Twins - are they always friends? Do they share interests and abilities? Not necessarily. Emily and Alex are twins but they are also very different from one another. Emily loves literature, writing and nature. She is afraid of heights. Emily anticipates consequences of the actions of others. Alex is fantastic at building and maths. He loves constructing crazy structures. He has the idea that his actions can make things change. This is an echo of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Match Girl.
Five kittens are born to a feral cat under their house. Alex needs something to love. Emily knows a cat will mean trouble for the beautiful wild creatures, especially the birds, that have found refuge in the forest the family have created around their home.
Years earlier their mother has died and now the twins have to cope with the desperately sad news that their father has an inoperable brain tumour.
The structure of this book is simply wonderful. Emily is writing a memoir as a school assignment and so each section is divided with a teacher feedback page which grades her work. The memoir format gives this book so much honesty.
This morning I headed off to my local independent book store where I picked up a great stack of middle grade book and Young Adult. In my next post I will list all of the titles because they will be my reading for February.
I couldn't wait to read this latest book by Australian master storyteller Paul Jennings. By coincidence I had read a review of this book this morning over breakfast also by coincidence this book was released today! As with other recent novels by Paul Jennings I was immediately engulfed in this story and yes, I read the whole book in one sitting - it felt like I stopped breathing!
Publisher blurb Allen and Unwin: A sister and brother face the hardest year of their lives and discover the healing power of nature in this compelling tale from master storyteller Paul Jennings. Emily loves the bush and the native animals on her family's reforested property, particularly the beautiful rainbow lorikeets that nest in one of the tallest trees. But then her father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Emily's world enters a tailspin. Her twin brother, Alex, refuses to accept the truth. His coping mechanism is to build elaborate additions to his treehouse in the superstitious belief that it will avert disaster - leaving Emily to deal with harsh reality on her own. When Alex secretly adopts a feral kitten, going against everything that's important to Emily, the siblings' emotions reach boiling point - with potentially dangerous consequences for them all. A moving story of family, loss and love, from one of Australia's most beloved storytellers.
The setting for this book is quintessentially Australian set in Warrnambool which is actually where Paul Jennings lives. But having said that I do hope this book reaches an international audience even though I imagine for the US market the book will probably be given a different title. I regularly read books set in Maine, New York, or Florida in the US and of course from many other places around the world. I think it is wonderful to read books set in other places and so I hope publishers will grab this book and make it available to readers (aged 11+) in the US, UK and beyond. Similarly readers from other countries may be unfamiliar with our lorikeet but again I am happy to read about birds we don't have here in Australia such as the hummingbird, woodpecker and chickadee.
You can read more about The Lorikeet Tree on Paul Jennings web page and see the first draft of the cover (which I really like).
Paul Jennings first wrote his short stories back in 1985 and they were splendid but if you haven't read these three more recent Paul Jennings books (yes he is famous for those terrific short stories such as the ones in the book Unreal) head out to your library now and grab them - and I do mean NOW
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