Dim's Write Stuff

Katrina Nannestad has well and truly cemented her position as one of Australia’s most accomplished historical fiction writers with her latest novel, Silver Linings . Most of us are aware that clouds have them, silver linings that is, but what exactly do they mean and do they really exist? Nettie Sweeney sure thinks so. Nettie’s story, set in the 1950s, reads as a middle grade novel yet champions Nettie Sweeney as the young protagonist who has just started primary school. Nettie’s tender years, beguiling naivety and childlike foibles are neatly offset however by the fact that she is the fourth daughter of a farming family with the ability to write and think beyond her years. Couple this with the assured determination of a person set on visiting the moon and you’ve got a character exploding with charm, wit and wonder. In short, Nettie is larger-than-life adorbs! Nettie’s singular desire is for a mother to love and cuddle having lost hers at birth. Her dreams come true in the shape o...

‘ What does the fox say?” Well, in the case of Pax, the red fox, it’s more about what he feels, thinks, smells and reacts to that relays his emotions in such a tangible way, you’d swear you understand fox language. That is one of the most magical things about Sara Pennypacker’s , Pax , along with the charming splatters of illustration throughout by Jon Klassen. Peter is a young boy on the cusp of teenage-hood living alone with his father only he is not quite alone. His closest companion is Pax, a young fox he rescued as a kit. They share a relationship closer than the traditional boy / dog connection that endures the occasional dissent of Peter’s father. Virtually inseparable, Pax enjoys a solace and calm in his human boy’s world that engulfs Peter’s heart just as securely. It’s a bond seemingly unbreakable but is dramatically tested one day when Peter’s father enlists and is summoned to war. This story begins with Pax’s jettison from Peter’s car and … his life after his father in...

Tuck Everlasting is a curious tale about a disaffected ten-year-old who although supremely obedient, rebels inwardly against her family's strict disciplinary ways. Winnie Foster lives in a cottage on the fringe of a mysterious wood. She is forbidden to enter it although it has belonged in her family for years. In defiance, Winnie spends more of her days than she ought to sitting by the locked gate communing with a very non-communicative toad until one day she decides to run away. The woods seem the obvious choice to begin a new life free of restrictions but Winnie's conviction cracks as she considers all the dangers she's ever been warned about and how they might befall her. Disgusted with by her cowardice, Winnie makes a pact with herself to visit the wood for the day and if she should decide to stay forever, then she needn't ever return. The wood is cool and indifferent, not at all sinister and bleak as she'd imagined but when Winnie stumbles upon a clearing a...