Special by Georgia Blain

In Special, Georgia Blain imagines a world not too far removed from what is possible now.

A world before 'The Breakdown'.
A world where data is the new currency and where genetic modification is the norm. For some.
For everything has a price. Even our individual identity.
Especially our individual identity.

A world where being special isn't all its cracked up to be.

Special pays literary homage to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, even down to the ambiguous future-looking end.
Special didn't induce that overwhelming feeling of fury and fear like A Handmaid's Tale did when I first read it as a young woman.
Perhaps I've became more jaded as I've got older?
Or maybe it was the strong feminist messages that Atwood conveyed that captured my imagination?

Blain's protagonists are female, but the message is not necessarily a feminist one. Her futuristic genetically modified world affects everyone - male, female, young and old. The issues are ones of humanity.

What makes us unique? The effects of nature versus nurture - or in this case, genetics versus environment.

The Lotto Girls are genetically designed with the best possible characteristics on offer. They are given the best possible living conditions and education. They are expected to fulfil their promise.

The premise of Special is fascinating because it feels so possible, so close to the path we seem to be on. Datastreaming rules this new world. It's a constant distraction as well as a way of keeping tabs on everyone. Without your mobie and your datafile, you have no access to food, work or shelter. To be datawiped and sent to Recorp or PureAqua is considered the worse thing that can happen to you.

Which sounds just like our house when the wi-fi crashes!

Special is an April release through Random House Australia.

This post is part of my Australian Women Writers challenge.
#LoveOzYA

Sad, the Dog by Sandy Fussell & Tull Suwannakit

I love picture books...a hangover from my preschool teaching days I guess.

When I read picture books I tend to wear two hats - my preschool teacher's hat (will a rowdy group of preschoolers like this book? What are its educational possibilities?) and my book lovers hat (do I love this book?)

In recent years I have also added a third and fourth hat - my bookseller's beret (will this book sell? Who to?) and my blogger beanie (does this book have review potential?)

Sad, the Dog by Sandy Fussell is one of those special picture books that I can answer YES, YES, YES to all the above.

Animal stories, especially cute dog stories always work with preschoolers. Sad's need to be loved and cared for are universal needs as is his need to belong to a family. All great themes to discuss with children.

In my area of the Inner West of Sydney, where dogs are often child-substitutes, dog stories also sell really, really well. The beautiful, dreamy water colour illustrations by Tull Suwannakit add to its pick-me-up appeal.

Finally, as a blogger, I wish I could share this whole delightful story with you, page by whimsical page. But my job is to entice you enough with this post so that you will go and check it out yourselves. And you should. Soon. You will be charmed I'm sure.

This post is part of #AusReadingMonth and my Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Henny by Elizabeth Rose Stanton

Henny is not your usual chicken - she's a chicken born with arms!

"Sometimes Henny liked having arms and sometimes she didn't.

She liked being different.

She didn't like being different."

This is a sweet and funny story about how Henny copes with being different. 

She faces her worries & discovers all the good things she can do with arms - all from the safe haven of her mother's unconditional love.

I read Henny to a group of 3-4 yr olds this week to great delight. 

The children and their parents chuckled at the textual & visual humour. They poured over the simple line drawings, fascinated by Henny's arms.

Stanton is a debut picture book author with a blog & website of her own - I can't wait to see what she does next. 

But for now, if you love your quirky with a good dose of adorable, then check out Henny now!

Giggles guaranteed.

Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio & Christian Robinson

A new picture book turned up at work last week that I knew would be just perfect to share with all my Paris in July and Dreaming of France friends.

Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio is about a family of French poodles.

There are four adorable puppies - Fi-fi, Foo-foo, Ohh-la-la and Gaston.

But a quick glance at the page below will tell you that there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Gaston, is obviously not a French poodle.

However, Gaston works hard, very hard, to be just like the other poodles. He learns to sip, yip and generally behave in a poodle-like manner.

It's not until the poodle family are walking through the park one day and come across a bulldog family that the problem becomes obvious.

The bulldog family also has four adorable puppies - Rocky, Ricky, Bruno & Antoinette.

They have been taught how to be perfect bulldogs - they love to run and play rough and bark loudly.

Gaston & Antoinette decide that they should live with their biological families...but everyone struggles with the swap.

The poodle family now all look the same, but Antoinette is just too rough & boisterous.

The bulldog family now all look the same, but Gaston is simply too tender and gentle.

Another visit to the park, and Gaston & Antoinette return to the family that they feel they belong with.

The families continue to meet as the years go by, so that the poodles learn to be a little tougher and the bulldogs learn a little tenderness.

Gaston is a gorgeous story about family, belonging and identity. The acrylic paint illustrations have a lovely retro feel and complement the gentle humour and grace that this story is told with.

But for now, I will let you discover the satisfying ending for yourself, below.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat

The Adventures of Beekle takes us into the magical, mysterious world of imaginary friends...from the imaginary friends point of view!

Beekle is an imaginary friend waiting to happen.
He watches all his friends get picked by children in need of an imaginary friend...but nobody picks Beekle.

Tired of passively waiting, Beekle decides to be daring and brave and seek a life of adventure!
He heads off into the unknown - in search of his own friend.

Beekle's story follows one of the most common picture book themes for young children - belonging and identity.

Beekle stays true to himself. He is persistent and patient. He actively seeks what he wants, but he doesn't force it.

Naturally, all these positive attitudes and behaviours are rewarded when Beekle finally finds the perfect friend for him.

Beekle is an inspiring and heart-warming to share with 4+ children

Little Owl by Phillip Gwynne

Little Owl is the age old story of a lost child in search of mother.

Gwynne uses a simple repetitive text as baby owl asks various forest animals

"whooo? whooo? whooo am I?"

The illustrations by Sandy Okalyi are bold and colourful acrylic paint on board.

They take us on a 24 hour journey through the Australian bush.
We see sugar gliders, bats, a koala, dragonflies, a cockatoo, emu, echidna & frog as little owl tries to find home.

Little Owl is a belonging and identity story.
It's also a lovely example of Australian animals and their habitats to share with 2+ readers .

Wildlife by Fiona Wood

I wanted to like Wildlife more than I did.

It was well written with familiar teen characters doing many unfamiliar things (i.e. godmothers who organise a photo shoot & billboard campaign for their 15 year old goddaughters, spending a whole term of Year 10 at a sport & rec camp).

Before starting this review I spent some time reading all the love for this book out there in blogger land by bloggers much younger than me.

I am not one of those adults who look back on my teens years as being some sort of golden age or the best years of my life.
In fact I would never ever want to repeat those years of insecurity & angst!
But I accept that we all have to go through this period of blundering blindly towards adulthood trying to make as few long term ghastly mistakes as possible.

And that's what Wood has recreated so perfectly with Wildlife (& why I probably struggled to like the book).

The manipulative best friend, the romantic & sexual experimentation, the fear of missing out, who am I, what's right & what's wrong and getting caught up in other peoples dramas & gossip.

It all came rushing back - the reasons why being a teenager once in a lifetime is more than enough!

This is a YA novel. It contains lots of chat about sex & foreplay as well as actual sex. It is realistic, awkward, embarrassing and confusing.

Wildlife has been shortlisted for this years CBCA and the NSW Premier's Literary Award.

The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

You know how it is when you read a really, really good book?

You love it soooo much, that you want everyone you know to read it & love it too.

But you don't want to give away too much of the storyline, because you want everyone to discover it with the same fresh innocence as yourself.

Therefore, I'm only going to tell you that this wonderful, gut-wrenching, beautiful story is about apple tarts and hope.
It is about Meg and Oscar.
It's also about truth and lies, friendship and bullying, manipulation and trust.

It has been a very long time since a book had my gut all twisted up with anguish and anger. It has been a very long time since a book has made me want to scream out at the characters "Watch Out! Beware!", to scream out the secret, to reveal the dastardly deed, to save them!

The saving grace that makes all this despair worthwhile is Fitzgerald's upholding of Kate DiCamillo's belief that all writers for children are ultimately, duty-bound to finish with hope.

The Apple Tart of Hope deals with some tough issues (depression, suicide & emotionally manipulative bullying) but it does so in a gentle, insightful way.
I will be recommending it to 13+ readers simply because of these mature issues.
Very mature 11+ readers who love their books to have an emotional roller-coaster edge could manage this though.

I love a book that makes me feel so deeply & care so much about the characters. I love being dragged through an emotional wringer. I also enjoy coming out the other side with a smile on my face.
I always have & I always will.

This is one of those books.

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Published in 1981, Magorian's Goodnight Mister Tom is now considered a modern day classic. So much so that Puffin is now including it in their Puffin Modern Classics range.

I was already in highschool (and reading more grown-up books like Flowers in the Attic!) when this book came out, so I missed all the hype surrounding it's early days.

It won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and commended by the Carnegie Medal as being the best English language book published in the UK.

Goodnight Mister Tom has since been made into a musical and a TV series.

The story of William Beech, London evacuee, living with a grumpy old man during the early days of WWII is incredibly moving and satisfying.

So many stories from this period focus on the unhappy times that many of the London kids experienced in the countryside.
Magorian took the opposite view with William.

He is an abused child who finally experiences friendship, joy and love whilst living with Mister Tom.

Magorian draws her characters so sweetly that the growth in trust & understanding between them is believable, heart-breaking and ultimately, heart-warming. She chooses an understated way of telling her story, so that you never feel manipulated into an emotional response.

Goodnight Mister Tom is a touching, moving story that would appeal to 10+ mature readers who love historical fiction and a well-told 'real' story.

Pastures of the Blue Crane by H.F. Brinsmead

When I first discovered Pastures of the Blue Crane on my school library shelf as a teenager, I thought that I had struck gold - that I had uncovered some little known Aussie treasure.

I have since discovered that Pastures of the Blue Crane won the CBCA Book of the Year Award for 1965 & that Hesba Fay Brinsmead (1922 - 2003) wrote a lot of children's book.

I recently found Brinsmead's 2003 obit in the SMH which summed up nicely a lot of what I wanted to say about this book...

"Brinsmead's most famous book remains her first, Pastures of the Blue Crane, published in 1964. 

This novel, set in the Tweed district, won the Children's Book of the Year Award and the Mary Gilmore Award, and achieved an international reputation. 

She also won a Children's Book of the Year Award for her landmark Longtime Passing (1971), the first of a semi-autobiographical trilogy set in the Blue Mountains. 

Pastures of the Blue Crane was also the source of one of the first mini-series on ABC television. It is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl, Ryl Merewether. Ryl is all alone in the world - or so she thinks - when she suddenly inherits a rundown shack in northern NSW, which comes complete with a crusty old grandfather and some other surprising relatives she didn't know about. 

In this little adventure story, Brinsmead tackles many big issues, including the irresponsible property development ruining the pristine Tweed coastline, and the casual racism, sexism and narrow-minded conformity of Australian society. 

Brinsmead was a generation ahead of her time as an environmentalist, being an early campaigner for Lake Pedder and the Franklin. She led the way as a sensitive and wry commentator on Australian society, a chronicler of pioneering days, a keen and witty observer of family life, and was among the first authors to tackle indigenous issues. 
She was a valiant writer, who overcame adversities that would have stumped a lesser person. 

Hesba Fay Hungerford was born in the tiny Blue Mountains settlement of Berambing in what was then the remotest of wildernesses.  

All her life, Hesba was known as "Pixie" to her friends and family. The nickname suited her spritely personality, her will-o'-the-wisp frame and her sparkling demeanour."

This book struck a chord with me at the time. 
My dad grew up in the Tweed and we spent many, many family Christmas' in the area with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma. My memories of the area date from the early 70's on...just 5 or 6 years after Brinsmead wrote Pastures of the Blue Crane. 

As I read, I was able to picture the streets, the mountains, the banana plantations, the cane fields, the beaches exactly as she described them. I could smell the smoke, the humidity & the lush ripeness of the area. I could taste the fruit and hear the screeches of the insects, birds & bats.

I also really related to Ryl - the loner, the outsider, who didn't feel like she belonged to anywhere or anyone.

One of the curious things for me as I've reread a number of these Australian children classics this week has been remembering the " casual racism, sexism and narrow-minded conformity of Australian society" at the time. 

There are times I despair that Australian society has moved on very far from those days. 

But rereading these books and being shocked by the blatant, casual, very un-PC comments by some of the characters has made me realise that we have indeed moved on. Not far - and certainly not far enough - but enough for my stepsons to be disturbed by the sexist, racist language used by some of the characters in these books.

Pastures of the Blue Crane still holds up as a sweet coming-of-age story despite the dated use of language. The themes of belonging & identity bind it together. 

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a 'real' story - there's not a vampire, werewolf or dystopian baddie anywhere in sight!

A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale For the Time being is the book that has kicked off my Booker shortlist campaign for this year. And it nearly stopped me in my tracks.

It's not that I didn't enjoy it.
I did.

That is, I really enjoyed the middle section when I finally got going on it last weekend.

The first 10 chapters or so, I had been reading at night, before bed when I was tired and I was struggling to engage with it completely. I wanted to like it; I felt that I probably would like it; I just needed a good run at it. Nao's teenage voice started off a little annoying and Ruth, the author as narrator seemed a little too convenient.

But last weekend was the trick.

I found myself engaging with the characters and I let myself get carried away by the story.

I loved the references to Japanese culture that I knew next to nothing about. I adored all the fascinating ideas & philosophising about the nature of time. Oliver's scientific explorations were equally intriguing (I learnt about gyres, the Great Western Garbage Patch & quantum physics!) There was also Zen Buddhism, Proust, manga and cyber-bullying. What more could you want in a book?

The switching of POV between each chapter developed a nice rhythm as the book went along as well. One chapter was Nao's diary written in Japan a decade before while the alternate chapters belonged to Ruth, a Japanese/Canadian author who discovered the diary and other artefacts washed up on the shores of her Canadian island home.

This gave Ozeki lots of room to play with ideas about authorship, the nature of writing, reading and the power of words.

We were going along swimmingly - until last night!

I can only describe the last (small) section of the book as some kind of writers flight of fancy. Quantum physics merged with dreams, mythology and computer science in a way I found rather unsatisfactory. Perhaps it was an attempt at magic realism? Or simply an authors attempt to tie up all the loose ends?

Since writing the above I have visited The Guardians 2013 Booker Hustings link to this book.

I'll finish with a quote that I thought many of you in blogger land would appreciate as much as I did,

"This agitation was familiar, 
a paradoxical feeling that built up inside when she was spending too much time online, 
as though some force was at once goading her and holding her back. 
How to describe it? 
A temporal stuttering, an urgent lassitude, 
a feeling of simultaneous rushing and lagging behind."

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

The Story of Ferdinand (1936) is a personal favourite.

When I was teaching, one of my assistants would fall about in hysterical laughter whenever I got to the part about Ferdinand's mother being a very understanding mother "even though she was a cow"!

Even now the thought of it brings a smile to my lips.

Some of my colleagues refused to read this story aloud because they didn't like the bullfighting scenes. 


I could see their point, but I could also see that Leaf used the brutality of bullfighting (in this case toned down considerably for the young audience) to contrast Ferdinand's gentle nature. The point being, that despite provocation (bullying) and peer pressure, Ferdinand stayed true to his nature.

I've always loved the last illustration of Ferdinand sitting happily under his childhood tree dreamily smelling the flowers - a big, burly bull confident about embracing his sensitive side.

I also love the authenticity of Lawson's illustrations.

They are based on the city of Ronda in Andalusia, which has the oldest bullfighting ring still in use in Spain. 

Leaf actually published Ferdinand nine months before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War although rumour had it, that he wrote it to support of the pacifist movement against Franco. 

Whatever the reason for its creation, there is no doubt that Ferdinand is a classic in children's literature. It still has something to say to us nearly 80 years later. 
Whether as an emblem for pacifism or as an anti-bullying message or as a rallying call against gender stereotyping, Ferdinand will always appeal to those of us who like a happy ending.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I have to confess that until 2 months ago I had never heard of Their Eyes Were Watching God or Zora Neale Hurston. But the love gushing forth on the Classics Club page plus other on-line forums had me intrigued. So I decided to join in the sync reading experience to see what all the fuss was about.

Firstly, I was fortunate to discover that I could get a gorgeous edition of the book thanks to the Virago Modern Classics designer collection.

Secondly, this edition came with a heartfelt introduction from Zadie Smith.

And, finally, the story just rolled through my heart, grabbed my attention and demanded to be read, enjoyed and savoured as quickly and as soulfully as possible.

Zadie mentions in the Introduction that she usually dislikes books that use "accurately rendered folk speech". I don't usually have a problem with this device, in fact, I have a lot of love for some books famous for it (i.e. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, The Colour Purple). Zadie also changed her mind whilst reading this book.
 

From the start, Janie's voice is inside you. It has character, depth and personality. It's like peeling an onion in reverse; Janie's flesh and blood life is built up layer by layer through her voice. She grows on you from the inside out.
Hurston is the master of turning a phrase that stops you in your tracks. And I suspect each time you read this story, the various phrases will work their magic differently.

For me, this time around, I loved,
"Her hair is not what you might call straight. It's negro hair, but it's got a kind of white flavour. Like the piece of string out of a ham. It's not ham at all, but it's been around ham and got the flavour." (I loved this because I could picture exactly what her hair looked like even as I had a hammy taste in my mouth!)

"He looked like the love thoughts of women."

"He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull." (This is one of the qualities I love about my husband. I instantly felt kinship with Janie for loving and appreciating such a good man. Even though many of Tea Cake's other qualities did not seem so lovable to me.)

"They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (the whole way through the book I was trying to work out the title. It was a lovely ah-ha moment.)

Zora Neale Hurston by Berto Ortega

I could gush so much more about this book, but I like to keep my reviews short and sweet.

Simply put - if you loved To Kill A Mockingbird, The Colour Purple, Mark Twain or Jane Austen you should get yourself a copy of this book right now!

Reboot by Amy Tintera

I can't tell you how sceptical I was about this book.

I'm so over teen/YA dystopian stories trying to grab onto the coattails of The Hunger Games. I was disappointed with The 5th Wave, although my husband quite enjoyed it. I therefore took my ARC of Reboot along to my stepson's soccer game with very little joy in my heart.

If not for a very exciting and close game of football, I may have gone close to finishing this book in one sitting. It captured my attention right from the start and kept me hooked all the way through (although the ending was a little soft).

I've been trying to work out why my experiences with Reboot and The 5th Wave were so different.

The writing style appeals to me a little more in Reboot, but it's not that different to The 5th Wave really. I think Tintera writes the female voice far better than Yancey did. They both have strong female characters, but Wren is far more believable and likeable than Cassie.
Perhaps it's the dialogue that reads better in Reboot, or maybe it's the romance that dances around on the sidelines? Do I simply gravitate towards books with more romance rather than more action?

I read The 5th Wave pre-Bali holiday and Reboot post-Bali holiday - could timing and mood be the difference? My husband doesn't think I gave The 5th Wave enough time to grab me before I started skimming it, but I never once felt like skimming ahead in Reboot.

Perhaps it's nothing more mysterious than that magical connection some books and some authors create with some of their readers!

I'll be curious to see how both these books go once they hit the shelves.

Reboot has some mild sexual references and fight scenes.

Reboot is a May release in Australia through Allen and Unwin.

P.S. three weeks later...my husband has now read Reboot and felt it was the better book of the two. We think the relationship between Wren and 22 was one of the key reasons for the books appeal.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

I loved both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so my hopes were high for Hosseini's latest book.

I wasn't disappointed.

And the Mountains Echoed is a story of loss and abandonment.
Loss of family, country, face, life, health, identity, home and memory are experienced by different characters at different times.

This loss informs relationships, choices and patterns of behaviour.

Each character is sympathetically drawn.

The language flows beautifully and elegantly, joining time periods, countries and characters lives seamlessly.

My only fault is that I was enjoying some of the individual stories so much, I didn't want them to stop. Towards the end, a few of these stories felt a little rushed and some of the poignancy of the ending was lost in the haste (another loss perhaps?)

Both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns had a particularly strong, confronting, disturbing scene to contend with. I was waiting on tenterhooks for a similar moment in this book. It wasn't until the end that I realised what 'the moment' was for this book. Because I was waiting for something else, I initially missed seeing it for what it was.

And the Mountains Echoed is storytelling with heart.

 It is due for May release in Australia.

A Hero For Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi

I've been skimming through quite a lot of uninspiring teen new releases at the moment for work. I was in need of a pick-me-up, so I turned to Book 2 of DiTerlizzi's Wondla series.

I had been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first book, The Search for Wondla.

And book 2 is no different.

I'm still surprised by how much I'm loving a science fiction fantasy story. Perhaps the success (or not) of a science fiction fantasy story lies in its ability to shine a light on our humanity.

Now that we know young Eva is actually living on Earth...an Earth that was detroyed hundreds of years ago and then eventually recolonised by a band of aliens as well as weird mutated creatures that kind of resemble current flora and fauna...the message is very strong (but not laboured).

Eva is a delight, as is her friend and travelling partner, Rovee.

Eva's strength of character and her humanity is tested throughout book 2. She is a wonderful female protaganist which may be one of the reasons why I enjoy this story so much.

The illustrations at the start of each chapter add so much to our understanding of what this new world and it's creatures looks like.

I highly recommend this series for mature 10+ readers. Don't be put off by the science fiction fantasy label; it is really an action drama series beautifully written and presented with lots of messages about belonging and identity.

The Cloud Hunters by Alex Shearer

It has been a while since a new children's fiction book has won my heart so completely. Wonder by R J Palacio may have been the last.

But here we have The Cloud Hunters by Alex Shearer to warm the cockles of your heart.

Full of beautiful, philosophical language, almost poetic at times and memorable characters.

"It seems in life that for every plus there is a minus, and that freedom itself doesn't come free. For that too, there's a price to pay."

"Why is it that your parents are forever urging you to be careful? As if beinf reckless, getting yourself killed, or ending up in hospital are all you have in mind? Do they imagine that you have no other plans than to do yourself an injury as quickly as you can? And even if you were careless by nature, did telling anyone to be careful ever make them so?"

"It seems, that for all our faults, we still have an inner yearning to wish each other well. I think we want the best for each other, despite it all. We want each other's journeys to be safe and successful. If only out of superstition. Because then our journeys will be successful too."

"A few minutes later, a sky-shark came along, heading in the same direction, as if in leisurely and confident pursuit, sure that it would get its prey before the day was out. The sky-ray was a dead fish flying."

My only concern is that sometimes the action takes a while to get going as Christien does like to spend quite a bit of time reflecting on life!

The Cloud Hunters live in a future world where the Earth has been destroyed. Old shards of earth float around the old earth's core. Water is scarce; the cloud hunters job is find clouds, harvest the water and sell it to those in need.

But The Cloud Hunters is so much more than a futuristic story with an environmental message. This is a story about relationships, life and death and the choices we make along the way.

Highly recommended for mature 11+ readers.

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Kenilworth Castle...

So he takes me to Kenilworth
On the bus with him.
To see the ruins in the rain.
Elizabeth
Kept her favourite here,
In Kenilworth.

And Time stood still when she came:
The Great Clock Tower
Stopped
For her
And they feasted and frolicked,
Elizabeth and her favourite -
Right here.

And it is the most romantic place I've ever seen:
Kenilworth Castle continuing to
Crumble, as it should,
   in the rain.

This is an excerpt from pg 140 of The Weight of Water. It was one of my favourite pages/poems and when I read the author blurb at the end, it was also Sarah's favourite piece.

The Weight of Water is the story of Kasienka who arrives in England from Poland with her mother, looking for her run-away father.

What follows is a heart-breaking, poignant but ultimately uplifting story of one girl's search for belonging, acceptance and love.

A superb read for mature 12+ readers.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The History of Love turned out to be an epic read. It took me nearly half a year to finish the book and almost as long to work out why I had so much trouble engaging with it.

The cover of my book had all sorts of labels attached to it  '1. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006'.

2. A quote from Ali Smith "A beauty of a book, totally alive, made with real energy. It restores your faith in fiction. It restores all sorts of faith".

3. And another from the Independent on Sunday "A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on our mind in such diamond-cut prose?"

So what was my problem?

I didn't not like the book, I just couldn't rave about it in such glowing terms.

I kept waiting for the book to live up to the quotes...and it almost never did. At every page and stage I felt disappointment as I waited for "real energy" and "diamond-cut prose".

Sadly, The History of Love did not live up to my expectations.

However Leo did stay with me the whole drawn-out time. Even as I read other books inbetween and forget about everyone else in the story; Leo stuck. His loneliness and loss struck a chord.

Perhaps the book could have been called The History of Loneliness?

Loneliness, loss and love go hand in hand. To love is to fear losing that love one day. You can't have one without the other.

Certainly none of the characters in Krauss' book did!

I'm including this post in Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thurs L meme.

Into That Forest by Louis Nowra

Any reservations I had about Into That Forest were completely reversed by the time I ventured in a mere handful of pages.

Such beautiful, elegant writing! 

Nowra has written a mesmerising, emotional and powerful story that I feel sure will feature in next year's various book awards.  

The voice of the main character, Hannah, that I thought would be too annoying to read too much of, is elegant and eloquent in its simplicity.

Not only do you get used to her basic language and grammar, you also marvel at how such simple language can convey so much.

Hannah's story is one of loss, identity, nature and nurture. This is a modern day take on the feral child mythology that includes Romulus and Remus and a host of other 'lost children' raised by wild animals stories.

Nowra uses the Tasmanian Tiger and the wilds of Tasmania as a backdrop for his story. So many myths, legends and secrets surround this part of the world at the best of times that it is easy for an author to convince us that wild, marvelous and strange things could happen there.

Into The Forest will no doubt be labelled as a 'green' story as Nowra celebrates the wildness and the beauty of living at one with nature.

This has moved into my top young adult reads for 2012! It is also a story that could be loved by younger teen readers and adults alike.

Happy Reading.