Kids into books - The Gap

This weeks title: The Gap

Author: Marie Gibson

Publisher: Scholastic, $11.95

Illustrator: Kim Baird

Age group: 8-11 years

There's nothing wrong with her, thought Matthew, except that she's more bad tempered than usual. But he went anyway, and put up with Annabelle's complaints about Rosie and her silent stares out the window. To Matthew's surprise, Rosie sat quietly on his knee, her thumb in her mouth, staring at her sister. Even she must know what a foul mood Annabelle's in, he thought.

The train rattled out of town, through farmland, towards the hills and suddenly into a tunnel. Annabelle held her handkerchief over her nose, trying to keep out the smell of coal smoke seeping into the carriage.

"Look!" exclaimed Rosie. She sat up and took her thumb out of her mouth. "Look at the lights!" She pointed to the old-fashioned glass bowls fixed to the pressed metal ceiling. They glowed a dull yellow. Matthew thought about the passengers of seventy years ago who used this train as their only access to the farmland on the far side of the mountain range they were now passing through. He wondered what they would tell him, if they could. And what about the gold prospectors who came this way before the railway went through? He imagined them trudging over the tops and down the other side to pan for gold in the streams and rivers. The lucky ones loaded shovels, gold pans, tents, spare clothing and food onto a horse, but most of them had to carry everything.