Suzie Eisfelder
January 20, 2012

Just for a bit of a change of pace I thought I’d review a book I picked up this afternoon. It’s a children’s book so didn’t take too long to read. It was Lucy Sussex’s first fiction novel.

I first heard of Sussex last year when I attended AussieCon 4, fourth World Science Fiction convention to be held in Australia, in 2010. I attended a panel and I forget the correct title but I think it was about Australian female horror writers, Sussex was on the panel. When I saw the book I knew I had to read it and see what made her so good.

The Peace Garden is a fairly ordinary patch of land in a fairly ordinary town in Australia surrounded by ‘interesting’ people. Holly is shuffled between her separated parents, it’s currently the holidays and she’s with her mother and step-father. Despite being only 11 she’s left on her own a lot of the time and finds her way to The Peace Garden. It doesn’t remain peaceful for long as two people decide they want to lease it for their own purposes. Holly finds herself in the middle of all this, bringing together the misfit children in the town and helping find a resolution that suits almost everyone.

I like the writing, I found it very easy to read. Some of the misfit children seem to be misfits more because of their parents rather than due to their own behaviour and Holly seems to bring out the best in them. The language is uncomplicated and the concepts are easily understood by someone with a reading age of about 11, but if they’re reading above their age I’d still recommend it.

There are lessons in this book. Never judge a book by it’s cover being the biggest. One of the children, Gawaine (he prefers Gary) has a mohawk and ‘intriguing’ clothes but he turns out to be the nicest person, Bridie is in a wheelchair and can’t speak but when Holly starts talking to her we find she is lovely, bright and quite capable. Another lesson is that there’s always a better idea, one that can include many more people.

One thing I found quite interesting, I waited the whole book to see if it would be followed up, were a couple of possible horror motifs. They weren’t followed up. Sussex had the choice to make it into a horror story but chose, instead, to make it into a lovely story about children helping the whole town to win in the nicest possible way.

Because I loved this book so much I’m going to give it away. I reread that sentence and it doesn’t really make sense but that’s tough. It’s too young for my kids so I want someone else to have it for theirs. Tell me your favourite childhood book and why you liked it so much. You have until 5pm Tuesday 21st January. Your time starts…now!

  1. My favourite childhood book has got to be, Judy Blume’s Are You There God it’s Me Margaret.It was funny, yet very down to earth and something a young girl reaching puberty could relate to. That was the beginning of my love for all of Judy Blume’s other books.

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