Right book right time, p.28
Right Book, Right Time, page 28
It wasn’t in my head. I mean it was in my head, but it was also in my mouth. I mean screamed at full volume, all decibels blazing . . .
Tierney and his stooges turned round.
‘What did you say?’
I genuinely had no idea . . .
Numbers were my thing, or one of my things . . .
All the gang had a thing. Gonad’s thing was history. He knew everything that had ever happened . . .
Stanislaw’s thing was chess . . .
Simon Murphy, usually called Smurf for obvious reasons, was best at English . . .
I went to sleep that night thinking about many things. I thought quite a lot of Henry Tumour. I’d gone past the point of being gobsmacked by the mere fact of having a dirty-minded brain tumour that chatted away to me like he was some kind of friend or brother, or even sometimes in a kind of warped-dad way.
You need to hear Hector’s voice, that of his gang, and of the loquacious Henry Tumour, to get a sense of just how sad, black, hilarious and clever this book is. Henry Tumour deservedly won the 2006 UK Booktrust Teenage Prize. ANGEL BLOOD (see page 197) was also on the shortlist, and these two books alone give us an idea of the brilliance and innovative edginess of some recent British writing for teenagers.
Hector, with his vague, hippie mum and absent dad, is gloomy enough. But as Hector’s growing brain tumour begins to talk to him, and cajoles and almost bullies him to behave in increasingly bizarre ways, we see just how inventive and ingenious McGowan is to find concrete ways of showing us the likely impact of an aggressively growing tumour.
Hector’s illness heightens the situation facing a group of bright and eccentric friends among a generally anti-intellectual, grubby bunch of schoolboys. The language dazzles, as the boys spar and grapple with big ideas and subjects – science, religion, philosophy and poetry. Despite all the mayhem, our sympathies are firmly with the desperately ill Hector as he makes his way, largely unsupported, through a battery of medical tests. We hold our breath as we read on. Will Hector survive major surgery?
If you weren’t a hedgehog . . . If I weren’t
a haemophiliac . . . ANDREW WELDON
A/YA AUSTRALIA 2006
The 250 cartoons in this collection might make you laugh or cringe or frown or grind your teeth in your sleep. Andrew Weldon is a widely published cartoonist whose work appears in many major daily papers as well as in The Chaser, The Bulletin, Punch and Private Eye. His biting political cartoons were featured almost daily on the Opinion page of The Age in the summer of 2007. He has also been published in The New Yorker. According to an article by Weldon in The Age (2 December 2006) on the publication of this latest collection, ‘The New Yorker is undoubtedly the most revered publisher of ’gag’ cartoons – single-panel jokes – in the world, and a great many cartoonists dream of being published in it’. Weldon has also published two illustrated storybooks, THE KID WITH THE AMAZING HEAD (1998) and CLEVER TREVOR’S STUPENDOUS INVENTIONS (1999). His first book of cartoons was I’M SORRY LITTLE MAN, I THOUGHT YOU WERE A HAND PUPPET (2000). It’s best to look at a few of Weldon’s zany, funny, witty, sharp cartoons from his new book to appreciate his talent and penetrating insights.
andrew weldon’s
favourite funny books
NEVER EAT ANYTHING BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD AND OTHER DRAWINGS B Kliban A/YA USA 1976
The cartoon book that made me want to be a cartoonist, and still one of my favourites – fabulous line drawings, and jokes that range from straight-up funny to bafflingly bizarre.
UNDER THE FROG Tibor Fischer A/YA UK/HUNGARY 1992
Before I read it I wouldn’t have expected a novel about life under the Communist dictatorship in Hungary in the 1950s to be one of the funniest (and most moving) things I’ve ever read, but there you go.
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (AND SEQUELS)
Douglas Adams A/YA/Y UK 1979
Everybody knows this is one of the funniest books ever. I agree.
THE PRINCESS BRIDE William Goldman A/YA/Y USA 1973
They made a great film out of this, but the book is even better. A rollicking tale of romance (eeeew!) and adventure, with lots of hilarious tangents.
THE THIRD POLICEMAN Flann O’Brien A/YA IRELAND 1967
Absurdist, philosophical weirdness involving bicycles.
LAKE WOBEGON DAYS (AND SEQUELS) Garrison Keillor A/YA USA 1985
Keillor is a wonderful rambling storyteller, with a warm and gentle sense of humour that I’ve always loved.
THE GREATEST OF MARLYS Lynda Barry A/YA/Y USA 2002
Lynda Barry’s comics capture the horror of teenagerdom brilliantly and hilariously.
SCHOOL IS HELL Matt Groening A/YA USA 1987
When Matt Groening isn’t inventing The Simpsons he does cartoons like these. Angry, cute, subversive, funny.
DEEP THOUGHTS Jack Handey A/YA/Y 1992 USA
Word for word this little book has made me laugh more than anything in print. Google it to get a taste.
IN ME OWN WORDS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BIGFOOT
Graham Roumieu A/YA CANADA 2003
Absolutely hilarious story of Chewbacca-hating, sensitive, misunderstood, homeboy Bigfoot, full of beautiful cartoon illustrations – a twisted picture story book.
I’m Being Stalked by a Moonshadow DOUG MACLEOD
YA AUSTRALIA 2006
According to the local paper, Mr Raven (41) was well on the way to tracking down the cyber-terrorist, ‘following an anonymous tip-off’. The letters page had a rather odd letter from an anthropologist.
Doug Macleod has a sharp eye for humour in the obvious and ordinary, and he creates running gags out of his observations. Why, for example, do journalists and the police always consider it relevant to put the age of a suspect or witness in brackets in a report?
When lonely, carrot-haired, nerdy Seth meets the rising kick-boxing star, Miranda, he admires her various well-developed muscles, and charms her by telling her so, using the correct names for each muscle. This romance flourishes and we cheer for Seth. Why should all the girls fall for his too-handsome younger brother Jack? Too bad that Miranda turns out to be the motherless daughter of the over-zealous, aptly named local environment officer, the black-hearted Mr Raven. A rapidly escalating feud develops between Seth’s dad, Eric Parrot (is he the cyber-terrorist?), and Mr Raven – much to the chagrin of Eric’s long-suffering wife, Zilla. Seth worries that his mother and dad seem disinclined to share a bed. Zilla runs the local neighborhood centre and the feud puts this and the classes there (including the kick-boxing classes) in jeopardy. For a while everyone becomes increasingly unhappy.
Macleod draws wonderfully eccentric characters and gives them great lines to create a light-hearted confection, poking gentle fun at their somewhat precious attitudes and predilections, such as Zilla’s preference for wheatgerm drinks. Each chapter is headed by one of Eric’s vast dictionary of essential animal behaviour facts (or are they?). Did you know that a giraffe’s tongue is fifty-five centimetres long or that penguins love bananas or that the longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds? A hilarious gem.
Jetty Rats PHILLIP GWYNNE
Y/YA AUSTRALIA 2004
Then, all of a sudden, the Photocopies [the twins] started telling me these secrets . . .’
‘Jasmine isn’t my real name,’ blurted Jasmine . . . Storm gave her a real dirty look, but Jasmine continued. ‘We changed them after we left the commune.’
‘So, what’s your real name/’ I asked.
‘Promise not to laugh?’
‘Promise,’ I said.
‘Platypus Billabong,’ she said quickly.
‘What about you, Storm?’
‘Gum –’ Jasmine started, but Storm cut her off.
‘Gumnut Waterfall, but if you tell anybody else, Fishface, I’ll break every rod you’ve got!’
It was real hard not to laugh . . . So I thought of serious things, like the ozone layer, and testicular cancer and my missing dad.
Even if you have never caught a fish and don’t yearn to do so, this book about a boy whose father’s passion for fishing cost the father his life, but who still wants to catch the elusive giant mulloway, should grab you. Jetty Rats should make you laugh and laugh, but it is serious and a bit tragic too.
Dogleg Bay is full of retirees (and while Gwynne has fun with these, he does tend to stereotype ‘seniors’), so there is nothing much for Hunter Vettori to do except chase dreams and escape his flaky mum (she spends a lot of time psyching herself up to get a tattoo). Hunter, the Photocopies and sundry other eccentric local youths – and some not-so young (including a paleoichthyologist) – eventually do conspire to make things happen in Dogleg Bay. But will Hunter catch that fish? An entertaining gem for every kind of reader.
The King of Whatever KIRSTEN MURPHY
YA AUSTRALIA 2005
‘I like you, Claud, and I think we should go out some time.’
‘You and me? Like on a date?’
Claudia paused for a moment and then began to giggle . . .
She looked at him more closely. ‘You’re serious . . . I’m so sorry. I really thought you were joking’.
He hadn’t been joking, but he was Joe King, and it was obvious, as far as he was concerned, that that was where all his troubles had begun. It could have been worse. He could have been called Wayne.
Joe is smart but always feels second best. After all, his brother is studying medicine and his best friend is school captain. All his attempts to take control or shine or be happy seem to fail. Despite his frequent despair, Joe always seems to be the one to help out or to step in; for example, when deb partners fall ill. When Joe discovers that his best friend is going out with the girl he loves there seems no way but up, and up Joe climbs.
Attuned to the voices and vicissitudes of teenagers – and with her customary compassion laced with liberal doses of wry humour – Murphy has created another deeply engaging book. For her insight and attitudes, she won the 2006 Australian Psychological Society Psychologists for Peace Biennial Children’s Peace Literature Award. An admirable and well-deserved award, but one that again reinforces the ‘educational’ rather than literary value of young people’s literature. Here is some of Murphy’s acceptance speech: ‘I wrote this novel for a few reasons. One reason was that I was inspired by the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that appears at the front of the book: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are little matters compared to what lies within us”. I wanted to communicate to a young adult audience that ordinary is okay. We will not all be rock stars or famous sports people or geniuses at the age of seventeen; most of us will lead a relatively ordinary existence, but one we can be proud of. For it’s the relationships we have with others that matter . . . I want to explore typical teenage issues and adult issues for that matter, with humour and in a way that is accessible to teenagers . . . I try to write the kinds of books that I would have loved to read as a teenager. They were books with humour, and above all, hope . . . What a great world we would live in if all our leaders looked for constructive, non-violent approaches towards the resolution of conflicts.’
My Big Birkett LISA SHANAHAN
YA AUSTRALIA 2006
On Saturday morning, Debbie dragged the whole of her bridal party to the annual Buranderry Bridal Fair . . . When they had finished their makeovers, we moved on to fake nails, push-up bras, lingerie, stationery, bridal registry lists, honeymoon packages and breast implants.
Preparing for Debbie’s sudden wedding to Brian (a Chinese theme for the engagement party, as he proposed beside the five spice shelf in the supermarket), is only one strand in this rich and complex tapestry, threaded with laughs. At fourteen, Jemma, our protagonist, is ten years younger then Debbie. She is a reluctant flower girl. The groom’s family is of a military bent, a family predilection also taken to extremes and milked for humour. Their garden is, of course, set up as a military obstacle training course. The wedding preparations provide many opportunities for ‘birketts’ – major tantrums, where ‘the emotion has the necessary power to drive out all your common sense.’
The other main players are the De Head family, with sons named after birds (Raven, Maggie, Crow, Sparrow, Robin). The De Heads are poor, and in and out of jail. Mother holds the family together. Dad is given to acts of random violence. They are despised and stereotyped by the townspeople. Jemma and Raven are drawn together, particularly when both are cast in the school production of The Tempest. The parallels with Shakespeare, the description of the rehearsals, and the portrayal of the De Head family are dramatic and often heart-rending. There is tragedy but also a grand wedding. Shanahan can make the reader laugh helplessly and then cry in almost the same breath. A writer to watch!
Notes from the Teenage
Underground SIMMONE HOWELL
YA AUSTRALIA 2006
Lo started slowly. ‘Flyers are easy. Dad just bought a monster photocopier. What if . . .’ she was getting warmer, ‘ . . . we make a film and screen it at an underground party . . .’
Suddenly I got it. ‘A Happening!’ I almost shouted.
‘Huh?’ That was Mira.
‘A Happening. A cool artist thing. It would be totally Ug. Andy Warhol used to have them.’
Gem and her hippie mum, Bev, share a love of movies. So, quite obviously, does first-time-author-with-loads-of-talent Simmone Howell. Gem works at the local ‘Video Nasty’, where business is so slack she and Dodgy (Roger actually, and the two may or may not have something brewing) spend most of their time watching movies. Bev is an artist, an unreconstructed feminist, and she and her daughter are, inevitably, vegetarians. They get along really well. Gem’s father took off many years ago, but sends increasingly frequent postcards with Haiku messages. As the school year draws to a close, Gem, Lo and Mira are getting restless and edgy. Being seventeen is a tricky, in-between time. So they plan the ‘Happening’, but soon the cracks in their relationships begin to show. Gem, inspired by Andy Warhol, wants to make a film (‘really UG’, short for Underground), but who is going to take control? Gem is serious about the project, and one of the many appealing aspects of this lovely, very funny, witty, gritty and at times unhappy novel is that Howell assumes her readers (like her characters) are able to be sassy, cool, crazy teenagers at the same time as being bright, curious and mentally agile. Gem seeks information about heroic women about whom films have been made, or who were, well, just heroic. This includes Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Delilah, Mary Magdalene, Boadicea and even Brigitte Bardot (who became an animal rights activist) and Françoise Sagan (who wrote a bestselling novel at eighteen). If you can’t enjoy the erudition and intellectual high jinks, the truly wild party that goes wrong; the unravelling of the friendships; the painful story of Lo, who cuts herself; and Mira who goes in for pranks in the nude; together with the story behind Gem and her dad, AND the story of how her film-making aspirations pan out, the loss will be yours! A truly young adult book to admire and celebrate.
Suburban Freak Show JULIA LAWRINSON
YA AUSTRALIA 2006
It was only because of hyperactivity, irritability, sleeplessness, short-temperedness and emotional outbursts occasioned by giving up smoking that . . . I decided to assist Christie’s Hepburn Heights campaign.
I wish to make clear that I still have no vestige of interest in bushland, no matter how remnant . . .
In her first year of university, Jay just wants to study. She is clever, anti-social and loves research and writing essays, even when she realises that much of what is offered in English is meaningless and hard to justify. She escapes from the student village to a share-house, because the other village inhabitants seem to only want to party, take drugs and engage in immoral activities, if possible with the two large-breasted, party-loving Danish Lottes, who are especially enticing to the likes of Wheatbelt Wayne.
In the rundown house at Buckingham Place, Jay finds herself amid fanatical greenies and the totally laidback DJ, Ben. Jay is drawn into Christie’s campaign to save Hepburn Heights. She is persuaded to relax a little, and even make time for Ben.
Lawrinson writes a witty, funny book and invents a wonderful set of characters. She manages simultaneously to support the aims of the Greenies, and send up their extreme, chaotic and often confused members and tactics. Poor Christie is desperately trying to escape her rich, suburban parents, while really needing their money for her campaign.
Lawrinson is known for her tough books about teenagers in tough situations (OBSESSION (2001), SKATING THE EDGE (2002) and BYE, BEAUTIFUL (2006)).Suburban Freak Show is a lively, clever, often laugh-aloud departure from a talented writer.
Turbulence JAN MARK
YA UK 2005
Eat your heart out, Wyatt Earp, Clay Winchester was there first blowing smoke from her pearl-handled Colts . . . Clay rides shotgun on the Deadwood Stage . . .
Somewhere in the upper branches of the family tree sits a gorilla, that’s my theory. Most of the relatives are clearly descended from lemurs and marmosets, but now and again one of us turns out heavy and big-boned and powerful. In this generation I got the gorilla gene.
On her paper rounds Clay (Clare) often goes into Western mode. She and her dad watch a lot of Westerns and other movies in his studio/shed (he is a graphic designer). To get the full flavour of this lively, witty book it helps to get the references to books such as The Great Gatsby, and to movies including Nosferatu, Casablanca and some Hitchcock greats. They provide a brisk shorthand commentary on the goings on.
