Dystopian Australian Fiction

A Small Free Kiss in the Dark by Glenda Millard

A while ago a friend in publishing sent me an advance copy of a new teen novel to read. To my shame the book slipped down my to-be-read pile and it wasn't until I got a small twitter nudge that I dug the book back out.

I read it from cover to cover on a train journey to London a few weeks ago and it has really stayed with me since I finished it.

I've read quite a bit of Australian kid lit, not trying to be trite but "some of my favourite authors are from Australia" and books from the antipodes can sneak their way to the top of the pile just due to this quirk.

A Small Free Kiss in the Dark was different from the start as it is all about a destructive war, about what we never find out, and the whole idea of bombings, barricades and military fighting in Sydney really stuck out.

I was quickly swept up into the story and read through the book quickly - although I can't recall a lot of the fine details now. It did move me hugely and the twists were unusual and the story a strange mixture of simplistic children's book and hard hitting war novel. It is the unusual premise of a book set in an area that I've visited but in a world that I can't associate with that location that has stayed with me.

On finishing the book I was instantly reminded of the unsettled feelings I experienced as a teenager on reading Louise Lawrence's Children of the Dust or Robert Swindell's Brother in the Land.  These books were about living in the aftermath of nuclear war (a still real prospect during my childhood) and it was the fear that, although unlikely, the happenings in the books *could* come true that haunted me.
A Small Free Kiss in the Dark has that same foreboding - as we are in a time when terrorism or economic crises could cause society to disintegrate quickly and entirely - and that it what has made this book stick in my memory.

As dystopian books are all the rage at the moment this book might do well, but I found it very unsettling as it was too realistic, unlike many of the Hunger Games'esque books that are all the rage.

Bedtime Stories

The Reading Promise , 3218 nights of reading with my father by Alice Ozma

I've had this book on reserve in the library for a couple of months, in fact as soon as I read the pre-publication blurb I knew that I wanted to read this book.

The jacket reads

"When Alice was nine years old, she and her father - a beloved school librarian - made a promise to read aloud together for 100 consecutive nights. upon reaching that goal, they decided to to continue what became known as The Streak for as long as they possibly could."

I've mentioned before the memories I have of being read to (Dad, why did we never read The Horse and his Boy when reading the Narnia books?) and so this book was always going to appeal. And when it finally arrived I read it in one day.

I think I thought it would be more about the books the pair shared, why they chose them and what they thought of them. It wasn't really like that.

This was the story of Alice's childhood and teenage years with her single parent dad with some mention of the time they spent reading together, there was very little about the books themselves.

It was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't what I was expecting and to be honest without the 'hook' of the 3218 nights I'm not sure that the book would have ever crossed the Atlantic to the UK. On the plus side it was lovely to read a book that was so positive about reading and about the father-daughter relationship, but it was a bit too 'touchy-feely' for me as a rule.

I think that as an avid reader the one thing that disappointed me the most was this closing paragraph:

"My father and I had no idea what The Streak would become and therefore never made a list of the books we read. Many have been forgotten"

they do go on to list some that they remember but as someone who has kept a reading diary for the last decade I wanted to know what they read and what they thought of the books.

Australia Day

Antipodean Writing.

January 26th (which it already is there!) is Australia Day and so time to celebrate the wonderful writing that comes from Down Under.

As a child I was lucky enough to be sent lots of books from Australia by relatives living their. The Muddle Headed Wombat was a great favourite, to the extent that when my sister and I left home we fought over our copy and had to have another one sent to us to stop the bloodshed! Then there was Shy the Platypus, Cuddlepot and Sugglepie and We of the Never-Never. As we got older classics by Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner arrived. I've reread and cried over Seven Little Australians many times!

Australian authors are still writing cracking good fiction, Garth Nix, Jaclyn Moriarty, Melina Marchetta, Morris Gleitzman and Randa Abdel-Fattah are my particular favourites.

However if I could only keep one book Australia it would have to be:



This is not only the one Australian book I would save but also the one picture book. I can only try to explain how much I love this book.

Part of it is to do with where I first came across it.
In the autumn of 2005 I went to Australia and spent some time travelling with my sister, one of the first places she took me was the fabulous children's department in Dymocks bookstore in the centre of Sydney. This book was new then and had a lovely display. We then went to Taronga Zoo and I got to come face to face with a wombat. It was love at first sight.

The other reason I love the book is how it is written, the words are good but without the pictures it would be quite dull, it really is a visual delight.

The best bit? A sequel has just come out...

... oh and my parents arrive in Australia in a couple of weeks and have promised to bring me a copy home!