This is a charming book, though I am puzzled about it. What genre is it? Who would read and enjoy it? Does it tell a story or is it more like a painting that captures a moment and into which we read unspoken stories?
Eleven little girls make up a class in an unnamed private girls school in Sydney… they and their idiosyncratic teacher, Miss Renshaw. The girls giggle together as they walk hand in hand to the nearby botanical gardens by the edge of the harbour. They know the reason for the regular visits: Miss Renshaw likes to talk to one of the gardeners, Morgan.
One particular day Morgan offers to show Miss Renshaw and the girls a secret cave he knows of, and that is the start of… well, in another author’s hands the start of a magical journey into another country, or detective story. In this book there is a single startling event (no spoilers here) and one finds that one is close to the end of the book.
My hint about a painting is not accidental: there is much reference in the authors notes to various Australian paintings. I did enjoy the descriptions and writing style that mixes action, observation and scattered and somewhat disconnected allusions to hymns, poems and phrase motifs. It is a modern palette that chooses broad brush strokes over smooth representation. Still, unlike serious modern writers the book is short and not especially complicated (I am not actually making a criticism there).
This book has been shortlisted for the 2012 Children's Book Council Awards (Older Readers) but I can’t quite pick the reading audience: perhaps Middle School girls with an interest in unusual stories.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
Sounds interesting. Must read it.
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I have read the book and concur with Andrew. I picked it up beacuse it was likened to "Picnic at Hanging Rock". In this I was disappointed - yet the book does leave you "hanging". The book is quite readable and I thought it would build more than it did. I too wonder about the audience. SB
ReplyDeleteI picked this up unaware of the links to a film whose theme music still manages to haunt me! Loved it! Its brevity is indeed a strength and I think readers who appreciate subtle eeriness and Susan Hill would really relish this treasure.
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