The Messenger Bird by Rosanne Hawke

I remember what I was doing when I first heard the news; I was playing Mozart’s ‘Sonata in C’. Would I ever be able to play that again? During the coda I heard the cow bell at the back door, a silence, then Dad’s voice raised in question. They didn’t come into the lounge to tell me. Unsuspecting, I went out to the kitchen when I’d finished playing. Mum and Dad were sitting there barely touching, staring at nothing.

I remember what I was doing when I first heard the news; I was playing Mozart’s ‘Sonata in C’. Would I ever be able to play that again? During the coda I heard the cow bell at the back door, a silence, then Dad’s voice raised in question. They didn’t come into the lounge to tell me. Unsuspecting, I went out to the kitchen when I’d finished playing. Mum and Dad were sitting there barely touching, staring at nothing.

When you first realise the unfairness and randomness of death it eats into your thoughts like acid. I didn’t believe in God the way Mum did, but I still screamed at him in my head, ‘You’ve picked the wrong family to do this to.’ I knew I wouldn’t be strong enough, Mum wasn’t either. Then there was Dad, a crumbling pillar trying to hold both of us up.

How does a family deal with death? In The Messenger Bird the short answer is ‘not well’. Set in outback South Australia, three members of a family mourn the loss of the fourth. Separately and in very different ways. It is as if a piece of a puzzle is lost and without it, nothing makes sense. Mum retreats into herself, and Dad spends all his time and energy restoring their old stone house. They three are side-by-side but alone. Tamar, the main character, can see this but there seems to be no fixing it, and she seems to be the only one trying to change things. Nothing that once gave her pleasure can touch the emptiness and pain. Including – or perhaps particularly – her music. Then she finds a piece of sheet music that somehow links her with the past and helps her to begin to imagine a future.

A house holds in its walls the memories of all who live there. In The Messenger Bird, Tamara discovers the history of the house as surely as her father does as he renovates. For each, the discoveries also allow them time and perspective in coming to terms with the loss in their lives. Truths that are too big to imagine are broken down into smaller bites and piece by piece, the characters can put their lives back together. The Messenger Bird is full of mystery. Or mysteries. Some are intended to be uncovered, others will remain forever out of reach. And the business of life is to decide which ones are which. A moving story about death and life and the choices people make. Recommended for mid- to upper-secondary readers.

The Messenger Bird

The Messenger Bird by Rosanne Hawke UQP 2012 ISBN: 9780702238826

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Dead, Actually, by Kaz Delaney

Contrary to popular belief, the air in hell is freezing – because surely that’s where I’d somehow landed. My breath caught; my heart jerked…
My body froze.
My brain shut down.
I clutched at the doorframe.
But still she stared at me.
Her…A dead person. In my room.
Let me clarify: not a body, a dead person.
An already-buried, dead person.

Willow’s having a bad week. A very bad week. Her parents have told her they’re heading off to start a church in Africa. The guys she has a crush on treats her like a little sister. And then there’s the matter of JoJo Grayson, a rich girl who inconveniently visited the drive through where willow was working – and then went and died, making Willow the last person to see her alive. This means that Willow is the one that JoJo is haunting, and JoJo isn’t any nicer dead than she was alive. She’s going to make Willow’s life very difficult until Willow can figure out what happened in the lead-up to JoJo’s death.

In the meantime, Willow is suddenly popular. All of JoJo’s friends, the ‘in’ crowd, want to spend time with Willow, ostensibly to learn more about their dear departed friend. But Willow soon realises there are ulterior motives ta play. these people think Willow knows something – and they’re pretty keen to find out what it is.

Dead, Actually is a tragi-comic story of life, death, and life after death – and of friendship and family, too. There’s a lot happening in Willow’s life apart from the haunting, with her woefully inadequate parents having invited a shyster evangelist into their home and her feelings for her best friend’s brother, Seth. This could be a lot to deal with in one story, but Delaney does it well with the story unfolding over just a few days and the characters delightfully drawn. Willow is an endearing first person narrator, outwardly strong but with her vulnerability helping to make her believable, and JoJo is the girl you love to hate (even after she’s dead) but who you come to understand just a bit better.

Suitable for teen readers, Dead, Actually is a delightful blend of mystery, romance and the supernatural all wrapped up with comedy fiction.

Dead, Actually

Dead, Actually, by Kaz Delaney
Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781742378183

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Last Summer, by Kylie Ladd

Rory Buchanan is popular with everyone. He’s good looking, he captains his cricket side, and is surrounded by friends. So when he collapses and dies suddenly, his friends and family struggle to cope with their loss.

When they got to the hospital and she gave her name at the emergency department desk and she gave her name at the emergency department desk the staff reacted so quickly that Nick knew Rory wasn’t suffering from a stomach ulcer.
‘Mrs Buchanan?’ asked a doctor, materialising almost immediately by her side. Nick couldn’t help but notice the red streaks splashed across the front of his coat. ‘We have your husband in a separate area…If you’ll follow me.’

Rory Buchanan is popular with everyone. He’s good looking, he captains his cricket side, and is surrounded by friends. So when he collapses and dies suddenly, his friends and family struggle to cope with their loss. Rory was the glue that seemed to hold them all together, and now that he’s gone friendships are under stress, marriages are being tested and individuals are facing where they are at – and where they want to be.

Last Summer is a clever examination of loss, and what it can mean to people. Told from the varied viewpoints of nine different people – all friends and family of the dead man – it explores not just the immediate aftermath of a death, but also how it can alter lives and relationships. The characters are a blend of male ad female and come from a range of backgrounds. What they have in common is their membership of the cricket club, and their friendship/connection with Rory. Without Rory there, those connections become more tenuous, and even strained.

Handling nine different viewpoint characters – plus several other characters – could prove too much for a writer, but Ladd does it well. Over the course of the novel the reader gets to know each character intimately, with cause for crying with the, cheering for them, and even being angry at them, as if they were real people – which they are, because Ladd makes them so.

The only downfall of the book is that ends, leaving you wanting to know what happens next to the characters.

Last Summer
Last Summer, by Kylie Ladd
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742375014

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.

A Straight Line to My Heart, by Bill Condon

Tiff loves to read – but she’s pretty surprised to meet a boy who likes to read, too. What’s even more surprising is that Davey seems to want to get know her. Maybe things are about to turn around for her. But it’s not going to be plain sailing for Tiff…

There’s nothing quite as good as folding up into a book and shutting the world outside. If I pick the right one I can be beautiful, or fall in love, or live happily ever after. Maybe even all three.

If you can’t get a boy, get a book, that’s my motto.

Tiff loves to read – but she’s pretty surprised to meet a boy who likes to read, too. What’s even more surprising is that Davey seems to want to get know her. Maybe things are about to turn around for her.

But it’s not going to be plain sailing for Tiff. She’s just finished school for ever and is about to start work experience at the local paper, a stepping stone to the career as a journalist she’s always dreamed of. The reporter there, Shark, is hard-nosed and seemingly unimpressed to have a new recruit to take under his wing. Tiff’s best friend, Kayla, has some big news to share with her that she’s nt going to like. And at home, Reggie – part grandad, part father, part mart – is coughing  alot, and giving up smoking because, as he declares, he’s cactus.

A Straight Line to My Heart is a brilliant, touching, story of life, first love, and family – in its different forms. Tiff’s mother died when she was born, and there’s no mention of her brith father, but Reggie and his step son Bull are family enough for her. Kayla, her best friend, also has a mixed up family, finding a way to be together, and Tiff’s new family at the newspaper proves to be an unlikely source of support for her.

Bill Condon has a reputation for excellence. His previous novel, Confessions of a Liar, thief and Failed Sex God, was the winner of the inaugural Young Adult Fiction prize int he Prime Minsiter’s Literary Awards, and No Worries was an honour book in the CBCA Awards. A Straight Line to My Heart will not disappoint fans of Condon’s  work, and will win him plenty of new ones as well.But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy book to read. There is humour and warmth, but there’s tough stuff, too, and if you’re prone to crying at sad bits, you’ll need tissues for this one.

Just brilliant.
A Straight Line to My Heart

A Straight Line to My Heart, by Bill Condon

Allen & Unwin, 2011 ISBN 9781742377308

This book can be purchased in any good bookstore, or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Old Pig, by Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks

‘Keep it safe,’ Old Pig said, ‘and use it wisely.’
‘I will,’ said Granddaughter. She tried to smile but her mouth wobbled, and Old Pig said, ‘There, there, no tears.’
‘I promise,’ said Granddaughter, but it was the hardest promise she’d ever had to make.

In this classic picture book, Old Pig knows she is going to die, and sets about putting her affairs in order and saying goodbye to her much loved Granddaughter.

Old Pig was first published in 1995 and has been loved by parents, teachers and children since then. It is wonderful to see it rereleased in hardcover format so that it remains available to new readers.

With gentle text by Margaret Wild and rich illustrations by Ron Brooks, the mixture of sadness and love, and the sense of closure, makes this a perfect delivery on a difficult topic.

Perfect.

Old Pig

Old Pig, by Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks
Allen & Unwin, 2009

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

Farmer Fred's Cow, by Margaret Wild

Four old animals live on Farmer Fred’s farm – Pig, Horse, Donkey and Cow. None of the animals is very productive, but Farmer Brown, who is no longer very productive himself, doesn’t mind. None of the five friends has seen much of life beyond the farm and, as they near the end of their lives, they wonder what life might be like further away. Cow’s friends tell her that when she dies she will go everywhere, see everything.

Then, on the night Cow dies, a strange thing happens. As the remaining animals settle down for the night, they hear a strange noise and see Cow, in the sky, flying. She has come back to show them the beautiful new life she now has. The animals wake Farmer Fred and together they watch Cow.

Afterwards, Farmer Fred is never quite sure if he really saw Cow, or if it was a dream. But every now and then he feels a tickle on his back where wings might sprout and, with the remaining animals, quietly looks forward to what is to come.

Farmer Fred’s Cow is a beautiful, evocative picture book, which looks at the themes of life and death in a gentle, even fun way. The book is more than tasteful – it is enjoyable, despite subject matter which in other stories could be gloomy. Wild, a master of the picture book form, has produced a story which touches the heart.

The illustrations of David Waller, in acrylic and pencil, are a perfect complement to the tale. O\Particularly beautiful are the scenes of Cow and other ghostly animals, flying in the night-time sky with angel-like wings, before a huge full moon.

A masterpiece.

Farmer Fred’s Cow, by Margaret Wild and David Waller
ABC Books, 2004