Alberta is a keen boogie boarder. It is the Summer holidays in her small Australian coastal town. Alberta is looking forward to five weeks of freedom spent in the ocean. But, you knew I was going to say but didn't you, but Alberta, who is known as Birdy, is knocked off her bike and it is not an accident. Her arm is broken so there will be no boogie boarding for Birdy. Six weeks in a plaster cast.
Luckily Mikki Watanabe lives in her street. He has no interest in the ocean. His family, who originally come from Japan, have a beach house at Kingfisher Bay. Mikki and Birdie team up to investigate the forest area nearby and they make an amazing discovery. There is a small grove of towering pine trees. Mikki has a spiritual connection to trees. He is keen to make a video about their discovery and Birdie is equally keen to stand in front of the camera. Then they discover the council have plan to bulldoze this special area. Can their YouTube videos gain enough coverage so that this special place can be saved?
I did like the way Marion Roberts included the video chat and comments into her story along with advice from the book by Birdie's mum - Tammy's Bracken's guide to Modern Manners. I was not quite so interested in or convinced about Tammy's mental health issues and shoplifting. I really liked the community activism and the way Birdie and Mikki navigate the complexities of local government. This harks back to a very old classic Australian book - Battle of the Galah Tress by Christobel Mattingley. I also kept thinking about the television documentary made with Judi Dench "My passion for trees".
This film follows Judi's experience through the seasons and her mission to understand the role of trees in history and the future. Judi joins tree scientists and historians to unlock the remarkable secret lives of trees and the stories that they cannot tell. With scientific techniques and equipment at her disposal, she is able to truly understand how trees work and gain an insight into their secrets. She meets a designer with a microphone to hear the trees around her, and a scientist with 3D scanning technology reveals her favourite oak in a new light. BBC One
Marion Roberts mentions this book (for adults) as one that inspired this story:
You might also enjoy A Good Day for Climbing Trees.
This book will be published in April, 2022. Thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance reader copy.
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