the novel, and her return and reassurance close it.

Maureen in context

She is a foster carer working inside the care system and arguing with it, which lets the novel show both its people and its rules.

Her objection to the separation of the brothers puts into words the injustice the novel wants its reader to see.

Relationships

• Leon — The boy she fosters and, by the end, keeps.
• Jake — The baby she cares for until his adoption.
• Sylvia — Her sister, who looks after Leon while Maureen is in hospital.
• Carol — The mother she criticises to her face.

What Maureen stands for

• Food and a full kitchen: the security Leon has never had.
• Her failing health: the fragility of the one adult he trusts.

Why Waal made Maureen

• To show what good care looks like: warm, consistent and personal.
• To set a person against a system, so the reader can see where the system fails.

Other readings

• A rescuer whose love saves Leon.
• A good carer who is still part of the system that separated the brothers.
• A substitute mother whose own fragility makes Leon's security uncertain until the end.

Essay arguments

• De Waal makes Maureen the novel's model of care: she listens to Leon and argues for him.
• Maureen's illness shows that even the best care in the novel is fragile, which keeps Leon's future uncertain.
• The reassurance after Bristol turns foster care into belonging, and the novel presents that as a choice made by a person.

In theme essays

• The care system: the carer who argues with it.
• Family and belonging: the reassurance on the way home.

Questions that get asked

• How does de Waal present Maureen in My Name is Leon?
• How does de Waal use Maureen to explore ideas about care?

Think you understand Maureen? Teach it, then defend it against Kit de Waal →

Tufty

The allotment gardener who becomes a father figure

Tufty, Mr Burrows, is a Black man who keeps a plot on the allotment Leon finds on his bike. He is kind to Leon, teaches him about seeds and plants, and also teaches him about police brutality towards Black people. He reminds Leon of his father and becomes a father figure to him. At the allotment Tufty's friends argue about how to respond to the way they are treated: Castro, the angriest, wants confrontation, while others want to work through the system, and Tufty reads a poem. Later Tufty reads Leon a poem he has written about Castro. Tufty and Mr Devlin dislike each other and quarrel. Castro goes into hiding from the police and dies in police custody, and a riot follows. On that night Tufty and Mr Devlin find Leon in the allotment shed, and in the riot Tufty is hurt helping the injured Mr Devlin while Leon leads them to safety.

The allotment

Leon finds the allotment on the bike a social worker gives him. Tufty welcomes him and teaches him about seeds and plants; Mr Devlin, older and Irish, insists on the allotment's rules. Leon keeps going back.

Key moment. Tufty, at the allotment, showing Leon how seeds and plants grow (At the allotments). Tufty treats Leon as a person worth time and attention. Growing things becomes the first activity in the novel that Leon does for himself rather than for an adult.

Key moment. Leon finding that Tufty reminds him of his father (At the allotments). The echo links Tufty to the father Leon has lost. It shows how little of his Black heritage Leon has been given in care, and why Tufty matters so much to him.

Arguments and poems

Key moment. Tufty's friends arguing at the allotment about how to respond to their treatment, Castro for confrontation and others for working through the system, and Tufty reading a poem (At the allotments). Leon hears a political argument he cannot yet follow. The novel uses the scene to give the reader the adult debate of 1981 through a child who only half understands it.

Key moment. Tufty reading Leon a poem he has written about Castro (At the allotments). Poetry gives Tufty's anger a form that is not violence. It also offers Leon words for feelings he has no language for.

Castro and the riot

Key moment. News of a riot after a man dies in police custody, and the discovery that the man is Castro (Maureen's homecoming, at Sylvia's). The death of Tufty's friend turns the allotment's arguments into a public crisis. The reader sees that the police brutality Tufty warned Leon about has a cost.

Key moment. Tufty, hurt in the riot, helping the injured Mr Devlin while Leon leads them to safety (The night of the riot). The man who quarrels with Mr Devlin risks himself for him and for Leon. The scene shows care that crosses the divisions the novel has shown.

How de Waal builds Tufty in language and structure

Tufty is introduced through action and generosity at the allotment, not through description.

His poems give him a voice that is reflective and political, set against Castro's anger and the police around them.

Structurally his friend's death in custody turns the allotment's private arguments into the novel's public climax.

Tufty in context

Tufty belongs to the Black community built by Caribbean migrants of the Windrush generation in British cities.

The police brutality he teaches Leon about reflects the tensions behind the riots of summer 1981.

Relationships

• Leon — The boy he teaches and becomes a father figure to.
• Castro — His friend, who hides from the police and dies in custody.
• Mr Devlin — The Irish allotment man he dislikes and quarrels with, and stands beside on the night of the riot.

What Tufty stands for

• Seeds and plants: patience and growth.
• His poems: anger turned into words.

Why Waal made Tufty

• To give Leon, and the reader, a Black adult who is kind, political and creative.
• To show the experience of Black communities and the police in 1981 from inside.

Other readings

• A substitute father who fills the gap Leon's father left.
• A voice of a Black community of the period, who chooses words over violence.
• A man whose quarrel with Mr Devlin shows that no one in the novel is simply good.

Essay arguments

• De Waal uses Tufty to give Leon a connection to the Black heritage his care has not given him.
• Tufty's poems set words against violence, and Castro's death shows what the alternative costs.
• Through Tufty and his friends the novel shows the 1981 riots as the result of policing, not a sudden madness.

In theme essays

• Race and racism: police brutality and Castro's death.
• Family and belonging: a father figure on the allotment.

Questions that get asked

• How does de Waal present Tufty in My Name is Leon?
• How does de Waal use Tufty to explore ideas about community?

Think you understand Tufty? Teach it, then defend it against Kit de Waal →

Sylvia

Maureen's sister, who takes Leon in when there is nobody else

Sylvia is Maureen's sister. Leon first meets her when Maureen, already unwell, takes him to visit her, and Sylvia insists that Maureen see a doctor about her chest. When Maureen collapses and is taken to hospital, Leon goes to live with Sylvia. He is unhappy there at first and changes school, and Sylvia goes to meet the school about him. She works part-time and is busy planning a party for the royal wedding, and Leon spends his days on his bike and at the allotment. She looks after him when he has a fever, and one evening, when she comes home upset, he comforts her. When Maureen comes out of hospital to Sylvia's house, the sisters talk of moving to the seaside, which sends Leon out into the night. After the riot the injured men are brought back and tended. She shows that care can come from someone who never planned to give it.

First meeting

Key moment. Sylvia insisting that Maureen see a doctor about her chest (At Maureen's). Sylvia's first act is to look after her sister. It prepares the reader to see her later care for Leon as an extension of that loyalty.

A house that becomes a home

Leon does not want to be at Sylvia's at first. He changes school, misses Maureen, and spends his time at the allotment. Sylvia has her own life and her own plans, including a party for the royal wedding.

Key moment. Sylvia going to the school to meet the staff about Leon (At Sylvia's). Sylvia takes on a parent's duties for a boy she did not expect to look after. The meeting shows her accepting the role.

Key moment. Sylvia looking after Leon when he has a fever (At Sylvia's). Illness makes Leon dependent on Sylvia, and she cares for him. The scene marks the start of trust between them.

Key moment. Leon comforting Sylvia when she comes home upset (At Sylvia's). The child comforts the adult again, but this time it is a sign of affection rather than neglect. The scene shows the two of them becoming a household.

How de Waal builds Sylvia in language and structure

Sylvia is drawn through what she does rather than what she says: a school meeting, nursing a fever, planning a party.

Her household runs on its own concerns, which gives Leon freedom on his bike and at the allotment.

Structurally she is introduced looking after her sister, and her house becomes the place where the novel's people gather.

Sylvia in context

Her party for the royal wedding ties the novel's private story to the national celebration of July 1981.

She takes Leon in when Maureen is in hospital, which shows family filling a gap the system leaves.

Relationships

• Maureen — Her sister, whom she looks after.
• Leon — The boy she takes in when Maureen is in hospital.
• Mr Devlin — The allotment man who comes early to help with her royal wedding party.

What Sylvia stands for

• The royal wedding party: a national celebration planned in the same summer as the riots.
• Her house: a stopgap that becomes part of Leon's home.

Why Waal made Sylvia

• To show care coming from someone who never planned to give it.
• To set ordinary life, such as the party, alongside the riots.

Other readings

• A reluctant stopgap carer.
• A carer who comes to care for Leon as Maureen does.
• A reminder that the adults in Leon's life have lives and plans of their own.

Essay arguments

• De Waal uses Sylvia to show care that grows slowly, through fevers and school meetings rather than declarations.
• Sylvia's party plans run alongside the riots, so the novel shows a country celebrating while some of its people are policed.
• Sylvia's house widens Leon's family beyond one foster carer.

In theme essays

• Family and belonging: the household that grows around Leon.
• Childhood and loss: the freedom Leon has at Sylvia's.

Questions that get asked

• How does de Waal present Sylvia in My Name is Leon?
• How does de Waal present the adults who look after Leon?

Think you understand Sylvia? Teach it, then defend it against Kit de Waal →

Family and belonging

Leon loses the family he was born into and slowly gains one he did not choose.

The novel begins with a family already breaking: a mother who cannot cope, a father who has gone and is in prison, a baby whose father wants nothing to do with him. Leon tries to hold it together by caring for Jake himself. When that fails, the care system decides what family means for him: Jake is adopted, Leon stays behind. His plan is to rescue Jake and find his mother. The novel quietly builds another family around him instead: Maureen, Sylvia, Tufty, Mr Devlin, the allotment.

Key moment. Leon, on his tenth birthday, being given a photograph of Jake (Leon's tenth birthday). The birthday gift keeps his brother present and feeds his plan. The novel shows how a small piece of contact keeps the old family alive in Leon's mind.

Context that changes the reading. The novel is set in 1980 and 1981, before the Children Act 1989 placed a duty on councils to promote contact between children in care and their families. Leon's only links to Jake in the novel are a memory and a photograph.

Use this in an essay. Frame: Leon spends the novel trying to rebuild the family he lost, and de Waal shows him belonging, at the end, to people he never planned to love.

Think you understand family and belonging in My Name is Leon? Teach it, then defend it →

The care system

Social workers, reviews and decisions shape Leon's life, usually without asking him.

Leon meets the care system as a series of visitors: the social worker he nicknames Zebra, others who bring news of Jake's adoption, an Independent Reviewing Officer. They make decisions he cannot change and explain them afterwards. The novel does not make them villains: a social worker gives him the bike that changes his life. But it shows a system in which a white baby is placed quickly and a mixed-race boy is not, and a boy who feels that.

Key moment. A reviewing officer talking to Leon about Jake, and Leon, upset, damaging Sylvia's toilet afterwards (The reviewing officer's visit, at Sylvia's). Official conversation meets a child's grief. The gap between the officer's calm and Leon's frustration is the novel's clearest picture of the system from inside.

Context that changes the reading. The Children Act 1975 made the welfare of the child the first consideration in decisions about care and adoption. The novel asks what welfare means when it is decided for a child, not with him.

Use this in an essay. Frame: De Waal shows the care system through the eyes of the child it is meant to protect, so the reader sees good intentions and the harm they can still do.

Think you understand the care system in My Name is Leon? Teach it, then defend it →

Race and racism

Race shapes which brother is adopted, and the novel follows Leon into a community living with racist policing.

Race shapes Leon's life before he understands it. He is the mixed-race son of a white mother and a Black father, and when the brothers are separated Jake, a white baby, is adopted quickly while no family is found for Leon. At the allotment Tufty teaches him about police brutality towards Black people, Tufty's friends argue about how to respond, Castro hides from the police, and the news reports a riot after a man dies in police custody: the man is Castro.

Key moment. Jake, a white baby, adopted quickly while no family is found for Leon, who is mixed race (Jake's adoption, at Maureen's). The novel's central injustice is never a single cruel act. It is a pattern of choices, and its quietness is what makes it hard to forget.

Key moment. Tufty teaching Leon about police brutality towards Black people (At the allotments). Leon learns about the world he belongs to from a man on an allotment, not from the system that looks after him. The reader sees how little his care has prepared him for it.

Context that changes the reading. In 1981 riots broke out in several English cities, among them Brixton in London in April and Handsworth in Birmingham in July. Many Black communities complained of police use of the sus law, a power to stop people on suspicion, repealed in August 1981. Lord Scarman's report on the Brixton disorders, published in November 1981, examined relations between the police and Black communities.

Use this in an essay. Frame: De Waal shows racism at two scales, from an adoption that happens quietly to a death in police custody, and lets the reader see both through a boy who is only beginning to understand them.

Think you understand Race and racism in My Name is Leon? Teach it, then defend it →

Childhood and loss (minor)

A child forced to be an adult is given a childhood back.

At the start of the novel Leon is a parent to his brother and a carer to his mother. He steals and listens at doors because he has had to manage adults to survive. The losses accumulate: his father, his mother, Jake, very nearly Maureen. What he gains is slow and small: a bike, seeds and beans to grow, adults who look after him. The novel ends on the day of the royal wedding with a boy among the things he has grown.

Key moment. Leon, ill with a fever at Sylvia's, being looked after (At Sylvia's). Being nursed is something that has rarely happened to Leon. The scene shows him, briefly, allowed to be the one who is cared for.

Context that changes the reading. The novel's last day is the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981, a national celebration of family held in the same summer as the riots. The party gives the ending a public frame for a private recovery.

Use this in an essay. Frame: De Waal takes a boy who has had to be a parent and ends by letting him be a child, and the novel measures what he has lost by how ordinary that ending is.

Think you understand childhood and loss in My Name is Leon? Teach it, then defend it →