Gripping Trio of Tales for Teens

Shadow of the Whale Celia Davies, Reed, 111 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 1-86978-007-4
Sea Dreamer Elizabeth Pulford, Random House, 160 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99
ISBN 1-86941-887-8
Losing It Sandy McKay, Longacre, 218 pages, paperback, NZ$18.99
ISBN 1-877361-74-6

“Davey picked up a blubber spade and climbed up onto the whale’s back. Legs apart, he balanced carefully then began cutting and slicing with strong, sure strokes.”
How would a modern teenager cope with life on a shore whaling station? When David Fraser wakes up after a traffic accident, he finds that he is now living in the 1830s. As a convalescent his workload is light: he collects firewood and water, milks the cow, and helps with washing the clothes and digging the garden. When he recovers, however, Davey has to resume his dangerous work with the other whalers.
While his body seems used to the flensing and boatwork, Davey’s brain seethes with memories of the 21st century. Even as he steers a whaleboat heading out to harpoon a whale, Davey finds himself feeling sorry for the whale. “It was a shame to kill such a magnificent animal.” Can he ever return to his own time? Or will he die in another whaling accident? Shadow of the Whale is a well-researched and readable adventure with a time-twist in its tail.

“How can I live without Rana? Her funny ways. Her daring. Her madness. Even her hateful moods of late.” Sea Dreamer is a sensitive novel about fourteen year old Cassie’s struggle to cope with the gradual break-up of her lifelong friendship with Rana. As the two girls grow apart, Cassie finds herself increasingly interested in the life of an ancestor, Sarah Cassandra Addison, who may have been involved with pirates.
Gradually Cassie finds herself reflecting more on her relationships with others, and gaining an understanding of her old teacher and her Grandmother Sarah. She also develops her first hesitant interest in boys. The sea plays a strong part in Cassie’s life, living as she does in Rewa Bay (which resembles Purakanui in Otago). Cassie becomes increasingly fixated on poems about the sea, and a tumultuous storm forms a fitting climax to the novel. As Cassie narrates her story, the reader gains an insight into the powerful emotions of adolescence.

“Apparently I’ve been diagnosed with both anorexia and bulimia. Lucky me! I didn’t know you could have both at the same time.” Sandy McKay has written many excellent witty novels for younger readers, so it is no surprise that, although her first novel for older teens is about a serious subject, it is also gripping and often funny. In Losing It Jo writes letters from the hospital where they are trying to treat her eating disorders.
“Even murderers can choose if they want dinner or not… Not me,” complains Jo. Her main correspondent, her friend Issy, has a flair for saying (or writing) the wrong thing, even trying to encourage Jo with a quote from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and then, realising this might be a bad choice, ends: "The point is, this guy escaped in the end. (Well, someone did.) Hang on to that thought, Jo. Think positive."
Sandy McKay’s account of Jo’s ordeal is indeed positive, with interesting characters and a skilful storytelling technique. The book’s presentation is of an equally high quality, with cards, notes, newspaper clippings and photos interspersed among the letters. (There are even crumpled drafts of the letter she keeps trying to write to her estranged mother.)
Losing It is a well-crafted novel which rewards careful reading; it provides a touching picture of the importance of caring and friendship in healing the body and mind.


This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on
21st July 2007.

Kiwi Bites

I’m Telling on You Sandy McKay, Puffin (Kiwi Bites), 95 pages, paperback, NZ $14.95.
ISBN 0-14-331844-6
Brenda’s Planetary Holiday Tina Shaw, Puffin (Kiwi Bites), 96 pages, paperback, NZ$14.95
ISBN0-14-331838-X
Ocean Without End Kelly Gardiner, HarperCollins, 174 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99 ISBN 1-86950-585-9
The Book of Changing Things and other Oddibosities Odo Hirsch, Allen & Unwin, 197 pages, hardback, NZ$29.99. ISBN 1-74114-355-1

The Kiwi Bites series provides a lively bridge, carrying young readers from stories to novels. Sandy McKay has created a sympathetic narrator for I’m Telling on You. “Ages ago I didn’t have many friends. Well, actually, none. But it was my own fault…” Timothy, the class tell-tale, burdened with his mother’s expectations (clarinet and floral art lessons), yearns for friends and a chance to try skateboarding. He succeeds in both areas but faces a moral crisis when he puts a skateboard through the classroom window. This is a witty and warm-hearted tale of friendship, truth and consequences.

Tina Shaw takes student home-stay exchanges to the next logical step in Brenda’s Planetary Holiday. Brenda succeeds in swapping places for a week with Zink from the Planet of the Beezee Birds. Zink copes surprisingly well with Earth cats and bathtubs, while Brenda is entranced by a diet of nice biscuits and white jellies. Some gentle satire will appeal to young readers: Zink’s sister despises his posters of the tall Snooks, who “make ear-bashing sounds. Zink thinks they are cool. He is so immature!”

Lily Swann is only 12 when she is captured by pirates, but her courage and navigation skills soon help her to rise from slavery to a valued member of the pirate crew. Kelly Gardiner doesn’t avoid the violence and death of the pirate world – Lily has to help the cook treat the wounded and dying in battle – but she has also created a fast-paced, swashbuckling story. Surrounded by larger than life characters like Captain Diabalo, the Blackbeard of the Barbary Coast, and Hussein Reis, the renegade Irish Captain, Lily manages to achieve friendships and begin her quest for her missing father. Is he a pirate or a castaway? Ocean Without End is the first of what promises to be a very lively series.

“Straight into the monster’s mouth they went.” Odo Hirsch, creator of the Hazel Green series, also knows how to keep a good fantasy rolling, even if he’s a little hard on his characters. When Nathan’s school principal makes a boring speech, Nathan daydreams and soon he is in a strange landscape with Pogue the Squirrel and the Count Marvel Genarvel von Hubble von Jubble von Mirt “but everyone calls me Marvy”. In the yellow hills, where the wind smells of roast beef and trifle, the three encounter oddities, transformations, wordplay and strange, talking creatures. While some may find the constant changes tiresome, bright readers who appreciate the slightly sinister worlds of Lewis Carroll will delight in The Book of Changing Things, especially its very appropriate ending.
Trevor Agnew

This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 22 April 2006.