Fifteen years in the NZ bush

NZ Writer Brian Falkner Shooting Stars Scholastic NZ 2016  $21.00pb 348pp ISBN 978 1 7753 3360 6 Themes: Codes of conduct/ Coromandal Peninsula/ Domestic violence/ Mothers and Sons/ Street kids

Ethan Tucker and his mother have lived in a hidden valley not too far from the Coromandal Peninsula for fifteen years  - the length of Ethan’s life - and that had meant no contact of any sort with all the things we take for granted – like hot water and the internet. One thing in the primitive ‘house’ in which they live, is evidence of a love of literature and while he is waiting for the world to open up in front of him and if he is not out in the bush catching their dinner, Ethan is immersing himself in some of the books – particularly Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. This is a complex story with twists and unexpected turns which I read with admiration and, of course, it is full of the ideas and suggestions which the writer encourages from his enormous audience of young readers. This is the fifteenth novel Brian Falkner has had published internationally.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up