Victoria Carless recommends

I read and loved Limberlost by Robbie Arnott earlier this year. It is a quiet novel, ostensibly about a boy called Ned, who hunts rabbits for their pelts to buy a boat over a long summer while his brothers are away at war. It is epic in its themes; however, due to slipping back and forth in time, enabling an older Ned to reflect on his decisions and where they have led him, seemingly small moments echo and become amplified through the years. For example, Ned loses a cow through inattention while droving cattle through a river and years later reflects that he should have paid more mind to this moment and many others besides. The payoff at the end—what happened the night Ned’s father took his three boys to see the mad whale at the mouth of the ocean—is lovely; it makes you feel all is momentarily right with the world, despite the other troubling items the book touches on.

In the children’s space, I just finished Millie Mak the Maker. It is a beautiful package of a book, with the gentle family story of resilience crafted by Alice Pung and with gorgeous illustrations by Sher Rill Ng. I love that Millie’s superpower is making special pieces as gifts from discarded objects. It took me several days to sew a few scrunchies earlier this year when I tried to teach my daughter the basics. (I am definitely not a sewer.) Thank goodness for Millie Mak the Maker, who, through creativity and resourcefulness, shows us how it is done. If only I’d read this book first.

Category: Features