Running with Ivan (Suzanne Leal, HarperCollins)
Having previously won the Nib People’s Choice Prize for her historical adult novel The Deceptions, Suzanne Leal tackles a similar era in her first book for younger readers, a time slip novel that jumps between modern day Australia and the lives of a Czechoslovakian family during World War II. Following the death of Leo’s mother two years earlier, his dad has remarried and they’re moving into a new house complete with two new step-brothers. Lumped in with bullying, belligerent Connor, Leo tries desperately to escape his new reality. With a few turns of the key of his mother’s old music box, a German tune begins to play and Leo moves back in time, meeting a young boy around his own age named Ivan in the early 1930s. Every time Leo goes back to Ivan and his family, they are more affected by Adolf Hitler’s rise, eventually being sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Focusing on this lesser known Czech history brings a new angle to a well-trodden time period, and the personal research that Leal was able to access through her Jewish-Czech neighbours shines through. Jumping several years between Leo’s visits, Leal moderates the intensity of the narrative for the age group without losing any of the pacing or suspense. Back in the modern day, Leo’s experiences in history gradually give him the skills to cope with his difficult family situation. Immersive and sensitive historical fiction, Running with Ivan is perfectly pitched for readers 10 to 12; imagine The Messenger crossed with Playing Beatie Bow.
Annie Waters sells books, writes about books and podcasts about books. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
