gary crew – Aussie Reviews

Voicing the Dead by Gary Crew

You ask, ‘Can the dead speak?’

I answer, ‘Is this blood that runs in my veins, or ink?’

You ask, ‘Are you real or a character in a book?’

I answer, ‘I am real enough. I call myself Jack Ireland. I am sixteen years old. A century ago I sailed the South Seas. I lived then, I live now.’

You ask, ‘So is this history?’

I answer, ‘If it bores you, shut the book – but you will not silence my voice. After all I have suffered, it is impossible to destroy me. So I ask you to red me. I ask you to hear me. See me. Touch me. Others have, and tasted my blood …’

You ask, ‘Yet you are still alive?’

I answer, ‘Ask no more. Read …’

You ask, ‘Can the dead speak?’

I answer, ‘Is this blood that runs in my veins, or ink?’

You ask, ‘Are you real or a character in a book?’

I answer, ‘I am real enough. I call myself Jack Ireland. I am sixteen years old. A century ago I sailed the South Seas. I lived then, I live now.’

You ask, ‘So is this history?’

You ask, ‘Yet you are still alive?’

I answer, ‘Ask no more. Read …’

Jack Ireland was best boy to the captain of ‘Charles Eaton’ a sailing ship in the 1830s. He thinks well of himself, perhaps a little too well. Even before the ship has pulled anchor, he has to revise his thinking and become a little more humble. But his life aboard ship is easier than many of the the crew and some of the passengers. The ‘Charles Eaton’ travels to Australia and delivers its load before heading north into the Torres Strait. There they are shipwrecked and Jack’s real adventure begins. Their boats are wrecked and passengers and some crew set out on a raft. Jack begins to show his mettle as the remaining crew seek food and build a second raft. They discover tropical paradise islands and encounter indigenous islanders. These are traders. Jack doesn’t need to understand their language to realise that he and others are tradeable.

Fourteen-year-old Jack Ireland is determined to tell his own tale. Others have told it, he says, but not as truly as he can himself. He finds himself with ‘ink in his veins’ and able to travel through and reference all the books he’s read. And having been the Captain’s best boy, he’s read his way through the Captain’s vast library. More than this, he’s read through many other books throughout time, both before and after his shipwreck. He quotes from books written about the ‘Charles Eaton’ and about himself. He acknowledges where they get it right, but mostly he feels that he is not well-represented, or not well enough. He seeks to set the tale straight. ‘Voicing the Dead’ is based on a real shipwreck, Jack Ireland was one of the survivors, but this story is fiction, a revisiting of the journey leading to the shipwreck and the time afterwards. The reader looking for adventure will find rewards here, as will the historian and literature buff. This is a complex and rich novel, full of intrigue and sensory detail. Recommended for mature secondary-aged readers.

Voicing the Dead, Gary Crew
Ford Street Publishing 2015 ISBN: 9781925272055

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

The Cuckoo by Gary Crew ill Naomi Turvey

Martin was the runt of the family. He lived with his father, a might forester, and his two older brothers on the edge of the Megalong Valley, in the heart of the Blue Mountains. Martin’s father was a huge man and his brothers tall as forest gums; their faces handsome as granite sculptures, their muscled limbs a wonder to behold.

Since his mother left them, tiny Martin had felt the daily sting of his family’s ridicule.

Martin struggles in his family after his mother leaves. He cannot compare with the size and strength of his brothers, and he has no answer to their taunts. He wanders into the forest. Eventually, he finds another family. Here, by fitting in, he can grow strong. Time passes and he prospers. One day he witnesses his father’s pain and remorse and must make a decision about forgiveness. Text is set in text boxes and illustrations are black and white with soft tinting. They are slightly surreal.

The Cuckoo is a modern parable, full of evil, abandonment and ultimately hope. Text is extensive and the entire design is that of a fairytale. Illustrations are sombre almost forbidding, in keeping with a text filled with the struggle to survive both physically and emotionally. They invite close attention, and offer up the secrets of the dark forest. Martin has to adapt to survive, and offers courage to readers who find themselves in situations not of their making. Bullying, survival, remorse and forgiveness are all explored here. The Cuckoo offers rich material for classroom discussion. This is a beautifully designed package, complete with dust jacket. From the intriguing cover image to the final word, there is much to ponder. Recommended for older readers, from mid-primary upwards.

The Cuckoo, Gary Crew ill Naomi Turvey Ford St Publishing 2014 ISBN: 9781925000177

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

In The Beech Forest, Gary Crew ill Den Scheer

A boy – a professed ordinary boy – ventures into the forest. His computer gaming experience suggests that in forests monsters lurk. But he continues, finding a path that may or may not be his.

He was an ordinary boy, nothing special, and he went into the forest alone. He had no particular purpose other than to look, as adventurers do, or to slay imaginary monsters, as children do, so he held his head high, and gripped his toy sword, in case.

But as withered leaves shifted, and grey shadows lengthened, he hesitated remembering his computer games, the fearful quests he encountered there, the dreadful heroes, the beasts unconquered, and he wondered if such wild fantasies might threaten here.

A boy, a professed ordinary boy, ventures into the forest. His computer gaming experience suggests that in forests monsters lurk. But he continues, finding a path that may or may not be his. Deeper and deeper he ventures, and the further he goes, the less he is disturbed by noises of other forest-dwellers. Finally there is only darkness. He continues, despite a discomforting heightened awareness of the landscape around him. Potential threats occur to him, but when he spins, nothing is there. Illustrations reveal monsters in the shadows. Then, the boy begins to feel the pulse of the forest itself, the earth. And the unknown becomes known and he is strengthened. Illustrations, set in earthy surrounds, transition from black and white, with later images including an increasing level of red, the colour of excitement and danger.

In the Beech Forest is a story about facing fear and overcoming it, a rites of passage journey. But it is also about the contrast between the constructed world of the computer quest games and the real courage that it takes to encounter the non-game world with all its challenges. The boy is partly prepared for this journey by his knowledge of quest and monsters, but discovers much more about himself and his world when he engages directly with it. In the Beech Forest is aimed at older readers, and provides many themes for discussion. Text is mounted in frames on the left of each opening, image on the left, giving the feel of traditional tales. Recommended for secondary readers.

In the Beech Forest, Gary Crew ill Den Scheer
Ford St 2012 ISBN: 9781921665578

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond

Finding Home, by Gary Crew & Susy Boyer

The boy stood beneath the tree and looked up at the chattering birds.
They were truly beautiful. The cracking and clacking as they kissed and canoodled, so powerful yet so gentle.

The boy does not like his new home in Australia, far from the life he had back in England. But one thing he does love is the big gum tree in the middle of his father’s wheat field. Every night at dusk the cockatoos come home to roost in the tree, chattering and canoodling and dropping white feathers. But his parents don’t like the tree, which will be a nuisance come harvest, nor the birds, which may strip the crop and soon the boy can only watch as his father fells the tree and the birds lose their home.

Finding Home is a beautiful but confronting picture book for older readers, exploring issues of destruction of the indigenous landscape, environmental responsibility and family relationships. The boy’s connection with the birds and their tree home, far deeper than his parent’s connection with the land they are farming, shows him that there are more important things than financial security, and even more important things than family loyalty.

The illustrations, too, add layers of meaning, with a glimpse of a personal tragedy in England not fully explained, allowing inquisitive readers the chance to construct back story.

An insightful exploration of environmental issues.

Finding Home, by Gary Crew and Susy Boyer (ill)
Ford St, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Truth About Emma, by Gary Crew

If a man and woman are to fall in love, they must, of necessity, both understand and practise the meaning of two words: compliance and antagonism.
As I am a young man, you might argue that I could know nothing of such things but, let me assure you, having fallen under the spell of a woman who knew a great deal about the art of love and taught me all that she knew, I would disagree.
Young as I am, I have learned that compliance is vital in that lovers must learn the joy of sharing; while antagonism is equally necessary in that if lovers agree about everything, what friction will ignite the flame of their love?

Rafael Innocenti has landed the biggest assignment in his journalistic career so far. If he can get the real story about Bad Burden, then who knows what the future may hold? Emma Burden has been pursued by local and international press. At worst she was a murderess at the age of eighteen. At best, she is a precocious teenager, representative of her generation. Emma has agreed to be interviewed by Rafael in order to tell the ‘true story’. And so begins a series of interviews in a coffee shop. Rafael records Emma’s account on tape, but not every part of the conversation will end up in the article. Emma is not an easy subject, changing personalities as often she changes her hair colour (and that’s often). Rafael is by turns frustrated, angered, captivated and chastened by their meetings as he tries to tease out the truth. He learns much more than he expected.

The Truth about Emma twists and turns, taking the reader on a journey through truth, lies and half-truths. Emma is a slippery character, ingénue one minute, world-weary rich sophisticate the next. That she is intelligent there is no doubt. Rafael, her interviewer is constrained by the memory of his Sicilian peasant origins, his confidence shored by expensive clothes. The two characters dance around each other, each learning from the other, in unexpected ways. The interviews take over Rafael’s life, impacting on his relationships and even his education. Along the way, he discovers that books have much to teach us, beyond the sum of their words. Crew looks closely at the role and responsibilities of the media, individual and generational responsibilities, and notion of fallibility. Topics for discussion include media, family, relationships, morality, truth and honesty. Recommended for mid- to upper-secondary students.

The Truth about Emma, by Gary Crew
Lothian 2008
ISBN: 9780734409348

Victory, by Gary Crew

No sooner had the rumbling ceased, than Admiral William Ajax Burlington, commander of Her Majesty’s Pacific and Orient Fleet, broke into a smile of such enigmatic bliss that not one of use who witnessed it could possibly imagine that this mountain of a man was about to fall – facefirst and stone dead – into the now empty oyster platter which sat on the damask cloth before him.

When the dinner-party guest seated alongside Sam Silverthorne dies at the table, Sam is shocked. But he is also curious. How could Admiral Burlington have been murdered in full view of all the guests, with no one knowing how it was done?

The murder is the start of a new adventure for Sam who, along with his friends Lucas, Phoebe and Alice, is soon aboard a ship sailing for Madagascar in search of some answers.

Soon Sam and his friends are in pursuit of murdering slavers, poisonous shellfish and the extinct Dodo Bird (Sam and his father are naturalists).

Victory is the third offering in the Sam Silverthorne series but for those who are new to the series (such as this reviewer was) there is enough back story to enable this instalment to stand alone. Set in the late nineteenth century, in a time of sailing ship and no mass communication, the story has a comfortable familiarity in its Indiana Jones-style adventure, with Sam duelling and capturing baddies. At the same time, it is interesting (and heartening) to see Sam share with readers his distaste at the experience of killing a man and, elsewhere, witnessing a violent death.

An exciting read which will see new readers looking for the earlier titles, and fans eagerly awaiting Sam’s next adventure.

Sam Silverthorne: Victory, by Gary Crew
Hachette, 2007

This book is available online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Saw Doctor, by Gary Crew

I knew that he was a hawker—a man who went from door to door selling things that nobody wanted and couldn’t afford anyway, like magazine subscriptions, or bottles of cordial, or fresh cream from the dairy up the road. Hawkers weren’t welcome at our place because we had no money, so I said, ‘Sorry Mister, no-one is home, and I’m sick…’

Jo Boy and his family are really poor. The Great Depression is hitting them hard – Dad is out of work and there’s no money to be spared. SO when a knife-sharpener comes to their door, Dad tells him to go away. But Jo Boy is fascinated by the knife sharpener’s caravan and when he comes into some unexpected cash, he finds a way to help the knife sharpener and Dad at the same time.

The Saw Doctor is historical junior fiction from one of Australia’s finest authors of such works for children and young adults, Gary Crew. Crew offers a glimpse of family life during the depression, a time about which many primary aged children would be unaware.

The story is inspired by the Saw Doctor’s Wagon, which was used by the real saw doctor, Harold Wight from the 1930s to the 1960s and is now housed in the National Museum of Australia.

The Saw Doctor, by Gary Crew
National Museum of Australia Press, 2006

Edward Britton, by Gary Crew and Philip Neilsen

Most Australians know something of the history of Port Arthur, the notorious convict prison in Tasmania. Not many are aware, however, of the boys’ prison across the bay from Port Arthur. Point Puer was built as a special prison for boys as young as ten who were brought to Australia to be reformed.

Edward Britton tells the story of two teenage residents – Edward Britton and Izod Wolfe. Although the pair are fictional characters, the book tells the very real story of Point Puer.

Authors Gary Crew and Philip Neilsen combine to offer insights into the two boys and the way their stories become one.

This is a haunting story which draws the reader in, fascinating in its presentation both of the boys’ story and of this absorbing part of Australian history.

Excellent.

Edward Britton, by Gary Crew and Philip Neilsen
Lothian, 2000

The Castaways of the Charles Eaton, by Gary Crew & Mark Wilson

When the ship Isabella sails from Sydney in June 1836, its orders are to search for survivors of the Charles Eaton, a ship which had been missing for two years.

What the crew of the Isabella found was disarming. On Murray Island, known to be inhabited by head hunters, they find just two survivors – a toddler and a young cabin boy – living with the natives. They also find seventeen skulls – the remains of the other victims of the wreck of the Charles Eaton. The islanders have slain these seventeen, but spared the boys because they were believed to be the ghosts of long-lost children now returned to them.

The story of the rescue of the two white boys and subsequent events is told by the fifteen year old clerk of the Isabella, whose job it is to try to keep the two survivors calm and happy on their trip back to Sydney. This chocie of narrator adds depth to the book, with the clerk’s insights and asides proving very telling.

Based on a factual story, author Gary Crew and illustrator Mark wilson weave a story of intrigue.

The Castaways of the Charles Eaton, by Gary Crew and Mark Eaton
Lothian, 2002

I Saw Nothing, by Gary Crew & Mark Wilson

Rosie lives in 1930s Tasmania, with her father, a timber cutter, and family. Although they are in wild country, Rosie and her family are happy and safe.

One day, though, a fur trapper who Rosie fear- Elias Churchill – comes to the camp, looking for her father. When her father returns, he takes Rosie with him to see Churchill at the railway station. There, while her father is off talking to the trapper, Rosie sees what Chrichill is up to. In a train carriage she sees a thylacine, caged and ready to be sent to Hobart Zoo. Churchill has trapped it and sold it. Rosie is saddened to see the wild animal, hurt and scared.

Several years later, Rosie goes to see the thylacine in the Hobart Zoo. She learns that it is possibly the last thylacine alive. When it dies, she wonders if she could have done something to save it, and perhaps the whole species, by helping it when it was trapped and frightened in the train.

I Saw Nothing is a story which educates rather than uplifts. With an important message about conservation, and protection of endangered species, its use of a child character makes it accessible to younger readers.

The illustrations of Mark Wilson, contrasting the rich and peaceful greens of the bush with the dank colours of disaster and images of the thylacine, are an integral part of the message.

This is an outstanding book, perfect for primary classrooms and for home collections.

I Saw Nothing: The Extinction of the Thylacine, by Gary Crew & Mark Wilson
Lothian, 2003