Deadly Teens

The Other Side of Dawn

Author: John Marsden

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I have just finished John Marsden’s The Other Side of Dawn. This is the seventh and last book in the Tomorrow When the War Began series. For those who admire the main character, Ellie Linton, there are now three books in another series about her life after the war. Rather than simply review the book, I'm going to compare three books about deadly teenagers.

Ellie and her friends are caught up in an invasion of Australia. They become part of the resistance movement and hide out deep in the bush. In the series they make contact with the New Zealand army but return to support the “D day” effort. The level of violence is high, with the teenagers directly killing enemy soldiers (shooting and other methods) as well as causing the deaths of many more through their bombing of a truck stopover. I should mention that Marsden has chosen to include detailed description of sexual encounters between Ellie and one of the boys. I won’t give away the ending, but will say that Ellie faces difficult issues while in captivity.

I felt far less engaged with Ellie, and less clear about the moral issues involved, than with the lead characters in two other books about deadly teens. Katniss in Hunger Games is clearer about the horror of what she is forced into, and the series is clearer about the damage this does to her. Ender Wiggins, in Ender's Game, is another teen not just randomly picked for a fight, but is basically hand picked for his unique brilliance and ability to end fights with overwhelming force. While he is portrayed as damaged in the books, the next four books in the series make it clear that he has to spend the remainder of his life atoning for the killing he is tricked into doing in the first book.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Marsden refuses to name or identify the invaders to avoid inflaming any racism. This leaves an odd sense of unreality about the situation. For the most part the soldiers are only seen at a distance and are hardly characters… though the sleazy Colonel Long and the staff in a prison hospital are drawn in grim detail. While we hear Ellie’s story in the first person, there is less reflection and anguish over the deaths than I might have expected… in significant contrast to the other two books.

Interestingly I have seen some strong negative reactions from adults to the Hunger Games series… but not to Ender’s Game. Perhaps the difference is the moral outrage at the idea of the teen sacrifice combined with a public spectacle, while Ender is fighting a monstrous alien threat.

The Other Side of Dawn is not written with any complex structure. It consists of a series of intense episodes, with a somewhat predictable story arc. Hunger Games is also written in the first person, but to my way of thinking has more unexpected plot turns, and more successful use of motifs, along with sub plots that are about politics, love, morality and leadership. Ender's Game has a more complex approach with reflective transcripts of key adult conversations at the start of each chapter, a very strong plot twist, fascinating characters (not just Ender) and a multi-cyclic ebb and flow.

So to me Dawn pales somewhat in comparison to these other books, especially as it passes by an opportunity to reflect, even at the teenage level, on the meaning and impact of taking another life. Because it is relatively straightforward it feels as though it may have been written for younger teens… but then it is very violent and has the two uninhibited sex scenes… so I am left unsure of how to recommend this.

My sister lives on the mantelpiece

Author: Annabel Pitcher

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Reading Age 10 – 14 years

This book had my attention from beginning to end. How does a small boy cope with a drunken, racist father, an absent mother, a teenage sister, moving to a country town and a new school and the constant presence of an urn on the mantelpiece? 

Narrated by ten-year-old Jamie this story tears at your heart strings yet makes you laugh at the same time. Though his understanding is limited, Jamie gets things right about what is important, while his parents have shut their living children from their grief-overwhelmed lives. 

At school he can’t write truthfully about his holidays or family, the parent /teacher interview is a disaster, to his class mates and teacher he is quite weird. His fifteen- year-old sister, who deals with the loss in her own ways, understands. Jas is there for Jamie while their father can’t let the other sister go. Their mother has gone off with the Support Worker sent to help the family cope with grief. If you think this sounds too sad to read, read it. You will want to protect Jamie and Jas who are totally neglected by those who should be protecting them, yet be delighted by the honesty and humour, the irony and the bitter-sweetness of help coming from the girl who bears classmates’ jibes of curry germ because of her origins.


Reviewed by Gayle Davidson

Odell Learning Resources Centre

Oliver

Author and Illustrator: Birgitta Sif

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Recommended for Kindergarten to Year Two

Three different staff members independently picked this book out of a collection of books from a supplier. Oliver "felt a bit different". Exactly how or why he is different is not explained. He plays lots of games, but even in a room full of people he plays with his toys and puppets. He loves to read and has all sorts of adventures. As we get to the end of the book Oliver starts another adventure... he befriends a little girl who likes to play just the way he does. Charmingly the book has "The End" crossed out and replaced by "The Beginning".

The illustrations are delightful and much of the story is told through these pictures that combine an expressive free style with rich detail. Most pages have a single picture as a double spread, and they are full of things to notice, discuss and comment on. I thoroughly approve of books that can be pored over and explored.

The take home message is that we don't all have to like or do the same things (an important point in this age of globalism and advertising mediated conformity), but that relationships are a wonderful adventure. This book works well as a book to read out loud, but will also work as a visual story for little ones to read to themselves even without the words.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

Focus: Reflections

Editor: Julie Hale

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I'm a sucker for good photography, I love light and I am fascinated by reflections. Is it any wonder I grabbed a book from a stack offered by a passing bookseller that combines all three? This is a small format hard-cover book packed with fascinating images (around 180 pages with an image per page). With a theme like "Reflections" the subject matter is very broad, from "found art" (photographs that are impromptu of people and scenes that are not rehearsed) through to carefully structured close-ups.

There are a wide range of styles as well. I love the shot of a single pencil coil of pencil shaving shot against a shiny dark table, but equally an astonishing shot of a closed lily bud with three dew drops hanging from it... each reflecting perfectly an open flower from the background.

The pages are mostly offered as diptychs, with pictures on the left and right that have some resonance with each other. Sometimes it is a colour, sometimes a concept such as a page of pool reflections that have been inverted so we see the reflection as the reality. Some of the links are shapes, some are textures, some are technical, such as a set of three shots that are duo-tones with vignette... but all from different photographers.

There is little discussion of how this collection was put together. All artists are attributed, but the back cover suggests the sources are "emerging photographers" from image hosting sites.

This is a celebration of light and reflection in a thoughtfully selected presentation with dazzling variety. It is well printed and a surprisingly satisfactory format for a relatively small book. There is no material I could find that would give parents any cause for concern for younger viewers... and I'm going to suggest that younger students would enjoy glancing through this to find and enjoy eye catching photographs. As well as the book cover I have added one of my own "reflection" photographs from the Blue Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Old Man Mad About Drawing and Hokusai Prints and Drawings

Hokusai was a renowned Japanese artist who died in 1849. Even if you know nothing about Japanese prints you will be familiar with one of his famous images at it inspired the Quiksilver Clothing logo. We have two beautiful books now in the OLRC. The one I love most is Hokusai Prints and Drawings (Author Matthi Forrer). It is a hefty book with 200 pages covering Hokusai's major series (such as 36 Views of Mount Fuji)   nicely reproduced in colour, though not at the original size. There is a thirty page introduction about his life and art.

I can think of many reasons to sift through these beautiful and exotic images. He is an acclaimed master, but also heavily influenced the French Impressionists. Many well known artists have been collectors of his prints. He is sometimes said to be the forerunner of modern Manga, but his works were never assembled into comic styled stories. Individual pictures, however, often tell intriguing stories. When you reflect that much of what is in the book are hand carved woodblocks you can also start to appreciate the artisanship involved in the fine lines, detail and delicate textures.

For younger readers, we have The Old Man Mad About Drawing (by Francois Place). This lovely book tells the story of Hokusai's life from the point of view of a young boy who sells rice cakes and meets the famous artist. It is illustrated both with original Hokusai prints and also with charming illustrations of Japanese street life done in the style of Hokusai. Both book are suitable for any age, with the Biography suiting Year Four and up.

For those who want to follow up connections, I reviewed 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Cathy Davidson a few weeks ago. This is the story of her time spent in Japan and is named and structured as a tribute to Hokusai.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

Cloud Atlas

Author: David Mitchell

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Cloud Atlas is an exciting and unusual novel. It uses a structure I have never seen before in a book... a nested palindrome.  The book opens with a story set about 200 years ago, which is half told, then interrupted. A new story starts, set in the early 20th C. This is then interrupted, and a contemporary story starts, which in turn gives way to a story set in the foreseeable future, then another story starts in the far, post-apocalyptic future. This is the “keystone” of the arch, and after it is told the other stories are completed in order. Each story in the layer is connected in some way to the story that follows, typically by having the main character in the subsequent story read, view or observe the previous story. This could have been handled badly but Mitchell does this well. As soon as the structure’s full design became clear I was actually pumping the air with my fist and saying “YES”.

The author simply disdains the conventional divisions such as “historical fiction”, “adventure story” and “science fiction”. I was delighted to find out that the book was both on the Booker Prize short list (as literature) and the Nebula Award short list (as Sci Fi) in the same year. The connections between the stories are not forced. In some ways this consists of six well written short stories or novellas that have been torn in two and inserted in each other. Doing this, however, and doing it with the nesting also happening in terms of an ascending then descending time line, opens all sorts of wonderful possibilities for subtle interactions between the “layers” of stories. For instance, once you read about how the character in the fifth story is remembered in the sixth story, you have a new layer of understanding of her fate and purpose as you read the conclusion of the fifth story. There is also the hint of a more mystical connection as each main character seems to carry a similar birth mark.

The stories are of many kinds, each told in the first person, each using a language representing the age and context.  There is a decided moral tone throughout the book, though one of the characters is decidedly immoral, and other characters describe distressing sights and events.  While the book
reeks with imagination and is redolent with rich story-telling, it is not merely artifice and rumination. Most of the stories have elements of adventure, risk and challenge: I was torn between reading for the sometimes poetic language and intriguing cross references, and flicking pages in my normal style to catch the drift of the action.

I was reminded of another recent favourite, A Visit from the Goon Squad which also combines interlinked tales with stories from past, present and future. I was also reminded of the extraordinary Gödel, Bach and Escher by Douglas Hofstadter which explores the concept of layers of meaning and
reference.

This is a thoroughly engaging book for an adult reader who is prepared to explore unusual structures. There are definitely adult themes and references to sexual encounters, some quite grim, though overall there are positive messages about resilience, fortitude, courage and virtue. A delightful
discovery for me!

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Shadow Girl

Author: John Larkin

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I’ll break some rules here, and review a book that I’m not putting in the library. Don’t get me wrong, it is a book I read to the end with interest, and there is nothing in it that makes it inappropriate for adult readers. The problem I see is that it takes a real issue (and starts with a real story) and puffs it up into a sensationalised drama. Even this is not the heart of the reason I struggle with the book… it is just that it is plainly intended for teen readers.

A bit of context is in order. John Larkin is a prolific teen fiction/ young adult writer. The book was inspired by meeting a girl who told him her story about being a run-away. There is no suggestion however that this is a biography. It is simply a story that starts with the idea of an intelligent girl who runs away from home to escape a predatory uncle/guardian. We are introduced to her through a number of scenes where she describes her life to the author, but segue into first person narration. I find the mechanism a little contrived. In order to tell the story with a sense of development certain details are held back even though we can see the author and the story teller are both aware of the details in the narrative “now”.  I am not adverse to complex narratives (loved All That I Am) but clunkiness is always annoying.

I found myself reeling with the series of tragedies and confrontations the girl has to deal with… not just exposure to a sexual predator, but violence, murder, rape, betrayal and institutional neglect. I am pleased that there are some adults who provide a degree of kindness or even shelter for the girl, so the book is not without its sense of hope. Religion gets some pretty stern serves and the only religious leaders shown are either uncaring or, in one case, sexual predators themselves.

A friend of mine found the book fascinating, and I found it interesting, but showing all the hallmarks of a recent trend to offer teens books with levels of adult themes, sex and violence that not that many years ago would have been questioned in books for adults.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre