DOUGY James Moloney

A quick post to recommend this novel. 'Dougy' is an engaging 106 page read in the style of John Marsden. It is based on the story of a family of indigenous teens in a remote Australian town. The dad has shot through and the mum works hard to provide a happy life for the kids - two brothers and a sister.
The plot is based around the daughter Gracey who has an amazing athletic ability in running. She wins a scholarship which will secure her future. Unfortunately, her luck riles many of the white community members who use her good fortune as an excuse to increase the racial divide. Then comes the flood. Throw in the fact that the phone lines get cut as a western style shootout arises and the novel becomes quite a page-turner!
I think this novel would appeal to boys and girls around 12-14 years old, although I have had a few of my 15 year old footy-type male students say they have enjoyed the book.

The Happiest Refugee - A Memoir by Ahn Do

I don't know if I have written a post on a memoir before. Regardless, this is a must-read, inspiring one that carries the reader on the river of optimism and good will it contains.
Ahn Do writes in a simple style, reflecting on everything that has made him what he is today - he is so much more than just a comedian. Every story reveals another layer to his thankfulness and humility. He is funny, but he is also fiery, enterprising and versatile. Put this on your bucket list. Assimilate with an attitude of gratitude. You will feel better for having read it, I guarantee.

The following excerpt is from a time when Ahn performed in front of 200 Vietnam veterans. Not one to shy away from fear, he did the gig and here are some of his reflections:

   I decided to bring forward all the material that would prove to them I was just an Aussie kid. So I did a number of jokes about bull terriers and Datsuns and housing commission estates, and slowly I was getting a few chuckles. Then I moved on to footy jokes, farming jokes and kiwi jokes. Slowly, slowly, I won them over. The old guys finally realised that if they closed their eyes, this Vietnamese kid was actually just an Aussie comedian up there talking about his working-class childhood...

After the show they shared a few beers together:

Then Eric, the funniest of the old guys, said... 'You know why we lost the war, Ahn? it was all those bloody tunnels that the communists dug. We could never do that. You know why? Because with us Aussies, for every one guy who's digging there's got to be five standing around having a smoko.' (pp.182-3)

'In The Skin of a Monster' by Kathryn Barker

I am reading this as a favour to a colleague. It is that reason, and that reason alone, that I will finish the story but - and it is a big but - I am not enjoying the book at all. The premise is that a surviving identical twin is 'messed up' as her sister committed the appalling crime of shooting several classmates. I read because it is pleasurable. But let's face it, how enjoyable can it be to be immersed in someone else's nightmare filled with grief and chaos? High school shootings are real - thankfully not in Australia - but real none the less. This story is painful, and not in a therapeutic 'good' way:

   I could picture it. I could picture it exactly, without even trying. Countless versions of you in that school dress, aiming Dad's gun with psycho-steady hands. Kids running for their lives over and over again. Puddles of blood like the ones on the bitumen, but everywhere, so much that it looked fake. The sound of screams and gunshots and death just like I heard that day, but played on constant rotation. One horrific soundtrack laid over another and another, until you wished you were deaf. Bodies laid out in a line like I'd seen before, but stretching on forever. Versions of you gunning down other versions of you. Kids escaping one, only to come face to face with another. (p.76)

Well I'm a third of the way through. I wonder if Barker felt better after writing this depressing drivel. If so, at least one person has benefited from the process.

TIGERS ON THE BEACH by Doug MacLeod

I grabbed this one as I loved reading 'The Shiny Guys'. I am about a third of the way through and I am thinking this is a perfect read for Year 7s (12-13 year olds) given the protagonist is a young teenager.
There are plenty of themes to engage this age group: sibling rivalry (his younger brother has Asperger's Syndrome which provides an intriguing insight into seeing the world through different eyes); telling jokes; first 'crush' (when is it right to have that first kiss?); living at a holiday resort as caretakers... Sadly, but highly relevantly, there is foreshadowing that Adam's parents might split up. His grandma's behaviour is creating tension:

   Mum and dad are in the front office when I get home. Incredibly, they are arguing.
   'You need to have a word with your mother,' Dad says. 'There was another incident today. While you were out shopping, she climbed a ladder.'
   Mum is shocked. 'Ken, you shouldn't let her climb ladders. She's old. Imagine if she fell.'
   'I didn't find out about it until afterwards.'
   'What was she doing up a ladder?'
   Dad replies in disbelief, 'She was hanging four teddy bears from a tree.'
   'Oh.' This doesn't seem so strange to Mum.
   'It's an old trick,' she says. 'It's meant to keep away possums. You know mum hates the possums.'
   'I think everybody at The Ponderosa knows that by now. Nathan took down the teddies.'
   'Then there's no problem, is there?'
   'This is a holiday resort, Georgia,' Dad snaps, 'not The Blair Witch Project. You can't have hanging teddies. It's disturbing for the children.' (pp.86-87)

The language is simple and the story-line fairly engaging. Thus far there is not enough conflict to keep me charging through the chapters but a Year 7-er would definitely enjoy it.

Just finished reading it. Very enjoyable. The story has quite a philosophical look at humour, as it goes. It starts and ends with classic jokes. I suppose that should have been a bit of a giveaway :)

'Strange Objects' by Gary Crew

This somewhat vintage novel has been gathering dust on my bookcase for 20 years! I was about to donate it to The Salvos when I suddenly heard my daughter's voice in my head: 'You'd love that book, mum! It's really good!!' ( If memory serves, she said that over ten years ago. Better late than never.)
I've just finished it and my girl was right. I did love it. I've actually never read anything like it.
The story is a collection of historical documents, including the translation of a journal written by a castaway who washed ashore on the west coast of Australia in the 17th century. He and his young male companion were sent there as an alternative to death by hanging due to their involvement in the 'Batavia' mutiny of sorts. Combine this with a school excursion where our protagonist Steven Messenger discovers a mummified girl's hand in a cave, and you are in for an intriguing read.

ITEM 9 - Photocopied from 'Famous Australian Murders'... Possibly the most telling insight into Pelgrom's character is provided by the murder of a deck boy, named Aldersz, aged about 16. Having forced Aldersz to kneel outside his tent, Cornelious informed the ever-present, ever-eager Pelgrom that he could have the pleasure of testing if a sword blade was keen enough to behead Aldersz with a single blow. Honoured and delighted, Pelgrom was about to carry out this act when another villain stepped forward, declaring that Pelgrom was too weak for the task, and did the deed.
     The record of this incident at Pelgrom's trial states that he threw himself on the ground crying with  rage, claiming he had been cheated of his kill.
     Of course, Pelgrom made up for this in his future raping and stabbing of women and his drowning of children. There is something truly frightful about the character of Jan Pelgrom...
(p. 41)