Rumer Godden has been an author on my radar since I found that my little library down the street has a good collection of her work. I didn’t now much about her, but kept hearing her name in the blogging world and that piqued my interest. The first of her books I chose to read is one she wrote for children, The Diddakoi. It was a lovely little book and quite convinced me to continue reading all those Rumer Godden books on the library shelf.

Kizzy is a “diddakoi,” a half-gypsy girl. She lives with her Gran in a gypsy caravan, always traveling. But her life changes dramatically when Gran dies and she must live in the village where she is an unwelcomed outsider. The village girls are cruel to her, as are their parents, but there are a few good people in the village that take Kizzi into their hearts and help her deal with the cruelty of prejudice.

In our world today, there is so much talk about bullying, especially in our schools. This is a book that looks directly at that problem, and honestly describes and deals with that issue on a number of different levels. The book was written for children of 4-6th grade age, and I think it would make a powerful read aloud/read together and unit of study on bullying. Rumer Godden is a lovely writer, and also a very honest one. Whether you read this book with children or just for yourself, it’s a worthwhile read, and was a nice introduction for me to the work of Rumer Godden.