Sheeza

Sheeza by Clancy Tucker (Morris Publishing Australia)

PB RRP $18.00 including postage E-book$3.00

(Overseas $21.00 including postage)

ISBN 9780646935843

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Danny has an artificial limb and wears glasses. He’s the perfect target for bullies and ‘Mad Dog’ Fletcher is out to get him. Danny can’t play sport so longs to have a dog.  Towards this end, he has been doing odd jobs for the lovely oldies in his area, and saving every penny.

He doesn’t want any dog, he wants a Kelpie, to train and enter into the sheep dog trials at the Agricultural Show. He has read every book he could find, and watched every video available in preparation for the moment he gets the go-ahead from his parents.

Joey is Danny’s best friend, confidant, and protector when things get rough. Joey is optimistic, lovable and daring. He balances Danny’s smart and responsible side well which makes for a perfect friendship.

When Danny sees the physically-challenged pup in the pet shop, he knows it’s the one. They bond immediately and training the pup, which he names Sheeza, is a breeze. They end up winning the sheep dog trials at Wanganui.

It’s when Sheeza is stolen that everyone joins the hunt to find her. Who could have taken her? Where can she be and will she ever be found? Posters, Current Affair programs, truckies with two-way radios across Australia and an informed public, set out to find and reunite the dog with the boy.

This is Clancy Tucker’s second novella. He’s a writer who loves to get his teeth into difficult themes and always manages to weave several issues into one story.

A well-researched book, Sheeza incorporates detailed information about working dogs, their training and habits. I loved this story. It kept me reading without stopping until the end. As usual, there are fantastic characters - humans and animals, bad versus good in people, and problems that are overcome due to a tight community and strong friendships. To never give up is a powerful message that flows through all the issues addressed.

A Dolphin for Naia

A Dolphin for Naia by Northern Beach Writers’ Group

(Self-Published) 

PB RRP $15.99

ISBN 978-0-9942006-1-7

Reviewed by Francine Sculli

When a book conjures multiple story questions and powerful themes that leave you yearning for the answers in the first few pages, you know that you are in for an absorbing read -- which is exactly how A Dolphin for Naia starts.

Within moments of opening this novella, I was chasing the answers to the story questions raised: What happened to Naia? Where are Grams and Mase going? Who is the Parliament? Why have this family separated and why is Mase so angry with his parents? These questions create a flawless narrative tension that drive through the book like an unrelenting heartbeat.

We travel right by our thirteen-year-old protagonist Mase’s side, on a mysterious and hair-raising adventure as he searches for some of these answers himself. A year after losing his little sister Naia, we are thrown head first into the family dynamics as Mase and his Grams take on the important job of decoding his parent’s cryptic messages and driving a truck across New South Wales to deliver his parent’s very important invention to them in Manly; a dolphin-looking robotic that has seemingly made Mase’s life hell for the past year.

But as Mase and his Gram zoom down the highway – escaping waiters, receiving text messages from the robotic dolphin, recruiting the services of old circus folk, breaking down and calling on “the parliament” for an emergency escape –  the answers start to present themselves to Mase and the very thing he once thought was the reason for his family splitting apart quickly becomes the thing that brings them back together. The dolphin holds a lot more importance than Mase could ever have imagined and when he is finally reunited with his parents at Manly Beach, he discovers that they too have been coming to grips with the death of Naia and fighting for the very thing Mase wished for – his sister to be with them.

A Dolphin for Naia is more than just a thrill-a-minute. It’s a touching tale of the love, family, memory and loss and all the tiny things that connect us. The Northern Beach Writers Group has outdone itself for their second co-written and co-illustrated teenage novella, and it is hardly surprising that this book has taken out the 2014 WABIAD prize for ‘Best Book.