woolshed press – Aussie Reviews

Intruder, by Christine Bongers

Maybe it was the creak of a worn floorboard that woke me. Or the subtle shift in air pressure as another body invaded my space. I struggled up out of a dream, confused and disoriented, squinting into the darkness.
‘Dad?’ The shadows coalesced into a human form, close enough to touch. ‘Is that you?’
‘Is he here?’ the strange voice – a man’s voice – struck my heart like a hammer.

When Kat awakes to an intruder in her bedroom, she screams, and her neighbour comes running to her aid. But Edwina, the neighbour, is almost as unwelcome in Kat’s life as the prowler, having betrayed Kat’s dying mother in the last days of her life. Now it seems Edwina is going to become a part of her life again, whether Kat likes it or not.

And there’s another unwanted guest in her house – a dog called Hercules, who is supposed to guard her in future. Kat is terrified of dogs, but given the choice between Hercules or sleeping at Edwina’s when her dad is out working, she accepts the dog as the lesser of two evils. When walking Hercules leads to her meeting Al at the dog park, Kat realises he’s not all bad, and when the prowler reveals he isn’t done with her, Kat comes to realise she might need Hercules AND Edwina on her side.

Intruder is a gripping story that takes the reader on a journey from fear, to laughter, to confusion, to angst and well beyond. There are lots of light moments, as well as feel-good ones, but the threat of a stalker-intruder hangs over the book, as do the back story of Kat’s mother’s death and the events for which Kat blames Edwina. The reader wants to know what happened and what will happen in equal measure.

Teen readers will lap this up, with the blend of mystery, suspense, angst, romance and humour satisfyingly executed.

Intruder

Intruder, by Chris Bongers
Woolshed Press, 2014
ISBN 9780857983763

Available from good bookstores or online.

Steal My Sunshine by Emily Gale

The morning it started Mum freaked out about the Christmas tree.

It had been thirty degrees most of the night and I wasn’t sure if I’d been asleep for any of it. I could tell from the safety of my bedroom that Mum had woken up foul: heavy footsteps in the kitchen, cupboard doors slammed, the dishwasher drawers yanked out and rammed in again. When I walked into the living room the floors were already baking underneath the sloping glass roof. The air-con remote was in the fruit bowl on the kitchen table. I pressed the button, hoping it would cool Mum down, and kept my distance.

The morning it started Mum freaked out about the Christmas tree.

It’s been a hot summer in suburban Melbourne and everything around Hannah seems to be melting. Mum is cranky, Dad is distant, Sam is being a jerk. Hannah is about to begin Year 11 and is trying to keep it all together with the help of her friend Chloe and her grandmother Essie. But Chloe’s wild and unpredictable and Essie has a big secret. And then there’s Evan, Chloe’s gorgeous older brother. Everything is changing, certainties are fracturing, uncertainties are everywhere. As summer holidays end, and school begins again, Emily begins to understand who she can rely on.

Sometimes the clue to the future is buried in the past. As her world unravels, Hannah explores the threads of her history and why they are relevant to her today. She’s a observer, a quiet soul who has to become a participant. In fact, she has to become the catalyst for change. Her grandmother’s secret is buried deep in her past but it has shaped Essie’s life and that of Hannah’s mother. Now it’s affecting Hannah and her family. There are themes around secrets and the damage they do, family, trust, rites-of-passage. Hannah reassesses her whole life and relationships in moving from child to young adult. Steal My Sunshine is a realistic and engaging novel about a family in crisis and about finding strength and your own way through. Recommended for mid-secondary schoolers.

Steal My Sunshine, Emily Gale

Steal My Sunshine, Emily Gale Woolshed Press 2013 ISBN: 9781742758497

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

What the Raven Saw by Samantha-Ellen Bound

He sat perched on the bottom gable of the church’s roof, a smudge of glossy blue-black with a tiny, alabaster eye.

The raven was trying to watch the funeral below, but he had to keep looking back to check the weatherhen wasn’t giving him the eye.

Oh, the shame of it.

He sat perched on the bottom gable of the church’s roof, a smudge of glossy blue-black with a tiny, alabaster eye.

The raven was trying to watch the funeral below, but he had to keep looking back to check the weatherhen wasn’t giving him the eye.

Oh, the shame of it.

She had the act down pat – pretend to be all nice and silent and still. The perfect little weathervane, pointing from north from south. No problems here. But as soon as the raven let his guard down, there she was with her beady eyes.

She was after something of his. He knew it. But no amount of razzle dazzle would get her anywhere near his treasure.

What the Raven Saw is narrated, as the title suggests, by a raven. Raven lives in a church yard. It’s generally peaceful, people mostly left him alone, and that suited him just fine. It was a great place to hide his treasure too. Then there was the bonus of the Sunday morning singing, led by his only friend and equal, the splendid-voiced Father Cadman. Then a young boy’s funeral introduces Raven to her sister, the fiercely angry Mackenzie. Raven despises pigeons, is very wary of the obviously-avaricious weatherhen, mostly ignored the moaning ghosts of the graveyard, but Todd, the young boy, is impossible to ignore and Raven’s life begins to change. For reasons he’s not very keen to explore, Raven is the lynch-pin in lives and happenings all around him.

Raven is a delightfully grumpy, proud and self-contained protagonist. He thinks well of himself and apparently not much of anyone else. ‘What the Raven Saw’ is full of lovely language and an unusual observation of life. Raven can speak to and understand fellow birds, scarecrows, ghosts and humans. His musings are wonderfully funny and his pronouncements sometimes absurd. While he observes sadness and anger in the humans, he also experiences their optimism and belief. Those fortunate enough to hear Raven speak seem intent on seeing only good in him, despite his best efforts. Gradually, their belief in him allows him to see beyond his assertions and to live the good they are sure is there. This is a warm and gently humourous look at life through the eyes of a bird. Recommended for mid-primary readers and beyond.

What the Raven Saw, Samantha-Ellen Bound
Woolshed Press 2013
ISBN: 9781742757353

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or online.

10 Futures by Michael Pryor

Tara can’t remember life without her AI. Her mum and dad bought the Artificial Intelligence when Tara had her night terrors, when she was little. It used to sit under her pillow and murmur to her. Safe and secure, she was, with Portia keeping the night things away.
Portia used to be classy, state-of-the-art. Her case, the size and shape of a playing card, was originally a stylish black matte. Now, fourteen years later, it’s battered and scratched with the scars of love. Of course, since Portia took over managing the family home … Portia is the home, now, integrated into every aspect of living, taking care of the family, nurturing and protecting.

10 Futures imagines ten futures, in ten short stories across the century from 2020. In each, the future world is lived by the same two friends, Tara and Sam. They are mid-teen, and best friends. That is constant, when very little else is. The stories are not told in chronological order, but instead skip forward and back and then forward again. Technology succeeds, technology fails. There are stories set in times where climate and population growth challenges have overwhelmed, and stories where these have been managed. But these are just the settings. In each of the stories, there are dilemmas for the friends, whether on a micro or macro scale. In each it is their personalities and actions that drive the stories. In each, it is friendship that looms large.

What does the future hold? No one knows, but Michael Pryor has had a go at speculating. Not once, but ten times. Each is a micro-glimpse of what the world could be. Some of the worlds are very bleak, others show worlds that suggest that humans have learned to work together for the good of all. Themes range very widely and there is plenty here to initiate classroom discussion on a range of topics: ethics, morality, power, compassion and more. Tara and Sam are very different personalities but firm friends. Their friendship provides support through very different challenges, demonstrating the see-sawing of need and knowledge that underpins and sustains enduring friendships. Engaging spec fiction, recommended for mid-secondary readers.

10 Futures, Michael Pryor

Woolshed Press/Random House 2012 ISBN: 9781742753768
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

Avaialable from good bookstores or online.

Mimi and the Blue Slave, by Catherine Bateson

Two days before my father’s funeral I came down with such bad flu that Mum got the doctor to make a house call.
‘That’s ridiculous, Lou. It’s spring,’ Aunty Ann said. ‘As if she can’t be bundled into the car.’
‘It’s raining,’ Mum said, ‘and her temperature’s through the roof.’
‘We really don’t need this now,’ Aunty Ann said.
‘Her body is manifesting her spiritual grief,’ Aunty Marita said. ‘There’s nothing you can do, Lou. Just let it run its course. Grief has to do that.’
‘It might be manifested grief, ’Mum replied. ‘I’m not taking any chances.’

Mimi and her parents live in a small seaside town. Mimi’s dad has just died and their little family of three has become a family of two, both struggling to deal with their grief. Mum has her two sisters who provide divergent opinions on everything from Mimi’s flu, to what should be sold in the family’s bric-a-brac shop. Mimi has Ableth, a little blue pirate, who is the most disobedient slave it is possible to be. Mimi talks to Ableth when things are at their worst and he helps her through the dark days. Mum takes to her bed and life becomes bleaker. Mimi discovers allies in the most surprising places. There are many milestones in the time after Dad’s death, many stumbles as Mimi and Mum find a way to go on.

‘Mimi and the Blue Slave’ is a story about life. Mimi and her parents have been a tight little unit, although Mimi does have friends at school, and Mum does have her sisters. Mum’s sisters provide comic relief with their polar opposite suggestions. Mimi uses the ‘blue slave’ Ableth, when she needs to talk to someone objective. Indeed, Ableth is more than objective, he’s almost disinterested in some ways. He helps Mimi to see things clearly and to have the courage to move forwards. Others, like antique buyer Guy, help Mimi to keep the business going while Mum is unable to. Over time, Mimi, Mum, the auntys, Edie and Guy form a new little family. It doesn’t seek to replace Dad, but it helps them to value and celebrate life. Death is never an easy topic to discuss, yet it is one of life’s few certainties. Catherine Bateson uses beautiful language and gentle humour to show that life does go on, no matter how impossible it seems. Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.

Mimi and the Blue Slave Catherine Bateson
Woolshed Press 2010
ISBN: 9781864719949

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

Henry Hoey Hobson, by Christine Bongers

She was waiting with a gaggle of mates, blocking the stairs leading back down from our classroom. Golden in the sunlight, with that curious blend of stealth and grace that marked the lion queens of the jungle. I lumbered towards the all-female pride, a wildebeest, hell-bent on his own destruction.
In nature, there were thousands of us, protected by numbers, sacrificing only the occasional member to predators that liked to feed on the weak. But here in the wildlife preserve of Perpetual Suckers, I was the only straggler. The odd one out. The one to be brought down, torn to pieces and consumed.

Henry is starting at yet another new school. And as if starting all over again wasn’t tough enough, he discovers that he is the only boy in his year level. His mother is a young real estate agent and she works long hours trying to make a living to support the two of them. Because it’s always been just the two of them. And sometimes the relationship seems less parent/child than it might be. Henry is weighed down by the challenges in this new start and then things get worse. The new next-door neighbours might just be vampires. They seem friendly enough but when the school bully sees him help carry a coffin into their house, his slim chance of fitting seems certain to vanish.

Henry Hoey Hobson, or TripleH as his mother calls him, is used to life being tough. Mum struggles to support them, he’s unusual looking, and until recently was overweight. But surely it shouldn’t be this tough. And because it’s just the two of them, he feels very responsible for his mother. Henry tells his story in first person and he’s hilarious. He has conversations with himself (who else is likely to listen?), tries to stand up to the bully at school and does tasks for the principal (better than admitting he has no friends). Themes are around trying to fit in, making mistakes, not judging others and about the different shapes families can be. This is great fun to read. Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.

Henry Hoey Hobson, Christine Bongers
Woolshed Press 2010
ISBN: 9781864719956

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

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

Slice, by Steven Herrick

My name is Darcy Franz Pele Walker.
Ignore the middle names.
I do.
My Dad is a football nut and he figured if he named me after his two favourite players, I’d turn out just like them. At the age of five, I’d stand in the backyard wearing baggy blue shorts and a Brazilian jersey watching the clouds, the trees, birds tilting overhead on the breeze.
Dad would shout, ‘Ready, Darcy?’ and roll the ball temptingly my way.
‘Just kick it with all you’ve got, son.’
I’d look at the coloured panels on the ball.
‘Just swing your foot, Darcy.’

Darcy is sixteen and in Year 11. He’s not sporty or tough. He can quote Shakespeare and he has a crush on Audrey which he’s not game to do anything about. He also has a habit of speaking without really thinking about the consequences. This gets him into trouble sometimes but also defines him. It helps him get to know Audrey, and to understand what’s going on with his nerdy friend Noah. It also helps him deal with football-loving, physical Braith and Tim. Slice is the story of Darcy’s Year 11, told in bites both juicy and delicious.

Told in prose, Slice is full of wonderful images, told in a few words, much like Herrick’s verse novels. It’s hilarious too. Darcy’s voice is very dry, very droll. His observations of others and awareness of himself are astute. He may be physically not up to the likes of Braith and Tim, but he has developed his own sense of self, his own defences. Scenes like the one where Dad does the ‘sex talk’ with Darcy are laugh-out loud funny because they are so familiar. This is a novel which celebrates those who understand their place in the world, even if those around them don’t. It’s a joy to read.
Recommended for mid-secondary readers.

Slice: Juicy Moments from My Impossible Life, Steven Herrick
Woolshed Press 2010
ISBN: 9781864719642

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

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

Anonymity Jones, by James Roy

Once, in a street not very far from yours, there lived a girl called Anonymity Jones.

Anonymity’s life is not going so well. Actually, that’s an understatement. Her parents’ marriage has just broken up, her sister has changed her name and is heading for Europe, and her three close friends are all busy being girlfriends. When her mother brings home a creepy new boyfriend, and Anonymity realises she has crush on her art teacher, things really start to get messy.

Anonymity Jones is a compelling new young adult read exploring issues of family, friendship and trust. Anonymity is a likeable protagonist who manages to sort out some really confronting dilemmas, in spite of a range of betrayals – both perceived and actual – from those around her.

While there are some fairly weighty issues explored here, author Roy manages to blend wit and edginess in a way which prevents the book from being either bogged down or too light for such issues.

Recommended for upper secondary readers.

Anonymity Jones, by James Roy
Woolshed Press, 2010

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

Dust, by Christine Bongers

This place was disgusting with dust. It was everywhere. Gravity had totally lost its grip on the problem.
It hung like gauze in the sunlight, rising in waves from the scorched earth, clinging to my lips and teeth, suffocating me with its presence.

Cecilia Maria was given the names of two saints to give her something to live up to – and hates both the names and the implied legacy. Growing up on a drought stricken Queensland farm, and with six brothers to contend with, she thinks her life is pretty tough. There’s no room in it for the despised Kapernicky girls, the new neighbours who her mother wants her to befriend.

But as the hot summer rolls by, and she moves from primary school to secondary, Cecilia begins to discover that there is more to her neighbours than she first thought – and that there are far worse things than having some rough brothers to contend with.

Dust is a warm exploration of some tough subject matter, with twelve year old Cecilia both a main character and a spectator, interpreting events through her first person eyes, as well as through opening and closing chapters showing her adult perspective.

The reader is drawn into the action, feeling with Cecilia the difficulties of finding an identity in a small town and a large family, the need to build friendships, and the difficulties of reaching out to fellow teens in situations you do not understand. The story unfolds over the course of several months, but readers will find themselves swept along, unable to put the story aside.

A fantastic debut novel.

Dust, by Christine Bongers
Woolshed Press, 2009

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

Hunting Elephants, by James Roy

He was my favourite uncle when I was a little girl. He always had motorbikes, and I’d sit on the tank in front of him, and he’d drive me around the back streets of Toowoomba, where we were all living at the time. I mean, he seemed lovely to me back then, but my parents used to talk about how much he’d changed after he came back from Vietnam War…I don’t know if it’s that exactly that makes him the way he is – I don’t remember what he was like before he went off to fight – but I do know that he can be a bit hard to get along with sometimes…’

Harry has never met his great uncle Frank, and he’s less than impressed about having to go to Frank’s wedding. He won’t know anyone there and going to the wedding means missing out on his best mate’s birthday party. All he knows about Frank is that he’s a Vietnam vet, so Harry decides he’d better brush up on his war history so that he doesn’t put his foot in it when the subject comes up. But at Frank’s house, Harry finds his knowledge might not be enough to deal with Frank. In the meantime, Harry and his parents have problems of their own to deal with.

Hunting Elephants is a brave novel, exploring the differences between appearance and reality, and the dangers of making assumptions about people and situations. Frank has secrets and insecurities, but so does Harry and, it turns out, several of the other characters in the novel.

This is a challenging tale, with complex issues and twists which ask readers to question their own propensity to make wrong assumptions. It is, however, a superbly satisfying book.

Hunting Elephants, by James Roy
Woolshed Press, 2008

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