{"id":771,"date":"2013-10-10T20:03:32","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T09:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/?page_id=771"},"modified":"2013-10-12T12:26:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T01:26:05","slug":"missing-drafts-four-novels-for-older-children","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/sample-page\/missing-drafts-four-novels-for-older-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Drafts: Four novels for older children"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in Australian Book Review<\/a> September 2003<\/p>\n

Justin D\u2019Ath \u2028Infamous<\/em>, Archimedes Fusillo\u2028 An Earful of Static<\/em>, Sue Lawson Ferret Boy<\/em>, Kierin Meehan\u2028 Night Singing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kierin Meehan\u2019s Hannah’s Winter\u00a0<\/em>was one of the most promising d\u00e9buts<\/strong> in some time. Her<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Night Singing by Kierin Meehan<\/p><\/div>\n

second novel, the ambitious Night Singing<\/em>, attests to Meehan\u2019s importance as a new writer for the middle-school years reader. There\u2019s a magical quality to Night Singing<\/em> and, although it is not a fantasy, a sense of the fantastic pervades the novel. Meehan has woven various plot strands and numerous characters into a delightful and, at times, deeply moving whole. Her characters, some of whom are wildly eccentric, never seem less than real, and her plot, although full of extraordinary coincidences \u2014 coincidences that, in less capable hands, would be both lazy and unconvincing \u2014 is believable and satisfying.<\/p>\n

Night Singing<\/em> brings together the \u2028stories of Josh, stuck at home with a bro\u2028ken leg, his neighbour Mrs Murakami,\u2028who carries a great sorrow inside her, and\u2028 Isabelle, the remarkable new girl in the\u2028 neighbourhood, who belongs to a circus \u2028and brings a new, unexpected circle of\u2028friends into Josh\u2019s life. Josh is an ordi\u2028nary kid, prone to dismissing some of the\u2028other kids at school because they\u2019re weird,\u2028 or mean, or different. Yet it\u2019s these weird,\u2028 mean, different kids \u2014 who prove richly \u2028complex and interesting \u2014 who end up\u2028sitting around Josh\u2019s kitchen table, preparing an entry for the school Christmas concert, and with whom he develops a strong friendship based on mutual trust and respect.<\/p>\n

Woven in and out of the contemporary text are short dialogues between two Japanese children. Eventually, it becomes clear that these dialogues are from Hiroshima just before \u2014 and then, chillingly, during and after \u2014 the atomic attack. There\u2019s clearly some link between these dialogues and Mrs Murakami, but Meehan lets her characters\u2019 stories \u2014 and their interconnectedness \u2014 emerge at a subtle pace.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much to like about this novel. The scenes with the children are warm and funny; Josh\u2019s family, including his delightful younger brother Ben (who, in a less gifted writer\u2019s hands, would have been merely precocious), are cheerful and open-hearted. Endlessly vital and eccentric are the adult characters Meehan has populated her book with: Mrs Murakami; the grumpy proprietor of the boarding house next door, ironically called \u2018Heavenly\u2019; the mysterious and flamboyant circus performers; even the teachers. Yet somehow the community Meehan has created in Night Singing<\/em> is simultaneously about as normal a suburban neighbourhood you could get. (Meehan also makes the physical neighbourhood tangible.) And it\u2019s this sense of a loving community that renders the tragedy of Hiroshima all too real and meaningful. Meehan is a unique voice and writes with great charm and distinction. She has the skill, heart and intelligence to become a most distinguished writer for the oft-neglected upper primary\/ lower secondary reader<\/p>\n

Somewhat longer on the scene than Meehan is Justin D\u2019Ath<\/strong>, whose junior novel Infamous<\/em>,<\/p>\n

\"\"

Infamous by Justin D'Ath<\/p><\/div>\n

exploring the question of extinction \u2014 of values and communities \u2014 against a plot of real and faked thylacine sightings, has just been republished.<\/p>\n

The thylacine has secured a niche in Australian iconography. It seems to embody all that is unique about this country, but its mindless extinction also reminds us of the worst aspect of our history. There\u2019s something about the national desire for proof that perhaps we didn\u2019t kill the thylacine off altogether that seems to sit nicely in fiction for younger readers, and often in these books that desire is made real \u2014 the animal lives on.\u2028The plot of Infamous<\/em> is fairly straightforward. Tim, aged eleven, lives with his father and dog in Daffodil, a small Tasmanian town. His best friend, Greer, and her mum own the only milk bar in Daffodil. Unless business revives soon, they will have to head back to \u2018civilisation\u2019. When Tim hears about a tourist boom in a nearby town after a thylacine sighting, he gets an idea that will bring people into Daffodil, save the milk bar, and keep Greer and her mum, increasingly friendly with his dad, in town. You guessed it: he paints stripes on his dog Elvis and sets up a fake thylacine sighting, which fools his own teacher and brings the longed-for hordes into town. Complications ensue, including the appearance of a real thylacine (of course) and a villain who owns a private zoo, but a happy ending is assured for children, town, parents, dog \u2014 and thylacine.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Ath spins a good yarn, and we are on Tim\u2019s side all the way. There are a few plausibility problems, mostly in the form of the private zoo owner. It requires a big stretch of the imagination to believe that a private collector would be allowed to put a bounty on the capture of a thylacine. Young readers are too savvy about environmental issues to swallow this one, even in the interests of suspending disbelief. That aside, Infamous<\/em> is an entertaining novel, told with humour and some genuinely suspenseful moments.<\/p>\n

Also about kids and animals is Sue Lawson\u2019s Ferret Boy<\/em>.<\/strong> Joshua, who owns a couple of ferrets, is being bullied at school. Scott \u2018Looney\u2019 Mooney, the culprit, also owns ferrets. He<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ferret Boy by Sue Lawson<\/p><\/div>\n

forces Josh into a bet to race their pets in a derby; the winner will keep the other boy\u2019s ferret. Josh has never raced his ferrets, so much of the story\u2019s suspense revolves around the question of whether or not Bucks, the object of the bet, will be up to the challenge.<\/p>\n

Lawson handles several sub-plots reasonably well. Her family scenes are funny and unsentimental. However, the main story unfolds all too predictably; Josh\u2019s ferret, Eddie, which, like Gramps, makes a remarkable recovery from serious injuries sustained during his escape, beats the Scott-the-bully\u2019s ferret, but Josh refuses to take his ferret from him, despite the terms of their bet. So Scott, whose father is a brutal alcoholic, learns a lesson about fairness, and everyone goes home with their own ferret and dignity intact.<\/p>\n

Although Lawson has told an engaging enough story, I for one am tiring of the \u2018bully\u2019 plot; it\u2019s been done to death as a source of conflict in children\u2019s books, and Ferret Boy<\/em> doesn\u2019t give us any new insights into either perpetrator or victim. I\u2019d also quibble with Josh\u2019s parents acceding to the outrageous terms of the bet. The dialogue, at times, is clunky and unconvincing. I do wish Lothian would pay closer attention to copy editing their books. It does their authors a disservice to allow irregular and inconsistent spelling and punctuation, and a closer editorial hand might have guided Lawson more successfully through a few clumsy plot points and some awkward patches in the writing.<\/p>\n

\"\"

An Earful of Static by Archimedes Fusillo<\/p><\/div>\n

Archimedes Fusillo is an accomplished writer<\/strong>, and one I generally have great admiration for, but, as with Ferret Boy<\/em>, An Earful of Static<\/em> could have done with another draft before publication. The story itself should appeal to an early adolescent audience; Troy DeAngelis, our narrator, is the lead singer in a rock band. A great deal of the novel is to do with Troy\u2019s efforts to make his band a success, efforts that seem to be thwarted at every turn. Things seem to be getting out of hand; he\u2019s in frequent trouble at school and at home. Bit by bit, he manages to alienate most of his friends.<\/p>\n

The backdrop to all this is Troy\u2019s family life. He has a twin sister he doesn\u2019t get along with, a mother who is preoccupied with her work (she\u2019s an illustrator who has just got her first book deal) and a father who has recently turned forty and left home to \u2018find himself\u2019. It becomes clear that the real source of Troy\u2019s problems is his inability to sort out what\u2019s going on with his father and his feelings about the latter\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all good material to work with, but things don\u2019t quite hang together. Troy narrates the novel, and, while he\u2019s meant to be confused about what\u2019s going on around (and inside him), this sometimes translates into lack of clarity for the reader. His relationships, such as with his brainy sister Grace, are uneven. At times, it\u2019s hard to tell if we\u2019re meant to sympathise with Troy at all \u2014 he can be quite whiny and self-indulgent. Halfway through the book, I began to feel that the basis of Troy\u2019s problems \u2014 his father\u2019s defection \u2014 was tacked on, rather than embedded into the fabric of the novel and of the character of Troy.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s much for young readers to enjoy, especially the well-realised school scenes and the bits about Lethal Death (Troy\u2019s band). His tentative romance at the end of the novel is handled well; Tran is the kind of no-nonsense girl who might be good for Troy. The novel has an appropriately upbeat ending, too. Still, I can\u2019t help feeling that another draft, focusing on Troy\u2019s narrative voice and on smoothing out the relationship between his father\u2019s leaving and everything else going wrong in his world, would have made An Earful of Static<\/em> a more cohesive and satisfying read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published in Australian Book Review September 2003 Justin D\u2019Ath \u2028Infamous, Archimedes Fusillo\u2028 An Earful of Static, Sue Lawson Ferret Boy, Kierin Meehan\u2028 Night Singing   Kierin Meehan\u2019s Hannah’s Winter\u00a0was one of the most promising d\u00e9buts in some time. Her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-771","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/771\/revisions\/1237"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}