Nofel i ddarllenwyr 13+ am ferch ifanc yn dysgu derbyn salwch cryd cymalau yn sgil cyfeillgarwch ag ieuenctid eraill. Enillydd gwobr Tir na n-Og.

A novel for readers of 13+ about friendships, resulting in a young girl's acceptance of her arthritic condition. Tir na n-Og Award winner.

Alwena is almost fifteen and making a slow recovery from juvenile arthritis. She has not attended school for two years and, to add to her isolation, lives with her parents in a crumbling mansion deep in the hills of Cardiganshire. Her father is employed by the University of Wales to act as caretaker and to seek funding for the renovation of the great house and its extensive grounds by marketing it as a potential study centre. He has become increasingly obsessed, however, by protecting both Plas Idaleg and his invalid daughter from the outside world. Despite his efforts, Alwena is awakened, in Sleeping Beauty fashion, by Gareth, a local A-Level student intent on studying Plas Idaleg for his art project. He also has problems with his father, who wants him to become a partner in his plumbing business rather than study architecture. Alwena's romantic attachment to Gareth encourages her to resist her father and refuse to remain isolated any longer. It is through her research with Gareth into the story of 'The Child's Garden', somewhere in the grounds and long since overgrown, that she discovers the reason for her father's fears and her own link with the past.

Winner of the Tir na n-Og Award in 1998, this is a novel set in a remote and unusual landscape, but wholly concerned with the everyday struggle of adolescents to break free of their parents' influence and make their own choices.

Angela Noble

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.