Kids into books - The Fat Man

This week's title: The Fat Man

Author: Maurice Gee

Publisher: Penguin Books, $15.95

Illustrator: Chris Mousdale

Age Group: 11+ years


The creek was in a gorge and the world of streets and houses, and paddocks and cows, was on another level, where sunshine poured down and breezes flapped clothes on the washing line. The wind never blew down here at all and the air was still. When he heard dogs bark way off in the distance or heard trains whistle on the railway crossing, he sometimes felt there was no way up from the creek.

Was it Herbert Muskie's whistling that drew him to the pool, even though he whistled for himself? Colin heard it, thin and private, before he came round the bend. Then he heard someone blowing through his lips with a rubbery sound. He saw bits of froth drifting on the green slow water. He crept on a little way and put his head round the trunk of a tree and had his first sight of Herbert Muskie, standing waist-deep in the creek.

He was white with soapsuds. They were pasted down his arms and across his shoulders. Froth blossomed in his armpits and stood like whipped cream on top of his head. He soaped his belly and tried to reach his back. Whatever his other faults, Herbert Muskie was clean.