The Scent of Apples by Jacquie McRae. Pub. Huia, 2011.
Lovely story this about grieving, emotions, feelings and growing up. The main message that come across is “if you hold on too tight to the past, the future can’t come in,”
Libby is going on 13 years old and she is very close to her grandfather who she calls Poppa. She lives on an orchard that grows apples to be made into cider. Libby loves the land, she loves plants, she is tomboyish in character and this all rankles with her snobbish and uptight mother.
When Poppa dies suddenly and her Nan has a stroke and is taken into a retirement home, Libby grieves. Home life is not good as her father and mother drift apart and Libby starts to pull her hair out leaving bald patches on her scalp.
Then her mother checks her into a boarding school where she meets a Maori girl called Charlie which turns out to be the start of Libby’s recovery from all her grief.
There is more to this book than that though including family secrets, Maori Medicice and the meaning of friendship.
Mainly for girls aged 10 to 14 years but there is something for everybody in this very perceptive novel.
Prairie Whispers by Frances Arrington. Pub. Puffin, 2005.
When I visit schools and talk to their students this novel gets a lot of reaction. Students especially girls from school years 5-8, are attracted to it in droves.
Why is this? Because it is about secrets. Colleen has a secret so vital that it is like a stone in her heart. While riding across the prairie after tending to her mother who is in a coma and waiting for the birth of her baby, Colleen comes upon a wagon in which is a mother who is dieing after giving birth to a baby. She says she is going to die and asks Colleen to look after her baby.
When Colleen’s mother gives birth to a stillborn baby without regaining consciousness and the mother in the wagon dies, Colleen places the live baby in her mother’s bed to make out that this is her baby. What a secret to hold.
Colleen is a brilliant girl and a great role model, but things happen that threaten her secret. Her younger brother pesters her after picking up that she knows something, and the baby’s father comes back. Heart rending stuff.
If you haven’t read this or got it in your libray then you are mad. A superb novel with a reading guide inside. I know it is 2005 but you can still get it.
