Children Reading Children’s Fiction

These books in the Touch the Sun series are very good. But as all reviewers have to do, I will compare. I had three favourites which were, Top-Enders (McPhee Gribble 114 pp, $6.95) by Jennifer Dabbs, Captain Johnno (McPhee Gribble, 122 pp, $6.95 pb) by Rob George, and Peter and Pompey (McPhee Gribble, 114 pp, $6.95 pb) by John Misto. These three books compelled me to read, they were interesting as far as I think it is possible to be when writing for this age group. It is quite a common rumour that children nowadays don’t have a long concentration span, but I think that if you want to produce that magical curiosity then you have to talk a different language. These three books do that quite successfully. The other three books don’t have the same effect, they are long&shy;winded or even perhaps a little hard to believe. The plots of these books are rather good. At first glance, they appear quite superficial but when delved into closely are very complex and not at all predictable. The first book I read, Peter and Pompey, was extremely interesting. It was about Peter, who lives in a caravan with his mother. He discovers an ancient boat which he tries to keep a secret. The girl in the story, Margaret, is an ‘excellent student’ and the mayor’s daughter. Her specialty is Latin and Peter finds a scroll with the boat and decides to give it to Margaret for translation. It turns out to be the diary of a Roman boy called Pompey who came to Australia with his father a couple of millennia ago. This fascinating tale leads to a suspenseful climax which is not entirely flattering to the adults in the plot. In fact all the novels tend to depict adults as blundering idiots who should take a few hints from the kids. Whether this is good or bad is debatable. The next book I read, Top-Enders, dealt with a few social problems using a subtlety that is suitable: It is about two children, Alice and Mick who go to the same school in Darwin. Alice at this time is facing a few crises. During the span of the novel, her long-lost father comes back and expects to get a hero’s greeting. Also she is not getting any further at school even though she has potential. All these lead to her considering running away from home. Mick is a young aboriginal boy who idolises his uncle Roy. Uncle Roy rides at rodeos and Mick wants to follow in his footsteps. Mick has to go back to school and Roy is going to a circuit of rodeos, and Mick is bitterly disappointed he is not being taken. He is also pondering over running away to the next rodeo that Roy is going to. At school Mick and Alice thoroughly dislike each other but end up running away together. They get into more trouble than anyone could imagine including driving cars, boats and confrontations with the police. The Gift (McPhee Gribble, 138 pp, $6.95 pb), is about a Greek family in Melbourne. Nikos is the talented son of Con and also younger brother of Sophia who is a very over-protected teenager and not as successful as her brother. Together they go in for a lottery similar to Tatts and win a block of land in Western Australia. Immediately their rather stupid father starts thinking of selling the block of land and getting a giant house which would heal his ever-failing ego. The children as part of the deal go and inspect the property and instantaneously fall in love with it. You can begin to see a struggle not far away and sure enough it happens. All adults in this story seem to need a few extra grey cells which is not a successful way of going about the story. Great plot, except the portrayal of characters is rather depressing. Captain Johnno is by far the best in the series. It was about a deaf boy called Johnno whose parents again seemed a bit hopeless. His sister had the maternal responsibilities and as soon as she went to a new school the obvious communication gap between Johnno and his parents, Kathleen and Frank, became apparent. He had an incredible love for the sea and fishing. When he met an Italian called Tony, who also had a language difficulty, they got on like a house of fire. The book is addictive and Rob George deserves a very large pat on the back. Ten out of ten for this clever book. The next two books were rather disappointing in comparison to the outstanding standard of the others. Devil’s Hill (McPhee Gribble, 126 pp, $6.95 pb) is about a boy called Badge who lives in the wilds of Tasmania in the middle of nowhere. He is joined by some cousins Sheppie, Broa, and Sam, who start to make life difficult. A storm arrives and tears his farm apart. One of the cows is killed and the other is miss&shy;ing. His father has gone to help his uncle, leaving his mother to fend off the ankle-biters. By this stage I was intrigued until I heard one of the most silly things I can remember. The mother takes the kids to go and look for the lost cow. Not only that but later on she leaves them on their own for a while so that she can look for the bloody cow on her own. By this time I was disbelieving and was not interested in the plot just in the horrendous mistake which had been made. This book makes fiction of parental responsibility and is definitely for very cynical children. The last and least was, I repeat was, Princess Kate (McPhee Gribble, 128 pp, $6.95 pb). It involves a girl called Kate who is from Sydney and discovers she is adopted. She immediately goes from being conservative to alcoholism, contemplating suicide and having only one goal which is to find her real mother. The things that go on in this book borderline on absurdity but still it was quite realistic. All in all a very good series of books which managed to go through a novel without sex or violence which is an extremely attractive characteristic. I’d give them eight and a half out of ten.

Zac Teichmann

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