Timber Creek Station

Jonny ran his fingers across the picture of his fifteen-year-old Jonny’s face often. Nobody talked about his brother anymore. Nobody talked about anything for that matter after the accident. Danny missed him, but wouldn’t miss Sissy, who was nothing but a pain. Sissy was going to have a baby and nobody talked about that either. She’d been rooting with somebody, but who it was, was anybody’s guess. Dad tried to get her to tell him, but the fourteen-year-old was quiet. Muster on Tiber Creek Station was coming up and Danny thought to himself that “Sissy and the baby were ruining everything.” Sissy was due right in the middle of it all. A spoiler, nothing but a spoiler she was.A thirteen-year-old boy didn’t need anyone to tend out over him, but maybe his younger sister, Emily did. Mum had been looking for a Pommie, someone stupid enough maybe to take over some work around the house while she went to work. It wasn’t long before she found a stupid, skinny Brit who was willing to help. Liz didn’t know how to do anything right and had no idea that a poddy was “a pet calf—one that had been orphaned.” Danny was going to have to show and tell her how to do everything around the cattle station. It wasn’t fair because Sissy should have done it, but she just wasn’t going to.That Pommie, Liz, did everything wrong and it didn’t go over well when Danny said he “was sick of the Pommie because she was useless and couldn’t do anything right.” Why did they have to put up with her, anyway? He even had to take the Pommie out to Jaben Point and show her how to drive the ute. She didn’t know what a smoko was, didn’t know about the muster, and he even had to tell her that about blackfellas and explain what a gin-jockey was. Of course everyone knew they were what everyonecalled “whitefellas who rooted with black women.” That dumb Pommie couldn’t figure out for the life of her what was wrong with that.Nobody talked about him anymore. “And this will be your first muster without Jonny?” The only one who was talking was the Pommie. Danny was really excited about the muster and no, Jonny wouldn’t be there because of the accident. The only good thing that happened to Danny had been the fact that Dad actually let him have that little camel. Buzz would be his name and he’d train him up really well so Dad would be proud of him. Maybe. Things were going to get a whole lot worse before they’d get better, if they ever did. “Who do you think you’re talking to you little mongrel,” Dad shouted at him. Nobody talked, just nobody. Would things ever get better at Timber Creek Station?This is a stunning debut novel that was shortlisted for Britain’s Carnegie Medal. This is young Danny Dawson’s coming of age tale, one that’s filled with uncertainly and tragedy. The underlying current of the tale is one of the pervasive racism in the Australian outback. The indigenous aborigines, the blackfellas, were simply not accepted by the whitefellas, something I was unaware of. Ali Lewis weaves this racism expertly into the undercurrent of her tale. Danny is also struggling with grief, something tucked under the rug just as the racist card is. He claims that “it felt like happiness and sadness were fighting over me,” a statement that is sad, but telling. The novel was mesmerizing and I’m certain that I’ll be looking for anything Ali Lewis pens in the future!This book courtesy of the publisher.

This is the worst thing my eyes have ever come in contact with. On every page, the urge the shoot myself grows larger. There is no plot, and this is basically a perfect example of how to not write a book. I read an average of a book a day, and I have never read a book I detested 1/1000 as much as I detest this piece of garbage. Do not waste your money on this so-called book. One star for cover appeal.