Ache, by Eliza Henry Jones

Annie has never been the sort of person to have nightmares. But since the fires on the mountain, her dreams have changed. They have developed a pattern, as though the fire changed the landscape of everything inside her. The ridges and curves.
Her dreams are steady, the same things flickering across each night. Ash and bubbles and dark water that movs like waves.
Since the fires, since leaving her nana on the mountain, Annie has dreamt of ash. She’s dreamt of drowning.

A year ago, Annie was visiting her grandmother up the mountain when a terrible fire ripped through the area. Since leaving her nana behind to die, Annie has tried to keep her life in the city from completely falling apart. But her daughter, Pip, is traumatised, her husband Tom is angry, and Annie herself is haunted by what happened. Now, she needs to go back to her childhood home to try to get her mother’s life back on track. But being there also means confronting her own demons, and helping Pip find equilibrium.

Ache is a moving story of survival and rebuilding in the face of adversity. A whole family, and a whole community, have been impacted by the fire, and Jones captures the range of emotions and experiences which might be expected from such an event as well as examining the ways survivors can find a new normal in order to move forward.

Beautiful.

Ache, by Eliza Henry Jones
Fourth Estate, Harper Collins, 2017
ISBN 9781460750384

As Stars Fall by Christie Nieman

‘Robin? Robin Roberts?’

This is what I imagined was happening in my form room at that moment. I imagined some old-time bespectacled schoolmistress reading my name out over and over from her roll, and in the silence after each call the crickets chirping, the tumbleweed tumbling. I had to imagine it because I wasn’t there. I was lost.

‘Robin Roberts’

Yes, that really is my name. You’d think that two parents with the surname Roberts would think twice before calling their only daughter Robin, wouldn’t you? You’d reckon. And when you heard that those two parents were Rodney Roberts and Roberta Roberts, you’d think they were just mean – like, if they’d had to suffer all those Rs, then they’d make their kids suffer too. But if you actually knew my parents, you’d get that giving me a Rolls-Royce name was just their cute way of including me in their club: the R&R club. Well, that was their thinking anyway.

‘Robin? Robin Roberts?’

This is what I imagined was happening in my form room at that moment. I imagined some old-time bespectacled schoolmistress reading my name out over and over from her roll, and in the silence after each call the crickets chirping, the tumbleweed tumbling. I had to imagine it because I wasn’t there. I was lost.

‘Robin Roberts’

Yes, that really is my name. You’d think that two parents with the surname Roberts would think twice before calling their only daughter Robin, wouldn’t you? You’d reckon. And when you heard that those two parents were Rodney Roberts and Roberta Roberts, you’d think they were just mean – like, if they’d had to suffer all those Rs, then they’d make their kids suffer too. But if you actually knew my parents, you’d get that giving me a Rolls-Royce name was just their cute way of including me in their club: the R&R club. Well, that was their thinking anyway.

A terrible fire sweeps through north-eastern Victoria. In its aftermath, Robin’s parents split up and Robin and her mother move to the city. In her first day at her new school, Robin meets Delia. Delia befriends Robin, although Robin sometimes struggles to understand why. Delia and her brother are also reeling from the effects of the fire, although they are not as able – or perhaps ready – to articulate their loss. A Bush Stone-curlew appears in the local park, far from its natural habitat and connects Robin, Delia and Seth. Life is challenging for each of the teenagers, but it may prove deadly for the out-of-place bird.

As Stars Fall is a gritty, real novel, with hints of magic realism. Three teenagers respond to major trauma in their lives caused by catastrophic fires. Their grief defines every aspect of their behaviour and their responses to those around them. The out-of-place curlew links them and forces them to think beyond themselves and their individual loss. Robin is the main character and her story is told in first person, with Delia and Seth’s stories in third person. Their stories progress, the novel progresses as fast and as intensely as any fire, sweeping all before it and building to an inevitable crescendo. Readers will be swept along too, holding their breath to see who survives. Recommended for mid- to upper-secondary readers.

As Stars Fall, Christie Nieman Pan Macmillan 2014 ISBN: 9781743517697

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

Fire, by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

One small spark brought fire awake
Winding like a small black snake.
Fire flickered, fire crept
Flames snickered, bushfire leapt.

A fire starts small but quickly grows, spreading across the landscape, lighting up the trees, the sky – and even houses. People flee as fire fighters battle to bring the monster under control. Afterwards, there is sorrow at the devastation, but there is also hope, as comfort is spread by friends and by strangers, and by signs of life returning.

Fire is a wonderful picture book collaboration form the team which also produced Flood. Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. The rhyming text seems to echo the actions of the fire, taking the reader n a breathless journey through the smoke and ash and beyond to the gradual restoration of calm. The illustrations capture the mood of the fire, as well as the contrasting landscape before and after.

A wonderful way to open up discussion about the impact of bushfire, both for those who have experienced it and those who haven’t.

 

Fire, by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
Scholastic Press, 2014
ISBN 9781742838175

Available from good bookstores and online.