Short takes: Children's books

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

All of these are coming-of-age stories, involving children at odds with their family or socially imposed norms, who must struggle to be valued for what they are. They offer easily discernible moral lessons and, with the exception of Watermark, are based very much in the here and now, the everyday of their protagonists' lives.

They involve issues of personal responsibility, and have plots that, vortex-like, suck their characters in towards a sense of belonging, mutual acceptance and resolution of conflict. To that extent, they are comforting reads, although all contain scenes of more or less acute discomfort - bullying fathers, bullying schoolmates, bullying neighbours, dead parents, injured parents, dying whales.

Penelope Todd: Watermark

Todd is the only one to set her story far outside the comfort zone of most readers, to "climb into another picture altogether", as her 18-year-old heroine Zillah puts it. The plot centres on a talented, reliable school-leaver who uncharacteristically lies to her parents and sets off alone to the West Coast in response to a dare received in an anonymous letter. But once this is established, the story which began with promising edge descends into romanticism, albeit skilfully constructed. It's a sort of New-Age coming-of-age odyssey exploring the meaning of life and death from a number of angles. Zillah trusts her instincts and they do not betray her. All is as it seems, and the only threat in sight is the weather.

Longacre, $16.95

* * *

Alan Bunn: Eyes in the Shadows

This is the most self-consciously exploratory, ideas-based of these books and has some interesting points to raise about photography and its intrusiveness, its ability to frame and manipulate experience, or simply to communicate ideas powerfully - and the responsibility of those who film others. Bunn is inspired by William Golding's Lord of the Flies - "the world is a jungle and all its people are savages", we're lead to believe. It's something the 16-year-old protagonist demonstrates when he captures school bullies on film. Nicely ambitious, but plot fails with the final melodrama.

Scholastic, $15.95

* * *

V.M. Jones: Juggling with Mandarins

This is the second novel from the author of the award-winning Buddy and here she continues her theme of a child striving for excellence against all odds in his chosen field. Pip's father bullies and embarrasses him from the sidelines of the soccer field, and Pip knows he will never be the son he's expected to be. Fortunately, he's an incredibly mature, sensible 13-year-old who simply goes off and finds other things he can excel at, climbing and juggling mandarins, although, as in Buddy, this sets him against a handsome rival. The message - to live life on your own terms, and the world will fall in behind you - is well conveyed, and Jones' characters are psychologically astute, the plot well constructed if predictable.

HarperCollins, $16.99

* * *

Vince Ford: A Handful of Blue

Vince Ford is a lively voice in local children's fiction, his kidding brand of humour making his stories as recognisably New Zealand as the kina the 13-year-old hero Jeremy and his Maori friend Eddie suck on the beach. Ford's rurally based stories offset the predominantly city-based stories available for young people. Here we see an east coast farm in the grip of drought, and the consequences of this stress for the family concerned. The nicely handled plot incorporates a whale-stranding and an unexpected twist.

Scholastic, $15.95

* * *

Janet Pates: Mystery at Tui Bay

Tui Bay has already won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award for best children's fiction by a previously unpublished author. Set in a holiday camp where items are being stolen, it involves three children: 13-year-old Emma and Scott (who set out to solve the thefts) and Kelly, a boy they meet on the beach, who has secrets he will not initially divulge. It's a straightforward story, well-told, a little Famous Five-ish in its predictable character types, and Pates does a good job of engaging our sympathies for troubled, lonely Kelly.

Scholastic, $13.95