Alyzon Whitestarr by Isobelle Carmody

It starts with my family, and in a way, that’s the whole story.

There’s my mother, Zambia. You probably won’t have heard of her. She’s the artist, Zambia Whitestarr. then there’s my da, Macoll Whitestarr. His stage name is Mac and he’s the lead guitarist in a band you’ve probably never heard of that plays a lot of improvised music. Then there’s us kids: my older brother Jesse; my older sister Mirandah; me, Alyzon; Serenity, who tries to make us call her Sybl; and last but not least our baby brother, Luke.

It starts with my family, and in a way, that’s the whole story.

There’s my mother, Zambia. You probably won’t have heard of her. She’s the artist, Zambia Whitestarr. then there’s my da, Macoll Whitestarr. His stage name is Mac and he’s the lead guitarist in a band you’ve probably never heard of that plays a lot of improvised music. Then there’s us kids: my older brother Jesse; my older sister Mirandah; me, Alyzon; Serenity, who tries to make us call her Sybl; and last but not least our baby brother, Luke.

Alyzon is the middle child in a loving, chaotic, eccentic family. She goes to school, fights with her sisters, looks after her baby brother. Pretty normal, more or less. Until she suffers a freak accident. As she recovers she realises that all her senses are now super-tuned to the spoken and unspoken wants, joys and fears of others. She also discovers a rottenness, a horrible wrongness in some people. After initial confusion, she begins to work out how to protect herself from the intensity of other people’s emotions. But it’s not enough, as the wrongness seems to close in on her and her world, to just protect herself. She needs to know why it exists and how she can protect those she loves.

Alyzon Whitestarr was first released in 2005 by Penguin Books and this new, re-edited, re-jacketed edition is published by Ford Street Publishing. Alyzon is a fabulous protagonist, telling her own story as she tries to understand her world through the lens of her expanded senses. This is a fantasy set in the contemporary world, and explores family, friendship, attraction, trust, betrayal, protection, responsibility and power. It’s a big read at 601 pages but the length is hardly noticeable in this compelling and well-crafted story. Alyzon Whitestarr is a stand-alone novel and an ideal introduction to long-form fantasy for mature upper-primary readers but will also be enjoyed by older readers.

Alyzon Whitestarr, Isobelle Carmody
Ford Street Publishing 2016
ISBN: 9781925272185

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

Metro Winds, by Isobelle Carmody

So there was a girl. Young but not too young. A face as unformed as an egg, so that one could not tell if she would turn out to be fair or astonishingly ugly. She was to be sent to a city in another land by a mother and father in the midst of a divorce. The one thing they could agree upon was that the girl should not be exposed to the violence they meant to commit on their life. There was a quality in her that made it impossible to do the ravening that the end of love required.

Metro Winds

Nobody who has read any of Isobelle Camody’s work can doubt her ability as a story teller, and this new collection of six stories serves only to cement that certainty. Metro Winds, a collection of six stories, is an eminently satisfying offering, diverse yet each connected by its quality and by the movement through the real world to fantastical, alternate worlds. Some have links to popular fairy tales, including the Princess and the Pea, whilst all have settings which will be familiar – Australia, Paris, Venice – and themes and premises which are at once recognisable yet somehow unfamiliar.

With subject matter including broken homes, marital strain and loss, couched in fantastical scenarios such as a wolf prince who abandons his wife and child because of a curse and a sister who mourns the disappearance of her younger sister but must relinquish her in order to safe a world, these are stories which grip the reader and keep the pages turning, staying with you long after the final page.

Metro Winds, by Isobelle Carmody
Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781865084442

Available from good bookstores or online.

Greylands by Isobelle Carmody

‘That’s not the beginning,’ Ellen said, pointing to where Jack had written about the sky.
‘Stop reading over my shoulder,’ he ordered.
‘But you said you were writing about how it was after Mama died.’
‘I am, but I’m telling it my way.’
‘What does that mean? You’re making stuff up?’
Jack thought about it. ‘You have to. Real life isn’t like a story with a beginning and a middle and an end. It’s everybody’s stories all muddled together. But this will be my story and I’m starting with me dreaming that Mama told me she had wings.’
She did tell us she had wings,’ Ellen said.
‘I know she did. That’s why I put it in.’

‘That’s not the beginning,’ Ellen said, pointing to where Jack had written about the sky.

‘Stop reading over my shoulder,’ he ordered.

‘But you said you were writing about how it was after Mama died.’

‘I am, but I’m telling it my way.’

‘What does that mean? You’re making stuff up?’

Jack thought about it. ‘You have to. Real life isn’t like a story with a beginning and a middle and an end. It’s everybody’s stories all muddled together. But this will be my story and I’m starting with me dreaming that Mama told me she had wings.’

‘She did tell us she had wings,’ Ellen said.

‘I know she did. That’s why I put it in.’

Jack, his sister Ellen and their father are mourning the death of their mother. Their world seems to have lost all colour. Ellen has questions he can’t answer, and their father won’t. Their father is retreating more and more into unrecognisable and impenetrable sadness, while Jack is being seduced by the curiosities and questions and potential answers in Greylands. There he encounters Alice, a unknowable girl who carries a precious bundle that she will not relinquish, and a sad laughing beast. There are cats and towers, wolvers and those who can fly. Greylands is fascinating and compelling and Jack finds himself pulled into the unfamiliar world.

<a href=”http://www.fishpond.com.au/product_info.php?ref=271&id=9781921665677&affiliate_banner_id=1″ target=”_blank”>Greylands</a> inhabits the world of grief. Each character who enters Greylands must make their own journey through, without being sucked into the wanting. Jack, like so many children, nurtures a hidden guilt that his mother’s death is partly his fault. Readers will see much that Jack cannot. ‘Greylands is a portrait of grief, but also of the strength and clarity that can be found by navigating through difficulty. It is a picture of family bonds and love. Recommended for upper primary and secondary readers. Some readers will enjoy the fantasy, while others may unpack the symbols and metaphors.

 

<a href=”http://www.fishpond.com.au/product_info.php?ref=271&id=9781921665677&affiliate_banner_id=1″ target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.fishpond.com.au/affiliate_show_banner.php?ref=271&affiliate_pbanner_id=46298769″ border=”0″ alt=”Greylands”></a>

<a href=”http://www.fishpond.com.au/product_info.php?ref=271&id=9781921665677&affiliate_banner_id=1″ target=”_blank”>Greylands</a>, Isobelle Carmody Ford St Publishing 2012 ISBN: 9781921665677

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

 

Available from good bookstores or <a href=”http://www.fishpond.com.au/product_info.php?ref=271&id=9781921665677&affiliate_banner_id=1″ target=”_blank”>Online</a>.

Green Monkey Dreams, by Isobelle Carmody

I ride this day upon the Worldroad, alone, except for courage, who rides on the pommel of my saddle fluffing his feathers. I did not dream of journeying thus as a child.

Reading an Isobelle Carmody story is a special experience, an experience which doesn’t end with the last word. The stories in Green Monkey Dreams, first published in 1996, are diverse in subject matter and theme, but each story takes the reader in a tight grip then squeezes, making you stop and consider what is real, and leaving you pondering reality, values, even life itself long after.

In the title story, which is also the last story in the book, for example, a girl dreams of dreaming, in layer upon layer of dream so that it is impossible to tell which, if any, version is reality. In ‘Long Live the Giant’ the protagonist shares her discoveries about the meaning of life and, importantly, death, having been given the chance of immortality.

The stories are each different, set in fantastical worlds and differing time periods, but some motifs do recur, particularly the image of a tower in a graveyard, said to be the burial site of a giant whoes arm pointed skywards in death and so was covered by a tower. Angels and monkeys are also mentioned more than once, and tales and characters from traditional fairy stories are used.

Suitable for young adult and adult readers, this is a collection best enjoyed one story at a time, as each story needs time to be processed and appreciated.

Green Monkey Dreams

Green Monkey Dreams, by Isobelle Carmody
This edition Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781742379470

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Wilful Eye and The Wicked Wood, ed by Isobelle Carmody & Nan McNab

Whilst the term fairytale may conjure up, for many readers, images of beautiful singing princesses, wicked witches and Disney-esque happy ever after endings, these ancient tales were not intended for young readers. And, says Isobelle Carmody in her introduction to this collection, when they were passed over to children they lost their gloss and their value…

‘You are different,’ whispers the princess, almost crouched there, looking up at me. ‘You were gentle and kind before. What has happened? What has changed?’

Whilst the term fairytale may conjure up, for many readers, images of beautiful singing princesses, wicked witches and Disney-esque happy ever after endings, these ancient tales were not intended for young readers. And, says Isobelle Carmody in her introduction to this collection, when they were passed over to children they lost their gloss and their value. In The Wilful Eye and The Wicked Wood Carmody and her co-contributors attempt to rediscover this value with six retellings of six classic tales in each volume.

To label the stories retellings is really an inadequate description both of the concept of the collection and of the work it contains. Each writer has chosen a traditional fairytale and given it their own touch – sometimes set in a modern or futuristic environment , at other times telling the story from a new perspective. The reader will not necessarily easily recognise the original story, and some of the stories may even be new to the reader, but each is followed by an Afterword from the author explaining something of their process and choice.

This is not comfortable reading, but it is not meant to be. Each writer takes their story to depths which will have the reader gasping, or wondering, or pondering even long after the last word is read. Suitable for reading cover to cover, but these collections are probably best dipped into and savoured one at a time. Suitable for older teens and adults.

The Wilful Eye (Tales from the Tower)
The Wilful Eye
ISBN 9781742374406

The Wicked Wood (Tales from the Tower)

The Wicked Wood
ISBN 9781742374413

Both edited by Isobelle Carmody and Nan McNab
Allen & Unwin, 2011

Angel Fever, by Isobelle Carmody

Eely has spent most of her life being unnoticed. Damaged at birth, she is simple and unattractive, and people seem to ignore her. But when Eely finds a winged man lying injured and helpless in a cave, she finds the strength to save him.

In the weeks that follow, Eely tends to the injured stranger, who in turn develops her self-confidence. Those around her can see Eely changing and growing more beautiful, but could it be that she actually holds within her the secret of beauty?

Angel Fever is just one of the wonderful titles in the innovative Quentaris Chronicles series. Each book in the series stands alone, but all are set in the magical fantasy city of Quentaris. The series, overseen by creators Michael Pryor and Paul Collins, is written by a number of Australia’s finest authors.

Angel Fever is a lovely tale. Author Isobelle Carmody creates a story which will draw young readers in, eager to learn what will happen to the ‘angel’ and where his missing stone will turn up. The message of the story, that beauty is not just about appearances, is subtle and not over-stated.

Recommended for young fantasy fans aged 10 to 14, this is excellent reading.

Angel Fever, by Isobelle Carmody
Lothian, 2004