Young George wants to go to Big Spills Water World more than
anything, but he lives in Mumblegum – in the middle of nowhere. Gran has an
idea. If George wins the Stockman’s Cup, the five hundred dollar prize money
could make a trip to the fun park possible. But this is a horse race, George
points out to Gran, in the spirit of ‘The Man from Snowy River’ – they won’t
let him enter on his motorbike! Gran’s got it all worked out: George can ride
Bandicoot – who these days spends his time on the veranda with his best friend,
Croak, a crow that can’t fly, but can call out, ‘Haveacuppatea!’. Gran has
every confidence in Bandicoot, pure mountain-bred and winner of the Cup five
years straight in his younger years. George thinks about the prize money and
decides to give it a go. What he doesn’t know is he’s in for the race of his
life and that Croak and three naughty goats are going to make things
complicated.
The Boy from
Snowy River, part of the Mates
series of ‘great Australian yarns’, is a delightful book for beginning readers.
Its presentation makes it immediately accessible to the target audience with
its short chapters, appropriate font size and Joe Bond’s colourful, humorous
and animated illustrations. I did find the stratagem of highlighting random
words on every page in different fonts and sizes off-putting, but perhaps this
would be appealing to a young child. At first I thought this was to draw
attention to unfamiliar vocabulary, but this did not seem to be consistently
the case. The intertextual references to Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy
River’ worked well, adding depth of meaning and interest to the text – which
was well-plotted and held the reader’s attention throughout. The characters,
especially the waggish Gran and protagonist, George, were likeable and well
drawn. If the reader was not already familiar with the text to which this story
alludes, the book would serve as an excellent introduction. Entertaining and
enjoyable – a great Aussie yarn indeed.
Omnibus Books, 2014
(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 29, Issue 3,
July 2014)
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