Hell and High Water

Hell and High Water by Tanya Landman (Walker Books)

PB RRP $17.99

ISBN 9781406366914

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

The brilliant Buffalo Soldier won Tanya Landman the Carnegie Medal. Here is an equally brilliant and exciting adventure in three parts, about courage, resilience and race, and secrets and truths.

Fifteen year old Caleb is the dark-skinned son of a fair-skinned man. Pa protects Caleb from the racist attacks he frequently faces. All that Caleb knows about his mother is that she died at childbirth. In fact Pa has shared very little about his own life. They are a loving pair that wants nothing more than what they have.

The two make their living by travelling through the country with a wagonload of hand-made Punch and Judy puppets, entertaining crowds.

Pa is set up and arrested for theft. He is taken to jail and condemned to seven years in America. Caleb must reach his aunt Anne, a person he has never heard mentioned before.

In Tawpuddle, Anne lives a frugal life as a dressmaker with her young daughter and stepdaughter Letty, while her husband is at sea. Another mouth to feed is the last thing they need.

‘It’s astonishing what a person can get used to if their circumstances change’, Anne tells Caleb. His sewing skills come in handy when he can’t find work in the poverty-stricken town due to his colour.

When Caleb finds Pa’s body washed up on the beach, slowly secrets and truths are unwrapped.  Caleb and Letty are determined to discover the real story behind the treachery and lies they have been forced to accept as truth. But he is surrounded by corruption and deceit and can find no justice. Who can be trusted when no one is who they appear to be?

Yet his strong sense of right and wrong learnt from his Pa never wavers. His belief in truth as its own reward is what keeps him from giving up.

Tanya Landman has the ability to create characters that readers immediately fall in love with. Their situations are carefully crafted individual storylines that weave into a larger story that continues to expand. Once you’ve read her work, you will never forget it.

Adelaide’s Secret World

Adelaide’s Secret World by Elise Hurst (Allen & Unwin 2015)
HB RRP $24.99
ISBN: 9781743313350

Reviewed by Jade Harmer

Adelaide’s Secret World by Elise Hurst is a striking picture book that subtly portrays themes of loneliness, courage, and friendship.

Adelaide is a quiet, creative protagonist who evokes a sense of hope and longing. Over time, she has become an outsider, observing the city from her secret world with curiosity and intrigue. She sees herself as one of “the quiet ones” – one of those she notices who, like her, take the time to see, hear and feel the world around them, but who have lost their voices.

The question asked is can Adelaide find a way to step from the safety of her secret world and connect these kindred spirits?

The answer is magical and inspiring, especially for those among us who can relate to the journey of “the quiet ones”.

Hurst’s oil painting illustrations create a soft, dream-like world filled with a captivating sense of richness and wonder, complemented by rhythmic, poetic language.

This is a special story about finding ones place in the world and being comfortable enough in your own skin to reach out to others for friendship, comfort and a sense of belonging.

This is a book for encouraging children and adults alike to embrace their own unique voice.

For Valour: Australia’s Victoria Cross Heroes

Our Stories - For Valour: Australia’s Victoria Cross Heroes by Nicholas Brasch (Walker Books)
PB RRP $ 17.95
ISBN 9781742032313
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

The Victoria Cross (VC)was first introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 (thus its name) to honour British soldiers for their acts of heroism in the Crimean War. The medal is created out of bronze taken from the Russian canons captured by the British in that war.

In this book from the Our Stories series, Australia's 99 recipients of the Victoria Cross are represented. Twenty-six of these were awarded posthumously. The entries begin from the Boer War addressing why it was fought and how Australians took part in it, with a biography on the first Australian to receive the VC during the Boer War, Neville Howse. We learn the origins of the VC, and get a comprehensive breakdown of why and how World War One started in a clear, easy-to-follow setting.

Sixty-four Australians received the VC in World War One, the first being Albert Jacka. There is reference to Leonard Keysor, a bomb thrower at Lone Pine during the Gallipoli campaign, Hugo Throssell, the only recipient from the Lighthorse Regiment, who was the husband of author, Katherine Susanna Prichard, and Reginald Inwood, who was stoned by the people of Broken Hill who were opposed to the war as he departed, then was heralded a hero by the same people on his return. The pictures are made up of posters and photos of the VC recipients from archives.

Amazing stories of short but significant lives continue into the North Russia Campaign, then to World War Two, onto the Vietnam War, and ending in the War in Afghanistan. It showcases a few of the lives that were ‘firsts’ through photos, accompanied by a brief biography and the situation which led to the VC award. At the end, there is a list of the VC recipients for each campaign, a Glossary and an Index.

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Inc)

HB RRP $34.99
ISBN9780545027893
Reviewed by Dawn Meredith

It’s 2:47am and I’ve just finished reading Wonderstruck. I couldn’t put it down. I had to read it all in one sitting. To hell with work the next day! I fell in love with Selznick’s debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, #1 New York Times children’s bestseller and winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal among countless other awards. The 3D movie, Hugo Cabret, is due for release in 2012. I didn’t think it would be possible to produce something better, but this book captured me from the very first page.

The simplicity of the dialogue and uncomplicated style belies a complex criss-crossing web of emotions and unresolved conflict, exploring themes of struggle with identity, the meaning of family, modern attitude to marriage and children, friendship and loneliness and courage. So many aspects of human existence are touched upon in this book! It’s like an encyclopaedia, a reference book, available for children and their parents to explore together. A book of gifts. 

As with the first book, the drawings are spellbinding and tell great chunks of story just by themselves. Selznick is so clever in his ability to show a reader how to be an interpreter of visual imagery not just a reader of words. And this seemed particularly apt as the story centres around two main protagonists who are both deaf, for whom visuals are everything. I liked that juxtaposition. The grainy, black and white illustrations of this 460 page volume draw us in, mute, but with astonishing storytelling power.

The two stories involve Ben, a young boy recently orphaned, who sets out to find his father and Rose, a young girl whose mother was a famous actress and had little time for her daughter. These two characters are separated by time and also modality. Ben’s story is told in words, Rose’s in pictures. Eventually we find Rose is actually Ben’s grandmother and they meet in the present day. Ben follows a trail of clues to the city’s museum where he meets a young boy, Jamie. Homeless, Ben stays hidden in the museum for days. But it’s in those days that he gradually uncovers a secret.

Like unfolding layers of silk around a treasure, Ben realises the mysterious man from this very museum, Daniel, whose portrait is inside his mother’s locket, came to his home town by the lake to do research. And fell in love with Ben’s mother.  But just as Ben makes this amazing discovery he realises that his legendary father died. I had held my breath, hoping for the best outcome, but no. It was devastating to me, as reader, that Ben be denied his father, after longing to meet him his whole life! But with childlike acceptance, Ben keeps searching, following the clues, until he makes a delightful discovery which brought tears to my eyes – his grandmother Rose. A new chapter begins in Ben’s life—a sense of belonging, an intimate family connection, a place.

Perhaps more than anything, this book does not seek to shield children from an uncomfortable truth – that life sometimes contains sadness and regret that we do not have control over these things and that other joys may await us if we have an open heart and an inquiring mind. The delights of the old exhibits in the museum, the beautifully crafted cabinet, the ‘Wonderstruck’ in which his father displayed fabulous items and many other joys made this book fascinating to me.

It’s nice to think that out there somewhere, despite the loneliness and isolation of our individual journeys, that there is a warm soft place to land. Like a long-lost grandmother.

Dawn Meredith writes from the Blue Mountains and is a May Gibbs Fellow 2011. You can follow her exploits at www.dawnmeredithauthor.blogspot.com