While they seemed like they could have been more interesting it also seemed as though they were assigned one character trait and that was the whole basis of who they were.

Even in the scene when he looked at his horribly burned and disfigured face for the first time, I was thinking more about how terrible that has to be for anyone rather than feeling especially bad that it happened to the main character, if that makes sense. Fortunately, the burden helped Martin find his voice of reason and uncovered who his loyal and faithful friends really were. The pacing is excellent as well, with events naturally following on from one another - whilst never lingering on certain situations for too long.

The book however did tell more than show the reader the events which made the book a bit less enjoyable. There’s a lot of feeling going on in this short read and he’s able to include positive messages at the end that everyone can relate and take notice from. Having listened to (and loved) another of Zephaniah’s audiobooks (also narrated by Bailey Smith) I was really looking forward to this one, and I was not disappointed. Before the accident he hated gymnastics at school and then on his second day back it was his favorite activity and two days later he was the captain! I really like his writing style; he’s able to cover such complicated topics such as peer pressure, drugs, youth crime, racism, young relationships, preconceptions and a whole host of others, without it getting too heavy or bogged down.

The writing itself felt a bit flat and dragged on in places, and sometimes I had trouble picking it up. And although his old friends melted away from him, I was glad that Martin was able to make other friends. I wanted to know more about Martin because I never felt like I got a good grasp of who he is and his personality. I was only 11/12 and I loved it, the reality of perceptions, peer pressure and a character learning to be confident in his own skin - brilliant read.

Also, Martin has to learn to deal with all the different reactions of ordinary people to his terrible injuries. It was a good base but there wasn't a lot of depth in the characters, there was a lot of telling and not showing (which was the biggest problem in my opinion. Benjamin Zephaniah is a British performance poet who travels on literary world tours for the British Council. He doesn't know the car is stolen though, and it isn't a ride home, it's a ride to self-destruction.

Face, a young adult book, by Benjamin Zephaniah unravels the story of a 15-year-old boy named Martin who chose mistake after mistake until he found a burden too heavy to replace. Like Refugee Boy that I also listened to recently, Face was brilliantly read by Ben Bailey Smith, who moves seamlessly in and out of a London accent.

It follows the story of Martin, a British teenager living in east London, and how his and his friends and family’s life changed after a horrific car crash. The holidays have started, he's got a gorgeous girlfriend and everyone agrees he's the coolest dancer around. I did go into reading this book thinking purely about students/ya reading this but a few chapters in and I was hooked and read it for my own enjoyment and forgot about reading it to recommend. And then there was the part where Zephaniah said it was a Friday, and in the following scene it was “the next day” and still Friday, somehow. Fleshing out a very clear world these young characters live in, with the change in dialogue between speaking with their child counterparts and adults conveying an accurate fictional narrative, within a non-fictional setting.

But when his world is turned upside down by a crash in a stolen car, he has to come to terms with more than his facial injuries…. Can you imagine waking up in a hospital, and not even knowing for sure whether you have still got all your limbs? Even once I’d been absorbed into the story line, I didn’t enjoy it much, although I did appreciate that the large print made it easy for me to power through it. You have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the streets of Martin's neighbourhood - not that Martin is particularly racist: 'I ain't got nothing against blacks, they're just different, they dance different and everything. I thought that they were interesting and unique characters and I would have loved to learn more about them.When he finds out that his girlfriend and bestfriends had moved on, he realises that for some people life isn't always easy.