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In the Trees by Pauline Fisk (view source)
Revision as of 09:30, 15 February 2010
, 09:30, 15 February 2010no edit summary
''In the Trees'' is quite an unusual story. It's about gap years, but the central character isn't on a gap year. He doesn't come from ''that'' sort of home and at the outset in fact, Kid sees gap year students as spoiled brats. It's also about the search for a long-lost parent, but that search doesn't actually take up much of the book's forefront. I suppose what it is really is the oldest of stories - coming of age - told through these two threads.
Running counterpoint to the plot, the Belizean setting is beautifully described - from the poverty and begging of Belize City, through the dangerous but beautiful jungle scarified by deforestation, to life in a Kekchi-Mayan village. Fisk went to Belize to research this novel and she has brought back such a wealth of sights and sounds and cultural attitudes to put in it that you can almost feel it. For me, the country was the stand-out element of ''In the Trees''.
I'm recommending this book, in case you hadn't guessed. It's original and fresh - a far cry from the floods of genre fiction filling the teen shelves in bookshops; it's well-written and interesting; it's by Pauline Fisk for heavens sakes! I think they'll like it.