**PUBLISHED TODAY – LAUNCHED TOMORROW**
NZ Writer
Jill Harris
The Red Suitcase
Submarine (Makaro Press) 2014 $24.99pb 238pp
ISBN 978 0 9941 0690 2
Themes: Bullying// Friendship/ Indonesia/ Time slips/ World War 2
One day, by chance, Jill Harris found a red suitcase
with nearly 100 blue aerogrammes written by her uncle to his mother when he was
a bomber pilot operating out of the UK during World War 2. It was such amazing
material that Jill, a committed writer of stories for children and young
adults, realised at once she had the makings of what she calls ‘a rattling good
yarn’ in front of her. With real skill she blends fact (the terror of the
bombing missions and the people involved) during World War 2 with the fictional
story of 14-year-old Ruth. In the story it is Ruth who, after returning to a
lonely life in Takapuna, Auckland, having survived a terrorist attack in
Indonesia where she and her family have been living, finds the red suitcase and
the letters. Frighteningly and inexplicably the letters are a channel that cast
Ruth back into the time of the war over 60 years ago. This always happens at an
inconvenient and unexpected moment – during a social studies period at school,
while she is swimming with her father off Takapuna Beach, out in her
grandmother’s garden first thing in the morning. It is obvious from the
meticulous detail that much research went into the production of the story –
both here and in the UK. Memories of Jill’s time in Indonesia where she spent
three years teaching English in Central Java are also used. .
Recommended
Year 7 up/ Age 11 up
Other books by Jill Harris:
At the Lake HarperCollins 2011
Notable Books Storylines 2012
Missing Toby Longacre Press 2007
Sil Longacre Press
2005
Honour Award 2006 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards /
Notable Books Storylines 2006
The Red Suitcase
will be launched
at
The Children’s Bookshop, Kilbirnie
on
will be launched
at
The Children’s Bookshop, Kilbirnie
on
Thursday April 24th 2014
at 6pm
If you would like to be there, please rsvp to
If you would like to be there, please rsvp to
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