Marian
McGuinness is thrilled to have her story, Collarenebri Cowboy,
published in the July issue of Countdown in The School
Magazine. Thanks to Aśka for
her fab illustrations.
Showing posts with label Marian McGuinness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marian McGuinness. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 August 2019
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Achievements
Congratulations to Marian McGuinness
who recently received her copy of The School Magazine’s Blast Off which
features her story, ‘The Great Chicken Getaway’, wonderfully illustrated by
David Legge.
Marian has also had her story, ‘The
Collarenebri Cowboy’, accepted for publication by The School Magazine.
Sunday, 4 November 2018
Achievements
Marian
McGuinness is delighted to have her very scary story “The Haunted Holiday”
published in The School Magazine’s November issue of Touchdown. Spooky
illustrations are by Douglas Holgate.
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Caravaggio (Signed in Blood)
PB RRP $23.95
ISBN 9781896580050
Reviewed by Marian
McGuinness
The blurb on the
back cover hooked me in as soon as I read it.
Fifteen-year-old Beppo, an
indentured servant in Rome, is accused of murder. The only person who can help
him is one of the most celebrated artists of his day – Caravaggio.
Straight away I
had the scenario for this Young Adult novel in my mind: two protagonists - a
teenager on the run and a Renaissance artist. I was quickly swept into the
intrigue of medieval Italy.
Beppo’s mother has
died and he is indentured to a man with ‘the rough chiselled face of an
unfinished statue … a bloated pig of a master,’ who is in the wine trade - a
cover for the darker and illegal book trade.
When Beppo’s
master is murdered, Beppo is accused. He escapes the ‘polizia’ with the help of
an acrobatic dwarf.
While on the run
through the backstreets of Rome, where children gamble and play archaic games
of tennis, Beppo stumbles into a street brawl. Caravaggio is defending himself
with a sword and mortally wounds his opponent.
Now two are on the
run. With the help of Caravaggio’s patron, the Cardinal, they escape to Naples.
Pursued by bounty hunters, Beppo is exiled from Rome and Caravaggio is given
the death penalty.
While this is a
fast-paced story of bandits, crossbows, swords, pirates and prison breaks, it
is also the story of how the great artists of the Renaissance worked. Beppo
becomes Caravaggio’s servant and learns of his craft as he purchases supplies
of ‘linen canvas and wood slats from the shipyard; chalk and walnut oil from
the apothecary; lead white from the smith; pigments from the dyer; and an
assortment of mirrors …’ Such detail adds layers of richness to the bones of
the narrative where, for the painting of a Lazarus scene, a dead body is
delivered – ‘A loosely wrapped corpse lay within. The linen shroud afforded a
glimpse of papery, grey skin.’
Caravaggio also
teaches Beppo about the finer arts of swordplay ‘thumb down, in, up, out’,
which stands him in good stead as he learns the skills needed to become a
squire and later, perhaps, a knight.
Just like
Shakespeare’s Renaissance play, Romeo and Juliet, with its swordplay and feisty
youth, Beppo falls in love with Dolcetta, the daughter of a courtesan. There’s
even a balcony-climbing scene where the forbidden romance culminates in Beppo
‘kissing her on the lips.’
With its twenty
short chapters, first person point of view and smattering of Italian words,
teenage readers will feel at one with the character of Beppo. A bit like asides in a play, Beppo’s innermost
thoughts are written in italics. This also keeps the reader in the moment and
within the action.
Author, Mark David
Smith, has written a swashbuckling novel that is sure to win the imaginations
of teen readers. As a form of epilogue, Smith provides historical notes about
Caravaggio. What a wonderful foray into life in medieval Italy. Indeed, I would
like to see this Italy that Smith has painted with such vivid imagery.
Friday, 19 June 2015
The Pause
The Pause by John Larkin (Random House Australia)
PB RRP $19.99
ISBN 9780857981707
Also available as
an ebook
ISBN 9780857981714
Reviewed by Marian
McGuinness
Youth suicide -- a
hush … hush topic, a brave topic to write about, a necessary topic to write
about.
How many of us
have been personally touched by suicide? I have, twice, so it was with
hesitation that I began to read.
This YA story is
Declan’s story. He is 17 and in Year 11 at a selective high school. He is
witty, sensitive, a literature wiz and head over heels in love with Lisa. One
problem is that Lisa has a Tiger Mother, who Declan nicknames The Kraken. A
kraken who beats her daughter when she strays from her mother’s warped ways. A
kraken who confiscates her daughter’s phone and sends her away from Declan to
live in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Although there is
a parallel plot of Declan and Lisa (a bit like Romeo and Juliet), it is
primarily Declan’s story as he wonders if his ‘brief flicker of existence might
have meant something.’
Something dark
happened when Declan was 6, something that has been buried so deep in his
psyche that when he needed inner strength, it was too fragile to cope.
The narrative
moves back and forth, like a mind in chaos, until we as the reader are standing
with Declan, wracked with emotional pain, on the platform as the train
approaches. He intends to end the pain.
Graphic
descriptions? Yes. But they are in Declan’s mind in those nanoseconds of
decision -- the nanosecond of The Pause.
That short-long time to decide to live or to die, ‘… crying because I don’t
think I’m worth anything …’
With time out in a
psychiatric hospital, Declan starts to think about life. He thinks of the ‘wreckage’ he would have
left behind ‘in that moment of pure insanity …’ It is
through the kindness and understanding of strangers in his ward, in their own
dire personal situations, that Declan begins to heal.
Through Declan’s
breakdown, ‘I went nuts. It happens. It happened to me. It can happen to anyone
…’ his friends are given quiet permission to be open and frank about
themselves.
The positive
message is how this experience empowers Declan to own who he is; that he has
choices to make and responsibilities to others, but mostly to himself. He
learns that life is bittersweet, but you can cope, and that once you open
yourself to others and their lives you realise that people are not worth dying
for, they’re worth living for.
John Larkin is a
brave writer. The Pause is personal.
It’s as much Larkin’s story as it is Declan’s story. As you read, you come to
understand that the heart and soul of John Larkin becomes the heart and soul of
Declan. It is a story of hope and the beauty of relationships … because of one
essential concept … pause.
Larkin’s previous
novel, The Shadow Girl, won the
Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adults.
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Stories for Boys
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9780857980885
Ebook ISBN: 9780857980892
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Keeping up the pace and excitement, but this time for six to eight year old boys, is this fine and funny anthology from another twelve fabulous Aussie authors. And they know the stuff that will engage our boys with fabulous adventures featuring: ghosts, robots, jellyfish, lice and terror-dactyls.
As well as some of the authors from the ‘girls’ series, there are offerings from: Bill Condon, Tristan Bancks, Nick Falk, Aleesah Darlison, Celeste Walters and Sophie Masson.
Some stories are written in past tense, some present tense. There are short, accessible sentences with simple words, others with doozies thrown in for good measure, like ‘follicle’ and ‘realm’. There are great similes, ‘rain hammers on the roof like bullets’ and ear-wrenching onomatopoeia where ‘lightning crackles … doors creeeeak and thunder rumbles’. Each story uses a wealth of literary techniques to subliminally encourage readers to create and colour their own stories.
Plot and character are the main focus and there are plenty to choose from. There’s Tom who visits his pop in a nursing home. The thing is, his pop hates kids. Tom has a problem.
What happens when Jack wishes that his mum were an octopus – a riotous romp of tentacle fun ensues. Or perhaps you’d prefer the story set on a space station where giant jellyfish roam, or something closer to home, Sophie Masson’s romp in the Possum in the Roof.
And then there’s the hilarious story of Ferdie the frog who goes to market in a box of lettuces. Celeste Walters delights with her rhythmic and imagery-filled writing when ‘fat hands and thin hands and bodies with trolleys were pushing and shoving and pawing and pouncing’ as Ferdie goes on his adventure around the supermarket. The end result is that all readers will want a frog like Ferdie.
With the animated, boyish illustrations by internationally acclaimed artist, Tony Flowers (illustrator of the Saurus Street series), along with the perfect-sized font and plenty of white space in format, Stories for Boys, is a great addition to the bedside table.
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
Alice-Miranda Shines Bright
PB RRP $15.95
ISBN 9781742752907
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742752914
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
For a seven-year-old, Alice-Miranda is certainly savvy. This is Jacqueline Harvey’s eighth book in the popular and award-winning series. It doesn’t matter what order you read these books in. They’re quite “stand-alone” and handily accompanied by a “cast of characters” just in case the reader needs a little reminder.
Alice-Miranda Shines Bright is set back at school. It’s nearly the end of the school year and Alice-Miranda is puzzled as to why her friend Jacinta’s moods have become “darker than a thundercloud.” For the first time ever, the chirpy Alice-Miranda has “absolutely no idea of what to do next.”
With the plot of pre-teenage angst threading along in Jacinta’s story, there are other mysteries to solve. One of their neighbours, Reginald Parker (who has been in a coma for three years) has gone missing. Alice-Miranda and her friend, Millie, soon get onto the case. They ride their ponies, Bonaparte and Chops across the hills and through the woodlands while they communicate on walkie-talkies.
As they follow the clues to solve one mystery, another is evolving. The girls have found a teeny entry into a cave in the hills and have discovered gold. The trouble is, there are a few other interested and greedy people after it as well.
What has happened to Reginald Parker and why is Jacinta so moody? With her usual bright and bubbly demeanour, Alice-Miranda goes headlong into adventure and takes her readers with her.
Jacqueline Harvey’s Alice-Miranda series is hitting the high time overseas, and so it should. There’s innocence mixed with adventure and a rollicking good time for the reader, 8+.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Seadog
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742756509
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742756523
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Fabulous and fun! I loved this picture book from the moment I saw Tom Jellett’s cheeky cover. There are many rascally dogs in children’s literature such as Harry the Dirty Dog and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy, and Seadog has just as much charisma.
Just like we are all different, so too are dogs. Who wouldn’t love a sea dog? Who couldn’t love a sea dog? Seadog is not a work dog or a fetch dog or a trick dog or a clean dog, he’s a ‘find-and-roll-in-the-fish dog’. He’s a rapscallion and his day at the beach is described in lots of hyphenated phrases, until he is a ‘Pee-ee-euw, Seadog’. After the day is done when he’s all stinky with fish he becomes a ‘sit-still-till-it’s-done dog’ and succumbs to a bath.
With Saxby’s clever use of alliteration and assonance, children and adults will have fun twisting their tongues around the rhythm and rhyme as they go on Seadog’s adventures at the beach.
Tom Jellett has captured the enthusiasm and joy of such a scruffy, lovable dog. The endpapers give the book even more sea-appeal with a patchwork of international maritime signal flags. There are lots of close-up pictures of Seadog that make you feel as if you could give him a pat and hold your nose as you smell his fishy fur.
Claire Saxby is prolific in her writing and admits to being inspired by her own children, memories of childhood and by the children around her. It helps that she has a dog that often pretends to be a cat.
Tom Jellett is not only a bestselling illustrator of books for children; he also has been an editorial illustrator for umpteen print publications.
This is one picture book for 3 and up that will become dog-eared from love.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Meet … Ned Kelly
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742757186
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742757209
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
I like the idea of “Meet …” as it’s an invitation to get to know, perhaps personally understand, many of the iconic men and women who have shaped Australia.
Meet … Ned Kelly is the first in this picture book series that spans the education and trade markets.
Told in verse, the story comes alive. The reader is involved in the action, just like in the bush ballads of Ned Kelly’s era. The font has a nostalgic look, as if it’s hot off an old-fashioned printing press.
The armour protected Ned’s arms, head and waist.
The bullets bounced off one by one.
Sergeant Steele took a shot at Ned’s legs that were bare.
With a cry, Ned collapsed and was done.
We all know how Ned’s life ended, but we are given a poignant insight into his early life of poverty and fatherlessness and how his mother was gaoled with her young baby. We share the major turning points in Ned’s life both by verse and by following the handy timeline at the back of the book.
As a young boy we learn how Ned saved a drowning child. He is presented with a sash for his bravery. Another poignant moment is the revelation that under his suit of armour, in the shoot out at Glenrowan, Ned is wearing the same sash from childhood provoking discussion on how deeply we are affected as children, along with the need to know that we have worth.
Matt Adams’ illustrations are evocative of Sidney Nolan’s famous Ned Kelly series, with hints of other landscape painters of the era, like Arthur Streeton and Russell Drysdale. Sometimes, it’s like I’m standing in an art gallery. Young readers will connect to the pathos and humour within the illustrations as they engage with Australian history. The cover is startling as you face Ned close up. He is kitted in his ironclad helmet and armour, although I would love to have seen a peek of the green sash that he was wearing underneath.
Award-winning author Janeen Brian has captured the essence of our most legendary bushranger and award-winning illustrator Matt Adams has brought him to life with colour and texture. An excellent read for 8+.
Friday, 1 March 2013
Bureau of Mysteries and The Mechanomancers
PB RRP $15.95
ISBN 9781742756486
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742756493
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
George Feather, chimney sweep and assistant cryptographer, is on the trail of the Mechanomancers, ‘ancient evil beings that mixed magic and technology to terrorise the world!’
In this sequel for 8 – 12 year olds, author, HJ Harper has created a fantastic, almost Dickensian world, melding genres of Steampunk, Western and Detective Novel with a pinch of James Bond thrown in. It’s a combination to intrigue most readers.
The young protagonist, George, with the aid of his Cryptographer’s Compendium (his code-breaking book) and his partner, Imp Spektor, have to save the mysterious metropolis of Little Obscurity. They team up with adventurer, Lord Periwinkle Tinkerton, who travels with his scribing assistant, Lexica Quill, in his mechanical mammothmobile.
Together they battle mechanical bulls and icebergs of garbage; they ride on a giant grey rat called Bubonic through the sewerage dungeons and joust giant lice.
George uses all the tools of the trade in his quest to eradicate the Mechanomancers. He has Antigravity Gauntlets and Eyeopener Goggles. There are skypirates and skydragons. The adventure twists and turns as each chapter ends on a hook.
The reader rollicks along with George as he comes across many codes that he has to crack. This is a strength of the book, as young readers will pit their wits against George, in the quest to work out the clues and eliminate the enemy.
There is clever wordplay throughout that keeps you chuckling. There are clichés and puns (the Clockness Monster, Joust in Time). The use of first person includes lots of internal dialogue, so you know what George Feather is thinking.
All is wonderfully illustrated in Nahum Ziersch’s stylised black and white panels that depict characters and scenes along the way.
Twist follows twist towards the last third of the book. You don’t know the goodies from the baddies as you weave in and out of the story. In the end, it’s down to the power of the pen … and the ability to decipher codes.
Friday, 30 November 2012
The Fire Chronicle (The Books of Beginning)
PB RRP $24.95
ISBN 9780857530875
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781446452325
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
This is the second title in John Stephen’s fantasy trilogy, The Books of Beginning. I have not read the first, but with its tempting title, The Emerald Atlas, and after now having read its sequel, The Fire Chronicle, my imagination is primed to go back to the beginning.
That said, for the first-time reader, Stephens has done a great job of weaving you into the story from the first pages, ‘the scream … the mist … burning yellow eyes’ … a boy tucked tight beneath the director’s desk at the orphanage and the last haunting words, ‘Where are the children?’
And so, we are whisked into the world of fifteen-year-old Kate and her younger siblings, Michael and Emma.
The three children have spent years in a string of miserable orphanages, ‘one next to a sewerage treatment plant,’ and The Edgar Allan Poe Home for Hopeless and Incorrigible Orphans where, ‘the water was brown and chunky.’ The children’s knowledge of their parents teeters at the edge of their existence, but there is magic afoot as we learn the existence of three books that have the ‘power to alter the very nature of existence, to reshape the world.’
We are given glimpses of the powerful sorcerer, the Dire Magnus, whose ‘power waxes and wanes … since the Books were created.’ His goal is to find the children who will bring the books together and fulfil the prophecy.
Kate, through the magic of the time-travel book (The Emerald Atlas) that she is guardian for, is separated from Michael and Emma. She is kidnapped into an Artful Dodger kind of world in New York in 1889. It’s New Years Eve and moments before The Separation, when the magic world that has been around forever disappears into the human world.
The chapters alternate between Kate’s journey and that of Michael and Emma, who are on the hunt for The Fire Chronicle. Michael is its chosen guardian, but he has to find the book, which is embedded in the magma chamber of an Antarctic volcano.
The fears and strengths of the children ebb and flow through their stories as they learn independence and survival through the use of their imaginations. Michael often quotes from his father’s last gift, The Dwarf Omnibus. ‘A great leader lives not in his heart, but in his head.’
This book makes thrilling reading and at times, I felt the magic pens of Philip Pullman, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lois Lowry and L. Frank Baum, such is the fine writing of the author and the imaginative adventures of the children.
American author, John Stephens, comes well equipped to writing for the YA reader of 11 and up, as he was the executive producer of Gossip Girl and a writer for Gilmore Girls and The O.C.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Santa’s Secret
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742752396
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742748801
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Here’s another rollicking, rhyming picture book to romp us towards Christmas.
Santa is zonked out after his exhausting Christmas Eve round-the-world trip. After a refreshing sleep, he’s ready to holiday … Aussie style!
Out goes the Santa speak of ‘Ho, ho, ho!’ and in comes ‘G’day’, ‘Fair go!’ as Santa lands at a beach shack where he secretes his reindeer and unpacks a surfboard from his sleigh.
Illustrator, Tom Jellett, dresses Santa in a tropical pineapple-patterned shirt and thongs before he dons a squeezy wetsuit (red of course!) and hits the waves. He bedazzles the grommets with his surfing skills: ‘He’s in the zone! He’s in a class all of his own!’
The lovely twist at the end reveals the Christmas spirit of giving in a fun way, without being preachy: ‘So, watch out after Christmas Day, for the greatest surfer in the bay.’
Santa’s Secret is a jolly read aloud book for three to five year olds. Children will love the clear and colourful illustrations that depict, not only Santa’s changing expressions, but also the humour of such a bizarre situation. Keep your eye out for the tyre swans, kettle barbecue and wind chimes at Santa’s beach shack.
Seven of Mike Dumbleton’s picture books have been selected as ‘Notable Books’ by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. He is also a multi-award winner for his titles. Illustrator Tom Jellett has illustrated a number of best-selling books for children; he combines this with his work as editorial illustrator for the various papers of News Limited.
A fine and quirky team!
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
The Amazing Illustrated Floodsopedia
PB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742751047
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Grab a torch, climb under the doona and check that your funny bone is in working order. Colin Thompson, the Aussie icon of wit, wackiness and whimsy has created the ultimate guide to accompany his laugh-out-loud book series, The Floods.
I couldn’t wait to open the cover, after all the skeletal Valla was inviting me into his world of Transylvania Waters (think pun for parents) holding a placard quipping ‘Family fun with Mildew, Germs & Boils.’
The humorous tone is set from start in this gothic-themed picture book/encyclopaedia, as in ‘A is for armpit – a place to store arms.’ There are tantalising titbits of witch and wizard Flood family history, zany diagrams, horoscopes and inventions.
Not only will readers get to know the Flood family better, but also their relatives, like Artery the Wizard who is the ‘Top High Priest of the Ancient Order of the Long Nose.’
Visit Haemorrhage Lakes, the ‘ultimate in luxury holiday destinations’ where ‘every night as you sleep, all your blood is sucked out by a team of highly trained Vampire Nurses and piped down to the basement, where it is given a full service in the laundry.’
This book is not for the faint-hearted. I didn’t know if I was dreaming or having nightmares as I read the poems, fairy stories and character descriptions. It’s like living in Colin Thompson’s brain that keeps shorting out. And I loved it!
Even the page colours match the Floods’ personas: gruesome grey, bogbottom brown, germy green and pukey pink. Thompson has thought of everything to entice young readers to think outside the square. Primary school boys especially will love this brilliantly illustrated treasure chest of hilarity. I can see many emulating Thompson’s inventiveness in art class.
Colin Thompson has more that 65 books published. He is a multiple award winner, including a CBCA Picture Book of the Year and a CBCA Honour Book. His talent is boundless. So if you want to know what makes Nerlin, Mordonna and the little Floods tick, then stick your eyeballs to the page, open your mind like a plughole and get ready to go on the raft-ride of your life as you journey into Colin Thompson’s imagination.
PS – One last Floodsopedia advertisement: Old Pottybreath’s Elixir (including the ten greatest plagues of all time) with the added bonus of 87 free scabs – some rare and collectible treasures.
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Nanny Piggins and the Daring Rescue
PB RRP $15.95
ISBN 9781742754970
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742754987
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Nanny Piggins is at it again. She has romped through six book-length adventures and now catapults you into her seventh.
The cover of Nanny Piggins and the Daring Rescue shows this daredevil pig flying through the air as she bungy jumps into the stories between the covers. In the opening scene her charges (after all, she is their nanny), Derrick, Samantha and Michael find her in gaol. She has been trying to one-up Galileo’s theory of gravity by dropping cannonballs from the roof without realising the mayor’s car is in their flight path.
The children’s dour father Mr Green only bails her out, not for his children’s welfare, but because he wants Nanny Piggins to give him tap-dancing lessons that will further his career as a tax lawyer – Nanny’s pig-logic seems to have its effect on the whole family.
Author, R.A. Spratt keeps the reader in stitches with her descriptions of the cake-eating pig wheedling her way out of bizarre situations. She is a law unto herself. If children could write their own criteria for hiring a nanny, Nanny Piggins would tick all the boxes.
Every now and again, Nanny Piggins shows her sensitive side. When the house is being fumigated and they have to camp in tents outside, Nanny Piggins comments wistfully that the tents ‘smell of unhappiness.’ Derrick brings her back to reality by adding ‘I think it’s just mould.’
Nanny’s world is also shared with her circus friends, Boris (a ten-foot-tall ballet-dancing bear), Percy (the radio-star parrot) and her identical fourteenuplet sisters.
Spratt has her tongue firmly in both cheeks as she writes the witty prose. In order to seduce the President of Vanuatu (and rescue the children’s father from the slavery of his luxury job and apartment), Nanny Piggins does the Dance of the Seven Cakes; she ‘wiggled, sashayed and shimmied, all while showing off her greatest assets – her cakes.’
With each chapter being a stand-alone story, it’s easy to pick up this book and read as much or as little as you have time for. Every chapter is a laugh and an excursion into creative problem solving. What’s great for readers is that creativity begets creativity. As you read, you find yourself using your imagination to help solve the predicaments in which Nanny Piggins and the children find themselves. It’s a ‘win-win’ situation.
With such amazing talents, Nanny Piggins is offered many awesome jobs. When you start wondering is there anything this pig cannot do, she brings you back to why she is a nanny. ‘I have a much more important job – looking after these three children.’ No more needs to be said, other than, what lucky children.
With R.A. Spratt’s eighth book Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power in the pipeline for 2013, you have to wonder what wacky adventures await Nanny Piggins, Derrick, Samantha and Michael.
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Miss Understood
PB RRP $16.95
ISBN 9781864718607
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742748771
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness
Ten-year-old Lizzie Adams has certainly been misunderstood in her short primary school life as she melodramatically explains to the principal of Our Lady of the Sacred Wimple College how she accidently set alight his life-sized cardboard cut-out. Not only has she set off a chain reaction of burning the bike shed and singeing the surrounding grass, she’s also traumatised the nearby third graders. It’s the ‘latest in a very long line of wild events.’ There’s one result and one repercussion. Lizzie is expelled and to her horror, will be homeschooled by her mum.
Forever an optimist, Lizzie’s sassy attitude shines as she sees the positive side of being homeschooled. ‘It’d be a ‘stroll in the park, but with a late start.’
Lizzie’s misunderstandings continue at home. The dynamics of the novel open up as we are brought into the lives of Mum, Dad, their neighbour, Miss Huntley and the blow-ins from the adjoining HomeFest world of display homes.
Award-winning author James Roy makes you laugh out loud with his witty, visual prose. In the early morning hours, when Lizzie realises she’s forgotten to put the garbage bin out, Roy takes you into the scene as Lizzie is ‘charging down the driveway with the bin getting the speed wobbles.’ When she confides in Miss Huntley that her dad will kill her for forgetting, Miss Huntley wryly remarks, ‘I seriously doubt that. We haven’t had a murder in this street for three or four years.’
Roy’s layering of humour and seriousness is deftly written as Lizzie realises that she is not the only one to be misunderstood. Her dad has changed. He is grumpier than usual. He’s getting more forgetful and tends to spend a lot of time sleeping. Lizzie confides in the reader, that when your dad shouts ‘it felt extra yuck.’
Just when you think things are settling down for Lizzie, the next chapter races you off in another direction as Roy interweaves the parallel plots of those in Lizzie’s life.
As Lizzie’s world broadens it’s finally revealed that her dad is suffering from depression. After he’s been to the doctor he gives Lizzie a brochure. ‘Mood swings, having no energy, feeling like everything was hopeless …Yes … a lot of them sounded like my dad,’ thinks Lizzie. Roy deals with this issue in a gentle and sensitive way that just might speak to some of his readers who find themselves in a similar situation to Lizzie. And if that’s the case, as a separate entry at the end of the book there are a few helplines for those in need.
With six CBCA Notable Books and a litany of major awards to his name, James Roy has created another winner with Miss Understood. There’s a lovely sense of a moving-on cycle as all the characters grow within themselves and with each other. Will Lizzie be given another chance at Our Lady of the Sacred Wimple College? I’m sure, after the principal has seen how much Lizzie Adams has grown up.
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