story time books

Melina Marchetta’s  Saving Francesca is one of my favourite young adult books, with its sassy and intelligent heroine, and now here’s a sequel (sort of, not really). Tom Mackee was one of the characters in the earlier book, and now five years have passed, years that haven’t been kind to Tom. His family has exploded after the sudden violent death of his uncle in a terrorist attack: his mother has gone to Queensland to escape his father’s drinking; his father’s twin sister is pregnant to the man she left after he fathered a child with someone else during a separation; Tara Finke, the woman Tom thinks he might love is in Timor, and appears to hate him; and at the start of the book his flatmates have thrown him out. I’ve read a few books which are about the effect of grief on the lives of those left behind after tragedy, but none as good as this one. The only question is whether it is a teenage/young adult book, since the main characters are all in their twenties. And the answer is, who cares? With characters as good as these, writing as crisp and true, and knowledge of the human condition to burn, it’s a great read for anyone, teenage or adult. I loved Finnikin of the Rock, which I reviewed in October 2008, and this just proves that Melina is one of those writers who start out very good and keep getting better. A very, very good read indeed. I could say a lot more, but it would be difficult to do that without spoiling the effect for the reader, and I’d hate to do that. It’s a sad, funny, wise, wonderful book.

Jack Lasenby’s latest is as good as Old Drumble, which I loved, though it is completely different in some ways and has similarities in others. The exaggerated  stories of the drover’s dog have gone, with some of the humour, but the feel of a community (no, not a community, the specific Waharoa community)  is there again, and this feels like another glimpse at the earlier New Zealand that Jack is so good at portraying. It’s a reminder of how much good has been lost along with the gains in instant communications. As a character in another book I’m about to review says, “We don’t live in a society anymore…We live in an economy. We’re not citizens. We’re customers.” [The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta]. But in 1930s Waharoa, Maggie lives with her father, and is brought up by him and the proverbial village. Some of their tender care borders on, or crosses into interference, but most of it is lovingly gentle. Maggie and her father are wonderfully rounded characters, giving the lie to the impression some have of absolute blandness of our society before we acquired cafes and consumerism, and they are surrounded by other wonderful characters of whom we catch glimpses. There’s an acute sense of the time (1930s, depression) conveyed by the everyday lives in a dairy factory town and passing comments about politics. Wonderfully human, and the story gives a better sense of that earlier New Zealand than shelves full of history books. Highly recommended for anyone eight-years-old and over.

Allen & Unwin, publishers of this first novel by adopted Australian Christine Hinwood, is one of the best companies at supplying advance reading copies, and I read this a few months ago. The trouble with that is that when the book arrives I’ve read a lot more in the interim and have to skim to remind myself. This comes with a recommendation from Melina Marchetta on its back cover. She says,  “I can’t tell you how much I loved this novel.” It’s definitely one for an older, more sophisticated and patient reader, so towards the upper end of young adult, I’d suggest, knowing that age recommendations are always suspect as soon as they’re made.

This book really is one-of-a-kind. Its style is quite unique; its characters wonderfully tangible and realistically imprecise; its world finely imagined. When I mentioned patience being necessary in the reader it’s because the situation unfolds slowly and irregularly, like real life, and like real life that situation has nuances and dichotomies, confusions and contradictions. Advice for writers often includes the cliche “show don’t tell,’ and this novel could be an exemplar for that. So this is not a book for those who like everything tidily explained, but for those who like a slow unfolding and a bigger picture slowly developing from the pieces being put together in the reader’s head. The themes of love and war, peace and forgiveness, prejudice and acceptance also develop organically from the story and are not imposed from without. It’s a fascinating, wonderful read. I loved it too, and Cam Attling is another character from this year’s reading who will stick in the mind for a long time.

This is a sequel to Matt Haig’s Shadow forest, which I liked and reviewed here in March 2008. This is only in hardcover at present, but it’s a great read. Life has moved on since Samuel Blink saved his sister from the forest, but things become interesting again when Troll-son, whose family helped Samuel earlier, decides to escape from the forest and ask Samuel for help.  Like the last book, funny, perceptive and well-written, and again there’s a lovely over-the-top villain. Recommended from senior primary upwards.

Melina Marchetta has written teenage fiction before, Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca being two notable examples, but as far as I know this is her first venture into the fantasy world. I’ve just read a review in an Australian librarian’s blog which found it disappointing. I have to say that for me it was just the opposite. I liked the two earlier books I’ve read quite a lot, but I loved this. For me it was one of those wonderful reading experiences where half way through I paused and thought “half of me wants to read fast to know how the story evolves, to find out what happens, and half of me wants to stop and save the rest, to savour it as slowly as possible hoping I will never get to the end. I can’t remember being as completely drawn into a different world since I read The Hobbit about 45 years ago. That is not to say this is that sort of fantasy: all these characters are human. I found her world of warring kingdoms and diffferent races completely believable, the characters made me feel I was fighting and loving and hurting alongside them, and I laughed and cried. There’s fighting, warfare, friendship and love, loyalty and betrayal, gentleness and brutality, honesty and dishonesty, intellect and emotion, royalty, nobles and commoners, good and evil, all wrapped in a plot that gallops along, that I’m not even going to start explaining, and writing that is beautiful and wise. It’s a teenage/young adult/adult read. Even if you think you don’t like fantasy, this might be well worth the effort of suspending prejudice as well as disbelief.

This is a hardback novel by Linda Newbery. Her last book was Set in Stone, which I reviewed here in March last year. This is very different, but similarly well written. Flightsend is a cottage Charlie’s mother buys in an attempt to start a new life after giving birth to a dead baby. She leaves her teaching career and goes into growing things for sale. Charlie pines for Sean, her mother’s partner, who has been shoved off in the aftermath of their personal tragedy. With that in the past, the present is mainly very ordinary everyday stuff, beautifully described, and Charlie’s character is particularly well drawn. Her growing sense of herself, and recognition of the imperfections of some of the adults around her is beautifully done. The book will be too slow for some, but the detail in the observation and character development make it a very satisfying read. Teenage/young adult.

Nicola Morgan, author of The Highwayman’s Footsteps (see Post 7 March 2007) and The Highwayman’s Curse (25 January 2008), also writes non-fiction. These two books, the second of which is not new, talk about the recent research into the human brain. Know Your Brain, the more recent, is subtitled Feed It, Test It, Stretch It, and gives information on stretching the brain, how it works, how to get more out of it by exercising it, feeding it right and so on. Blame My Brain: The Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed, concentrates on the differences in the teenage brain, the developments it is going through, and the things it can’t do yet because of its state of development. Both are very interesting reading for parents, teachers, and children/teenagers/young adults. It’s only since the 1990s when functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) became available that many of the discoveries about how the brain actually works have been made, so this is very new science, and it’s fascinating stuff. Morgan’s chatty style is perfect for the task, and she talks about the things she’s changed in her life since researching the books, and makes it fun with tests, quizzes, exercises and activities. Very interesting, and should be read by every parent and educator, and be in school libraries.

The second book by Philip Caveney about Sebastian, Max and Cornelius, following on from Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools, is just as exciting and amusing as the first. I reviewed the first here on 6 March last year. The main characters are an elfling (half man, half elf) a buffalope who talks, considers himself above other animals, and moans constantly, and a Golmiran warrior who is tiny and totally fearless. The running gag in this book is that Sebastian is somehow rather irresistable to women, first a very nasty witch who enchants him so he can think of little else even while he acknowledges some of her faults, and later a feisty pirate captain. Just as many chuckles as the previous book, and another rollicking good narrative where the characters aren’t subordinate to the plot. Intermediate age and above.

I liked Philippa Werry’s last book, The Great Chocolate Cake Bake-Off, which I reviewed here almost exactly a year ago, on 6 March 2007 and this one is even better. Tom is a twelve-year-old in 1936, living in Lyall Bay, so it has a Wellington setting. It is not a simple book, with family dynamics, sport, education, and the polio epidemic of the time as themes, and wonderful characters and their development over time. Historical settings can make some authors slightly preachy, but Werry does a fantastic job of slowly building the atmosphere, so that the children move from joking dismissal of the threat, to annoyance when they’re not allowed out, to a realisation that It (“the infantile”) could have them as the next victims. This is a very good story which manages to be humorous, exciting, sad and real. It certainly made me more aware of what it must have been like to be a child at that time. Highly recommended for 10-year-olds and up.

Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox was performed as a play on Thursday 15 March at Capital E. We have copies of it as a board book for remembering after the performance. Even without the performance, a great little book.