Crow Country - Kate Constable

Sadie has moved to the country with her Mum, Ellie. It’s a great move for Ellie, who has strong family connections to the area – and who’s just reconnected with David, an old boyfriend. It’s a bad move for Sadie, who’d much rather have stayed in Melbourne with her friends. However life takes an unexpected turn for Sadie when she has an unusual encounter with a crow on the dried up lake at Invergarry, after running away from an argument with Ellie. Then her world spins when she meets Lachie Mortlock. Living in Boort suddenly takes on new meaning – especially when Crow gives Sadie a secret to keep and a mystery to solve.

 

Crow Country is a time-slip novel that has Sadie travelling back through the generations of her family to where she witnesses a shocking event. With the help of Walter, David’s nephew, to do some sleuthing, Sadie’s encounters with the crows and her adventures in another century gradually begin to make sense as the puzzle pieces slot together.

 

This is a book that reaches into the heart of small town relationships blighted by wrong-doing, prejudice and fear. It is a fantasy story wrapped in Indigenous lore, in which Kate Constable exhibits a deft hand at amalgamating myth with the mystery of ordinary life. Her characters are rounded and the story engaging, full of intrigue, expectancy and crisis. Children reading this story will relate both to Sadie’s excruciating need to feel accepted by her peers and to the sting of being strung along by the older Lachie. The awkwardness of the early teens is juxtaposed cleverly against the natural bond of friendship, which is portrayed so dexterously by Constable in the characters of Sadie and Walter.

 

Crow Country is a book that sweeps you deliciously off your feet into a world where you feel immediately at home; with Kate Constable you know you are in safe hands. A thoroughly enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

 

Allen & Unwin 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 3, July 2011)

The Youngest Cameleer - Goldie Alexander

Ahmed Ackbar, a young fourteen-year-old Afghan, has spent six weeks at sea, and is happy to find his land-legs when he arrives in Adelaide with his Uncle Kamran. The year is 1878 and they have come to Australia to join the William Gosse exploration party as cameleers to help map a route from the Overland Telegraph Line at Alice Springs to Perth. Ahmed speaks a little English, so is able to translate into Pashto for the other Afghans in the party – Jemma Khan, Allanah and his uncle.

 

Ahmed tells the story of the expedition through his diary entries, where we learn that life as a young cameleer is anything but easy. As well as being bullied by Jemma Khan, whenever Ahmed’s uncle is not watching, Ahmed – or Alfred, as the English refer to him – must contend with homesickness, the harshness of the Australian outback and working hard from dawn to dusk to look after the camels.

 

Ahmed, however, has something on his mind that keeps him awake at night. Apart from worrying about being attacked by a bunyip or babalu – the bogeyman – Ahmed cannot stop thinking about the death of his father back in Afghanistan. Was his uncle involved in the death?

 

This is a historical fiction for older children and young adults. The story is engaging, with the likeable Ahmed recounting the story of the Gosse expedition and life as a young cameleer. Information about the life-and-death conditions endured by the early explorers; eighteenth century Adelaide; the history of Afghanistan; facts about camels; Afghani customs and religious observances; and the attitudes to the Indigenous Australians are all woven seamlessly into the story. The book’s themes include bullying, prejudice, hardship, endurance, friendship and hope. Based on the diaries of William Goss, Goldie Alexander cleverly brings his story to life through the eyes of young Ahmed. Her portrayal of the relationship between the Afghans and their camels is particularly touching, as is the inner journey Ahmed takes as he contemplates the mystery of his father’s death, his growing into manhood and the responsibility he feels to look after his family back in Afghanistan.

 

Goldie Alexander has produced an enjoyable and informative book. Highly recommended.

 

Five Senses Publications 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 3, July 2011)

The Koala Bounces Back - Jimmy Thomson and Eric Lobbecke

What sorts of adventures could a koala with a special ability to bounce get up to when all seems peaceful in his small corner of the world? After saving some children from a fire and finding a safe home for all his koala friends, you’d think a quiet life of munching on eucalyptus leaves would be the main thing on the agenda. But when a gang of moggies moves in to the bush, life gets troublesome for Karri and his friends. So when parrot and bilby plead with Karri to tell the cats to clear off, he does. But where can the cats go? They’ve been dumped by their owners and have nowhere to live. Jinksy and Scar don’t take kindly to their eviction orders and it looks like a stand-off – until someone suggests a football match. If the cats win, they stay; if they lose, they go. Are Karri and his bush friends able to pull it off? Will Karri have enough bounce?

This book is a sequel to The Koala Who Bounced, Thomson and Lobbecke’s first joint venture, published in 1993. A second edition of the original book has been published to coincide with the release of The Koala Bounced Back.

Lobbecke’s bold, colourful and expressive illustrations work together well with the text, adding nuances to the story as well as breathing animation and humour into it. There are traces of Lobbecke’s cartooning in the cast of characters, who young children will be drawn to for their vibrancy and warmth. Karri is immediately likeable and the moggies delightfully mean, roguish, and endearing.

The story deals well with the issue of feral animals and their threat to wildlife, introducing young readers to this aspect of conservation. And Thomson comes up with an original solution to the problem of the homeless cats.

The Koala Bounces back is a book children will enjoy and return to often.

 

Random House 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 4, September 2011)

The Comet Box - Adrian Stirling

Some books keep you enthralled from the moment you read the opening paragraph. You are transported so deftly into another world, there is a reluctance to leave. The Comet Box is such a book. Adrian Stirling creates the suburban setting of Merton, easily recognisable as any small Australian community, replete with characters that populate our everyday lives, and thrusts us straight into a mystery.

 

It is 1986. Andrew thinks he knows everything about Merton and its inhabitants until one day his sister runs away from home. It turns his world upside down. Amelia has gone and everyone except Andrew seems to know why. Then, when she is found and brought home against her will, even Amelia – uncommunicative and sequestered – is more intent on injecting misery into the family than revealing the truth to her brother. The world as Andrew knows it begins to unravel and spiral downwards into a vortex of secrets, lies and unhappiness. By degrees, as he stumbles upon the truth, his fourteen-year-old worldview begins to shatter; he makes the distressing discovery that uncovering what someone has gone to great lengths to hide can sometimes have unexpected and unbearably weighty consequences. In Andrew’s crumbling world, the only thing to look forward to, to keep hope alive, is the arrival of Halley’s Comet.

 

This is a compelling coming-of-age story, unswerving in its treatment of human frailty and fallibility. Stirling is not afraid to subject his young adult readers to the brutality, pain and messiness of relationships. When Andrew discovers what really goes on in his own family and behind the doors of his neighbours, it rocks his equilibrium. Once a secret is revealed, there is no burying it again. He learns that uncovering the truth may not always be the wisest option.

 

There are no two ways about it: this book is dark. Take, for instance, the characterisation of the troubled Amelia, which verges on horror, and the unmitigated portrayal of a son made to drink beer and watch pornography with his loathsome father. There is domestic violence, there is bullying and there is desperation and sadness.

 

The Comet Box is full of symbolism with the hot, languid days; the darkness of the underground pipes; Andrew’s friend being called Romeo; the contents of the comet box and all it reveals about the families of Merton; and even the anticipation of Halley’s Comet itself, hurtling through space with its blazing tail.

 

I found this book to be gripping, well-written and compelling, though somewhat enervating in its sense of deepening desolation. Especially into the second half of the book, I was looking for sunnier moments, but they are few and far between. There are moments of humour, but these, too, are dark.

 

Recommended if you don’t mind an intense read that doesn’t shy away from negotiating the shabby side of the human condition. If you’re looking for an uplifting read with lots of laughs, try something else.

 

Penguin 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 3, July 2011)

Damon - Gary Crew and Aaron Hill

Damon is a teenager on holidays with his parents and has been coerced into visiting the art gallery. But he’s bored. None of the artworks make sense. He hates being a tourist, so he turns up his iPod and goes back to the hotel. But even there, he’s bored. The people he watches through the window are boring, his electronic games and the television are boring. So boring he falls asleep. When he’s asleep, he is visited in his dreams by a tiger – and everything changes.

 

Aaron Hill’s illustrations are hand-in-glove with the text of this picture-story book for older readers. Cast mostly in greyscale, in keeping with the theme of the book, the illustrations are exquisitely detailed pencil-drawn sketches. Where there are splashes of colour, they are welcomed and symbolic.

 

Gary Crew uses the first and fourth stanza of William Blakes’ poem ‘The Tyger’ as an epigraph to the book. The storyline of Damon could be seen to follow the theme of the poem: Tyger! Tiger! Burning bright/In the forests of the night/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Having seen the artwork in the gallery, Damon is unaware that an almost subliminal force is at work, calling to life the creativity that lies dormant within him. This awakening is represented by the tiger, which is referenced subtly in the earlier pages of the book by the appearance of a striped tail. The tiger finally emerges from one of the artworks before appearing to Damon in his dream. One of the only coloured two-page spreads in the book depicts the tiger growling and releasing brightly painted finches that fly from its mouth.

 

Just as Blakes’ poem is full of metaphor, so is the story of Damon. Crew and Hill have produced a book that will certainly serve as a discussion-starter in upper primary and junior secondary classrooms. It is a book that will benefit from multiple readings to eke out the meaning. Damon is a book that will appeal to some more than others. The illustration on the last page is one I found surprising and unnerving. I suspect this will be more a book teachers will pull off the shelf to use with their students than one children themselves would choose to borrow or buy.

 

Lothian Children's Books 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 3, July 2011)

Warrambi - Aleesah Darlison and Andrew Plant

When tiny Warambi, a little bent-wing bat, makes her entrance into the world, she is no bigger than a bean. Even when she is fully-grown, she will still only measure up to a tiny forty-five centimetres. So when Warambi is a pup, just able to fly, still having hunting lessons from her mum, it is no wonder she is so afraid when the earth shakes and her cave is ripped apart by monster machines. Her colony fly around in panic, and in the confusion, poor Warambi becomes separated from her mother.

 

This is a delightful picture story book for children of lower primary school age. Based on a true story, the text is gentle and moving but does not shy away from drawing the reader’s attention to the violence involved in destroying the habitat of the little bent-wing bat, or Miniopterus australis. The symbolism of juxtaposing this tiny species of bat with the enormous earth-moving machines is powerful and clever. The language of Warambi is warm and sumptuous, lending itself to being read aloud, with its subtle rhythms and use of alliteration, consonance and assonance: The terrified pups and their mothers squeaked and squealed and whirred and wheeled about.

 

Andrew Plant’s illustrations, painted in acrylic, are striking and sit well with the text; they highlight the themes of the book – belonging, threat, compassion, conservation of natural habitats and the preservation of native species.

 

Published in the Year of the Bat, as declared by the United Nations, Warambi – the word for ‘bat’ in the language of the Dharawal people – is a touching story that children will relate to. Engaging and informative – the end papers contain an array of interesting facts about the little bent-wing bat, which helps to make the story all the more poignant – Warambi will help to raise awareness about the plight of many of Australia’s native flora and fauna.

 

A captivating read. Recommended.

 

Working Title Press 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 3, July 2011)

 

Raven's Mountain - Wendy Orr

Raven is sure that one day her real dad will come back to look for her. But when Raven’s Mum and Scott decide to leave Cottonwood Bluffs and set up home for their new family on the other side of the mountains, Raven is devastated. How will he find her? And how will she manage without Gram and her friends? Scott and Mum’s avalanche of words about camping and hiking and a home of their own just doesn’t cut it.

 

When Scott takes Raven and her sister Lily on a camping trip to the top of the mountain, there is more to deal with than an avalanche of words. And a close call with a bear is not the worst of it. Raven, exuberant to reach the top of the mountain before her sister, does a celebratory dance. But the mountain’s response is both unexpected and terrifying. Raven is left alone. It is only she who can save Lily and Scott, trapped beneath rocks and in danger of their lives. But to seek help she must find her way back down the mountain.

 

Wendy Orr knows how to keep her readers’ hearts in their mouths. This is an adventure story that grips and enthrals. It is an account of courage and resourcefulness in the face of danger and adversity, and of the emergence of a young girl’s quiescent strengths. It is a story about change, family and the need to belong.

 

Written in the present tense, the text pared back to essentials, there is a feeling of immediacy, of being with Raven as she endures the endless ravages of the mountain and fights for her survival.

Apart from some mystical encounters with a family of bears and her feathered namesake, Raven contends with the mountain’s bombardments, its hidden dangers and surprises, by herself. Passages of dialogue, however, as Raven thinks aloud and discusses decisions with her imaginary companions – friends from back home, Amanda and Jess – add vibrancy and depth to the text. Orr also breaks up the story with italicised flashbacks which inform the reader about Raven’s family relationships.

 

Raven’s Mountain is a heart-stirring story, with a richness of symbolism and imagery, interspersed with levity and wit. A riveting and rewarding read. Highly recommended.

 

Allen & Unwin 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 1, March 2011)