ReadPlus Review Blog

The story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:56:02 EST

Fourth Estate, 2008.
ISBN 9780007265022
(Age Senior to adult). This most unusual thriller, nearly 600 pages long, has psychic elements combined with murder, arson and dog breeding. With touches of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the story resolves itself in much the same way, bodies littering the pages at the end of the novel.
Edgar Sawtelle is the third generation of a Wisconsin family which breeds a dog now called Sawtelles. Born mute but able to hear, Edgar was their last chance to have a child. This self contained family; Trudy, the mother who does much of the training, and her husband Gar, who keeps the records, and sells the dogs retaining contact with the buyers, work with his brother Claude. Edgar learns to train with signs, dogs having to watch him all the time, which people recognise as a feature of these animals. The dogs are trained and kept until they are 12-18 months old before they are sold. Grandfather and father have kept meticulous records of breeding lines, along with photographs and information about where the dogs have gone. One dog called Almondine, is Edgar's constant companion.
The vet is the only regular contact they have. Their lives change when Gar dies. Edgar finds him and alone on the farm, cannot summon help. When Edgar and Trudy try and run the place on their own, Trudy gets pneumonia, so Claude comes to help, Edgar 's world comes to an end when Claude and Trudy begin a relationship and Claude moves in. Edgar decides several times that he will kill Claude and one day when he thinks Claude is coming up the stairs in the barn he makes a move and the vet falls to his death. Edgar runs away taking 3 of the dogs with him.
Surviving by raiding cabins on the lakes, he comes to a farm run by Henry; a loner who takes Edgar and the dogs in after one of the dogs is injured. Edgar comes to believe that his father's death was not natural, and decides he must go home. No one is there, so he leaves a note, setting in train an amazing climax with all the characters involved in a life and death struggle.
This story about making decisions is not your usual tale. Defying any attempt to categorise it, the novel involves a mystery, yet tinged with psychic moments where the future is foretold makes reading about this family tense and unsettling. Based firmly on the relationships between family members, the decisions people make in their lives is shown to have far reaching ramifications. The well trained dogs seem to parallel the decisions made by members of the family, and in the end, the animals make the decision to leave and take charge of their own lives. Mark Knight

Aunt Nancy and the bothersome visitors by Phyllis Root

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:29:18 EST

Walker Books, 2008.
(Ages 7+) Highly Recommended. Aunt Nancy is an intelligent, quick thinking, resourceful lady who uses all her cunning to defeat a series of unwelcome visitors. Each story sees the arrival of one of these bothersome creatures - Old Man Trouble, Cousin Lazybones, Old Woeful and Mister Death. These stories are near to perfection, narrated with accomplished simplicity in a lyrical language that makes you feel the rhythm right down to the tips of your toes.

Aunt Nancy and the Bothersome Visitors is one of Walker Books 'Racing Reads' for confident readers, but in my opinion the stories are best read aloud, preferably with a Deep South American accent! Knowing my own limitations I passed them on to one of our drama specialists who read a couple of the stories to Year 3. The children were mesmerised. Some of the language is quite difficult with the idiom and expression of a different place and era - probably South America during slavery times, but you soak up the atmosphere and message even if some of the expressions are unfamiliar. The stories certainly have the air of parables and the richness of the language and rhythm is reminiscent of the Afican American Spirituals. You can imagine these stories being accompanied by plenty of hand clapping and foot tapping. As an introduction to the traditional stories of other cultures they are just perfect.

David Parkins' illustrations also deserve a mention. The simple black and white line drawings complement the style of the story telling and the year 3 children were captivated - poring over the illustrations and re-reading the stories for themselves.
Claire Larson

Murderer's thumb by Beth Montgomery

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:33:11 EST

Text Publishing, 2008 ISBN 978192136148 8
(Ages: 12+) Hiding from a violent father, Adam and his mother rent a small house on a farming property. Whole working with the farm hand, Loody, Adam discovers a body in the silage pit. Buoyed up by his grandfather's reputation as a consummate detective, Adam takes up this role with enthusiasm, unearthing clues around the farm as he follows the trail left by one of the missing girls, a Goth heavily involved with palmistry called Lina. The local policeman is not to be trusted, and Adam's school friends are suspicious of him. His eye trauma makes him stand out and he is ever distrustful when meeting new people.
An absorbing thriller, Montgomery gives us plenty of clues and red herrings in this isolated farming community, as Adam delves into the circumstances of the disappearance of the girls, six years before. Behind the investigation we see families at their worst. Adam and his mother snipe at each other, mum taking refuge in terrible pottery, while the farm where the daughter, Emma, disappeared has a mother in a cloud of anti-depressants and grief, her husband's gruff demeanor hiding his own sorrow.
Beautifully developed, the community is very real, hiding behind its inability to respond to the disappearance of the two girls and looking for easy answers. Each of the minor characters has a background which is tangible and extensive, adding to the readers' absorption in the tale. It seems to resolve itself a little too quickly, but the story is fascinating and holds the reader to the end.
Fran Knight