Theodora’s Gift

by Ursula DubosarskyAustralian Readers’ Challenge listed title.This is a sequel to The First Book of Samuel but it is not necessary to read both books to enjoy either one. Both feature a loving but chaotic family focusing on Samuel aged 13 and Theodora, 14, who live with their father and his second wife Hannah (Samuel’s mother). At the heart of this family is their German Jewish heritage and their grandfather Elias, a holocaust survivor who is approaching death.Theodora and Samuel are both disturbed when their father sees frightening visions and suddenly moves to the country with Pearl - his first wife and Theodora’s mother. Both children take action in their own way to bring their father home. The story is set in September 2001 - it seems for a while that it is not just this unusual family which has become somewhat more chaotic than usual.

A gentle and absorbing story with a cast of unusual characters.

The Red Shoe

by Ursula Dubosarsky

The Red Shoe is a story with the child’s point of view at its centre. Set around Easter 1954 and looking back to a significant event of the previous Boxing Day, we see a family in a time of crisis. There are three daughters aged 6, 11 and 15, a mother, a father who is often absent on his ship, and Uncle Paul.

Around them are contemporary events involving Russian spies, children dying of polio, and various Sydney murders and misadventures, captured in newspaper clippings placed between many of the chapters. But there is also the possibility of going to the Royal Easter Show, family picnics, trips to the beach and school parades.

In spite of the child’s point of view, this story deals with some serious issues. The father is suffering from the after-effects of trauma so his depression and the shocking possibility of suicide create a fearful backdrop to the story.

Looking back on The Red Shoe is like viewing a tapestry that reveals greater depths as you move from capturing the big picture to looking into each detailed corner. There is much to discover here.

Read how the author came to write The Red Shoe here. For links to background information about a variety of things mentioned in the book, like the Petrov Affair, polio epedemics of the 50s, the Argonauts Club and the Palm Beach Ferry look here.

Hold On

by Alan Gibbons

We hear this story in turn about from two sources – the diary of John, who we know from the start has died, and the recollections of school mate Annie. Although never a friend of John’s, they happened to meet some months before on holidays a long way from home. John is not someone she has paid any attention to - in fact she rather fancied one of the boys who turns out to have been tormenting John for years. But she learns from him something of the bullying he has suffered and sees first hand how harshly John’s father treats him.

Who is responsible for John’s death? Annie thinks she knows and returns to England bent on exposing the bullies. But could she be implicated? Her friendship with John stirred up feelings in him that were more than she wanted. Has she done the right thing? Can she accept that others have learned from this hard experience? Why didn’t John do more to expose the classmates who terrorised him? And did he really intend to kill himself?

Alan Gibbons stirs up emotions and asks us to put ourselves in the places of the major characters of this drama. Many of us will identify with the friends and teachers in the story who are very wary of causing a fuss, but also played their part. A gripping read.

This author seems to make every story he writes a thriller. Other excellent books by Gibbons held by the library include The Legendeer Trilogy - Shadow of the Minotaur, Vampyr Legion and Warriors of the Raven. Even his humorous books tell stories at a mile a minute - like Julie and Me and Michael Owen Makes Three, which is about a boy who can never quite decide if he is more obsessed with soccer or girls (at least, a certain girl).